The floor's attention was on him from the moment he stood.
He looked at the full assembly of gathered princes. At Ogedei at the session's head.
"I know the ground," Batu said. "I'm already there."
He sat.
The floor was silent for two beats. Then three or four voices from the outer rings found each other in confusion, the sound of several hundred men catching up with a simple statement.
"That's it?" said a voice from the Toluid outer ring.
"That's it," someone near him confirmed.
From the minor princes' northern side, a pair of men exchanged words.
"No argument. Just, there he is."
"There he is."
From the Ogedeid section, nothing.
Ogedei looked at the session. His eyes traveled the full width of the gathered princes and came back to the center, and whatever he had been thinking through the morning he had finished.
He rose.
