The white horse was called Daichin.
The name came to Batu on the march's first morning. It meant warrior in the old tongue, not a boastful name for a horse but an accurate one, the same way a knife was called a knife rather than something decorative. Daichin. It fit.
The animal was large in a way that stood out even from the front of the column. The campaign horses running through the formation were the standard Mongolian breed, short-backed and barrel-chested, built for days rather than hours, hardy and sufficient.
Daichin was something else.
It stood a full hand taller at the withers and carried that height without the heaviness that usually came with it. The stride was longer than the horses around it and the cadence slower, but the ground covered was the same or more. Through the morning it had not increased its effort beyond what a walk required.
