The grass was shorter and paler than when they had left, and the air off the steppe had the first cold from the north.
The horses' stride had changed somewhere in the last two days, the particular settling that came when an animal recognized its own ground under its feet.
The Jochid riders around Batu felt it too, though none of them said anything about it. The camp was set up with the efficiency of a force that had spent two seasons making camp on unfamiliar ground and now did not have to think about it.
Saran was already waiting when Batu came off Daichin. She had her attendants around her, and she was not happy with them.
"I've plans," she was saying. "And none of them involve me sleeping like a log in the camp."
"My lady, the physician said-"
"I know what the physician said. I was there."
She turned when she heard Batu approach and looked at him in the most straightforward way possible.
"Tell them I'm coming."
