In the Year of the Rat, Ariq B?ke invites his three brothers to the traditional Khuriltai at Kharakhorin. Unlike the Khuriltai at Xanadu, the one at Kharakhorin is a strict affair. Primarily, no guests are invited; only the four brothers and their families are expected. Khublai, Hulagu, M?ngke, and Ariq participate. The brothers will fast and pray at the Barren Hills.

  Khublai requests the Crown Prince, Khagan Zhenjin, his eldest son, to accompany Empress Chabi to the ancient capital of Kharakhorin so that she may join the prayers and the rites of the Khuriltai that Ariq has prepared for the families of the Khans.

  "Ariq does intend to hold court after the Khuriltai. Make him a generous offering. Bring him wine, silk, honey, and wax... the works."

  "Yes, Father. I will attend to it."

  Zhenjin proposes to take the vassal heirs along.

  "It would be very educational for all vassals to see the ancient ancestral court and the separate appanages of the Khanate."

  Zhenjin intends to spend a few days at the ancestral capital to await the return of the Khans. He then wishes to accompany his Uncle M?ngke to his appanage at the Caucasus, then proceed to the western pass on the Imperial Highway through Persia, and finally to Mesopotamia where his Uncle Hulagu, the other Great Khan, awaits him.

  "Alright then," says Khublai. "After Ariq’s horrid Khuriltai, I will take Empress Chabi to Manchuria—to Shangri-La. We will be back at Xanadu before the autumn."

  For Zhenjin, it was his chance to have direct consultations with his three other uncles. Long ago, he, Huaizong, Mahintha, and Tan Po had ridden fast and furiously to the four corners of the Khanate with their tutors, but it had been more exploratory and adventurous. Now, no longer a restless young student and more serious about his responsibilities as Crown Prince, he wanted to see more of the empire his great-grandfather had built.

  As a young Khan, he had begun to form his own Kheshig: Prince Huaizong, Prince Mahintha, the disciple Tan Po, his Kheshtar Yang, and his Kheshge Bao.

  Zhenjin walks toward his own quarters. Beside him is his Kheshig: Prince Huaizong, Master Po, Mahintha, and his butler, secretary, and accountant, Kheshtar Yang.

  "Her half-brothers are paranoid teenagers. The Lady Tran is both head of state and military general," Tan Po says.

  "She doesn't have an army," Mahintha adds.

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  "She has a small navy, but if she marries Agatub, she will finally have some fighting men," Zhenjin notes.

  "They’re fishermen. Few of them are trained to fight. You should have married her," Tan Po says to Zhenjin.

  "I was twelve. A lot has happened." He removes a ring. "Give this to the Lady Tran. And see if you can meet the Cham Agatub. I’m sure he is ugly and uncouth. I want to make sure he is what they claim him to be: undefeated."

  "Oh yes, we are sure that he is very ugly," says Huaizong, winking at Mahintha.

  "He is a cripple," injects Mahintha, "and he speaks with a stutter."

  "Uncouth and barbaric. And with no ability to conduct a proper war," Huaizong emphasizes.

  "None at all," chorus the three princes.

  "Strange that they claim he is undefeated if he is so clumsy at arms," observes Kheshtar Yang.

  "Whose side are you on?" asks Zhenjin.

  "You’re jealous," interjects Huaizong.

  Huaizong, Mahintha, and Yang snicker. Po is smiling ear to ear. Zhenjin sighs, accustomed to this kind of banter where his best friends, all appointed to his Kheshig, take turns teasing him.

  "But if you leave now for Annam, Master Po, we can meet at ChrngDu as we turn around from Quorasan."

  "I will miss the Caucasus rose. It blooms this time of year. It has a particular scent I find haunting," pines Tan Po.

  "Master Po will be lonely without me," says Huaizong.

  "Why, Prince Huaizong, you spare me the effort of having to plead with you by volunteering," says Zhenjin sarcastically.

  "I never wish to leave your side, my Khan—except at your bidding. Besides, I don’t like the cold, and my doctors have told me to stay away from those hookahs. Ah, the belly dancers... the Lilies of Babylon. I want to have those."

  "He is incorrigible," Mahintha says.

  "Yes, he is," agrees Tan Po.

  "I will take those plants home for you, Master Po," says Mahintha, always the house botanist and vintner. "Both plants and seeds."

  "Thank you, Mahintha," Tan Po replies, grateful for Mahintha's interest in botany.

  Zhenjin and his Kheshig arrive at his pavilions at Weilan where Cheongsun, his mayordomo Kheshge Bao, Urduja, Liwanag, Tala, Crone Uddiawan, Zu Wei, Dusshela, and his two toddler half-brothers are waiting. Urduja, Tala, Liwanag, and Cheongsun, all in their teens, come charging forward.

  "What happened?" demand Cheongsun and Urduja.

  Kheshge Bao sets tea, and a dim sum cart is rolled in. First to sit at the table is Uddiawan. Bao serves her ahead of everyone, but with no fanfare—just one Kheshge bragging about his chef to the chief nutritionist of a minor house in court.

  "Try my chicken and ginseng mini pao," says Bao to Uddiawan. "Cures everything that ails you."

  Zhenjin’s household is very informal. The infants, Dorje and Thermat, are with nannies seated on cushions.

  "Ariq invites the Great Khans to Kharakhorin for the traditional Khuriltai," announces Zhenjin.

  "Finally! Do we get to go?" asks Cheongsun.

  "Yes, but I wouldn’t be so eager if I were you," Mahintha warns.

  "Do you hear that, Urduja? We are going west!" Cheongsun exclaims.

  "I’m so excited to take my horse through the Imperial Highway and meet the Lady Ulaan again," exclaims Urduja.

  Tala and Ligaya are tearing into the dim sum as they sit beside Uddiawan.

  "You and I the same," says Zhenjin as he sits cross-legged on the cushions. Bao serves him tea and dim sum. Everyone then proceeds to sit.

  "Huaizong, we must plan this trip very carefully."

  "Yes, my Khan. And your father says we must impress Ariq’s court with our gifts."

  "The works!" the Kheshig members say in unison.

  It is a parallel universe. So to build that I borrowed heavily from litrature, from movies and YouTube and from life as I live it.

  Also, I borrowed from ancient texts like the Bible and the Mahabharata,