"What do you mean Munkhtsetseg was not done yet? She's already defeated her enemy, she's khatun. What more could she want?" Erhi said.

"Sister, your naivety is showing. But I guess it can't be helped. You've lived through peaceful times all your life," Oktai said.

"So have you! Don't talk like you're that much older than me!" Erhi harrumphed.

Snow smiled at their squabbling, and reminded herself that she too had been naïve like Erhi. Once they've had a taste of power, whatever they have is never enough, she thought to herself. The Empress's smooth face and sharp eyes surfaced in her mind, as Oktai set down his bowl of tea.

"Munkhtsetseg had gotten rid of Chono and his immediate kin, but she soon went after his distant relatives and allies. So long as anybody had a connection to the Wolf clan or sided with them, she hunted them down, whether they were man, woman or child. Perhaps she did all this out of paranoia, but her ruthlessness against her enemies was soon known across the steppes.

"If you were not with her, you were against her – that was her policy. All had to swear allegiance to her and her son. She welcomed with open arms any clan that joined her voluntarily, but woe to those who opposed her.

"She had seized control over the trading routes that Chono once held. Soon after, she started expanding her territories – for her son's benefit, or so she claimed. She raided the cities in the south and the north west. The cities that surrendered were spared; the cities that did not were sacked then burnt to the ground.

"At thirty-three years of age, she held unparalleled power and riches. You can imagine that she would be dressed in silks from the south; snow leopard fur from the north; and adorned with emeralds and peacock feathers from Enetkheg. When she captured the Khel city of Nishapur, she was supplied with turquoise and exquisitely painted ceramics.

"She held court in a gold-colored tent, and had thousands of horses and camels to her name. At night, she had her pick of handsome men to warm her bed."

"Why do you have to add that?" Erhi interrupted with a frown.

"Yes, why?" Snow echoed, her cheeks reddening.

"I'm just stating the facts. She was not the only powerful woman in history to have a harem of men, you know," Oktai replied, with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Please, just stick to the story," Snow grumbled.

"Fine. . . Nobody could or dared to challenge her. Not when she had the Garid by her side. The only person who dared, was her own son, who was sixteen years old by then.

"Narmandakh was hungry for power and could not wait to take over the throne, but Munkhtsetseg kept blocking his ascension. Her son was a debauched drunkard, prone to binge drinking and picking fights, and she used that against him to deny him the throne, though she had said long ago that he was the rightful khan.

"The final straw was when he barged into her yurt late one night, drunk and aggressive, shouting that he could not wait for her to roll over and die so he could be ruler.

"When she heard the words spewing from his mouth, she grabbed her camel whip and thrashed him in a fit of rage. 'You ungrateful spawn! I should have abandoned you, and let the birds peck your eyes out of your skull! Even if I'm dead, I'll make sure you'll never be khan!' she had yelled.

She banished him from her sight, but could not bring herself to order his execution for treason. He was her own flesh and blood, after all.

"Narmandakh left, taking with him part of her army, her generals and those who purportedly supported the young, impressionable heir. It was not long before he came back one day to wage war against his own mother."

"What? How can anybody go against their own mother?" Erhi asked.

"Oh, it happens. Our history is rife with betrayal and conflict like this. Father against son. Uncle against nephew. Mother against daughter. Brother against sister," he said, a vague expression flitting across his face. "Look at the desert tribes now; they're all related in some way, but with all the infighting, it's a wonder they're not all dead by now."

"But wouldn't it be a suicide mission to fight against Munkhtsetseg with her Garid?" Snow said.

"Yes, but Narmandakh had help. He had promised to give his generals and southern allies control over the more profitable trade routes if they helped him defeat Munkhtsetseg. They surreptitiously brought in newly invented catapults and ballistae – giant crossbows, if you didn't already know – loaded with spears and rockets filled with gunpowder."

"They were going to kill the Garid?" Erhi said, her voice going shrill with alarm.

Oktai's turquoise earrings caught the light as he shook his head. "I don't think so. The Garid was too precious as a symbol of heavenly mandate and a weapon of mass destruction for him to kill. He probably wanted to capture it for himself, because he almost did."

"What? How was that possible?" Snow and Erhi said in unison.

"It was due to a number of factors: Firstly, Munkhtsetseg had never lost a single battle, and was overconfident she would win against her ne'er-do-well son. She totally underestimated his cunning, as well as his determination to prove himself worthy of the throne.

"Secondly, she was betrayed. Her most trusted generals had been bribed by Narmandakh, who promised them riches and bounty. They not only kept Munkhtsetseg in the dark about his plans, but also led her army in a disarray when the two sides clashed on the battlefield.

"Thirdly, Narmandakh cleverly disguised the heavy artillery as moving yurts, and kept them concealed until the very last minute. By the time Munkhtsetseg saw the catapults and the loaded ballistae aimed at the Garid, it was too late. It was already flying over enemy territory.

"Narmandakh fired at the Garid, who twisted and swerved high in the sky to evade the projectiles. But it was disoriented by the exploding rockets, and could not avoid the weighted nets flying towards it.

"Munkhtsetseg could only watch in horror from her vantage point as the Garid, trapped in a net, dropped out of the sky like a rock. She did not watch for long – it was said that she took up her bow and sword, and charged through enemy lines on her horse to save her winged companion."

Oktai looked contemplative as he folded his arms across his torso. "What happened next, nobody really knows; what had been described, was said to be based on conjecture, because there were no reliable eyewitness accounts. All that we know is this: Munkhtsetseg's army sustained heavier casualties than anticipated, but Narmandakh's men were systematically slaughtered on the battlefield. Only Narmandakh himself lived, but that was because he abandoned his troops and took off into the dusk like a coward.

"Secondly, Munkhtsetseg's body was never found. When they combed through the carnage the next morning, they found her slain horse and her eagle-tipped helmet in a spot where the heaviest fighting took place – but not her. It could only mean one of two things: she managed to escape, or her body was carried away."

"What about the Garid?" Erhi asked.

"Disappeared without a trace."

"And Narmandakh?" Snow said, almost spitting his name.

"He took over the throne. The first thing he did was claim all of his mother's wealth for himself, and destroy the legacy she left behind – the schools she built; her laws forbidding slavery and kidnapping of women for marriage, all gone with the wind. Her name, erased from all records. It took a lot of digging through foreign chronicles to piece together the whole story, and even then, it's not complete."

"I don't like this ending," Erhi said, the corners of her mouth curving downwards.

"You might be glad to hear that Narmandakh was only khan for fifteen days – the shortest reign of any khan in history. He was in a drunken stupor most of the time; vacillating between laughing like a lunatic and weeping uncontrollably.

"You can already guess what his so-called allies thought of him, and what they were plotting. Now, we have to remember that Narmandakh had been on the run for about half his lifetime. In a moment of lucidity, he had sensed his life was under threat and slithered away in a nick of time."

"I still don't like this ending," Erhi declared.

"Well, it was said that a year later, a group of camel herders discovered the skeleton of a young male half-buried in the desert sand. They could not determine who it was, for the vultures had already picked the bones clean. But judging by the fine clothes he wore, it could have been Narmandakh.

Oktai's hooded eyes gleamed in the light. "Poetic justice, wouldn't you agree? That he met such a grisly end in the desert; where he would have died a long time ago, if not for his mother and the Garid."

Yes, he got what he deserved after all that he had done, Snow thought.

"So, that concludes the story of the Eternal Queen; a young woman whose life was upended by personal tragedy, but whose grit and tenacity in the face of adversity made her a formidable queen. Of course, not many people would have had the chance to encounter a Garid in their time of need. But it takes a certain indomitable spirit and unshakable self-belief to go out and conquer the world in the way that she did.

"It was unfortunate that the one she loved the most, was the one who hurt her the most," Oktai said in a somber tone.

"Does anybody know what happened to her or the Garid?" Snow asked.

Oktai shook his head. "It's still a mystery to this date. Who knows, maybe Munkhtsetseg and her Garid flew to the mountains and lived a simple but blissful life there, far away from it all."

"Yes, I'd like to believe that," Erhi said, her eyes brimming with hope. "I'd like to see a Garid for myself one day."

"Me too," Snow lied.

Oktai's lips thinned into a tight smile, but he gazed at his younger sister with kindness. "It's been more than six hundred years, and the Garid has not been seen since the battle between mother and son. But I'm sure it'll make an appearance again. . . when the time is right."

֎֎֎֎֎

Erden's eyes followed the majestic eagle gliding high in the clear blue sky. Ahead of him, the horsemen slowed to a stop, and he heard Sechen barking orders. They had stopped at a weathered landmark consisting of a pile of large rocks stacked one on top of another.

Finally, we've reached the Monument of the Brave Horse, he thought. This was where Munkhtsetseg's horse had fallen, and where the Garid came to her rescue. He looked up to search for the eagle he saw earlier, but by then, it was a mere speck amongst the clouds.

His black horse whickered as he made his way over to his elder sister and her second in command. In the midday sun, their horses' coats shone with sweat, and Sechen's light-colored eyes glittered when they fell upon him.

"This is where we split up. Good luck, Little Brother. You're going to need it," Sechen said curtly, her hardened expression showing no warmth for him. Before he could wish her a safe journey ahead, she had turned away from him.

"In formation! Let's go!" She pulled on her reins and rode away with her platoon of a hundred men towards the sand dunes, leaving Erden and his band of ten men behind in a cloud of dust.

The silence was broken by Turgen. "Why do we always get the crap jobs? We still have another two more weeks of traveling to do," his right-hand man complained loudly beside him. Erden suppressed a sigh. Because of me, he thought.

Buck up, you're in charge now, he told himself. You've got to show leadership. He saw his men watching him from beneath their hats, and he looked at each of them in the eye. "Our mission is no less important. They gave us the harder job, because we're the only ones who can do it," he said in his most authoritative voice. It was what he'd like to believe, and he hoped his men believed it too.

"Let's go. We've got to reach the next point before the sun sets." He turned his horse in the direction of the rocky mountains in the distance, and his men fell in formation on either sides of him, before they galloped over the evergreen plateau.

"Chu!"

The sun was warm on his shoulders, and the wind lifted his hair from his face. It was an easy ride, and for the first time since he started the journey south, Erden felt he could relax a little in the saddle. There was nothing he loved more than the freedom of flying across the untamed, borderless steppes on his steed.

After all these years, he could still recall the moment he fell in love with the rugged terrain as a precocious young boy, training for his first countryside race. He remembered riding in the middle of the dark green sea, just him and his pony racing towards the rising sun, when he saw the grasslands bathed in wondrous, golden sun rays. It was then that he knew, with all the conviction he had in his small body, that there was no other place he'd rather be.

The plains and the mountains had watched him grow as he galloped past, day after day. They called to him from afar when he was away, and now he has returned, to where he belonged.

His heart swelled with pride for his motherland. Yes, it was harsh – the elements could kill a man – but it was also devastatingly beautiful. Deep within his bones, he felt a kinship with the earth and all its life forms in the ground beneath him; and the limitless sky above him. It humbled and exhilarated him at the same time.

This is my land, this is my home. I've broken free of my cage; nothing can stop me now.

Tilting his face towards the heavens, he roared in his heart: Father Sky, Mother Earth! I will run the course you laid out for me, I will fulfill my destiny! Just show me the way!

Author's notes:

Enetkheg is the Mongolian name for the country of India, whereas Khel is the Mongolian name for Persia. Nishapur is a real city that was destroyed by Genghis Khan's troops in 1221.  

This chapter was hard to write! What do you think of the ending of Munkhtsetseg's story and her character arc? Do you think she escaped the battlefield with the Garid? Later on, I might come back to this chapter after reading more history and warfare.

What do you think of the part with Erden's point of view? 

Here's yet another Sia song that inspired me during the writing of this book. I think this song applies to both Munkhtsetseg and Erden. What do you think?

https://youtu.be/h3h035Eyz5A