Daughter of Xanadu (36 page)

Marco followed. I did not look at him, but I knew exactly where he was, and was content to know he was following.

The beach narrowed to a rocky strip at the point of land, but the tide was low enough that I could walk around the point. On the other side was a smaller beach, rimmed by trees, quiet and empty. The warm night air was still. The moon, three-quarters full, lit the sky with a shimmering light.

Just after I passed the last couple, I looked back. Marco was no longer walking behind me. I panicked for a moment, then saw him sitting on a rock, removing his boots. He ran across the sand toward me, smiling.

“It’s much easier barefoot.”

I sat on a drift log, and he pulled off my boots. My toes were moist and rank from spending too much time inside my boots in warm weather. He lifted some sand and dusted my feet with it. It felt cool and soft and refreshing. He rubbed my feet. A jolt of pleasure shot through to every part of my body.

“You did it,” he said to me in wonder.

“Now you can show me your homeland,” I said.

“Venezia.” With his voice, he caressed each of the foreign syllables. He touched his forehead to my foot, as if to say,
Thank you for saving Venezia
.

“Fay-nay-shya,” I said. I had often imagined its streets of water and singing boatmen. Now I might see it.

“To Fay-nay-shya!” I shouted. Barefoot, I dashed down the empty beach, away from the others.

He sprinted after me and caught up quickly. He took my hand and angled toward the sea, which was pounding the beach, black and menacing. I tried to divert him. Even the bravest Mongol soldiers fear and distrust water. Venetians, by nature, are drawn to it.

He pulled me to the edge of the ocean, where the sand was wet and soft. My feet sank slightly into it, making footprints. A wave, cold and perilous, lapped at my land-bound Mongolian feet. I pulled away, shrieking, and sprinted along the dry sand, parallel to the water. He ran after me, staying on the wet sand near the waves.

I discovered that it is easier to run on wet sand than on dry sand. It felt good to let loose and gallop. We covered the entire length of the beach, then rounded another small point onto a deserted arc of sand.

Marco caught up to me and took my hand. Again, he pulled me toward the dangerous black void of water. I tugged back. We fell into the wet sand, and a cool wave washed over us, soaking our trousers. I shrieked again, only half afraid now that I saw how confident Marco was in the ocean.

He grabbed both my hands and pinned me to the sand. He hesitated, checking my eyes. The wave moved away. I stopped struggling. His body drew close to mine, lying on the wet sand, and he nuzzled my nose. I opened my mouth and kissed him with all the passion that had been bottled up inside me those many days and months. Another cold wave came up and I jumped.

He laughed and pulled me up to sit beside him. He turned so that our feet faced straight into the water. Lit by the moon, the waves crested with white foam and crashed against my feet. I remembered voices of warning, tales of strong undercurrents ripping people out to sea and certain death by drowning.

I scrambled to stand up, and so did Marco. “You fear not blood, but you fear the sea?” he asked. I looked again at the water. It was calmer here, in a protected cove.

Slowly, deliberately, Marco led me, his hand in mine, into the dark sea.

My mind rebelled, shouting,
Danger! Water!
but my heart chose to trust Marco. Marco, who had elevated me to a legend. Marco, who had showed me a new way of seeing the world. There would be danger, yes. But Marco would be my partner as we tried to build peace between our homelands.

This water felt warm, soft, safe. I could still feel the current, but it was tamer than in the open ocean. Subduing my fear, I followed as Marco pulled me farther into the sea. The
water rose above my knees, my thighs, my waist. My body seemed to be disappearing, though I could feel every patch of my skin. I clutched his hand.

He stopped when the water lapped just below our chests. He turned to me in the moonlight, his eyes bright and clear. He caressed my face, embraced me, kissed me, there in the water, in that most dangerous of elements. I relaxed and gave in to him.

He lifted me, and my body strangely floated. I closed my eyes and pretended I was in a dream, secure in his arms. I laid my head against his chest. My legs floated like fishes’ tails. My arms clung to him like the weeds in the sea around me.

I tossed my head back and opened my eyes. Marco smiled playfully at me and tugged at my trousers.

“No need to fear the sea,” he said.

I smiled back. He gently lifted my legs and wrapped them around his hips. We glided together like creatures of the sea. Our bodies, our destinies, were entwined. Together, we would be heading to the West.

GLOSSARY

A
I
-J
ARUK:
Also known by her Mongolian name of Khutulun, daughter of Khaidu. She was famous for defeating her suitors in wrestling. Her dramatic story was told by Marco Polo in his book.

AIRAG:
Mongolians’ favorite alcoholic drink, fermented mare’s milk.

ANDA:
In Mongolian, closest friend, like a blood brother, with a vow of lifelong loyalty.

B
ATTLE OF
V
OCHAN
: A battle between the Mongols and the Burmese that took place in 1277, although the exact date is unclear. In his book, Marco described the battle, saying that twelve thousand Mongol horsemen fought a Burmese army of sixty thousand soldiers and two thousand elephants. He did not mention gunpowder, the use of which is fictional here. Vochan is believed to be the city today known as Baoshan, in Yunnan Province.

BEKI:
Mongolian for “princess.”

B
URMA
: A country southwest of China, now called Myanmar.
The Mongols conquered and sacked Burma’s capital at Pagan in 1287.

C
ARAJAN
: Mongol-era name of Yunnan Province, in southwest China.

C
ATHAY
: Name used for North China during the thirteenth century; it may be a corruption of the spelling of “Khitai,” a group of nomadic people from Manchuria who ruled this part of China from 907 to 1125.

C
HABI
: Chief wife of Khubilai Khan and a devout Buddhist.

C
HIMKIN
: Khubilai Khan’s second son, who became heir apparent. He died before his father, so he never became Great Khan. The Chinese name of Chimkin, sometimes spelled Zhenjin, means “True Gold,” and his father ensured that he was educated in Chinese.

C
HINGGIS
K
HAN
: Known in the West as Genghis Khan, the Mongol leader who conquered much of the known world during his lifetime, from 1162 (estimated) to 1227, and founded the Mongol Empire. His birth name was Temujin.

C
HRISTENDOM
: Europe was known by this name in Marco Polo’s era. The word “Europe” was not widely used until centuries later.

D
A-LI
: A city in Yunnan Province, then known as Carajan. The ancient capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom and the Da-li Kingdom, conquered by the Mongols in 1253. Also spelled Ta-li Fu, and known today as Dali.

DEL:
Mongolian clothing, a long-sleeved robe that crosses over in the front and is secured with a sash at the waist. Worn by men and women in summer and winter.

D
ORJI
: Khubilai Khan’s eldest son, who was passed over as heir apparent. Little is known about him. His name is sometimes spelled Jurji. Dorji is a Tibetan Buddhist name.

DRAGONS
: The creatures described here are crocodiles. Marco Polo called them “great serpents.”

D
ROLMA
: Fictional younger sister of Emmajin.

E
MMAJIN
: Fictional daughter of Dorji, Khubilai Khan’s eldest son. Born in 1260, the year her grandfather became Great Khan. In 1275, she would have been fifteen by today’s reckoning, but she was then considered sixteen by Chinese and Mongolian reckoning. Her name, more properly spelled Emujin, is the female form of Temujin, the birth name of Chinggis Khan.

GER:
A round, collapsible Mongolian tent, known in the West as a yurt.

G
OLDEN
H
ORDE
: The name of the Mongol
khanate
(kingdom) that ruled Russia and nearby lands for nearly three hundred years. The name is believed to have come from the golden, or yellow, color of the tents and flags used by the Mongols to denote imperial status. The English word
horde
comes from the Mongolian word
ordo
, meaning “camp.”

H
OORAY
: English word that is believed to have come from the Mongolian word for “amen,” used as a cry of bravado and encouragement (see Jack Weatherford,
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
).

I
L-KHAN OF
P
ERSIA
: The Mongol ruler of Persia, subordinate to the Great Khan. The area he ruled included modern-day Iran, as well as parts of Iraq and neighboring countries. The first Il-khan was Khubilai Khan’s brother Hulegu.

KHAGAN
OR
KHA’AN
: Mongolian for “emperor,” “Great Khan,” or “Khan of all Khans.” Marco Polo translated this word as “Great Lord of Lords.”

K
HAIDU
: A descendant of Chinggis Khan through his son Ogodei, the second Great Khan. Khaidu believed that Ogodei’s line should have inherited the right to rule the Empire, so he challenged Khubilai Khan’s right to be Great Khan.

KHAN:
Mongolian for “king,” “commander,” or “ruler.”

K
HANBALIK
: “Khan’s capital” in Mongolian, this city was built
by Khubilai Khan to be the capital of the Mongol Empire. It was formerly known as Yenjing, and then as Peking, and is now known as Beijing. Marco Polo called it Cambaluc, a variation on Khanbalik. The Chinese refer to Mongol-era Beijing as “Yuan Dadu,” which means “main capital of the Yuan dynasty.”

KHATUN:
Mongolian for “queen” or “empress,” used for wives of the khan or
khagan
.

K
HUBILAI
K
HAN
: The fifth Great Khan, born in 1215, who ruled the Mongol Empire from 1260 to his death in 1294. Commonly known in the West as Kubla Khan or Kublai Khan. During his reign, the Mongol Empire reached its greatest size. For details of Khubilai Khan’s life, the author found the best source to be
Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times
, by Morris Rossabi.

K
INSAY
: Name used by Marco Polo for Hangzhou, capital of the Southern Sung dynasty. Kinsay is a variation on the Chinese words “
jing shi,
” “capital city.”

M
AFFEO
P
OLO
: Marco Polo’s uncle, who traveled to China twice, once with Marco’s father only and again with both Marco and his father.

M
ARCO
P
OLO
: A young Venetian who traveled to the capital of the Mongol Empire in China, leaving home in late 1271 and arriving in 1275 at the age of twenty-one. After returning home to Venice in 1295, he wrote a book about his travels, becoming the first European to write about China for a Western audience. Many versions of Marco’s book exist; the author of
Daughter of Xanadu
relied on
The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition
.

M
IAOYAN
: A daughter of Khubilai Khan who became a Buddhist nun. At a Buddhist temple outside Beijing, called Tanzhe Temple, there are indentations on the stone where it is believed she knelt and prayed.

M
ONGOL
E
MPIRE
: Founded by Chinggis Khan in 1206. At its
peak in 1279 the Mongol Empire included all of Mongolia, China, Tibet, Korea, Central Asia, Iran, and Russia. It was the largest contiguous land empire in history, rivaled only by the nineteenth-century British Empire. The Mongols ruled China and Iran for about one hundred years, and Mongols continued to rule Russia for about three hundred years.

M
ONGOLIA
: Homeland of the Mongols, now an independent country north of China. It included parts of China known today as Inner Mongolia.

N
ICCOLO
P
OLO
: Marco Polo’s father, who made his first journey to China from 1260 to 1269, and his second journey to China with his son, Marco Polo, from 1271 to 1295. Both times, Niccolo Polo traveled with his brother, Maffeo.

OVOO:
In Mongolian custom, a heap of stones that marks a sacred place.

P
OPE
: The head of the Christian religion in Rome. When Marco Polo left for China in 1271, the new Pope was Gregory X, whom his father and uncle had befriended earlier, during their travels.

S
OUTHERN
C
HINA
: Before the Mongol era, in 1127, China was divided into two countries, north and south. The north was ruled by the Jin dynasty and the south by the Southern Sung dynasty. Marco Polo called northern China Cathay and southern China Manzi, the Chinese word for “barbarian.” It is likely that he learned these terms from the Mongols. The Mongols conquered the Jin dynasty by 1234, and completed the conquest of southern China in 1279, three years after the conquest of its capital at Kinsay (Hangzhou).