Harold Lamb

“ Older than the blade itself is the tabu against carrying so much as a stick into a tent of the Hordes of high Asia—and not for the khan's herd of ponies would any Tatar have stolen a weapon so left at the entrance. ”

“ The Turkomans, with their allies, the Uzbeks, numbered close to twenty thousand. They had followed the grass up to the north with their horse herds, and they meant to wipe out the armed men of the Golden Horde, to seize the cattle and pasture-land for their own, and to keep the Tatar children for slaves.
In the face of calamity, the patriarch of the Golden Horde remained utterly calm. From the north and the west the Tatar clans were hastening on tired horses to the gathering of the Horde. To Kirdy, it seemed as if Tevakel Khan must give battle within the next two or three days. ”

“ His nostrils tingled with the acrid smoke of dung and damp wood fires, the warm breath of trampled grass, and the reek of wet leather. Axles creaked, dogs howled and unseen men shouted. It was a dawn of calamity, as if these inhabitants of the steppe had been driven together by flood or fire. ”

“ He sits on a white bearskin.”
“A-ah!”
“He has five lesser fanga, to wait upon him and increase his magic.”
“That is so,” put in another, a burly warrior who had carried off the first prisoner from a Turkoman outpost. “The six magicians were found marching toward Ilbars Sultan, out in the steppe. They were clad in red velvets and sables and silver cloth, and their garments were sewn with jewels from skirt to cap.”
Kirdy pushed aside the Tatar in front of him, to hear the better.
“Allahim barabat yik saftir,” murmured Tevakel Khan. “God is just and merciful!” ”