Four years on, the fat and faithless Eeluk dispatches a brutal young bondsman, Tolui, to hunt down whatever remains of Yesugei's family. The brothers fight off the raid from a thorn-laced tree line, but Temujin draws the killers away and is run to ground, captured, and forced to watch as Tolui slaughters the one friend who ever showed them kindness—while a single act of mercy from an old loyalist offers the only flicker of hope that the boy will live to take his revenge.

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