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friends of the
family.
    When Mongols originally expanded, they
incorporated the Tatars, Manchurians, the Chinese, and those living
in the Stans. The one original neighbor who refused were those
living in Siberia. Intensely cold and heavily wooded, the Great
Khan didn’t need to conquer Siberia because the Siberians couldn’t
defend it. Mongols simply took what they wanted, and killed any
Siberians who got in the way. The Siberians needed to eat, too, and
so attacked rich Mongols. As the number of Mongols multiplied, the
number of Siberians dwindled to near-extinction. Mongols probably
would have exterminated them long ago if William’s ancestors didn’t
provide them with food, money, and wands for the last two
centuries.
    Survival depended upon living undetected, but
William arranged this meeting long ago. A few thousand Siberians
greeted William like family and spoke of his parents and
grandparents like old friends. William, Liz, and Billy carried all
the fruits, vegetables, spices, milk, and medicine that they could
carry. They had drop-off points all across Siberia.
    The Siberians were down to a thousand or so
quads and several thousand two-wanders six years ago when William
offered to give them a superior wand set for every quad they
created. They also had to agree to stop attacking Mongols to
prevent retaliation.
    Because William had big plans for them.
    The Siberians dispersed after nightfall
because they were harder to detect in small numbers. In the
morning, the family flew back south. They stopped for lunch and
dueling practice. Billy killed a marmot, skinned and cleaned it,
then built a cooking fire under a tree with many branches to
disperse the smoke. Unfortunately, some wet leaves caused too much
smoke to be seen from above.
    A dozen thugs soon showed up, shocking the
hell out of Billy, who’d never get over his hatred of being
surprised. These parasites lived off of the packs, obeying no laws
that restricted their appetites. Far from Mongol authority, they
could do whatever they wanted without consequences. The family came
across bandits before, but having already flown several hours, they
were too tired to flee. Billy wisely dived in the snow to hide
himself.
    William and Liz put their backs to the forest
so the raiders would land with Billy hidden behind them. They
closed on the couple, their intent clearly hostile.
    "We have nothing of value," William yelled in
fluent Mongolian.
    "Even from far away we heard your blasts,"
their leader replied. "But because sound travels so far, we
couldn't locate you until we saw your smoke. I’m glad we didn't
quit. We love rich tourists on vacation."
    Nomads called rich families who briefly
roughed it "tourists." Robbing tourists gave raiders the cash they
needed to gorge on drink and whores.
    "Go find softer targets," William suggested,
burning nine-meter-long flames to let the criminals know what they
faced. He felt proud of how much his frequent dueling boosted his
flame.
    In return, the leader fired ten-meters out,
which made him among the most powerful on the planet. Some
libraries kept lists of everyone who ever produced ten meters
because it was so rare.
    "You don't become a cook without breaking a
thousand eggs," the predator said, using a metaphor for millennials
who have killed a thousand warriors.
    Just then four fliers attacked William from
the rear while the dozen in front flew straight at him.
    William saw their plan clearly: to overwhelm
him from all sides. The solution was to fly fast through the trees
to separate the fast from the slow to deal with just a few at a
time.
    William led Liz away before becoming trapped.
They soon lost all but the fastest. Both wore white deels, the
thick fur coats that Mongols favored, so after a turn they dropped
down to blend with the snow.
    They blasted the leader, who shielded himself
just in time, but the next fastest were less lucky. Fireballs took
out two and a third crashed into a tree at high speed. Four