Ayas smiled with plain acknowledgment. He reached for the dried apricots and offered the dish first, and when Batu took one he set it back and took one himself.
"The command question," he said. "For the western march, when it comes. Subutai will be involved, clearly, there's no western campaign without him and everyone on this road understands that."
He looked at Batu with attention.
"A campaign of that scale, that distance, the senior field command and the administrative authority aren't the same role, are they."
It was a question with a position built into it. He was asking, underneath that, who Batu intended to be in the campaign's hierarchy.
"They've never operated that way," Batu said. "Subutai's campaigns work because someone else is managing the supply line and the tributary relationship while he's at the point of contact."
He picked up his cup.
"The western one will need to as well, and they are further away from Mongolia."
Ayas nodded once, slowly.
