Thomas Hoover - The Moghul

"How did you learn?"

"Nadir Sharif sent runners. He dared not send a pigeon."

Jadar walked out onto the balcony and peered down into the darkened garden. After a long moment he spoke. "Allah. Then it's finished." He turned back to the Rajput. "Has Janahara declared Allaudin Moghul yet?"

"She has announced she will do so, Highness." Karan Singh moved out onto the balcony next to Jadar, hesitant to interrupt his thoughts. The cries of water birds flooded the evening air around them. Jadar studied the garden again, as though lost in some distant reverie. When he spoke his voice seemed to emanate from a bottomless void.

"Allaudin will be in the Red Fort. It can never be taken, not even with a hundred thousand Rajputs. He will never come to face me. He will never need to." He turned slowly to Karan Singh. "I've lost it all, my friend. And I've brought ignominy to your lands by my presence as your guest. For that I am truly sorry."

Karan Singh stared at Jadar. "But Highness, Allaudin may not yet be in Agra. You know he wanted Queen Janahara to appoint him to command the army sent against you. Naturally she refused and instead convinced Arangbar to appoint him commander of the forces to be sent against the Persian Safavis threatening the northwest fortress of Qandahar. It was obvious to everyone except Allaudin that she meant it to be merely a ceremonial appointment, an excuse to elevate his mansab rank to equal yours. She had carefully arranged to have him detained in Agra. But he decided on his own that he would actually go north, to prove himself a commander. Just before the hunting accident, he persuaded Arangbar to allow him to march. Arangbar was apparently drunk on wine and approved the order before Janahara discovered it. Allaudin departed Agra a week ago with twenty thousand men and a huge train of courtiers. Because of their numbers, it's thought he has traveled very slowly. But Nadir Sharif said as of the day before yesterday he still had not returned to Agra. No one knows for sure how near he may actually be."

"And where are Inayat Latif and the Imperial army?" Jadar's voice quickened.

"Of that we're not yet certain, Highness. They may be in Agra by now, holding the Red Fort for Allaudin, but we have no way to know."

Jadar turned and seized his arm. "Then I will ride. Tonight. Have you told my men?"

"Two thousand of my men are now in their saddles waiting, Highness. By sunup another twenty thousand will be ready to ride."

Jadar stared at him for a moment, then reached out and touched the turban the Rajput was wearing. Hawksworth realized it was Jadar's gift.

"Then give me three of your best horses. Tonight. I will rotate as I ride." Jadar turned and ordered a waiting eunuch to bring his riding cloak, his sword, and his katar.

"I will be riding with you too, Highness." Karan Singh stepped forward.

This time Jadar embraced Karan Singh for a long moment. Then he pulled back. "No. I will not allow it. If I am too late-and the odds are strong against me-no one who rides with me will leave Agra alive. No, my friend, this I forbid." Jadar silenced Karan Singh's gesture of protest. "Your offer is enough. I want my good friends alive."

Jadar started for the stairs, then paused and turned back to look one last time at Hawksworth and Shirin.

"So our farewell was more timely than we knew. I regret we did not have longer." He paused to take his riding cloak from the eunuch. Then he reached for Hawksworth's hand. "Remember me, my friend. And remember the Mahal. I've told no one else. If I'm still alive when you come again to Agra, I'll take you there. If I'm dead, remember what I dreamed."

He turned and disappeared down the stairwell.

A tear stained Shirin's cheek as she watched him move across the courtyard below. When he reached Mumtaz, anxiously waiting by the dock, he paused and said something to her, then embraced her closely. As he pulled away, she reached out to stop him. But he was already joining the maharana in the boat. In moments they were swallowed in the dusk.

"None of us will ever see him again. You know it's true." Shirin's voice was strangely quiet. "What does it matter where Allaudin is? Prince Jadar can never challenge the troops Janahara will have holding the Red Fort. Not with two thousand Rajputs, not with two hundred thousand Rajputs. It's impregnable. He'll never see the inside of the Red Fort again." She moved next to him and rested her head against his chest. "Will you help me remember him from tonight. And the Mahal he will never live to build?"

"I'll remember it all." He encircled her in his arms, wanting her warmth, and together they watched the last shafts of sun die in the dark waters below.

Sir Randolph Spencer studied the leatherbound packet for a long moment, turning it apprehensively in his hand. Then he meticulously untied the wrapping and smoothed the weathered parchment against the top of his desk. Around the timbered room the Company's secretaries waited nervously, in prim wigs and doublets, watching as he quickly scanned the contents. Then he looked up, beamed, and with a loud voice began to read. JAVA, Port of Bantam the 3rd of May, George Elkington, Chief Merchant, to the Right Honorable Sir Randolph Spencer, Director of the Worshipful Company of the East India Merchants in London Honorable Sir, My duty premised, etc. and expecting your Worship's favorable perusing of this letter. May it please God, the Discovery will be fully laded within the month and ready to sail. In the meanwhile I forward this letter by Capt. Otterinck of the Spiegel, bound this day for Amsterdam, to advise you of certain New Conditions affecting the Company's trade. I have inform'd you by earlier letter of our Entertainment provided the Portugals in the Surat Bay, with the two of their vessels set to fire, by which they were all consumed and between four and five hundred men slain, burnt, and drowned, and of ours (God be praised) only two and some few hurt, with all Commodity safe. I have reported also the loss of the Resolve at Surat by lamentable Circumstance. Yet I maintain great Hope that we are like to discover profitable Trade with the Country of India. I write now to advise you the Hollanders have late brought News of a new King of that Country. Reports have reached the Moluccas that the Moghul Arangbar died suddenly some two months past, to be succeeded by one of his Sons, whose Pleasure toward England is uncertain. The full Events are not clearly known here, but this will doubtless require our new Petition for license to trade. As is oft the way in Heathen lands, the story of the Son's succession is a marvelous convoluted Tale. There were said to be two Sons in contention, belike both Knaves, and the Hollanders have deduced that the late Arangbar's Queen, named Janahara, favor'd one Son over the other, for reasons known best to her Self, and intrigued in his succession. They have concluded thus because the new Moghul is said to have promptly rewarded her with a large secluded Estate of her own outside of Agra, with his personal Guards to protect her, something the Dutchmen claim has never before been done for a Moorish Queen in India. The Hollanders further deduce that this Queen effected the favored Son's succession through her Prime Minister, a subtle Rogue called Sharif, who, when the Moghul Arangbar died, secretly arranged the Assassination of the other Son before he could reach Agra and make his own claim for the Throne. This said Sharif was again appointed Prime Minister by the new Moghul, doubtless a Reward for his cunning Service. So it is His Majesty King James may now desire to dispatch another Ambassador to Agra, to petition this new Moghul to grant English trade. If a Petition is to be sent, know that before taking the Throne this Son was called by the name Prince Jadar, though doubtless he is now to be addressed formally as The Moghul. I have as yet been unable to discover whether the Mission of Capt. Hawksworth to Agra, authorized by Your Worship in your Wisdom, met success. (Though his Mission will no longer assist the Company in any instance, since he would not be known to this new Moghul, Jadar.) However, the Hollanders have advised that an English seaman named Hawksworth was taken from an Indian vessel off Malabar one month past, in company with a Moorish woman, by a Frigate of theirs that later was caught by a Storm off the same Malabar Coast. Her mainmast split in that Storm, and the vessel was lost sight of soon after, leaving the Hollanders to lament it may have sunk or gone aground on the Coast, together with over five hundred ton of their Malabar pepper. If this was our former Captain-General, he is either gone to God or is now again in India (if the vessel haply made landfall and saved the Hollanders' pepper). In closing (for the Dutchmen advise they are preparing to hoist sail), I am content to report that Indian commodity is readily vendable at the port of Bantam, particularly fine calicoes and indigo, and I adjudge the Company would be well advis'd to dispatch a new Voyage to Surat upon receipt of this letter. The Monopoly of the Portugals holds no more, esp. after their Humiliation in the late engagement off Surat. On condition the Company post a Gentleman of Quality to Agra (One less susceptable to Moorish ways than Capt. Hawksworth, and therefore, in my Judgement, like to be better respected by the new Moghul) our Subscribers stand to enjoy great Profit in the Company's Indies trade. So desiring God to add a blessing to all endeavours tending to this business of ours and of all that may succeed us to God's glory and the Company's benefit. Your Worship's faithful servant, Geo. Elkington