The Moghul

Sharif Sahib." Vasant Rao casually stroked his moustache. "Perhaps the prince has ordered secrecy to protect his movements toward the south."
    Nadir Sharif started to reply, but immediately thought better of it. Instead he traced his finger along the railing of the balcony in silence and seemed to listen to the distant pigeons as he rotated the answer in his mind, knowing it was a lie and quickly evaluating the possible reasons why.
    In the north, dispatching pigeons in the field might be a risk, but never in the south, where the infidel Deccanis always know the deployment of our army better than its own commanders. No. There's something planned that Jadar does not want me to know. Which can only mean His impulsive Highness, Prince Jadar has undertaken something foolish. I know him too well.
    After a moment Nadir Sharif broke the silence, without turning his face from the darshan balcony.
    "Tell me about the feringhi ."
    "Do you mean what he says? Or what I think about him?"
    "Both."
    "He claims to be an ambassador for the English king, but his only credentials are a letter he brings, said to request a trading firman from His Majesty."
    "What are the intentions of this feringhi king? Trade, or eventual meddling?"
    "No one has seen the letter, Sharif Sahib, but the Englishman says his king merely asks to trade yearly at Surat."
    "Which means the English must again contest with the Portuguese. Until one of them eventually abandons our ports. They cannot both trade. The Portuguese Viceroy would never allow it."
    "What you say seems true. It's said the Christians in Europe are having a holy war. I don't understand the cause, but the English and the Portuguese seem to be historic enemies because of it. However, the Englishman claims their disputes in Europe are now over, and that the Portuguese attack on his ships was in violation of a treaty of peace recently signed. Whether this is actually true no one knows. The English ships are gone now, but if they come again, who can say what will happen."
    "Will they come again?" Nadir Sharifs eyes told nothing of his thoughts, but his voice sharpened. "Soon?"
    "The Englishman has not said. Perhaps next year. Perhaps before that." Vasant Rao caught the inflection in Nadir Sharif’s voice, and it triggered a chain of improbable possibilities.
    "Goa will never allow them open access to Surat. There must be war on our seas if the English return." Nadir Sharif paused for a moment and then continued. "Who do you think will triumph?"
    "Ask those who claim the gift of prophecy, Sharif Sahib.
    I'm only a soldier."
    "That's why I asked you."
    "I can only say that if other English are like this man, then they are a determined race. He seems to seek the new because it is there, yet perhaps not knowing what he will do with it once it is his."
    "What do you mean?"
    "The Englishman, Hawksworth. He claims to be here for his king and his king only. But I sense this is only partly true. He is a man of complex desires."
    "Then why is he here?"
    "I think he is here also for himself. He wants something."
    "Perhaps it's to make war on the Portuguese?"
    "He will not shrink from it. But I think his own coming to India is to find something. He is searching, for what I cannot say. He is a man of curious parts. He spoke once of spending time in prison. And he is devoted to playing a small stringed instrument. He understands the tongue of the Moghuls, and he questions all he sees. He is beginning to know India, because he has made it his purpose to know India. If he stays, he could become very troubling for the Portuguese."
    "And will that bring no good to affairs here?" Nadir Sharif paused. "Will it?"
    "I do not follow matters of state, Sharif Sahib."
    Nadir Sharif let the silence swell, then in a voice brittle as ice he spoke.
    "Why did the prince meet with him?"
    Vasant Rao tried without success to mask his surprise. Lord Krishna, they know everything in Agra.
    "There was a meeting." Vasant Rao hesitated, then decided to maintain discretion. "But neither spoke of it afterwards."
    Nadir Sharif studied him, pondering if it were true. Then he turned to glance at the darshan balcony as he spoke.
    "The Moghul has demanded that the English feringhi be brought to durbar immediately after he arrives."
    "Does that mean today?" Vasant Rao shifted with surprise.
    "His Majesty will hear soon enough he has arrived. There is no choice."
    "Then the feringhi must be told to prepare, Sharif Sahib. He has a chest