The Moghul

live in, instead of straw huts." He laughed again. "Perhaps I owe my very life to a Sufi. Incidentally, descendants of that holy man still live there."
    "Are they all Sufis?"
    "Who knows, Inglish? I think holy men from all over India can be found there from time to time. It's become a kind of retreat."
    "I'd like permission to visit it sometime, Majesty."
    "Of course, Inglish. You'll find it's magnificent."
    Hawksworth squinted against the sun and studied the distant red walls of the city-fortress. Something about its remote purity beckoned him. After the hunt, he told himself, when there's time. Right after the hunt.
    Arangbar fell silent, and Hawksworth leaned back in his howdah as it rocked gently along. Elephants made better mounts than he had first suspected. He thought again of the previous morning, and his first reaction when told he would be riding an elephant for the next two days. He had arrived at the Red Fort, to be greeted by Nadir Sharif, who directed him to the royal elephants being readied in the courtyard of the Diwan-i-Am .
    "His Majesty has selected one of his favorites for you. Her name is Kumada." Nadir Sharif had pointed toward a large female elephant, her body dyed black and festooned with golden bells, yak-tail tassels, gold tusk rings.
    "What does the name mean?"

"The infidel Hindus believe the eight points of the earth are each guarded by a heavenly being in the shape of an elephant. Your English fleet is coming to us out of our ocean from the southwest, and Kumada is the name Hindus give to the elephant who guards that point of the Hindu compass. His Majesty believes this elephant will be auspicious for you."
    "I'm most grateful to His Majesty." Hawksworth surveyed the assembled crowd in astonishment. Around him nobles wearing jeweled turbans and silk trousers were selecting elephants. He had worn sea boots and a leather jerkin.
    Nadir Sharif signaled toward the mahout perched atop the neck of Kumada, and the man tapped her flapping ear with a short barbed rod and gave her directions in Hindi as he guided her toward Hawksworth. She lumbered forward to where Hawksworth stood, and then her mountainous flesh seemed to roll like a wave as she kneeled, front legs out, back legs bent at the knee, ready to be mounted. Two keepers were there, opening the gate of the gold-trimmed howdah and then kneeling, ready to hoist the feringhi aboard.
    "Have you ever ridden an elephant before, Ambassador?" Nadir Sharif monitored Hawksworth's apprehensive expression with delight.
    "Never. I've never actually been this close to one before." Hawksworth eyed the elephant warily, mistrusting her seeming docility. Elizabethans circulated fabulous tales about this mountainous beast, that it could pull down great trees with the power of its trunk, that it had two hearts—one it used when calm, the other when incensed—and that in Ethiopia there were dragons who killed elephants merely to drink their blood, said to be ice cold at all times.
    "You will find an elephant has more wit than most men. His Majesty keeps a thousand in his stables here in the Red Fort. The Great Akman used to trap them in the wild, using a female in heat, but then he learned to induce tame ones to couple. Your elephant, I believe, is second-ranked. She's a fine-tempered animal."
    Kumada examined Hawksworth with her sad, dark eyes, and waved her fanlike ears skeptically.
    "I'm not entirely sure she's taken to me."
    "Here, Ambassador." Nadir Sharif slipped a paper-wrapped stick of sugarcane into Hawksworth's hand and nodded his head toward the elephant.
    Hawksworth gingerly approached her and began unwrapping the paper. No sooner was the cane in view than Kumada nipped it deftly from his hand with a flourish of her trunk. She popped the cane into her mouth and flapped her ears with obvious pleasure as she cracked it with her immense teeth. For a second Hawksworth thought he caught a flash of appreciation in her eyes. He paused a moment, then walked close enough to stroke the heavy skin at her neck.
    "She'll not forget you now, Ambassador." Nadir Sharif was feeding his own elephant. "It's said these animals have a memory longer than a man's."
    Hawksworth vaulted into the howdah and the entire world suddenly seemed to shudder as her mahout signaled Kumada to rise. He seized the railing surrounding him and gasped as she rumbled to her feet.
    "You'll soon ride like a Rajput, Ambassador."
    The elephant rocked into motion. It was worse than heavy