The Moghul

tapestry behind the throne was pushed aside by two eunuchs and Arangbar emerged into the light. He stumbled momentarily on the edge of a carpet, then recovered his balance and took his seat on the white marble throne. His dull eyes glistened against the lamplight as the men in the room dropped to teslim . For the first time he seemed more annoyed than amused when Hawksworth failed to bow to the carpet. He glared at him for a long moment and then spoke to Nadir Sharif, who stood waiting by his side. The prime minister turned to the room.
    "Ambassador Hawksworth, His Majesty commands you to come forward."
    It was abrupt language rarely heard in the Diwan-i-Khas , and the room immediately fell silent. Hawksworth rose and tightened his belt, feeling his apprehension rising. As he neared the throne, he found himself seeing not Arangbar's expressionless gaze, but the face of Shirin as she waited for help.
    "Inglish, stand there." He pointed to the side of the throne opposite the Jesuits. "Tell me, any fresh news of your king's fleet?"
    Hawksworth felt his heart explode, realizing there was no arrival—and no possibility of using King James's presents to bargain for Shirin. "I expect it any day, Your Majesty. Possibly the winds have been against them."
    "The winds." Arangbar turned to Father Sarmento, his voice sarcastic. "Do you think the winds have been against them, Padre?"
    "Undoubtedly, Majesty." Sarmento could not suppress a malicious smile. "The winds of truth. They have been arrested in a gale of deception."
    "I object, Your Majesty, to this Papist's innuendos." Hawksworth felt himself suddenly bristle. "An Englishman does not accept insults from a Portugal."
    "You will listen quietly to what you are about to hear, Inglish, or you will be removed by my guards." Arangbar again turned to Father Sarmento. "Padre, repeat to the Inglish conspirator what you told me this afternoon."
    "May it please Your Majesty, not only is the English a heretic before God and the Holy Church, he is also a liar." Sarmento paused with the dramatic timing of a practiced orator. "There is no English fleet."
    Hawksworth stared at the Jesuit in speechless dismay. His entire being seemed to crash down about him as Sarmento continued.
    "Because of the foresight of His Excellency, Miguel Vaijantes, Viceroy of Goa, we have now uncovered the truth, Your Majesty. After his patrols encountered no English merchantmen, either north or south, he began to grow suspicious. He ordered his personal guards to find and detain the man who claimed to have intercepted Jadar's cipher reporting the fleet. The traitor was found, not surprisingly, in a Goan brothel, where he had been for many days, spending more money than such a man could normally earn in a lifetime. He was brought to the palace and interrogated on the strappado ." Sarmento turned triumphantly to Hawksworth. "Where he readily admitted being paid to bring a false report."
    "And who do you believe paid him?"
    "On that His Excellency is still uncertain, Your Majesty. He was paid by agents in the south."
    "But who does the Viceroy believe paid the money?"
    "The coins were assayed and traced to the mint at Surat, Your Majesty. They were part of a special minting that took place just before the English, Hawksworth, left the city. The assay also revealed they were a debased alloy, slightly lower in silver content than is normal, although not enough to be readily detectable. Similar coins have begun to be used throughout the Deccan. Reportedly they were given out recently by Prince Jadar as back pay to the troops of certain mansabdars .'"
    "Who were the coins minted for?"
    "The Shahbandar at Surat, Mirza Nuruddin, claims to have misplaced the records for this particular minting. However, he maintains the lower silver content was probably due to a minter's oversight. The former governor of Surat, Mukarrab Khan, is returning to the city to investigate. The minting run appears to have been approximately fifty lakhs of rupees. But the actual silver content was only forty-nine lakhs of rupees." He paused for breath. "The Shahbandar says he has no idea what could have happened to the other lakh's worth of silver bullion authorized to be used in the minting."
    "That's not so difficult to explain, knowing Mirza Nuruddin." Arangbar seemed to be talking to himself. Then he glanced again at Sarmento. "Of course, the discrepancy would probably never have been detected if the coins given to the traitor had not been