The Moghul

Fatehpur Sekri. The area around the old palace has remained free of the infection."
    "But I have to see him." Hawksworth hesitated. "Do you know what's happened to Shirin?"
    "Nothing, so far as I hear. I believe she's still being held in the fort." Nadir Sharif studied Hawksworth. "But I would advise you in the strongest possible terms to avoid meddling in the business of that Persian adventuress and her departed Sufi heretic."
    "What I do is my affair." Hawksworth set down his cup harder than necessary. "I insist on seeing His Majesty. I want you to arrange it."
    "But a formal meeting is really quite impossible, Ambassador. Haven't I made that clear?" Nadir Sharif paused to collect his poise. "But perhaps if you appeared when his entourage is departing Agra, you might be able to speak with him. I have to insist, however, that a meeting now would be pointless and possibly even dangerous, considering His Majesty's disposition at the moment."
    "I'll see him before he leaves, somehow. I'll find a way."
    "Then I wish you Godspeed, Ambassador." Nadir Sharif put down his sharbat glass. "Incidentally, there's a large caravan leaving for Surat day after tomorrow. Should I make arrangements for you to join it?"
    "I'm not going anywhere until I see the Moghul."
    "You're a headstrong man, Ambassador. Please believe I wish you well. Notwithstanding His Majesty's current views, I've always regarded you highly." He signaled for a tray of betel leaves and rose, flashing one of his official smiles. "Who knows? Perhaps your luck is due for a change."

    *
    Queen Janahara read the dispatch twice, the lines of her mouth growing tighter each time, before passing it back to Arangbar. He studied it again, holding it with a trembling hand, seeming not to fully comprehend its meaning, then extended it to Nadir Sharif. The courtyard off Arangbar's private library was deadly silent, all servants and eunuchs banished. The tapestries shading the inner compartment had been drawn back, permitting the hard light of morning to illuminate the flowered murals on the library's red sandstone walls. Arangbar sipped wine from a gilded cup and studied Nadir Sharifs face while the prime minister read, as though hoping somehow to decipher the document's significance from his expression.
    "He has plainly refused. Majesty." Nadir Sharifs voice was strangely calm. "When did this arrive?"
    "This morning. It's his reply to the pigeon I sent to Burhanpur the day after the wedding, ordering him to return the command in the south to Ghulam Adl and march to the northwest, to relieve the fortress at Qandahar." Arangbar's eyes were bloodshot and grim. "At least we know now where he is."
    "We know nothing." Janahara reached for the document and scrutinized it. "This dispatch was sent four days ago. He could be as far north as Mandu by now, or well on his way to Agra."
    "I doubt very much he will march anywhere." Nadir Sharif cut her off without seeming to do so. "Until he receives a response to the terms he has demanded."
    "Repeat them to me." Arangbar was having difficulty focusing on the wine cup and he shifted his gaze into the courtyard.
    "They are very explicit. Majesty." Nadir Sharif rolled the document and replaced it in the bamboo sleeve. "Jadar has refused to march to defend Qandahar unless his horse rank is raised to thirty thousand, and unless the jagirs in Dholpur, those that were granted to Prince Allaudin, are returned. What will you do?"
    "There can be no bargaining with an Imperial order," Queen Janahara interjected. "How many times will you be intimidated? Remember he refused to undertake this campaign—which, I should add, he has apparently bungled—until his suwar rank was elevated, and his elder brother Khusrav was sent out of Agra. When will his demands end?" Her voice rose. "Even now we do not know what has happened. All we know for sure is that two months ago he marched south from Burhanpur. And four days ago he was there again. Was he driven back when he tried to recapture Ahmadnagar from Malik Ambar? Does the Deccan still belong to the Abyssinian? Prince Jadar has much to answer."
    "But the dispatch was sent from Burhanpur. At least he hasn't abandoned the city entirely, as some of the rumors said," Nadir Sharif continued evenly. "And I don't believe he has abandoned the south, either. He would not permit it to remain in rebel hands. Whatever else he is, he's a soldier first."
    "For all we know he is now isolated at the fortress in Burhanpur."