Empire of the Moghul: Brothers at War (36 page)

Pulling himself back to the present Humayun continued his address. ‘My men, there is something else I must tell you. I also promised my half-brother to leave these lands and go to Persia. I do not think Shah Tahmasp who rules there will deny me sanctuary but the journey will be hard, across hundreds of miles of harsh and icy terrain. Before it is ended we may meet danger and deprivation beyond anything we have yet known. I do not order you to ride with me . . . if you wish to return home, do so with honour . . . but if you come with me, I pledge in the name of my father Babur and my ancestor Timur that once I have fulfilled my promise to go to Persia our stay there will be short. I will reclaim every inch of my usurped lands and those who ride with me – my
ichkis
– will share the glory of events that their descendants will speak of with pride a hundred years hence.’

Humayun paused. The expressions on his men’s faces told him that his words – and the steely determination behind them – had found their mark. Few would abandon him, not yet anyway. He must find ways to live up to their trust.

The diamond-bright tips of the mountains all around shone with a brilliant, almost magical beauty – towers of ice from a fable. Yet the sight did not move Humayun as, a month later, he rode at the head of his column as it edged slowly upwards through a narrow pass. On the advice of the Baluchi guides who had agreed to take them to the border with Persia, Humayun had ordered his men to make as little noise as possible.Yet as, shading his eyes, he looked up at the glistening snow and ice fields above, he knew – as they all did – that at any moment an avalanche might roll down and obliterate them.

Danger was all around. Only yesterday – and even though Humayun had sent men ahead to probe the trackless, icy ground with the shafts of their spears to make sure it was solid – he had nearly lost a man down a crevasse concealed by a fall of fresh snow. Though the mule he had been leading had tumbled into the icy void, by an extraordinary stroke of good fortune the man had managed to grip on to a rock ledge some ten feet below. Two of Ahmed Khan’s scouts had hauled him back up on a rope.

Nature was not the sole threat to their survival. Travellers only passed through this wild, desolate region from necessity. Brigands – ‘ghouls of the wastes’ the Baluchi guides called them, spitting on the ground – lurked in these high places. Some even said they did not baulk at eating human flesh. More than once Humayun had thought he detected movement among the snow-covered rocks above them but though he had looked hard he had seen nothing. All the same, the sense of watching eyes stayed with him and he knew that Ahmed Khan felt it too. It would be typically devious of Kamran – knowing which way Humayun was likely to go and that he had fewer than two hundred men – to have bribed bandits to attack him. Humayun’s death, if seen to be at the hands of others, would be more than convenient for Kamran. Whatever the weather, Humayun posted sentries every night.

But he knew that the greatest risk of all was their growing physical weakness, because with weakness came carelessness. Almost all their food – the grain, the dried fruit – was gone. The last three nights’ meals had consisted of the fibrous flesh of a horse boiled in a helmet over a small fire. Soon they’d be unable to cook anything – their wood and charcoal were almost exhausted.

As Humayun shivered with cold – his very bones aching with it – he recalled his father Babur’s stories of crossing the Hindu Kush, of men being dashed to pieces by sudden falls of ice, of drifts so deep that he and his men had taken it in turns to be ‘snow tramplers’, beating it down to force a way through. Babur had, by sheer determination, overcome the obstacles and so must he.

Later that afternoon, as they made camp on a saddle of land that seemed safe from avalanches, Humayun had another reason to remember Babur’s tales of survival in the cold. Ahmed Khan, muffled in thick sheepskin robes, a flat-brimmed woollen Baluchi cap pulled low and almost all his face concealed by his face cloth so that only his amber-brown eyes were visible, came stumbling over, leather boots slipping on the icy ground.

‘Majesty, it was so bitterly cold these past nights that two of my men got badly frozen feet on picket duty. The
hakim
is with them now . . . ’

‘What does he say?’

‘That he must amputate – in one case three toes must come off, but in the other the whole foot . . . ’

‘I will come.’

The
hakim
and the two soldiers were inside a small tent where a pitiful little fire burned in a brazier. Humayun saw that one of the men who were lying with their pantaloons slit and bare legs exposed was Darya. The young man was looking very pale as he watched the
hakim
pass the blade of his knife through the feeble flame to cleanse it. Another broader blade was stuck into the heart of the fire, no doubt being heated to red-hot to cauterise the wounds. Humayun squatted by Darya and examined his right leg. The foot was black, puffy and swollen to well above his ankle while an evil-smelling greenish pus oozed from beneath the few remaining toenails. ‘The
hakim
has told you what he must do?’ Darya nodded but Humayun could see terror in his eyes. ‘Courage. The
hakim
is skilled. God willing, this will save your life.’

The other soldier – a Badakhshani – looked even younger than Darya. Three of his toes were swollen and discoloured and he seemed unable to withdraw his gaze from the
hakim
’s blade, which would soon be cutting through his flesh and bone.

‘Ahmed Khan and I will help you,
hakim
,’ said Humayun. ‘Which one is first?’

The
hakim
gestured to the Badakhshani. While Ahmed Khan took the young man by the shoulders to hold him down, Humayun knelt by his leg which he grasped with both hands just above the knee. It took all his strength to hold the leg steady as the
hakim
went to work and the Badakhshani, trying hard not to cry out, arced in agony. But the
hakim
was quick. With just three precise motions he severed the blackened toes, then he cauterised the bleeding wounds and bandaged them tightly.

Now it was Darya’s turn. The
hakim
looked grave as once again he passed his knife through the flames. ‘This will take much longer, Majesty. I wish I had opium to give him to deaden the pain . . . I have seen stronger warriors than him die of shock during such an operation.’

Humayun glanced over his shoulder to where Darya was lying very still, pale face covered with a sheen of sweat.

‘If he were unconscious, would that help?’

The
hakim
nodded.

Humayun went over to Darya. ‘All will be well,’ he said, kneeling down beside him. ‘Try to sit up a moment, there is something I must tell you . . . ’ As a puzzled-looking Darya raised himself on his elbows, without warning Humayun swung his balled fist at him, catching him hard on the point of the chin. The young man instantly fell back. Pulling back his eyelids – as he had done many a time to both friend and foe on the battlefield – Humayun saw he was out cold. His aim had been good . . .

‘
Hakim
, do what you must.’ As Humayun ducked out of the tent into the freezing air, leaving Ahmed Khan to assist the doctor, he caught the rasping sound of metal sawing through bone and his spirits sank yet lower. How was he going to justify his men’s confidence and repay their sacrifices? He looked up into the darkening sky and for a moment longed for a draught of Gulrukh’s opium-laced wine to wash away his cares and responsibilities and waft him through the heavens.Then the image of Khanzada’s face seemed to coalesce in the stars, silently reminding him that it was not his destiny to be carefree and that with it came burdens and obligations. He pulled his cloak tighter about him and determined to do a round of the sentries, warning them to keep moving and stamping their feet to avoid frostbite.

But three days later it seemed that, perhaps, the worst might be over. As they snaked down a narrow winding track the biting wind suddenly abated, and looking down through drifting wisps of cloud Humayun made out a circle of snow-covered houses and smoke rising from what he guessed must be a caravanserai. Muffled figures were grouped in its courtyard and he could see animals wandering about. ‘Is that one of the settlements you spoke of?’ he asked one of the Baluchi guides.

‘Yes, Majesty.We are descending to what we call the
gamsir
– the mountain meadowlands where farmers and herdsmen have their winter habitations. We will be able to purchase provisions and fuel there . . . and even rest for a few days before travelling on.’

The prospect of supplies gladdened Humayun but he wouldn’t delay a moment longer than necessary. The pain in Hamida’s eyes every time he looked at her matched his own at the thought of Akbar so many miles away and in Kamran’s hands. The sooner they reached Persia, the sooner he could begin to make plans again.

‘How far from here to the border?’

‘The Persian province of Seistan lies just over the Helmand river about eighty miles from here, Majesty.’

‘Over what kind of terrain?’

‘Mostly downhill from now on. As we near the Helmand it flattens into desert.’

‘How many days before we reach the river?’

‘No more than ten to twelve to reach the ford I know of.’

That night, after they had reached the settlement and eaten their fill for the first time in many days, Humayun joined Hamida in their tent. ‘Now that we are getting close to his lands, I must write to Shah Tahmasp asking him to receive us. If we approach his territory unannounced, the Persian troops guarding his borders may think our intentions hostile. I will entrust the letter to Jauhar as my envoy. He will carry it over the Helmand river and seek out the governor or some other high-ranking official to explain why we have come and to request to be allowed to carry my letter to the shah without delay.’

As he spoke, Humayun settled himself cross-legged at a low table where, by the light of an oil lamp, he began mixing his ink. He knew how much depended on his choice of words. During the journey he had weighed carefully what he must say and now began to write fluidly and without hesitation, speaking the words out loud to Hamida. It was fortunate that Persian was a familiar language to the Moghuls so that he had no need of a translator.

First came a paragraph of graceful courtesies, including repeated hopes for the shah’s prolonged good health and the success of his reign. Then Humayun reminded Tahmasp that many years earlier his father Shah Ismail had not only assisted Humayun’s father Babur against his enemies but rescued Babur’s sister Khanzada from captivity in the
haram
of the Moghuls’ implacable enemy, the Uzbek chieftain Shaibani Khan. Humayun did not mention that – as Shah Tahmasp would very well know – the alliance between Babur and Ismail had not lasted long. Instead, he eulogised the fact that these two great rulers had once joined forces to destroy a common enemy.

Next, Humayun decided to make a direct plea: ‘I have suffered many reverses. An impostor from Bengal, Sher Shah, rules in my place in Hindustan while my half-brothers have stolen Kabul and Kandahar from me and hold my infant son hostage. You too are an emperor – a very great one – and you will, I am certain, understand and sympathise with my plight. I ask you to be gracious enough to receive me, my family and my small force into Persia.’

‘What do you think?’ Humayun asked Hamida as, having rounded off the letter with a few last formal courtesies, he laid down his pen.

For a few moments Hamida thought. ‘It is eloquent, open and frank. It should sway the shah, but whether it will who can say. So often we’ve raised our hopes and expectations, only to have them dashed.’

‘Majesty, there is the ford.’

Shading his eyes, Humayun followed the guide’s pointing finger and saw across the flat, grey ground the glint of a watercourse – the Helmand river. A squat tower with a long banner streaming from its roof stood on the opposite bank – presumably a Persian fortress guarding the crossing. It must be three or four days at least since Jauhar had passed through this way, so the commander of the fort should be expecting Humayun’s arrival. All the same, it was as well to be cautious.