Swords From the Desert (34 page)

The coming of the Persians had found him unprepared to make any defense. He had thought of loosing the tribes upon the camp, but had lacked courage to lead them. Truly, a man who gathers wealth is fearful of harm!

"He was taken like a hare, running from one hole to another," I said.

"But his scheming opened a way to strike at our enemy," said Mahabat Khan, and when Dost Muhammad came up he gave us careful orders.

He bade us return at once to Kandahar by the caverns. He wrote out an order for us to give the leader of the Mogul garrison. All the garrison was to be led out under Dost Muhammad and the Mogul captain, about the fourth hour of the night. All must be mounted. With the first trace of light over the plain, they were to attack the Persian camp from the Kandahar side.

He would lead the Pathans down the tangi and the river valley, and be in position to attack from the west at the same time. Dost Muhammad listened intently and nodded, saying briefly-"On my honor!" He asked how many men should be left to keep the citadel.

"One," said Mahabat Khan grimly, "to watch Baki."

Dost Muhammad looked at me instantly, saying nothing. I knew that he meant to put me in place of his men, who would not relish being left behind. The prospect filled him with quiet joy, and he was only disconsolate because we could not ride back to the city.

He saluted Mahabat Khan and turned away. At the cave mouth we both looked back, beholding only the tumultuous preparations of the tribes-and the cold body with the red beard, outstretched by the boulder. So elated were we that we did not reflect how unruly were these same Pathans, and how Mahabat Khan would be cut off from all word from us.

"Hai, Daril," cried Dost Muhammad, "the sniff of a battle gives life to thy aged bones."

"Nay," I said, "my old bones rejoice because life is in them after I had thought myself dead."

More time had passed than we thought, and it was after sunset before we reached the last height. The descent in growing darkness was both slow and painful, and more than once we went astray. By the time we beheld the wall loom up before us, Dost Muhammad was cursing by all the ninety and nine holy names and more names of Hindu gods. The gate was locked, and we had to shout before servants came with torches and went to fetch the Rajputs with the keys. Dost Muhammad was fuming voicelessly, asking how in the name of all the gods he was to rouse and muster and lead out three hundred men at the time appointed. He calmed a little when he found it was no more than the third hour of the night. He hastened to the tower where, as I had suspected, he bade me take the responsibility of Baki, so he would have all his men.

This was a mistake, and I was doubtful about standing guard over the governor of Kandahar in his own tower. True, Baki was still veiled, his arms bound, and the tower chamber darkened. I did not think he would wish to reveal himself in this garb.

"Send me the Bedouins and Abu Ashtar," I responded, "and I will remain here."

Full of his coming battle, Dost Muhammad hastened off. Presently the eleven Bedouins appeared, full of curiosity.

They all peered at Baki in the starlight of a window and satisfied themselves that this was indeed al-Khimar. To put an end to their questions, I invented a fearful story of how the Veiled One had been chased through caverns that led to the underworld, and how Mahabat Khan had fought with him on a bridge of rock over a bottomless pit.

This gave them something to think about, for each one was trying to memorize the story, to improve upon it at the next telling. Baki understood me, but had nothing to say.

After awhile, I too became thoughtful. After all, of what was Baki guilty? We did not know for certain that he had sent Shamil to slay Mahabat Khan. Indeed, why should he have desired the death of the Sirdar?

In the hurry of events at the gorge I had not spoken of this; now I dared not ask Baki about it, before the Bedouins. It seemed to me that the prisoner was restless and breathing heavily, and that he roused up whenever hastening footsteps passed under the tower. Dost Muhammad had told the Moguls that Baki was taking opium, which was a well-known failing of the governor. No one came to ask about him, and presently all was quiet around the tower.

Then this quiet was broken horribly by the voice of the captive. He cried out in a shrill whimper that made the Bedouins gasp.

"Ai-a! This is a night of fear. The wolves are sitting on their haunches and blood will fill the gullies before dawn. Oh, the terror!"

He continued to moan and exclaim, rocking back and forth.

"May God forgive me, I see the death of a thousand souls! I see shadows riding in a host through the plain!"

Then he sighed deeply and flung himself back on the couch.

"May God be merciful to me-it was not my doing. May their blood not be on my head."

"Allah!" whispered the blind Abu Ashtar. "He prophesies!"

At first it had startled me, until I reflected that Baki was no doubt playing a trick of some kind, to excite the Arabs or gain his freedom. But it was otherwise. The man was gripped by a great terror, and so real was his fear that we began to share it.

"By God, Daril," said Abu Ashtar again, "this is truth indeed. What is happening in the plain?"

Baki kept on moaning weakly, at times starting to speak and then checking himself to break into new lament. The Bedouins were thrilled.

"The garrison is gone out," muttered Baki, and turned his head toward me. "Has not Mahabat Khan led down the Pathans to attack the lashgar?"

Since Dost Muhammad had spoken before him, I saw no good in trying to conceal our plans, and told him what was passing.

"Then they are doomed," cried Baki and, as if breaking the chains that held him silent, he cried out harshly-

"You do not know that Shah Abbas, king of kings, lord of Iran and Irak, and master of Persia is in that lashgar!"

For a moment I did not understand the significance of his words and then I doubted that this could be true.

"That is surely a lie!" I said.

"By the triple oath I swear it," he moaned, and then angry impatience swept over him. "Daril, the shah is in that lashgar. The Persians Mahabat Khan captured told him many things, but not that."

I was too astounded to wonder then how Baki came to know this. For awhile I pondered, the Bedouins, breathless with interest, pressing closer not to miss a word. W'allahi, they thought that this was indeed a noble prophecy!

A little at a time I pieced things together in my mind. Nisa, with her passenger pigeons flying from the west-her eagerness to make Mahabat Khan captive-her promise that a king would be surety for the life of Mahabat Khan, if he gave himself up. Nay, she was one of the women spies of the Persian court; and she had been willing to trick Kushal to aid the ambition of Shah Abbas.

So the whole matter became clear in mind, as a mirage drifting away from the hot plain shows the bare rocks and gullies that are really there. It was like the Persians to plan such a trick-to pretend that the shah had been hunting in these mountains, that the shah was really entertaining Mahabat Khan as a guest. But once in Kandahar with his troops, the gate way of the hills would be Persian indeed, and not soon would Mahabat Khan win his freedom.

"Fool!" cried Baki, trembling. "Canst thou not see what is about to happen? The Persians will beat off the Moguls and those hillmen; they will follow up to Kandahar and enter it easily. They will come here and take thee and set thee on a stake, on a greased stake, to die slowly, for the length of a day."

"Allah! " breathed the Bedouins, agape. Verily, this was about to happen. I knew well that Shah Abbas would not venture over the frontier without a strong guard of his warlike nobles, the atabegs, and hundreds of his veteran mailed cavalry, the kurshis and his men-at-arms, the Red Hats, who would rather slay than plunder, and rather torture than slay.

When I thought of the fury of the shah and his men, surprised and attacked in his camp, my bowels became weak and ached mightily.

"It is certain," cried Baki, "that he has other forces in support across the frontier within a day's ride. There is only one thing to be done, Daril. I have gold-some gold, hidden here in the tower. I will show thee where it is, and thou and these Arabs can take it, and bear me across the hills into Ind. We can take a boat on the Indus and be safe from all harm. But we must hasten!"

Indeed, I was tempted. Who would not be tempted, knowing that this miser must have gold enough hidden away to yield us luxury for years? No doubt he would try to trick us again, but the Bedouins and I would know how to deal with him.

"We can leave the city now without hindrance," whispered Baki, still shaken by his fear. "But in two hours it may be too late."

I went to the embrasure and looked out. Clouds hid the stars and an icy wind swept and swayed through the gardens of the almost deserted citadel. There was no telling the hour. I knew it must be long after midnight, and that the air was full of a rising storm. So much the better, if we fled.

I had not sworn to guard Baki, yet I had promised Dost Muhammad to remain here. Was Mahabat Khan my lord, that I should hazard torture to hold his prisoner here? Yet I owed him the duty of companionship and of salt. I thought of Mahabat Khan riding into the storm with his wild hillmen at his back, and it sickened my spirit to leave him thus.

"0 Father of the Blind," I cried to Abu Ashtar, "what thing wilt thou do in this situation?"

He answered promptly-

"Daril we cannot fly, leaving our tents and women out there."

When Baki would have spoken, I checked him. A thought had come to me, a memory of words that Baki himself had spoken to the Pathans when he exhorted them to war against the Persians.

"Saidst thou not, in the valley," I asked him, "'It is written: Thinkest thou that thy wealth will deliver thee, when thy deeds destroy thee?".

"I said that, indeed, but the Pathans are fools to be swayed by such words. Thou and I, Daril, are otherwise. We are men of wisdom."

"God forbid!" I responded, "that my wisdom should be kin to thine. I am a man of peace, but I have never reined my horse from a place where my companions tasted death."

It was clear to me then that I must go at once and warn Mahabat Khan of what Baki had revealed. But how? I wished then for a Rajput trooper. It is easy to sit by and see others hold the reins of command, but it is far from easy to take up the reins they let fall! The Bedouins were waiting for me to decide. They longed for gold; greater than their longing was their fear of what was breeding in the storm.

"Find horses!" I bade them. "Find and saddle my mare, and tarry not."

Some of them departed at once, being more than willing to do this. In truth, they knew where to look for mounts, because within the time it takes to light a fire they were back at the tower with thirteen mounts saddled in every fashion.

"Nay," I cried, "what is this? We cannot take al-Khimar with us. Some few of you must remain here with him."

All speaking at once, they refused unconditionally to stay in the tower; even Abu Ashtar refused. They were like sheep that would not separate in a storm. So we had to bind Baki more securely and fill his mouth with a cloth, stripping off his turban and binding his jaw tight with its long cloth. At least he would not cry out, and we left him to what God had ordained.

Putting Abu Ashtar in the center of our cavalcade, I mounted my mare, and we galloped through the dust-swept streets, out of the open gate. Only slaves and women saw us go.

To find six hundred men in hiding somewhere upon a wide countryside in a starless and windswept night is a task for hunting dogs or a real prophet. We only knew that Mahabat Khan had come down the shallow valley of the river and would be somewhere west of the Persian lashgar.

We turned toward the river and heard it rushing past, making a deep roar. Up in the hills the storm had filled the watercourses, and the river raged. We had great trouble making our way down it, plunging through tilled land and skirting tossing willow groves. Dogs howled at us in a chorus that echoed the voice of the wind. We saw no lights, although we passed dark hamlets several times.

We trotted over the high road upon which I had come to Kandahar. Then the gardens became less and the open brush more plentiful. Our horses were restless, and we had to rein them in in order to listen; this availed us little, for the brush crackling under the wind and the mutter of the river filled our ears.

"On such a night," cried a young Bedouin, "we could steal into the Persian horse lines, unheard."

"On such a night," I responded, remembering other experiences in other years, "we could wander into a Persian guard post, unknowing."

By now it seemed to me that the lash gar must lie upon our left. But it was useless to try to feel our way toward it and hope to meet the body of Pathans before running into the camp. Whether we encountered friends or foes, we would probably be greeted with arrows.

I decided to follow the river, thinking that in this accursed blackness we would at least be keeping in one direction, and that some stragglers would surely have fallen behind Mahabat Khan's force.

Then the rain came down, driving suddenly upon the backs of our heads and shoulders.

We shivered and went on in silence. In the end it was not our searching that came upon the Pathans. My mare whinnied, and another horse answered, a spear's length away.

I bent low in the saddle and called out, saying that we were friends, seeking the Sirdar. Something stirred in the blackness and a voice answered-

"By God, so are we!"

Three or four Yuzufis had become lost and were wandering around, as witless as ourselves by the river. They told us that Mahabat Khan had passed an hour ago, turning east before the rain began. At least we knew that he was not by the river, and I ordered my men and the Yuzufis to spread out, keeping within call of each other, and to push on swiftly.

So we went ahead after a fashion, yelling and stumbling and trotting heavily in the mud. As to our line, it soon became a thing of madness, for I heard Bedouins crashing through brush behind me, and once I ran into a Pathan who was going across my path. Only Abu Ashtar kept his temper, saying that all things had an end.