Swords From the Desert (39 page)

"To him, what shall I answer, if he question me?"

Mahabat Khan smiled bitterly.

"I lay no conditions upon that. Say what pleaseth thee."

Thereupon he summoned the follower who had in charge the casket of pearls, and these he put into a soft leather bag, bidding me wear it under my tunic.

"In the camp of my master," he said moodily, "thou wilt find, Ibn Athir, many to plunder thee and few to befriend thee. Let thine eyes be keen of nights, and fail not to deliver the message."

He made a sign of dismissal. A quiet man, not easily to be understood. A man oppressed by calamity, yet true to his salt, as I thought. One last glimpse of him I had, when we rode from the Rajput camp the next day.

Mahabat Khan, sitting a splendid charger, was inspecting his cavalry, riding down the ranks of five thousand, armed with sabers, each man wearing the garments and bestriding the horse of a chieftain. When he appeared on the maidan, a shout went up from the five thousand, a shout echoed by the servants and horse boys under the trees, such a shout as greets the leader of many clans and the victor of hard-fought fields.

Chapter IV The Mogul's Door

As we rode north toward the river Bihat-for Jami had got himself some stouter garments and had left his juggler's pole behind and had begged to ride the roan pony-I pondered the meaning of the message I bore.

Why was the message sent? I knew not. How would the lord of all Ind receive it? I knew not.

Perhaps Mahabat Khan had wished to be rid of me and had chosen this way. Yet I did not think he was a man to let others do what his own hand might do.

Two things were clear-that Mahabat Khan had lost the favor of Jahangir, since his emissary the Rao had been put to public scorn; and his enemies at court were watching, that no man of his should reach the presence of the Mogul.

I noticed that Jami seemed joyful. His eyes were opened wide and he had a quirk and jest for every veiled woman that passed under the hood of a bullock cart. True, he liked to ride, and the lack of a saddle bothered him not at all, kicking at the roan's lean ribs and pulling the pony's head. But there was more in his soul than that, as I came to see in time.

And the women before our eyes became more and more-veiled and yet shrill of tongue. They washed garments in streams and loitered under the canopies of shops. For we were descending into the bed of a broad valley where between steep clay banks a river ran, swift and turbid. Truly such a river rises in hills where snow lingers. And this indeed was the Bihat that races down from the northern mountains. I beheld the purple line of them above the haze of the valley.

We drew rein then, to exclaim, each in his fashion. Beneath us lay the lashgar, the great camp of the Mogul.

I have seen the camp of the true believers at the Stoning of the Devil, within the Mecca hills, and I have seen the hunting camp of the sultan of the Turks. But the lash gar of Jahangir was greater than either.

In the haze of the hot valley, scattered through the scrub, it covered the earth as far as the eye could reach to the left and to the right. Near us were the cotton shelters of the shameless women, booths of fruit and sweetmeat sellers, and line upon line of horses; beyond them camels.

Far beyond, on the crest of a knoll, gleamed the gold and black iron of artillery, and within the guns the tents were ranged in more orderly fashion, evidently housing warriors. Here again horses grazed and a hundred standards fluttered through the dust billows. Near the river shone pavilions of red silk.

"That is the place of the king of kings!" cried Jami.

"He has not yet crossed the river," I made response.

We did not go at once to the red pavilions, because four Hindu horsemen came up the road and accosted us. The legs and bellies of their mounts were stained yellow with saffron, and they smelled, besides, of musk and ambergris. To me they gave courteous greeting, asking no questions, and turning back to escort me within the lash gar.

We had passed beyond the guns, which were placed in a kind of square, muzzles outward, and were among the elephants, when one of the horsemen said:

"Of all the pillars of empire, the thrice-worthy vizier Asaf Khan will be most fain to greet the hakim, Ibn Athir."

Now I had not said that I was a physician, nor had Jami opened his lips. I bore neither sign nor token that they should know me for a hakim. So was it clear that these four had been on the watch for my coming.

To them I said-

"Indeed, I seek the lord of lords, the earth-shaking Asaf Khan."

They led me around the elephants and through a cotton screen erected on bamboos that enclosed the space of a large village. Here dwelt the vizier, with his servants and slaves and watchdogs and his armed followers, of whom I saw several hundred loitering about. Once within the khanate, as the Hindus called the cotton screen, they showed me less respect. Others came to stare, and I did not dismount from my horse, though pressed to do so.

"Thy lord is not here," I assured them, "and before long I must seek quarters for the night."

"Thrice grieved will be Asaf Khan, if thou forsakest the shadow of his door before he has seen thy face."

This, I thought, might well be truth! But within the hour a shout arose, and a large elephant plodded through the gate of the enclosure-an elephant with gilt on its forehead and bearing a silver-inlaid chair on its back. Scurry and bustle filled the place when the elephant knelt, and two of my Hindus hurried forward to salaam to their master.

Now indeed I had to dismount, and someone led my horse away. But Asaf Khan spoke to me in Persian quite affably, bidding me take the evening meal with him. He carried himself well, a man broad in the face with a thick close-clipped beard. Diamonds of price gleamed in his turban aigrette and sword hilt.

Verily, that evening I felt ashamed of my plain mantle, for the least of his emirs wore velvet and fine linen. I had decided not to wear the robe of honor given me by Man Singh. I might as well have done so, since my packs were opened and ransacked and put together again, while I was with the vizier.

"Hast thou no better garment?" he asked when the others had withdrawn a little. "I will give thee one."

"Nay," I made response, "I have other garments, bought in Lahore; but it seemed to me fitting that I should go before the padishah in the dress of my country."

"Wilt thou seek audience of the king of justice?" As he said this, Asaf Khan leaned forward and touched the earth.

"God willing." I leaned toward him. "I have heard the men of Ind are excellent judges of pearls. No merchant am I; still I have some few precious stones. One pearl-I would like to know its value."

Before he could answer I took the leather purse from my girdle and placed it before him. He felt within it and drew out one yellow pearl.

"It is fair," he said, eyeing me sidewise.

"Honor me by keeping it as a journey gift, my lord."

He rolled it between his plump fingers, on which the rings of manyhued gems outshone my poor offering. At once-for I am not skilled at playing with words-I whispered that I was a physician, an adept at bleeding, and a well-wisher of Asaf Khan. That I sought the royal protection of Jahangir, and a chance to serve the lords of the court.

"And, though the pilgrimage hath left me bare of gear, I have three other stones the match of this one."

At this he became more friendly, calling me by name and bidding the servants bring wine, which I did not drink.

"Let me see the other stones, Ibn Athir," he cried playfully, "and I will judge if they be the equal of this."

Now I had the three pearls beneath my girdle, but I told him they were kept for me in Lahore against need, to be sent to me when I made demand. This he did not believe, nor did I think he would believe.

"What will be thy gift to Jahangir?" he asked.

I showed him a dagger set with a turquoise in the hilt, a long, curved blade of the kind the Hindus call yama-dhara, the death bringer, such a weapon as an assassin would choose, to slash open the heart beneath the ribs. It had not one tenth the value of the pearl, and Asaf Khan was satisfied.

In the end he swore that he would speak to Jahangir on my behalf and present me at audience, and I pledged him the three pearls.

Yet upon one pretext or another he put me off for one day and then two, saying that his master would think of naught but hunting. In this time his followers, as Jami told me, probed my saddle with their knives, and even lifted the ivory cap from the pommel.

"They are seeking a writing," the boy laughed, "and Asaf Khan is not easy in his mind as to thee. They know thou hast drawn thy reins hither from the lashgar of Mahabat Khan, who is the enemy of their master. They asked me many questions."

"And what answer didst thou make, 0 imp of the lower world?"

"I said thou didst seek reward from Man Singh, not knowing the peril of aiding one who had offended the padishah. And he turned thee away with empty hands."

"Good!" I praised the boy. "The roan horse is thine."

Jami grinned and cracked his fingers, saying truthfully that he could have stolen the pony, and I should give him now the yama-dhara in my girdle. His eyes brightened at sight of the weapon, that I had let him handle many times. But I told him he was over young to wear steel and, besides, it was to be a gift to the padishah.

For awhile after that he sulked, though he ceased not to pry about the encampment, eating with Moslem and Hindu alike, and often twice over.

"Eh, my master," he cried. "This is like a caravansary of all the world. Lo, this day have I eaten melons from Kabul and ginger fruits from Cathay, and rice and saffron of the plains." His cheeks were stuffed like a squirrel's that has combed the walnut trees. "And the women are fairer than in Lahore."

"How didst thou make certain of that, 0 lord of a hundred wits?"

"I walked behind the elephants, those with bells. Aye, when the me- harenis hear the tinkle of the bells, they raise their veils to be seen by the rider of the elephant, if he be a famous emir. Besides, the tent walls are not like stone. Go, Ibn Athir, and cry thy skill to the meharenis, and from the women who thrust their hands forth to be bled or cured, thou wilt learn many secrets."

"Nay," I muttered, "only one thing I seek-to have speech with Jahangir."

"That is a simple thing," he responded idly.

Now I had watched the morning and evening audiences of the padishah from far off. And he sat in the opening of a pavilion by a fountain, surrounded by his emirs who stood within a teakwood rail, within guards. The lesser nobles thronged the garden of the fountain, to cry a greeting to the man in the tent, and a silken rope barred strangers from the garden. I might have cried out to Jahangir, as some Hindus did, but Asaf Khan stood ever at the ear of the padishah.

"And how?" I asked Jami.

"By the pavilion where the padishah sleeps hangs a gold chain, the end within reach from the ground. There are bells at the other end of the chain. This chain is for any man who has just cause, to give notice that he would speak with the padishah."

"Is it guarded?"

Jami nodded indifferently. I had not told him of the message I bore from Mahabat Khan.

"Aye, a spearman stands there to watch."

"No more than one?"

"Nay, my master-" Jami's eyes brightened-"only the one. Wilt thou go at night and sound the bells?"

"Perhaps."

Verily, what was not known to this youth? I thought that there were few men who would dare summon a king out of sleep, and that the chain of appeal was little used. Still, it seemed a way to what I sought. I had said to Mahabat Khan that I would deliver his message, and it was clear that Asaf Khan never meant to bring me to his master.

Chapter V The Light of the Palace

When the cymbals clanged at the beginning of the fourth hour of the night I arose in the tent and clad myself in a loose black kalifah. To Jami, who had been sleeping curled up on a mat beside my quilt, I said that I was going forth alone.

"To return again," he asked, "0 my master?"

On the threshold of the tent I thought upon this. Who can tell what the night may have in store for him?

"If I come not by the first light, when a white thread may be distinguished from black, do as thou wilt. Nay, take the black Tatar horse and ride him to the camp of Mahabat Khan. Say this: 'Ibn Athir, the Arab, delivered the message."'

Jami, for some reason, began to grieve. He threw himself down and clutched at my ankles, bidding me take him with me. But this might not be. Within bowshot of the tent I waited to see if he would follow, and he did not. For awhile I heard him whimpering; then he fell silent, to watch, I think, for the appointed five hours.

It was a night of many stars. The earth underfoot was still warm, and a light wind rustled in the growth of thorn and flowering shrubs. Many men moved about the camp, carrying lanterns, and of noise there was no lack because that day the camel train and artillery had crossed over the river, escorted by most of the army, and on the morrow the rest of the lashgar would follow in its journey toward Kabul, whither the Mogul went to pass the summer beyond the heat.

The lanterns made the darkness deeper, under the trees, and I passed from the lines of Asaf Khan without being seen. My black mantle merged with the night, and when I came to the place of the elephants, the lines of beasts chained among an army of keepers, I went forward slowly, beyond the fires where the men sat and gossiped.

Many times I had wandered through the camp, and the paths were clear in my mind. I turned aside into a place where few cared to go. In an open field by command of the Mogul some threescore thieves had been put to death.

Some had been trampled by elephants, some shot with arquebuses. But the leaders had been set on stakes, to die slowly. Two days had passed since then, and life had left the last of the thieves. In the starlight, they were visible, heads hanging on their shoulders. I came upon one suddenly and beheld his teeth gleaming between drawn lips. Eyes he had none, for the crows and vultures had visited this place of death.