Empire of the Moghul: Brothers at War by Alex Rutherford

Author:Alex Rutherford
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Little Brown
Published: 2011-03-24T23:00:00+00:00

‘What’s that?’ Humayun stared at the cloud swirling and dancing along the distant horizon. Surely it hadn’t been there a few moments ago. The sky too had changed – no longer a bright almost turquoise blue but a lowering, steely grey. Humayun’s horse whinnied and tossed its head uneasily. Anil – Simbu’s eighteen-year-old grandson who was acting as guide and was walking by the side of Humayun’s horse – was also peering hard at the rolling billowing shape that even as they watched seemed to grow larger.

‘I saw it only once before, when I was a child. Desert travellers call it “the Demon of the Sands” . . . it is terrible . . . It’s a great sandstorm with whirlwinds in its midst.’Anil rubbed a hand over his eyes as if, by that gesture, he might make the terrible sight bearing down on them disappear. But as Humayun looked, the great tawny cloud was rushing towards them, blotting out the sun. Suddenly he saw one of the whirlwinds at its centre. It looked as if it was sucking up the guts of the earth and spewing them out.

‘Quickly . . . Tell us what to do.’ Humayun leaned down and shook Anil’s thin shoulder.

‘We must make hollows for ourselves and the animals in the sand and lie in them with our backs to the storm until it has passed over.’

‘How long have we got?’

The youth stared again at the advancing turmoil. ‘Only a few minutes . . . ’

‘Tell the men to dig themselves into the sand and pull their horses down behind them as extra protection,’ yelled Humayun to Jauhar and Zahid Beg, who had overheard his conversation with Anil. Dismounting and leading his own nervous, skittering horse by the reins, Humayun stumbled across to the bullock carts containing Hamida, Gulbadan, Khanzada and their retainers.

‘Dig places in the sand for the women to shelter in – they must help you – and for yourselves,’ Humayun shouted to the bodyguards who’d been escorting them. ‘Quickly! Make your horses lie down by you but unyoke the bullocks – they must fend for themselves.’

Even before he had finished speaking, Humayun saw that despite her many years Khanzada was out of her bullock cart and bending to tear at the ground with her hands. Gulbadan was close beside her. ‘Aunt, when the storm breaks over us, you and Gulbadan must lie down together, backs towards it, and hold on to each other, do you understand?’

Without stopping her digging, Khanzada nodded but his half-sister looked ashen and he saw she was shaking. ‘Dig!’ Khanzada shouted at her.

With figures frantically burrowing all around, Humayun hobbled his horse then lifted Hamida from the bullock cart and carried her a few yards away to where the sand looked softer and easier to dig.

‘Let me help . . . ’ Despite her bulk, Hamida knelt beside him and began clawing at the ground.They worked frantically, hollowing out a place as best they could with bare hands. Hamida’s nails were soon bleeding.

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