The Serpent's Tooth by Alex Rutherford

Author:Alex Rutherford
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2015-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

‘I summoned you at this late hour because the news is too grave to keep until tomorrow.’ Shah Jahan looked round at his counsellors, whose sleepy faces and hastily pulled on apparel showed that many had not long left their beds. He could still scarcely believe what he had read in the two despatches that had just arrived within half an hour of each other despite having been written over a week apart. For many days he had been waiting for the news that his army was safely across the Oxus and advancing on Samarkand, but it hadn’t come. Instead every despatch had related a series of excuses – the river was too high to cross and they were waiting for the level to fall … the supplies of fodder for the baggage animals were running low and they were waiting for more … fever had broken out among the foreign mercenaries, who were unused to the food and the climate … Uzbeks had been seen on the opposite bank of the Oxus preparing to oppose their crossing so they might need to feint to cross elsewhere.

He had tried to be patient, telling himself that the reasons for the delay were understandable and that there was still enough good campaigning weather for Samarkand to be taken. However, as time went by he had begun to suspect he was being played along. Ashok Singh himself would never do such a thing but, as the Rajput general made increasingly explicit, he was only writing what Murad instructed him … More and more he had begun to detect in Ashok Singh’s words a hesitancy, embarrassment even, and so it had now proved. Holding the first of the new despatches in a hand still trembling with anger, he began to read its contents out loud: ‘Majesty, your son commands me to inform you that the Moghul armies have had no choice but to retreat southwards. It is still too hazardous to ford the Oxus while all the time our enemies are gathering, their recent differences forgotten, with a single aim – to annihilate us at the first opportunity. Only a week ago an Uzbek raiding party crossed the river several miles upstream of our camp and massacred some of our pickets. We found them the next morning, their heads sliced from their shoulders and their severed genitals protruding from their mouths. Our men are becoming disheartened and complaining that they are unsuited to fight in these lands which are unknown to them. Also, the season is now against us – the first snow has fallen and our men are ill equipped to withstand the rigours of a harsh winter. We are therefore on your son’s instructions falling back on Balkh where we will await your further orders. Ashok Singh.’

As Shah Jahan stopped speaking a heavy silence fell. Not a single man was willing to meet his eye. He knew only too well what they were thinking – that Murad had little stomach for a fight.

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