The Tainted Throne by Alex Rutherford

Author:Alex Rutherford
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780755383283
Publisher: Hachette Littlehampton
Published: 2012-05-10T06:00:00+00:00

‘Highness,’ reported Kamran Iqbal as the Deccan sun beat down on the fabric of the red command tent in which Khurram was sitting on a small low divan surrounded by his senior officers. ‘Ever since we freed the area around Mandu, Malik Ambar’s men have continued to retreat before our advance. They are still following the course of the Bari river, sticking close to its west bank as they make their way south. They’re now less than twenty miles from their own territories.’

‘Good. That means we’ve achieved something since launching our pursuit from Burhanpur, but it’s not enough . . . Are any of our forces between them and the range of high hills that mark the divide between our two lands?’

‘No, Highness. Only a few detachments of scouts not strong enough to fight a delaying action.’

‘I thought not. Malik Ambar has outmanoeuvred us yet again. Despite our best efforts we’ve never managed to get enough of our forces between him and the borderlands to compel him to fight us on ground of our own choosing. He seems to anticipate our every move.’

‘But we’ve been victorious in nearly all the skirmishes we’ve fought with his men and we’ve kept him away from any sources of fresh plunder – and even recovered some of what he had taken before,’ said Kamran Iqbal with a hint of pride in his voice, while several other officers nodded in vigorous agreement.

‘True, but I wanted to do more than contain his threat. Now I fear that within a day or two he will be back in among the hills he knows so well and almost impossible to bring to a decisive battle’, said Khurram, trying but failing to keep some of the frustration he felt out of his voice. It was almost as if Malik Ambar had a spy amongst his senior officers, he’d complained to Arjumand in their tent the previous evening.

‘But in that case, wouldn’t he have found an opportunity to surprise and defeat you, rather than retreat?’ she had argued. She was probably right, he comforted himself.

‘Highness, one of our most reliable scouts tells me that the river bends quite sharply to the west about ten miles or so from Malik Ambar’s present position.’ Kamran Iqbal interrupted Khurram’s sombre musing. ‘Couldn’t we attempt to corner him in the river bend?’

‘Perhaps, but it depends on the nature of the ground within the bend. It’s not too marshy, is it?’

‘No. There are some sandbanks which might have defensive potential but they’re quite low and apparently there aren’t too many of them.’

‘It’s probably worth the risk then,’ said Khurram, his spirits rising. ‘When is Malik Ambar likely to get there?’

‘Around ten o’clock tomorrow morning – if he follows his usual pattern of making camp for about nine hours overnight.’

‘Let’s attack him there, then. Have our outlying pickets redoubled to stop Malik Ambar’s scouts getting close enough to observe our preparations. We’ll make the bulk of them after dark for added security.’

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