The tide of victory

kinsmen as she made her way toward Rana Sanga. Even more as a wife than a bride.

Indira had now reached her half-brother. From the distance where he was standing, Toramana could not hear the words which passed between them. But he had little doubt, from the anguish so evident on both faces, of the subject they were discussing.

'Such a tragedy,' murmured Nanda Lal. 'His entire family, you know.'

Toramana cocked his head slightly. 'Was it truly just a band of brigands? You conducted the investigation yourself, I understand.'

Nanda Lal's thick lips tightened. 'Yes, I did. A horrible scene. Fortunately, the bodies were so badly burned that I could, in good conscience, tell Rana Sanga that there had been no signs of torture or abuse. That much relief, at least, I was able to give him.'

The Malwa empire's chief spymaster sighed heavily. 'Just bandits, Toramana. A particularly bold and daring group, to be sure. Kushans, according to the few surviving eyewitnesses. By now, I'm sorry to say, the monsters have undoubtedly found refuge with the other Kushan brigands in the Hindu Kush.'

Nanda Lal's lips were very thin, now. 'Brigands, no more. Remember that, Toramana. All who oppose Malwa are but brigands. Which we will deal with soon enough, have no doubt of it.'

Both men fell silent, watching the Rajput king leading his half-sister out of the audience chamber toward his own quarters in the palace. When all the Rajputs in the chamber were gone, Nanda Lal leaned over and whispered again.

'My best wishes on your marriage, Toramana. The emperor asked me to pass along his own, as well. We are quite sure, should it ever prove necessary, that you will do whatever is needed to protect Malwa from its enemies. All of its enemies, whomever they might be.'

Again, Toramana nodded solemnly. 'You may be sure of it, Lord. I am not given to subterfuge and disguise.'

Late that night, Narses was summoned to the private chambers of Rana Sanga. The eunuch obeyed the summons, of course, though not with any pleasure. It was not that he objected to the lateness of the hour. Narses was usually awake through half the night. It was simply that the old intriguer hated to be surprised by anything, and he could think of no logical reason why the Rajput king would wish to see him.

Narses moved furtively through the dark corridors of the palace. That was simply old habit, more than anything else. Narses was not in the least bit worried of being overseen by Nanda Lal's spies. Here, in his own territory, Narses' webs of intrigue and espionage were far superior to those of the Malwa spymaster.

Very rarely, in times past, had Rana Sanga spoken to Narses at all, except in the presence of Lord Damodara. And those occasions had been in daytime, in military headquarters, while on campaign. To summon him for a private audience in his own chambers.

After Narses entered the Rajput king's quarters, a servant led him to the private audience room and then departed. Courteously, his face showing nothing of the grief and rage which must have lain beneath, Rana Sanga invited him to sit. The Rajput was even courteous enough to offer the Roman a chair, knowing that the old eunuch's bones did not adjust well to the Indian custom of sitting cross-legged on cushions.

After taking his own seat on some cushions nearby, Rana Sanga leaned over and spoke softly. 'The news of my family's murder has caused me to ponder great questions of philosophy, Narses. Especially the relationship of truth to illusion. That is why I requested your presence. I thought you might be of assistance to me, in my hour of sorrow. My hour of great need.'

Narses frowned. 'I'm not even conversant with Greek philosophy, Rana Sanga, much less Hindu. Something to do with what you call Maya, the 'veil of illusion,' as I understand it. Don't see what help I could be.'

The Rajput nodded. 'So I understand. But I was not intending to ask your help with such profound questions, Narses. I had something much simpler in mind. The nature of onions, to be precise.'

'Onions?' Narses' wrinkled face was deeply creased with puzzlement. The expression made him look even more reptilian than usual. 'Onions?'

'Onions.' Sanga leaned over and picked up a thick sheaf of documents lying next to him. He held them up before Narses and waggled them a bit. 'This is the official report of the ambush and killing of my family. Nanda Lal, as you may know, oversaw the investigation himself.'

The Rajput king laid the mass of documents on the carpet before him. 'It is a very thorough and complete report, as you would expect from Nanda Lal and his top investigators. Exhaustive, actually. No detail was left unmentioned, except the precise nature of the wounds, insofar as they could be determined.'

For a moment, his face grew pinched. 'I imagine those details exist in a separate addendum, which Nanda Lal thought it would be more merciful not to include in this copy of the report. As if'-almost snarling, here-'I would not understand the inevitable fate of my wife and children in the hands of such creatures.'

The Rajput straightened his back. For all that he was sitting on cushions, and Narses on a chair, he seemed to tower over the old eunuch. 'But there is one small detail which puzzles me. And I have now studied this report carefully, reading it from beginning to end over and over again. It involves onions.'

Seeing Narses' face-onions? — Rana Sanga managed a smile. 'You see, included in Nanda Lal's report is a detailed-exhaustive-list of every thing which was found. Among those items was the remains of a small chest which my wife always used to carry her cooking materials. Nothing fancy, that chest. No reason for bandits to steal the thing, so they didn't.'

Narses was completely lost. A state of affairs which infuriated him. But he continued to listen to Sanga with no hint of protest, allowing no sign of his anger to show. He was no fool, was Narses. And he realized-though he had no idea from whence it was coming-that a terrible peril was looming over him. Like a tidal wave about to break over a blind man.

'Nor would bandits bother to steal anything in that chest, Narses. Except, perhaps, the small packets of herbs and spices. Those might be of some value to them, I suppose. But, for the most part, that chest contained onions. My wife was very fond of using onions in her cooking.'

Sanga glanced at the documents. 'Apparently, judging from the charred remains, the bandits looted the onions also. Nanda Lal's report was so exhaustive that they measured the ashes and charred pieces which remained. There is no mention of onions. Which would not have burned up completely, after all. And something else is missing which should not have been missing at all, for it couldn't have burned-the knife which my wife always used to cut onions.'

'Bandits,' husked Narses. 'They'll steal anything.'

Rana Sanga shook his head. 'I think I know more about the bandits of mountain and desert than you do, Narses. They're not likely to steal onions, much less a simple knife. The one thing such men-and their women-do not lack are blades. If they did, they couldn't be bandits in the first place.'

The Rajput king placed his large and powerful hand atop the documents. 'It is not there, Narses. Nanda Lal and his men could not have possibly overlooked it, in the course of such a thorough report. The knife was a small and simple one, to be sure, but not that small-and very sturdy. The blade would have survived the fire, at the very least. The thing was made by a Rajput peasant as a gift to my wife on her wedding. She adored it, despite its simplicity. Refused, time after time, to allow me to replace it with a finer one.' He took a deep breath, as if controlling grief. 'She always said that knife-that knife alone-enabled her to laugh at onions.'

Seeing the stiffness of Narses' posture-the old eunuch looked, for all the water, as if he were carved from stone-Sanga emitted a dry chuckle. 'Oh, to be sure, Nanda Lal himself would never have noticed the absence of onions or the knife. How could he or his spies know anything of that? The thing was just a private joke between my wife and me. To everyone else, even our own servants, it was just one of many knives in the kitchen.'

'Undoubtedly, he failed to notice its absence.' Narses' words were not so much husked, as croaked. 'Undoubtedly.' As a frog might pray for deliverance.

'Undoubtedly,' said Sanga firmly. 'Nor did I see any reason to raise the matter with him, of course. What would such a great spymaster and dynast as Nanda Lal know about onions, and the knives used to cut them?'

'Nothing,' croaked Narses.

'Indeed.' And now, for the first time, the severe control left Rana Sanga's face. His eyes, staring at Narses, were like dark pools of sheer agony, begging for relief.