Destiny's shield

He hissed an unspoken command to the other two assassins in the room. The command was unnecessary. They were already loading the gunpowder and the cannister round into the bombard. The leader scampered back and sighted along its length. He could only estimate the angle, since the curtain hanging in the window obscured his view of the street below. But the estimate would be good enough. It was not a weapon of finesse and pinpoint accuracy.

The leader made a last inspection of the cannon. He could not restrain a grimace. The blast and the recoil, confined in that small room, was almost certain to cause some injuries to the assassins themselves. Hopefully, those injuries would not disable any of them-not enough, at least, to prevent them making their escape in the chaos and confusion after Shakuntala and her immediate entourage were slaughtered.

'I wish they'd perfected those new impact fuses they've been working on,' muttered one of the assassins. 'Then we could have used a real cannon at long range. This misbegotten-'

'Why not wish she didn't have thousands of Maratha cavalrymen to protect her, while you're at it?' snarled the leader. 'And those fucking Kushan cutthroats? Then we could have just slid a knife into her ribs instead of-'

'She's fifty yards away,' hissed the lookout. 'The first cavalry escorts are already passing below.'

He plastered himself against the wall, crouching down as far as he could while still being able to peek through the window. The expression on his face, beneath the professional calm, was grim. He was almost certain to be scorched by the exhaust from the cannon blast. And there was also the possibility that a weak weld could result in the cannon blowing up when it was fired.

'Forty yards.'

One of the two bombard handlers retreated to a far corner, curling into a ball. The other drew out a lighting device and ignited the slow match. After handing it to the squad leader, he hurried to join his comrade in the corner. The leader crouched next to the bombard's firehole, ready to set off the charge.

'Thirty-five yards,' announced the lookout by the window. 'Get ready.'

The men in the room took a deep breath. They had already decided to fire the bombard when the Empress was twenty-five yards distant. They knew that Shakuntala's horse would travel less than five yards in the time it took for the slow match to ignite the charge. If all went as planned, the sack full of lead pellets would turn the ruler-in-exile of conquered Andhra into so much mincemeat.

The leader held up the slow match. Brought it close to the firehole.

'Thirty yards.'

The door behind them erupted like a volcano. The first man coming through the door cut the squad leader aside before the assassin had time to do more than flinch. It was a brutal sword strike-not fatal, simply enough to hurl the man away from the cannon. Quick, quick. The assassin screeched with pain. His right arm dangled loose, half-severed at the elbow. The slow match fell harmlessly to the floor, hissing in a patch of blood.

The lookout at the window had time to recognize the man who killed him, before that same sword went into his heart. As agile and skilled as he was, the assassin had no more chance of evading that expert thrust than a tethered goat.

In the few seconds that it took him to die, the assassin tried to remember his killer's name. He knew the name, but it would not come. He knew only that he had been slain by the commander of Shakuntala's Kushan bodyguard. The man whom he and his squad simply called Iron-face.

One of the assassins huddled in the corner died soon thereafter, hacked into pieces by the three Kushan soldiers who piled into the room after their commander. The commander himself took care of the last Malwa. This one he did not kill outright. He wanted him for questioning. The Kushan lopped off the man's right hand as it came up holding a blade, then struck him senseless with a blow of the sword's pommel on the forehead.

The Kushan commander scanned the room. By now, with another five Kushans crowding in, the room was packed like a meat tin. Three of them had subdued the assassin whose arm the commander had half-severed upon bursting through the door.

'That's enough,' he commanded. 'See to the Empress.'

'No need, Kungas,' murmured one of his men. The Kushan soldier had pushed back the curtains in one of the windows. 'She's on her way here already.'

'Damn the girl!' growled Kungas. 'I told her to stay back.'

The Kushan commander strode to the window and glared out onto the street below. The Empress-the supposed 'Empress' at the head of the column-was sitting on her horse. The girl was beginning to shake, now. A trembling hand came up and removed the veil. She wiped her face, smearing off some of the dye which had darkened her skin.

But Kungas was looking elsewhere, farther back along the column of cavalry escort. At the figure of another small girl, urging her horse forward. Unlike the 'Empress,' this girl was wearing simple and unadorned clothing: nothing more than a colorfully dyed tunic over pantaloons, the garments of a typical camp-follower-a soldier's common-law wife, perhaps. She, also, was dark-skinned. But her skin-tone was natural, and there was not the slightest trace of trembling in her hands.

'You're going to catch an earful,' said the Kushan standing next to Kungas. 'She looks angrier than a tigress guarding her cubs.' He added cheerfully: 'Of course, she's a small tigress. For what it's worth.'

Kungas grunted. For a moment, something that might have been a sigh almost escaped his lips. But only for the briefest instant. Thereafter, the mask closed down.

On the street below, the true Empress halted her horse long enough to see to the well-being of her double. Then she dismounted and charged into the entrance of the tenement building.

She was lost from Kungas' sight, but he could hear her stamping up the narrow wooden stairs leading to the rooms on the upper floor. He could also hear her voice.

'How can such a small girl have such a loud voice?' wondered the other Kushan. 'And how can slippers make such a stamping clatter?'

'Shut up, Kanishka,' growled Kungas. Kanishka smiled seraphically.

The Empress' voice, coming from below:

'Never again, Kungas! Do you hear me? Never again!'

She burst into the room. Her eyes immediately fixed on those of Kungas. Black, hot eyes.

'Never again! Jijabai might have been killed!'

Kungas' iron face never wavered. Nor did his harsh voice. 'So might you, Empress. And you are irreplaceable.'

Shakuntala glared at him for a few seconds. Then, recognizing the futility of trying to browbeat the commander of her bodyguard, she glared around the room. When she saw the bodies of the family, she recoiled.

'Malwa beasts,' she hissed.

'It's how we spotted them,' said Kungas. 'Our spies saw that this building seemed lifeless, everyone hiding in their rooms. Then they smelled the bodies.'

He glanced at the bombard. Three of his men were already disarming the weapon. 'But we only discovered them just in time. It was a well-laid ambush. Their only mistake was killing the family too soon.'

'The baby would have squawled all night,' com-mented Kanishka.

Kungas shrugged. 'So? It would hardly be the only shrieking infant in a slum.'

Shakuntala grimaced. Kungas, in his way, was the hardest man she had ever met.

She tore her eyes away from the pitiable sight of the dead family and stared at the assassins. 'How many did you keep alive?'

'Two,' replied Kanishka. 'Better than we hoped.'

'They'll talk,' said Kungas. 'Not easily-not Malwa assassins. But they'll talk.'

'They won't know much,' said Shakuntala.

'Enough. I was right. You will see.'

The Empress stared at Kungas. After a moment, she looked away. 'That it would come to this. My own grandfather.'

'What did you expect?' came a voice from the door.

Shakuntala turned. Dadaji Holkar was standing in the doorway. Her imperial adviser's eyes scanned the room, coming to rest on the piled-up bodies of the dead family.