eager to share future spoils.
“And not just the other kingdoms,” Bappoo went on, ‘but warriors from
all India will come to our banner. I intend to raise a compoo armed
with the best weapons and trained to the very highest standard. Many,
I suspect, will be sepoys from Wellesley’s defeated army and they will
need a new master when he is dead. I thought perhaps you would lead
them?”
Dodd returned the musket to its rack.
“You’ll not pay me with copper, Bappoo.”
Bappoo smiled.
“You will pay me with victory, Colonel, and I shall reward you with
gold.”
Dodd saw some unfamiliar weapons farther down the rack. He lifted one
and saw it was a hunting rifle. The lock was British, but the filigree
decoration on the stock and barrel was Indian.
“You’re buying rifles?”
he asked.
“No better weapon for skirmishing,” Bappoo said.
“Maybe,” Dodd allowed grudgingly. The rifle was accurate, but slow to
load.
“A small group of men with rifles,” Bappoo said, ‘backed up by muskets,
could be formidable.”
“Maybe,” Dodd said again, then, instead of putting the rifle back onto
the rack, he slung it on his shoulder.
“I’d like to try it,” he explained.
“You have ammunition?”
Bappoo gestured across the cellar, and Dodd went and scooped up some
cartridges.
“If you’ve got the cash,” he called back, ‘why not raise your new army
now. Bring it to Gawilghur.”
“There’s no time,” Bappoo said, ‘and besides, no one will join us now.
They think the British are beating us. So if we are to make our new
army, Colonel, then we must first win a victory that will ring through
India, and that is what we shall do here at Gawilghur.” He spoke very
confidently, for Bappoo, like Dodd, believed Gawilghur to be
unassailable. He led the Englishman back to the entrance, blew out the
lantern and carefully locked the armoury door.
The two men climbed the slope beside the palace, passing a line of
servants who carried drinks and sweetmeats to where Beny Singh whiled
away the afternoon. As ever, when Dodd thought of the Killa-dar, he
felt a surge of anger. Beny Singh should have been organizing the
fortress’s de fences but instead he frittered away his days with women
and liquor. Bappoo must have divined Dodd’s thoughts, for he
grimaced.
“My brother likes Beny Singh. They amuse each other.”
“Do they amuse you?” Dodd asked.
Bappoo paused at the northern side of the palace and there he gazed
across the ravine to the Outer Fort which was garrisoned by his Lions
of Allah.
“I swore an oath to my brother,” he answered, ‘and I am a man who keeps
my oaths.”
“There must be those,” Dodd said carefully, ‘who would rather see you
as Rajah?”
“Of course,” Bappoo answered equably, ‘but such men are my brother’s
enemies, and my oath was to defend my brother against all his enemies.”
He shrugged.
“We must be content, Colonel, with what fate grants us. It has granted
me the task of fighting my brother’s wars, and I shall do that to the
best of my ability.” He pointed to the deep ravine that lay between
the Outer and the Inner Forts.
“And there, Colonel, I shall win a victory that will make my brother
the greatest ruler of all India.
The British cannot stop us. Even if they make their road, even if they
haul their guns up to the hills, even if they make a breach in our
walls and even if they capture the Outer Fort, they must still cross
that ravine, and they cannot do it. No one can do it.” Bappoo stared
at the steep gorge as if he could already see its rocks soaked in enemy
blood.
“Who rules that ravine, Colonel, rules India, and when we have our
victory then we shall unlock the cellar and raise an army that will
drive the redcoats not just from Berar, but from Hyderabad, from Mysore
and from Madras. I shall make my brother Emperor of all southern
India, and you and I, Colonel, shall be his warlords.” Bappoo turned
to gaze into the dust smeared immensity of the southern sky.