I have to requisition silver coin from the treasury at Agra, and hope a supply caravan can still get through. In the meantime I'll muster the remaining cavalry from the _mansabdars_, on the threat their _jagirs_ will be confiscated if they fail to deliver. It won't raise many men, but it will slow defections. But if we're to recall the men still loyal, we must have silver. To raise the thirty thousand men we need, men who've not been paid for a year, will require at least five million rupees, fifty _lakhs_. I must have it by the time we reach Burhanpur. If we can hold that city, we can raise the army from there. "Malik Ambar sued for peace three years ago because his alliance came apart." Vasant Rao spoke again, watching Jadar carefully, knowing that the prince was deeply troubled, had imprisoned a courier that very morning for which there could only be one reason--then released pigeons that flew north. "And his alliance will come apart again. If we sow enough fear." Jadar seemed annoyed at the delay as the waiting _chitahs _were re-harnessed and the last carcasses of blue _nilgai _were loaded onto the ox-drawn wagons for return to the camp. "You still haven't learned to think like a _chitah_." Jadar signaled the hunt was finished and wheeled his horse back toward the camp. Vasant Rao rode a few paces behind, asking himself how long that regal head would remain on those royal shoulders. You're threatened now on every side. You cannot be as oblivious as you seem. He thought back over Prince Jadar's career. Of the Moghul's four sons, Prince Jadar was the obvious one to succeed. Jadar's elder brother Khusrav had been blinded by the Moghul years before for attempting a palace revolt. Jadar's brother Parwaz, also older than the prince, was a notorious drunkard and unacceptably dissolute, even by the lax standards of the Moghul's court. And Jadar's younger brother, Allaudin, was the handsome but witless son of a concubine, who well deserved his secret nickname, Nashu-dani, "the good-for-nothing." Since there was no law in India that the oldest must automatically succeed, power devolved to the fittest. Only Jadar, son of a royal Rajput mother, could lead an army, or rule India. Among the Moghul's four sons, he was the obvious, deserving heir. But ability alone was never enough to ensure success in the mire of palace intrigue. One must also have a powerful friend. For years Prince Jadar had the most powerful friend of all. The grooming of Jadar for office had begun over five years earlier, when he was taken under the protection of Queen Janahara. She had made herself the guardian of Jadar's interests at court; and two years ago she had induced the Moghul to elevate Jadar's _mansab_, his honorary rank, to twelve thousand _zat_. In income and prestige he had soared far beyond his brothers.