Nadir Sharif signaled toward the mahout perched atop the neck of Kumada, and the man tapped her flapping ear with a short barbed rod and gave her directions in Hindi as he guided her toward Hawksworth. She lumbered forward to where Hawksworth stood, and then her mountainous flesh seemed to roll like a wave as she kneeled, front legs out, back legs bent at the knee, ready to be mounted. Two keepers were there, opening the gate of the gold-trimmed howdah and then kneeling, ready to hoist the feringhi aboard.
"Have you ever ridden an elephant before, Ambassador?" Nadir Sharif monitored Hawksworth's apprehensive expression with delight.
"Never. I've never actually been this close to one before." Hawksworth eyed the elephant warily, mistrusting her seeming docility. Elizabethans circulated fabulous tales about this mountainous beast, that it could pull down great trees with the power of its trunk, that it had two hearts—one it used when calm, the other when incensed—and that in Ethiopia there were dragons who killed elephants merely to drink their blood, said to be ice cold at all times.
"You will find an elephant has more wit than most men. His Majesty keeps a thousand in his stables here in the Red Fort. The Great Akman used to trap them in the wild, using a female in heat, but then he learned to induce tame ones to couple. Your elephant, I believe, is second-ranked. She's a fine-tempered animal."
Kumada examined Hawksworth with her sad, dark eyes, and waved her fanlike ears skeptically.
"I'm not entirely sure she's taken to me."
"Here, Ambassador." Nadir Sharif slipped a paper-wrapped stick of sugarcane into Hawksworth's hand and nodded his head toward the elephant.
Hawksworth gingerly approached her and began unwrapping the paper. No sooner was the cane in view than Kumada nipped it deftly from his hand with a flourish of her trunk. She popped the cane into her mouth and flapped her ears with obvious pleasure as she cracked it with her immense teeth. For a second Hawksworth thought he caught a flash of appreciation in her eyes. He paused a moment, then walked close enough to stroke the heavy skin at her neck.
"She'll not forget you now, Ambassador." Nadir Sharif was feeding his own elephant. "It's said these animals have a memory longer than a man's."
Hawksworth vaulted into the howdah and the entire world suddenly seemed to shudder as her mahout signaled Kumada to rise. He seized the railing surrounding him and gasped as she rumbled to her feet.