"This is a variation on His Majesty's usual tiger hunt," Nadir Sharif shouted through the dust, above the din of bellowing buffalo and trumpeting elephants. "Often he shoots, but today His Majesty elected merely to watch. Actually, animal fights have long been a favorite pastime in India."
At that moment a pair of tigers emerged from the grass and stared at the approaching line of buffalo. They did not seem frightened, as had the first, and they watched the line coolly, as though selecting a strategy. Then they dropped into a crouching stalk, moving directly toward the center of the line.
Hawksworth noticed Arangbar suddenly order his mahout to hold back his elephant. The other Imperial elephants had also paused to wait. Then Arangbar turned and ordered the servant who rode behind him to pass forward a long-barreled, large-caliber sporting piece. Allaudin, whose fright was transparent, also signaled for a gun.
Hawksworth's mahout pulled his elephant directly behind Arangbar's, as though for protection.
The tigers seemed in no hurry to engage the buffalo. They scrutinized the approaching line and waited for their moment. Then, when the buffalo were no more than ten feet away, both sprang simultaneously.
The female was speared on the horn of a buffalo, but she flipped in midair and sank her teeth into the leather shielding on its neck. As its Rajput rider slipped to the ground, the male of the pair dashed past his mate and sprang for him. The Rajput swung his broadsword, catching the tiger in the flank, but it swatted him aside with a powerful sweep of its paw and he crumpled, his neck shattered. Other Rajputs rushed the male tiger with their swords, as their buffalo closed in to kill the female, but it eluded their thrusts as it circled Arangbar's elephant. Soldiers with half-pikes had already rushed to form a barricade between Arangbar's elephant and the tiger, but the Moghul seemed unperturbed. While the panting male tiger stalked Arangbar, the female tiger was forgotten.
As Hawksworth watched spellbound, his pulse pounding, he caught a yellow flicker out of the corner of his eye and turned to see the female tiger slip past the ring of buffalo and dash toward the rear of Arangbar's elephant. It was on the opposite side from the armed soldiers, where the Moghul’s elephant was undefended.
Hawksworth opened his mouth to shout just as the female tiger sprang for Arangbar, but at that moment a shot rang out from the enclosed howdah of Queen Janahara and the female tiger crumpled in midair, curving into a lifeless ball as it smashed against the side of the Moghul’s mount.
The jolt caused Arangbar's shot at the male tiger to go wide, merely grazing its foreleg. A dozen half-pikes pierced its side as it stumbled forward, and it whirled to slap at the Rajputs. Allaudin also fired his tiger gun, but his shot missed entirely, almost hitting one of the men trying to hold the tiger back. It whirled in a bloody circle for a moment, and then stopped.
It was staring at Hawksworth.