‘It’s so strange. .like a fantasy from which I keep expecting to wake.’

‘It’s the real world and you must accept it. Everything Babur wanted, everything he fought for, had one purpose only — to win an empire and found a dynasty. You know that as well as I — weren’t you fighting at your father’s side when he crushed Sultan Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat to claim Hindustan for the Moghuls?’

Humayun said nothing. Instead he looked up once more at the sky. As he did so, a shooting star sped across the heavens and vanished, leaving not even a trace of its fiery tail. Glancing at Khanzada, he saw that she had seen it too.

‘Perhaps the shooting star was an omen. Perhaps it means my reign will fizzle out ingloriously. . that no one will remember me. .’

‘Such self-doubt and hesitancy would anger your father if he were here now. Instead he would have you embrace your destiny. He could have chosen one of your three half-brothers as his heir, but he selected you. Not just because you are the eldest — that has never been the way of our people — but because he thought you were the most worthy, the most able. Our hold on Hindustan is precarious — we have been here only five years and dangers press in from every side. Babur picked you because he trusted not just in your courage, which you had already demonstrated on the battlefield, but also in your inner strength and your self-belief, your sense of our family’s right to rule, which our dynasty must have to survive and prosper here in this new land.’ Khanzada paused.

When Humayun did not reply, she raised her face to the light of the torch and ran her finger down a thin white scar extending from her right eyebrow almost to her chin.