We watched as Moti scrambled up the broken steps of the tower. Small, fast Moti. I saw her ignite a single cannonball before gunfire tore open her chest and a blast knocked me on the ground. Then everything was gunfire and screams. I rushed to my feet and together, Mandar, Arjun, and I ran through the burning rubble toward the Panch Mahal.
“Where is the rani?” I shouted, but no one knew. People were running, and children were screaming, and then Arjun pointed to the shattered courtyard where the pretty tiles lay cracked and the fountain was blackened by ash. Advisers and military men surrounded the rani, and her forehead was smeared with soot.
“The English will stop firing as soon as it’s too dark to see,” she said when she saw Arjun. “But at first light . . .”
The unsaid words hung in the air.
“What do you want us to do?” he asked.
The rani stared into the distance, where smoke was billowing from a mortar hit. “Make a protective ring around the palace to guard the women and children in the Panch Mahal.”
Inside, the halls were crowded with people. Anyone who either couldn’t or wouldn’t flee ahead of the British army was taking shelter here. But we knew the British were capable of setting fire to buildings and burning everyone inside, and then shooting anyone who tried to escape.
That night, we slept in the hall outside the rani’s chamber. Arjun took first watch and I dreamed of Moti running up the tower calling, “Sita! Sita! Wake up! I had a dream!”
I opened my eyes and saw the face of the rani. “I had a dream,” she repeated.
The rani had never spoken of her dreams. “I had a vision of an angel,” she confided.
In Hinduism, we do not have angels. But there are angels in Islam and Christianity.
“She was all in red, and the gems on her dress were brighter than this light.” She gestured to the oil lamp hanging next to her. “Then she was holding a ball of flame. Her hands were starting to burn and she said this was the fortress’s fate. Jhansi is destined to be destroyed by fire.”
“But why an angel?” I began to shiver. “Why not Durga or even Kali?”
“I don’t know. But she was as real as you are to me.”
“Have you told anyone else?” I didn’t think she should.
“No. But, Sita, it was more than a nightmare. It was a vision.”
We were quiet for several moments. Then I said, “In a few hours, the sun is going to rise and the British will be here.”
“Yes.” But I could see her trying to shake the vision from her mind. “We must prepare.”
We began rousing the surviving Durgavasi and the palace guards. She woke Kahini first. By five in the morning, everyone was waiting.
We stood around the breach in the wall, weapons readied, listening to the sound of birds calling to one another. It didn’t matter to them whether we slaughtered one another, or even who won. Tomorrow, they would be singing even if all of us were floating in the Ganges. The rani was peering over the ramparts, and I saw it at the same time she did: a wall of fire burning the grass along the northern banks of the Betwa River. And in the light of the flames, it was possible to see an army so vast that you couldn’t perceive its end.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Shouts of joy went up as we recognized the rebels’ red and white uniforms in the breaking light of day. Saheb’s general, Tatya Tope, had come with more than twenty thousand men. The King of Banpur was with him. The King of Shahgarh was with him. The Nawab of Banda, the sepoys of Kanpur, the sepoys of Assam. The numbers were so far in our favor it was a wonder the British didn’t turn around and run.
We watched from the ramparts as elephants materialized in the gray light of dawn, hauling cannons and weapons and carrying men. Our own elephants were for show, not war, but to see the giant beasts lumbering toward the plains beyond the fortress made everyone’s heart light. The rani gathered her guards around her. Heera and Rajasi were to join the soldiers outside the magazine, where all of Jhansi’s gunpowder was kept. The remaining Durgavasi and twenty-two men still left from the rani’s personal guards were to remain in the Durbar Hall until further notice.
Inside the palace, the feeling was celebratory. Twenty thousand men had appeared in the mist like a celestial army sent by the gods. This was our land. These were our people. The gods were on our side. We seated ourselves on the stage while the rani took her throne and we waited for victory.
Then, the unthinkable occurred. Word came that General Rose had split his forces and was defeating the rebels at the river. As the day progressed, more bad news came, and Arjun couldn’t understand why Tatya Tope had exposed his outer flanks in that way.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” he kept saying over the din of crying infants and nervous women inside the palace.
A few moments later, everything changed. Two British mortars hit the magazine where our gunpowder was kept. The explosion could be felt by every person in the fortress. The women inside the hall shrieked, terrified. It was as if the granite walls were about to crumble. Then the crowds inside the Durbar Hall grew silent as we waited for a second hit. It came, followed by a third.