Tiger's Quest (44 page)

As dusk turned into twilight, we decided to set up camp for the night. I was exhausted.

“You take the sleeping bag, Kells.”

“Don’t need it. Watch this.”

I took the Scarf from around my neck and said, “A large tent, a sleeping bag, two soft pillows, and a change of clothes for each of us, please.”

The Scarf shifted and moved; threads began weaving in and out. They twisted together to create thick cords, which shot out in several directions and wrapped around the strong branches of nearby trees. Once the cords were tied and secure, the Scarf created a roof, walls, and a tent floor. The tent was suspended from two lines twined about the tree overhead. Instead of a zipper, the opening flaps tied together.

I ducked my head inside, “Come on, Kishan.”

He followed me into the spacious tent, and we watched as the colorful threads continued to weave a thick sleeping bag and two soft pillows. When it was finished, I had a green sleeping bag and two white king-sized pillows. A change of clothes for each of us rested on top of them. Kishan spread the old sleeping bag out next to me while I fluffed a pillow.

He asked, “How does it choose the color?”

“I think it depends on its mood or perhaps on what you ask for. The tent, sleeping bag, and pillows all look like they’re supposed to. Otherwise, the Scarf shifts colors on its own. I noticed it as I walked all day.”

Kishan left to change in the jungle while I put on fresh clothes and hung my fairy clothes on a branch outside. By the time he came back, I was snuggled deep into my sleeping bag and had turned on my side to avoid conversation.

He climbed into his sleeping bag, and I could feel his golden eyes staring at my back for several tense moments.

Finally, he grunted and said, “Well, goodnight, Kells.”

“Goodnight, Kishan.” I was exhausted and fell asleep quickly, drifting right into a new dream.

I dreamed of Ren and Lokesh, the very same scene as in my last vision. Ren was sitting in the back corner of a cage in a dark room. His hair was filthy and matted, and I almost didn’t realize it was him until he opened his eyes and looked at me. I’d recognize those blue eyes anywhere.

His eyes gleamed steadily in the dark like bright sapphires. I crept closer, letting them guide me, staring at them like a desperate sailor watches a lighthouse on a stormy black night.

When I got to the cage, Ren blinked as if seeing me for the first time. His voice cracked like a man thirsty for water.

“Kells?”

I wrapped my fingers around the bars wishing I were strong enough to break them. “Yes. It’s me.”

“I can’t see you.”

For one horrible minute, I was afraid Lokesh had blinded him. I knelt in front of the cage.

“Is that better?”

“Yes.” Ren slid a bit closer and wrapped his hands around mine. Clouds parted and moonlight shimmered through a tiny window, casting its soft glow on his face.

I gasped in shock and tears filled my eyes. “Oh, Ren! What did he do to you?”

Ren’s face was swollen and purple. Blood trickled out of the sides of his mouth, and a deep gash ran from his forehead down to his cheek. I reached out a finger and touched his temple gently.

“He didn’t get the information he wanted from you and decided to take out his anger on me.”

“I’m so . . . so . . . sorry.” My tears splashed his hand.

“
Priyatama
, don’t cry.” He pressed his hand to my cheek. I turned and kissed his palm.

“I can’t bear to see you like this. We’re coming for you. Please,
please
, hold on a little longer.”

He lowered his gaze as if ashamed. “I don’t think I can.”

“Don’t say that!
Never
say that! I’m coming. I know what to do. I know how to rescue you. You have to stay alive. No matter what! Ren, promise me!”

Ren sighed painfully. “He’s too close, Kells. Every second Lokesh has me you’re at risk. You are his obsession. Every waking moment, he tries to extract information about you from my mind. He won’t stop. He won’t give up. He’s . . . he’s going to break me. Soon. If it was just the physical torture, I think I could endure it, but he’s using dark magic. He’s tricking me. Causing hallucinations. And I’m just so . . .
tired
.”

My voice shook, “Then
tell
him. Tell him what he wants to know, and maybe he’ll leave you alone.”

“I will
never
tell him,
prema
.”

I sobbed, “
Ren
. I can’t lose you.”

“I’m always with you. My thoughts are of you.” He captured a lock of my hair and brought it to his lips. He inhaled deeply. “
All the time
.”

“Don’t give up! Not when we’re so close!”

His eyes shifted. “There is an option I could consider.”

“What is it? What option?”

“Durga,” he paused, “has offered her protection, but she asks a heavy price. It’s not worth it.”

“Anything is worth your life! Take it! Don’t think twice about it. You can trust Durga. Do it! Whatever the price is, it doesn’t matter as long as you survive.”

“But,
Kelsey
.”

“Shh.” I pressed a fingertip lightly against his swollen lips. “Do what you have to in order to survive. Okay?”

He let out a ragged breath and looked at me with bright, desperate eyes. “You must go. He might return at any time.”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“And I don’t want you to leave. But you need to.”

Resigned, I turned to leave.

“Wait, Kelsey. Before you go . . . will you kiss me?”

I put my hand through the bars and lightly touched his face. “I don’t want to cause you more pain.”

“It doesn’t matter.
Please
. Kiss me before you go.”

He knelt in front of me, gasping as he put weight on his knee, and then gently put shaking hands through the bars and drew me closer. His hands slid up to cup my cheeks, and our lips met through the bars of his cage. His kiss was warm and soft and too brief. I tasted the salt of my tears. When he drew back, he gave me a sweet, crooked smile through cracked lips. He winced as he withdrew his hands. It was then that I noticed that several of his fingers were broken.

I began crying anew. Ren wiped a tear from my cheek with his thumb and quoted a poem by Richard Lovelace.

When Love with unconfined wings

Hovers within my gates,

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the grates;

When I lie tangled in her hair

And fetter’d to her eye,

The birds that wanton in the air

Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage;

If I have freedom in my love

And in my soul am free,

Angels alone, that soar above,

Enjoy such liberty.

He pressed his forehead to the bars. “The only thing I couldn’t bear is if he hurt
you
. I won’t allow it. I
won’t
let him find you, Kelsey. No matter what.”

“What do you mean?”

He smiled. “Nothing, my sweet. Don’t worry.” He moved back to rest his broken body against the wall of the cage. “It’s time to go,
iadala
.”

I got up to leave but paused at the door when he called out, “Kelsey?”

I turned.

“No matter what happens,
please
remember that I love you,
hridaya patni
. Promise me that you’ll remember.”

“I’ll remember. I promise.
Mujhe tumse pyarhai
, Ren.”

“Go now.”

He smiled weakly, and then his eyes changed. The blue leeched out, and they became gray, flat, and lifeless. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but it almost looked as if Ren had died. I took a hesitant step back.

“Ren?”

His soft voice replied, “Please go, Kelsey. Everything will be alright.”

“Ren?”

“
Good-bye, my love
.”

“Ren!”

Something was happening, and it wasn’t alright. I felt something snap. I gasped for air. Something was very wrong. The connection I felt between us was almost tangible, like a metal tether. The closer we’d become, the stronger the connection was. It rooted me, connected me to him like a telephone line, but something had severed the cable.

I felt the break, and sharp, jagged ends ripped and tore violently through my heart like hot knives through warm butter. I screamed and thrashed. For the first time since I’d laid eyes on my white tiger, I was alone.

Kishan shook me out of the fog of my dream.

“Kelsey!
Kelsey!
Wake up!”

I opened my eyes and began crying fresh tears that spilled onto my cheeks and followed the old trails left behind from my dream. I wrapped my arms around Kishan’s neck and sobbed. He pulled me onto his lap, pressed me close, and stroked my back, while I wept inconsolably for his brother.

I must have slept at some point because I woke tangled in my sleeping bag with Kishan’s arms around me. My fist was pressed into my cheek, and my eyes were swollen shut and crusty.

Kishan whispered, “Kelsey?”

I mumbled, “I’m awake.”

“Are you okay?”

My hand lifted involuntarily to the hollow, raw pit I felt in my chest, and a tear leaked out from the corner of my eye. I buried my head in the pillow and took deep breaths to calm myself.

“
No
,” I said dully. “He’s . . .
gone
. Something’s happened. I think . . . I think Ren may be
dead
.”

“What happened? Why do you think that?”

I explained my dream and tried to describe my broken connection to Ren.

“Kelsey, it’s possible that this is all just a dream, a very disturbing one, but just a dream. It’s not uncommon to have violent dreams if you have recently experienced something traumatic, like the fight we had with the birds.”

“
Maybe
. But I didn’t dream about the birds.”

“Even so, we can’t be sure. Remember that Durga said she would protect him.”

“I remember. But it was so
real
.”

“There’s no way to know for sure.”

“Maybe there is.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I think we should visit the Silvanae again. Maybe we can sleep in the Grove of Dreams, and I can see the future. Maybe I’ll see if we can save him or not.”

“Do you think it will work?”

“The Silvanae said if they had a desperate problem to work out, they went there for answers. Please, Kishan. Let’s try.”

Kishan wiped a tear off my cheek with his thumb. “Okay, Kells. Let’s find Faunus.”

“Kishan, one more thing. What does
hridaya patni
mean?”

“Where did you hear that?” he asked softly.

“In my dream. Ren said it to me before we parted.”

Kishan got up and walked outside the tent. I followed and found him staring into the distance. His arm was propped up against a tree limb. Without turning around, he said, “It’s a pet name our father used for our mother. It means . . . ‘wife of my heart.’”

It took a long day of hiking to reach the Silvanae village. They were overjoyed to see us and wanted to have a party. I didn’t feel like celebrating. When I asked if we could sleep in the Grove of Dreams again, Faunus assured me that everything they had was at our disposal. The tree nymphs brought me a small dinner and left me alone in one of their cottages until nightfall. Kishan understood that I wanted to be alone and he ate with the Silvanae.

When evening came, Kishan returned with a visitor. “I want you to meet someone, Kells.” He held the hand of a small silver-haired toddler.

“Who’s this?”

“Can you tell the pretty lady your name?”

“Rock,” the boy replied.

“Your name is Rock?” I asked.

The sweet baby face grinned at me.

Kishan said, “Actually, his name is Tarak.”

“Tarak?” I gasped. “That’s impossible! He looks like he’s almost two!”

Kishan shrugged. “Apparently, the Silvanae mature quickly.”

“Amazing! Tarak, come here and let me take a look at you.”

I held out my arms, and Kishan encouraged him forward. Tarak took a few clumsy steps toward me before falling into my lap.

“You’re such a big boy now! And so handsome too. Would you like to play? Watch this.”

I took the Scarf from around my neck, and we watched the kaleidoscope of colors shift and change. When the baby touched it, a tiny handprint of hot pink appeared on the fabric before disappearing in a swirl of yellow.

“Stuffed animals, please.”

The fabric shifted, divided, and turned into stuffed animals of every kind. Kishan sat beside me, and we played with Tarak and the stuffed animal parade. The sting in my heart lessened as I laughed with the young Silvanae child.

When Kishan picked up the stuffed tiger and taught Tarak the proper way to growl, he looked up at me. Our eyes met, and he winked. I grabbed his hand, squeezed it, and mouthed, “Thank you.”

Kishan kissed my fingers, smiled, and said, “Aunt Kelsey needs to get some sleep. It’s time to take you back to your family, Little Man.”

He scooped up Tarak, placed him on his shoulders, and said quietly, “I’ll be right back.”

I gathered the stuffed animals and told the Scarf we didn’t need them anymore. Threads began spinning in the air and wove themselves back to form. Just as it finished, Kishan returned.

He crouched down, cupped my chin, and tilted my face up for his perusal. “Kelsey, you’re exhausted. The Silvanae have prepared a bath for you. Go soak for a while before you sleep. I’ll meet you in the Grove, okay?”

I nodded and let the same three Silvanae women lead me back to the bathing area. They were quiet this time, leaving me to my thoughts as they gently soaped my hair and rubbed scented lotion into my skin. They dressed me in a spun-silk robe before an orange-winged fairy guided me to the Grove of Dreams. Kishan was already there and had taken the liberty of creating a hammock with the Divine Scarf.

I mocked gently, “Not interested in sharing the honeymoon suite again, I see.”