“I’m sure you were,” I replied.
The man winked at Anamika and then said, “I have heard rumors of the emperor’s esteemed fiancée and her fondness for a certain man. Perhaps this is the one you refer to.”
“And where can we find him?” Anamika asked.
“I buy silks from his family often. I could arrange a meeting between you if the price is right.”
Gritting my teeth, I said, “How much?”
“Oh, not much, not much. A trifle really.”
“What do you desire?” Anamika said.
The man licked his lips greedily. I knew that look. He desired to rob us and it wasn’t only our money he had in mind. I could easily imagine what he saw when he looked at Ana. The vendor only looked on the surface. He saw an uncommonly beautiful woman, unattached, and with only one man to guard her. My hackles rose with the desire to spring, to protect her, but at the same time, I knew she, of all women in the world, had the ability to protect herself.
As if sensing my distress, Ana put a hand on my arm. “This is what we offer.” She held out a brilliant ruby. I wasn’t sure where she’d gotten it, but she always carried various types of gems and coins in her bag for just such a purpose. “Be quick with your answer,” she warned the man. “For this is a generous sum and there is another seller of silk down the way. Perhaps he will be more helpful.”
The man lowered his brows, snatched the ruby from Anamika, and snapped his fingers. A young boy scrambled to his feet from beneath the table. The dog he’d been petting nudged the boy’s leg, wanting his attention back. “Xing-Xing,” the vendor barked. “Take these visitors to the silk maker’s home. And you’d better return within the hour. Otherwise you’ll feel the back of my hand. Understand?”
The boy nodded vigorously and ducked under the bolts of fabric, seemingly appearing out of nowhere between us. “Come,” he said and held out his hand to Anamika. She smiled at him and took it as he quickly wove his way between people, dragging her along, heedless of those who yelled at him for getting in their way.
It was all I could do to follow their bobbing heads through the thick throng. The boy didn’t slow until we entered a new district, strangely devoid of people. His eyes darted from side to side and he licked his lips nervously. “Are you worried?” Anamika asked him.
“This area is famous for thieves and robbers.” He glanced back at me. “I don’t think your man could handle more than a couple.
I frowned until Ana said, “I assure you that Sohan could handle many dozens of thieves even without my help.”
The corner of my mouth lifted and the savvy boy turned to study me. “I think you exaggerate,” he told her after his perusal. “He doesn’t look that formidable.”
We soon got to prove exactly how formidable we were. Just as the boy suspected, we were very quickly surrounded by a half dozen thieves. They were wiry and young. Some of them were not much older than the boy guiding us. I held up my hands. “We do not wish to harm you,” I said in a flat, calm tone. “Go in peace and we will forget your disrespect to the lady.”
To his credit, the dirty boy guide pulled a short knife from his belt and stood before Anamika, guarding her, a fierce expression on his face.
She snaked an arm around his chest which served to make him stand up as tall as he could, puffing out his chest. I knew she did it to protect him but he likely believed she was cowering behind him. I understood the feeling. Anamika inspired bravery like no other.
Holding up my hands to show I had no weapons, I turned in a circle to study my opponents. By my count there were seven assailants. Four of them carried knives. One had a short sword and the others were large in stature with no weapons visible except their fists. “Very well,” I said, cracking my neck. “Come on then.”
I heard the shush of steel as the sword was drawn from the sheath. The boys circled us, their eyes hard. They stuck to the dark shadows of the alleyway and moved in such a way that I easily spotted their plan. The thieves paid no heed to the boy or Anamika. They probably figured the least of them was a match for her. Instead, they focused on me.
At once they rushed, the boy with the sword coming at me first to distract me while the smaller, younger boys would try to stab me in the leg or the back. I sensed more than saw the young man coming at me from the side as the one with the sword came head on. Playing along, I kept my hands and eyes raised to the first boy and waited until just the right moment, then my hand came down on the arm of the boy with the knife. With one move, his weapon fell and I grabbed him, tossing him into the path of the other attacking from behind.
They fell in a tumble. The boy with the sword slashed repeatedly but he was untrained. I shifted my body one way and another, taking out the other boys one at a time, while letting him continue to come at me. When they were all down except him, each nursing various bruises and cracked jaws, I turned my attention to his moves.
“That’s better,” I said. After another thrust, I coached, “You’re leading with the wrong foot.”
“Are you really teaching them to fight better?” Ana asked. “They are thieves.”
“How right you are, my lady. It’s time to end this.” Spinning in a circle, I caught the arm of my opponent between my torso and my own arm just as he thrust the sword. As I twisted his wrist, the sword dropped into my hand. I turned and held it beneath his chin. Then I glanced up at the young man hidden above us. He’d been preparing to leap on top of me. “If you’re smart, you’ll stay where you are,” I said.
The young thief froze in place. Ana looked up and smiled at him. “As the leader of this company, you are responsible for their actions. Do you surrender to us?”
The young man threw down a knife. It was a beautiful dagger. One an emperor might wear. I picked it up and ran my thumb down along the edge. “We’ll keep your token as payment for the injustice done to us this day,” I said. “Remember to pick your marks more wisely in the future. Looks can be deceiving. Now run off and lick your wounds.”
We left the alley behind and kept on. “You shouldn’t have let them go so easily,” Anamika said.
“They were just misguided boys,” I answered her.
“Perhaps. But misguided boys turn into hateful, cruel men.”
“Not all of them.”
“All it takes is one,” she said softly. “The sword of brutality is honed on the whetstone of hardship—turn the hilt one way and you see suffering, both on the part of the wielder as well as that of his victims. On the other side, you’ll find contempt for self and others.”
“But you forget that hardship also makes heroes. Some rise above and become better because of it.”
Anamika turned away from me to look straight ahead. “Most heroes are simply villains who haven’t yet revealed their true nature.”
“I don’t believe that, Ana. And frankly, I’m surprised you do.”
“There is much you don’t know about me, Kishan.”
I nudged her with my arm. “What happened to Sohan? Or do you think me a villain now too?”
She looked up at me. “I do not think you are a villain. Nor do I think you are a hero.”
“Then what am I?” I asked.
“You are just…my tiger,” she answered.
I wasn’t sure what to make of her answer or if it was a good thing or a bad thing for her to think of me in such a way. Anamika didn’t necessarily enjoy playing the part of a goddess though she loved being of help to people. She was formidable in battle, but she struck me as more of a mother bear defending her young than as a vengeful goddess.
It would certainly be easier to make my life decisions based on the instincts of a tiger, but I was more than that. Kelsey would have had no trouble assuring me of my heroic status, but in a way, it was nice that Ana didn’t assign me that role. It was almost as if she didn’t expect anything from me. She let me be what I wanted to be in that moment, whether it was a man, a tiger, a hero, a companion…even a villain.
Not that I was anywhere close to
Lokesh, but wasn’t it villainous of me to consider taking away Kelsey’s happy ending? The definition of a bad guy was that he wanted to get the things he desired no matter the cost to others. It would be so easy for me to turn back time and destroy the love that existed between Ren and Kelsey. I had the power to pave a path directly to her heart. But didn’t love require sacrificing?
My thoughts were interrupted when our young guide stopped and pointed to a gated home. “This is the factory and the household of the silk maker,” he announced.
“Very good,” I said. “Ana will give you a coin for your trouble.”
She crouched down and touched her fingertip to the nose of the boy. “Perhaps I can offer you something more than a coin,” she said.
“What’s that?” the boy asked hesitantly, his voice croaking in a girlish way, a sign that he was embarking on the transformation from boy to man. My thoughts drifted back to the time when I was in his position—a twelve-year-old youngster, looking with hope at Ana.
“How would you like to come work for me?” she asked.
I put my hand on her arm. “Are you sure?” I murmured.
“I have looked into the heart of this young one. He is brave and true. And the silk seller is not your father, is he?” she said.
The boy shook his head. Grimly, he said, “He is my master. I do not think he will sell me at any cost.”
“Then we won’t buy you,” Ana said. “We’ll steal you like those thieves.”
The boy’s eyes widened gravely. “No. You cannot do such a thing. He will find me and punish me!”
“He cannot find you where I would send you.” She placed her palm on his cheek and crooned, letting a little of her power light her skin. “Can you find it within to trust me?” she asked.
He nodded, a lovesick expression on his face.
“Good. Hold on to my hand and I will use my power to whisk you away to my home. You will find a servant there; his name is Bhavin. Tell him that you are to be his apprentice and you will serve the goddess personally. I promise I will come and see to your settling in very soon.”
“Yes, lady.”
Xing-Xing bowed over Anamika’s hand, and she clutched the amulet with her other one, whispering the words that would send the boy back to our mountaintop palace.
After he disappeared, I folded my arms across my chest. “Are you going to make a habit of collecting young men to fall at your feet?” I drawled.
“I did not choose to keep him for vanity’s sake. His situation necessitated my intervention.”
Sighing, I said, “You’re a light touch, Ana.”
“What does this mean?”
“It means you are easily persuaded.”
“On the contrary. It is difficult to persuade me.”
I took one step closer, rising to the challenge in her eyes. She froze stiffly but didn’t move as I gave a guttural growl and lowered my head to her neck. Closing my eyes, I inhaled her intoxicating scent, my chest rumbling as I grazed the line of her jaw lightly with my stubbled cheek. It only took a few seconds before I felt her hands on my chest, pushing me away.
“It appears you are right,” I said, moving back readily. “You are very difficult to persuade, that is, if a man is making the attempt. I think I would have had an easier time befriending you as a boy.”
“Friends do not”—she gestured toward her throat—“touch one another in such a manner.”
She pressed her fingers to her neck as if trying to brush off my feathery touch.
“Why are you so frightened of me?” I asked. Even though she was closed off to me, I could sense her roiling emotions.
“I am not frightened. I simply do not wish to indulge your habits of…of caressing women.”
“Despite what you think, I do not go around caressing women.”
Sighing, Ana said, “Can we not discuss this later? I would like to complete this task before I am summoned again.”
After a moment, I nodded and she picked up a dangling mallet and hit the gong by the gate. It gave off a silvery sort of mellifluous sound. An old man appeared almost instantly. I wondered how much he’d overheard.
“What is it you want?” he asked.
“We have come on a matter of some urgency,” Anamika said, in what I believed was too animated a voice. She was still nervous. Without invasively reading her or her telling me, there was no way to know why. Ana continued, “We believe your master’s life is in danger.”
Chapter 13
Silk Liberated
“My master?” the man asked, his voice low-pitched. “To what danger are you referring?”
“We have reason to believe that the emperor seeks his life.”
“Why would the emperor bother with a poor silk maker? The master can barely even see, let alone cause an uprising big enough to disturb the emperor. I believe you are mistaken.” Feebly, the man lifted his arms to shoo us out the gate. When I stood my ground, locking my arms and planting my feet, his eyes skimmed over me and his voice rose in a falsetto squeak. “Please leave,” he begged. “We have nothing of value.”
Ana put her hand on his arm and her touch soothed the man. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a natural gift Ana possessed or if it was a part of her calling, but she’d used the same trick on me and it usually worked. That is, unless it was her I was mad at. With a honeyed voice, she asked, “We humbly ask to meet with your master. It is in regards to the emperor, your master, and…and the woman he loves.”
When she said that, the man gasped and stepped back. His eyes shifted to the shadows. “You’d better come in. Hurry.”
He led us across a cobblestone path that cut through a grove of mulberry trees and paused outside the open door of a large warehouse. A strange fizzing sound emanated from the building. It reminded me of the first time Kelsey introduced me to soda, but this sound was like a thousand sodas being poured at once. It took me a few moments to realize the noise was coming from insects—silkworms.
I watched a woman scatter a pile of leaves over a large woven tray and then slide it back into place. Then she pulled out another and repeated the process. Several women inside the building were hunched over tables and cutting leaves from long branches. “Are you nearly done for the night?” our guide asked them.
One of the women came up to us carrying a large basket of what looked like tiny eggs. “Nearly,” she said.
I’d never seen silk produced before and the process fascinated me. I spotted women carefully tending to large, round woven baskets that sat in frames row upon row. Across the way, a good distance from the worms, a woman stirred a bubbling vat and yanked out cocoons with her bare hands. As I watched, other workers sifted through the cooling cocoons, pulling out the cooked worms and separating the thread from the insect.
One woman popped a handful of worms in her mouth. I could hear the crunch and realized the smell in the air was the boiled worms and not dinner. Pairs of workers unwound the cocoons while their partners rewound the threads on large spools. There were vats for dying, and colorful thread hung on large hooks drying in the rafters.
Our guide waved his hand. “Good,” he said. “Carry on. The dinner bell will sound soon.”
“Wonder what’s on the menu,” I said quietly to Ana. She gifted me with one of her rare smiles and I felt like I’d won a prize.
The woman with the basket inclined her head respectfully to all three of us, and we responded in like manner and moved on. Turning the corner, we came upon a large building that looked like barracks but I saw workers shuffling inside. We passed that one and ended at a building that was smaller than the others, but the workmanship of it was much finer.
We were instructed to wait at the door while he announced us. Once we were allowed in, we were shown seats at a long table. I folded my legs under me and sat, Ana took the place at my side, and our guide brought in his master. The man was crippled with age. His back was so curved it must have caused him terrible pain, but he made no complaint as he sat down acro
ss from us.
Refreshments were brought in and we ate quietly, Ana only remarking on the pleasant evening and me on the brightness of the moon. I regretted that last observation when the master of the home reached for his cup with a trembling hand. When he brought it to his lips, I saw his eyes. They were opaque and milky. I knew from attending long, diplomatic meetings that we would be expected to wait until the meal was finished before conducting business.
I was used to the slow, traditional pace of the past and I enjoyed it most of the time. But there was also something to be said for the rush of conducting business that happened in Kelsey’s time. As much as I felt out of place in the future, I found I did like how quickly things moved. Especially the things that I found tedious. My foot twitched impatiently while we waited for the man to finish his dinner. Ana put her hand on my knee under the table to still my juddering, and I slid my hand on top of hers, twining our fingers together.
She frowned but didn’t pull away. It felt like another victory. Though what, exactly, I was winning, I didn’t really know.
Finally, the meal was done and cleared away. The servant poured some tea for the master of the house and whispered in his ear that we needed to speak to him regarding the emperor. That we’d claimed the master of the house was in terrible danger due to his love for a woman. A tear trickled down the man’s cheek. He appeared to be either unaware of it or uncaring that we saw it.
“So you do know of what we speak,” I said.
“I do,” the man answered. “Can you help him?” he asked. “Help my son?”
“Your son?” I began.
“Your son is the one who risks his life,” Ana said as if already knowing the answer. “He is the one courting the emperor’s woman.”
The silk maker dashed a hand over his cheek and tried to straighten his frame. “I am an old man,” he answered. “My wife died long ago and we only have one son. He’s a good boy. Strong of body and tender of spirit, but a year ago I noticed a change in him. He would not tell me, but even I could hear the lightness in his step, the happiness in his voice. Once I felt like that. Long ago. I knew it for what it was.”
Tiger's Dream (Tiger's Curse Book 5) Page 20