by Matt Larkin
Anggraeni strolled through the garden, walking just on the edge of it, so that Sid might catch sight of her from the corner of his eye. Tanjung had to stifle a laugh. She crawled forward to watch the spectacle.
Sid spun to look, but the ghost had already stepped behind a banyan tree then vanished. Next, she appeared on the other side, once again vanishing as Sid turning to watch her.
“T-Tanjung?” He shook his head, then scurried away from the water garden, practically tripping over himself to escape back into the palace proper.
Tanjung pushed herself up. The alien presence settled back inside her, lending her the strength to stand, to make her way over to the house. Sid had no idea just who—or what—he had betrayed. But he was going to learn there was a price for it. “What room is he in?”
Anggraeni didn’t answer in words, but after a brief hesitance, a vision appeared in Tanjung’s mind, revealing Sid’s chambers. Run back to his room like a frightened child? What next? Would he call for a moon priest to protect him?
Tanjung frowned. Would that work? Could a priest invoke the name of Chandra and keep Anggraeni at bay? And since when had she become the fears that haunted the night? But Sid had brought this on himself. It would just be this one time … this one time she would use her power and have … It wasn’t revenge. It was justice.
She sent Anggraeni to stroll past Sid’s window—repeatedly, since he didn’t notice the first time. And then into the palace, appearing at every turn. For a phase or so she punished him, waiting for the moonrise. But it wasn’t enough. He ought to see the fate before him.
“Can you give him visions?”
Yes.
“Show him her world. Rangda’s world.”
The spirit’s snicker filled Tanjung’s head, echoing until it sounded almost like a cackle. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the sound, but it suffused her very being. Anggraeni was still inside her, her thoughts polluting Tanjung’s own.
Polluting?
“Just do it. Show him what awaits him beyond this realm.”
Tanjung crept by his window to watch, but he had locked the shutters closed. Instead, she slumped against the palace wall just beneath the window and lowered her head into her hands. She wanted to smile as the whimpering began within. She wanted to feel Anggraeni’s terrible mirth. Maybe Rangda expected that of her. But the pitiful moans that issued from Sid’s chamber only left her weary.
And she wasn’t surprised when the man burst out his front door and went running off toward Bukit. Probably seeking Ketu or some other moon priest. So predictable.
“Return to me.”
A heartbeat, and Anggraeni was inside her again, giving her the strength to quicken her pace. Walking still hurt. And that pain was a reminder of a keris blade, sunk deep in her gut by a man she had loved. A man who should have trusted her. Instead, he had pierced her to her very soul. This was his fault. He brought this on himself. He brought it on himself. She was just doing justice …
As if that were the domain of Rangda Demon Queen. No, Rangda was the mistress of black magic, of death, of damnation. And that was all Tanjung had to offer now. She had been pushed to this course.
And she needed to see it through. Before Sidapaksa could summon aid.
So she sent Anggraeni to slow her former lover. The ghost drifted in front of his path and by now, that was enough to set the man screaming, coming right back toward Tanjung. She didn’t even need to call Anggraeni back. The ghost reentered her in anticipation.
Sid dashed toward her, glancing over his shoulder every other step. It was too easy. Tanjung stepped up, drew her keris knife, and let her love run right into it. It sank between his ribs and pierced his lung. The look of surprise on his face was both horrifying and strangely fulfilling.
The man glanced at her knife embedded in his chest, then slumped to his knees.
Tanjung knelt with him, easing him down as he began choking on blood. “A far cleaner death than you gave me, lover.”
Delicious fear widened his eyes.
Tanjung placed a hand on his cheek. “I just want you to know two things, my love. First, I was innocent. I would never have betrayed you. You cast me aside when you should have protected me against that bastard Sulakrama. And second, when you reach Kahyangan, your soul will be drawn to Rangda’s frozen underworld where the Queen will feast on it for the next thousand years. When that penance has been served, then I will forgive you.”
She jerked her keris free as she rose, then turned away. She didn’t need to watch him die.
And no longer could she deny the command of her queen. She had far to travel.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A man could hardly travel to the Skyfall Isles without hearing stories of the mythic Astral Temple. Both Lunars and Solars revered the place, high atop cliffs on Puradvipa. They alternated years holding it in trust, as they had done since the end of the Third War some centuries before. Other than handing off the temple, Lunars avoided contact with Solars for the most part.
Malin had never seen the temple before. At night, it would have been impossible for a human to make it out from the beach below the cliff. But Malin’s eyes had become so adapted to darkness he could see it clearly.
“Are you certain?” he asked Rahu.
They both stood on the beach called Astral Shore, looking up at the cliff. The Solars had control of the temple this year.
Malin’s Jadian waited farther down the beach, waited for his word. A word that would start a war. He owed Rahu. The man had saved his life, given him purpose. Maybe allowed him to escape the prior course of his destiny.
Months of training had prepared them, had turned the Macan Gadungan from men and women following animal instincts to true warriors. Malin had passed onto them all the techniques Balituk had once taught him. They were his students, almost his children, in a way. The Buaya Jadian Padmawati had trained in stealth and subterfuge herself.
Rahu did not answer Malin’s question for a time. No way he could see the temple. But he stared at something off in the distance. “This place is sacred to the Lunars. Yes, to Solars, too,” he added before Malin could object. “But it was the Lunars who took us, who took you in. The spirit in you comes from the moon, from Chandra.”
Malin growled. “I know where my loyalties lie.”
“Good. We need the symbol the Astral Temple represents to rule the Lunars. And they need to be united. Every year more and more of the Skyfall Isles fall under control of the Solar Empire. While the Lunars hide on their own island, bickering among themselves with their petty internecine wars, the Solars expand.”
That was true enough. Malin had seen too much of such Lunar infighting. “I am not a murderer.”
Rahu sighed. “I am going to do this, Malin. Are you going to let me walk into danger alone?”
Protect.
“No.” He cracked his neck. Phrased like that, Rahu hardly left him a choice.
The man nodded without looking at Malin, as though he’d known exactly what reaction Malin would have. So Rahu manipulated him. Malin had to believe taking this place, this symbol, was different than slaughtering an entire House. He had to. This time, he would be in control. He would be doing what he had to, just to protect.
So fine a line.
Protect.
“One thing, Malin. There will likely be at least one Arun Guard there.” The Solars’ legendary elite. A fighting force rumored to be the most deadly warriors in the whole South Sea, perhaps the whole world. Malin’s muscles itched at the thought of such a fight. “Do not underestimate them. According to Ketu, these people are faster than any Moon Scion and able to instantly appear at any location.”
Sun warriors. How unpleasant. The thought soured the tiger within him. Malin, however, merely nodded. Then he motioned the other Jadian forward. “Lengser, take the werecrocodiles and slip in close, unnoticed. Eliminate as many of the sentries as you can by stealth, but do not reveal your nature. The Macan Gadungan will handle the open con
flict.”
The Buaya Jadian man nodded once, in affirmation. Always a little too still, too stiff. Damn crocodiles. He slipped off into the rainforest, taking the long trek up to the temple.
Malin gave them a brief head start, then motioned for his Macan Gadungan to follow. Rahu and his Moon Scions would scale the cliff itself and attack only once the weretigers had occupied the Solar forces.
Bintang trotted up beside him. “Can you feel it? The energy building within. The moon is calling us.”
It was calling. He could feel it. The tiger shifted within him. Time to let the beast run.
Malin tossed aside his baju and kicked away his sarong. The other Macan Gadungan did so as well. They had all seen each other naked so many times no one even hesitated anymore. And they shifted. Almost as one, they became tigers.
Legs ached to run. But he needed to save his stamina. Tigers were built for sprints, not long races. And they were solitary. Malin suspected the rainforest had never seen a parade of a dozen tigers following one another. Lorises chirped and chattered at their passage, sticking to the canopy above.
The tiger wanted to hunt the monkey-things, but Malin forced it still. He had a task this night. All those other nights hunting Bangdvipa had given him a bond with the spirit within. A measure more of control.
Bintang trotted up past him. Even if he hadn’t recognized her scent, he’d have known her from her stripes. As a man he’d never really noticed, but each tiger had unique patterns. Having the other males too close set him on edge, but he’d grown to identify the stripes of every female Macan Gadungan. He’d slept with most of them, too, though Bintang remained his favorite.
Focus.
At the edge of the rainforest they paused. The Astral Temple was surrounded by a white crenelated wall some twenty feet high. Even for Malin, that was probably too high to jump. A wooden gate barred the only entrance. Malin snarled, then took to climbing a nearby tree. It wasn’t ideal, but he’d chased more than one monkey into the canopy on Bangdvipa. The others followed, scaling their own trees, able to get level with the wall.
A twenty foot horizontal jump, that should be no problem. Malin waited until a sentry passed along the wall, then leapt onto the man, cutting off his astonished cry instantly.
The other tigers leapt onto the wall right after him. Some began stalking left, some right. All hunting down the few guards up here with bows. He had to trust the Buaya Jadian would have eliminated any other watchers that might spy the Moon Scions climbing the path.
Which meant it was time to announce his presence and deal with this Arun Guard. Assuming the man wasn’t one of those fools his people had already killed.
Malin roared and leapt down into the temple complex. It was, in fact, a series of many smaller temples arranged in concentric circles. At the center of all these stood eleven white pillars. Malin didn’t know what any of it meant.
Nor would he have cared, except the tiger was almost afraid of this place. Or reverent.
His people jumped down beside him and charged through the complex, pouncing on Solar guards and priests and servants wherever they found them. The only way to protect his Moon Scions was to eliminate threats before Rahu arrived. So Malin joined in the slaughter.
He was not a murderer. He was not an animal.
A tiger yelped behind one of the temples. Malin turned swiftly, kicked off a temple and changed directions to dash to the sound.
A man in a cerulean shirt stood over the corpse of a male Macan Gadungan—Nayagenggong, one of Ketu’s freed slaves—now reverted to human form. Another tiger leapt at the Solar. The man vanished, appearing above the tiger and thrust his sword down at it even as the tiger descended. The blade—a straight keris similar to a Maitian kampilan—pierced the tiger’s neck, killing it instantly. The Solar vanished again before Malin’s fallen brother even hit the ground.
The man appeared near Bintang, who roared and clawed at him. He was so fast Malin’s eyes could barely track him, even when he wasn’t vanishing and reappearing in new locations. This was the Arun Guard.
Another tiger charged in, roaring. The man vanished, repeating his maneuver and killing it midair. This Macan Gadungan, a young girl, crashed to the ground.
Protect!
Malin had to fight every instinct he had to keep from charging in the way the others had. This Guardsman could react to any danger he saw coming. It meant he had to be stalked, the way one stalked a wild boar. Malin circled around, drawing ever nearer. He flinched as the Guardsman drew a long cut along Bintang’s side. She kept her head enough not to leap anywhere, at least. Too hard to change directions in midair.
The tiger demanded he snarl as he pounced from behind on the Solar. Malin silenced it. Made not a sound until he impacted the Guardsman. His weight bore the man down. The Solar tried to shift beneath him, but Malin was much stronger. His paws pinned the Guardsman to the ground and he bit down on the man’s neck. A torrent of coppery blood gushed down Malin’s throat, enough to gag him, though he didn’t dare release this monstrous enemy. Not until it had stopped twitching. For all his power, the Guardsman died like any other man.
Malin bit harder, crushing the man’s spine, then tossed the body aside.
He shifted back to human form to examine Bintang. She bore numerous gashes, some deep. The tigress now lay down and shifted back herself, panting.
“Getting sweet on me?” she asked, though the effort obviously pained her. “Tigers don’t mate for life, you know.”
“You’re going to be all right.” He patted her bare shoulder, then helped her move so she could lean against one of the temples.
Only then did Malin look down at himself. Naked and covered in blood, drenched in it, like it painted his entire body crimson. Just as it had back at Palace Shravana. Nothing had changed.
Protect?
“Is that what you think?” he demanded of the spirit. “That we protected something here?”
“You protected me,” Bintang mumbled.
Malin shut his eyes. He had started a war. Was Rahu right about the Solars? Somehow, Malin doubted it really even mattered. The man lusted for power. And Malin delivered it.
Protect and Avenge.
Yes. The Solars had killed Malin’s people. The Jadian were his people now. He might have started this war, but now it was his duty, his purpose to see them all through it.
Maybe there was not so much difference between the Macan Gadungan and the Harimau Jadian. Maybe that was his true curse. He could couch it in whatever terms he might like, but he would always be a killer. A hunter.
And if that was what he must be, then he would at least be a master at it.
PART TWO
(1181 AP)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ten years since Tanjung had seen the Lunar capital. Ten years she had wandered the world, drawn by the visions of her mistress. Drawn across vernal Malaydvipa where scores of petty kingdoms struggled for dominance while still worshipping the ghosts of their ancestors. Beyond into the growing empire of Syama, and finally into El-Hind. And there it had taken her years to uncover the grimoire Rangda promised her and years more to realize it had never been meant for her.
That hurt, of course. To be forced to face the reality that she was merely one piece in the queen’s larger plan. But she had given herself over in soul and service and she had to trust in that plan, even if she couldn’t see its full scope. She was, at least in part, mortal, after all. How could she hope to comprehend the scale of machinations played out over the course of millennia?
And she returned alone, having long since released Anggraeni. Once her body had healed, she no longer needed the ghost’s strength. Still, she had bound the spirit to her. A witch never knew when she might need an ally. Given the war with the Solars, that time might come soon.
This was not the same Bukit she had left. Gone were the factionalized districts of the city, the petty squabbling over them. Now, the various Moon Scion Houses worked together, united under thei
r War King, Rahu. The man who, according to all stories she had heard, had promised them a return to the glory of ancient times. From what Tanjung could see, Rahu had instead ignited a losing war against a clearly superior enemy.
Every town and village she passed through told war stories—exaggerated perhaps—but they all agreed that the Solar navy dominated the seas, making every incursion against them a near-impossible endeavor. Worse still were those engagements where the Arun Guard appeared. The Jadian had been intended to aid Moon Scions in fighting the Solar elite, but it didn’t seem to have been enough.
Tanjung hefted her satchel higher on her shoulder and stared at the Hill Palace, not yet ready to make that final climb. She had no reason to be nervous, of course. No one could have known she’d killed Sidapaksa. The crime was so long gone now … and with the war, who would be thinking of a murder a decade ago? Besides, she was not the same scared young woman who had fled here. She was a high priestess of Rangda, given a divine mission. Her mistress would protect her.
Or was it something else? Was it facing Calon now, after abandoning her friend and pupil for so long? Would the woman welcome her back now? She blew out a long breath. Calon would have no choice. Rangda demanded Calon serve, and Tanjung would see to it that she did. Clinging to her old friendship was like clinging to anything else from childhood—futile. One had to grow up. Tanjung didn’t even miss this place anymore.
And her task would not grow any easier by standing here beneath the beating sun.
She trudged up the hill, toward the palace. She had not even reached the main door before another woman slipped from the shadows, all feline grace and confidence.
“Who are you?” the woman demanded.
Even if the woman’s movements hadn’t identified her as Macan Gadungan, Tanjung could feel the spirit within her. Just how many of these Jadian had Calon created? Tanjung cocked her head. She had seen this woman before, one of the first of the weretigers … Bintang. That was her name.