Tiger's Quest

by Colleen Houck

  Not having time to question or figure out what had happened, I turned to face the next attacker and the next. I was overcome with rage; a furious wrath bubbled through me. My mind screamed that no one would hurt those that I loved. Euphoric in my power, I took them down one after another.

  A pinprick struck my arm and another one hit my shoulder. They felt like bee stings, but, instead of burning, numbness spread. The fire in my hand sputtered and went out, and I stumbled to the ground in front of Ren. He shoved an attacker back, still fighting, though he had been shot with darts several times. My vision was getting dark, and my eyes were closing.

  Ren picked me up, and I heard him yell, “Kishan! Take her!”

  “No,” I mumbled incoherently.

  The whisper of his lips brushed against my cheek, and then I felt iron arms lock around my body.

  Ren shouted, “Go! Now!”

  I was being carried swiftly through the trees, but Ren wasn’t following. He was still fighting, as the attackers closed in on him. He switched to a tiger again. I heard him roar with outrage and pain, and I knew in the soft fuzziness of my mind that it wasn’t the physical hurt that caused him to cry out. It couldn’t have been, because I felt it too. The horrible, ripping pain was because I had been taken from him. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I reached out a hand and grasped feebly at the air.

  I pleaded hazily, “Ren! No!” before falling into darkness.

  11

  Return to India

  The deep thrum of an engine stirred me. My head throbbed, and there was a funny taste in my mouth. Something was very wrong; my mind was still fuzzy. I wanted to wake up, but I knew that on the other side of consciousness, a new kind of horror awaited me, so I allowed myself to sink back a little deeper into the murky blackness, and hovered there, like a coward. I needed something to hold onto, a crutch that I could lean on to give me enough strength to face what lay ahead.

  I was lying on a bed. I felt the soft sheets and stretched out my hand hesitantly. A furry head butted against my fingers. Ren. He was here. He was the motivation I needed to rise above the darkness and step into the light.

  I cracked open my eyes. “Ren? Where am I?” Every part of my body hurt.

  A pretty face looked down at me. “Kelsey? How are you feeling?”

  “Nilima? Oh, we’re on the plane.”

  She pressed a cold wet cloth to my forehead, and I mumbled, “We got away. I’m so glad.”

  I stroked the tiger’s head. Nilima looked at the tiger next to me briefly and then nodded. “Let me get you some water, Kelsey.”

  She left, and I closed my eyes again, pressing my hand against my throbbing forehead.

  I whispered, “I was so afraid you weren’t going to make it. I guess it doesn’t matter now. We were very lucky. Let’s not split up ever again. I’d rather be captured with you than be separated.”

  I slid my fingers into his fur. Nilima returned with some water. She helped me sit up, and I took a long drink then mashed the wet towel over my eyes and my face.

  “Here . . . I brought you some aspirin,” she said.

  I swallowed the tablets gratefully and tried to open my eyes again. I looked into Nilima’s concerned face and smiled. “Thanks. I feel better already. At least we all made it. That’s the important thing. Right?”

  I looked over at the tiger. No. No! I started gasping for air. My lungs locked. “Kishan?” I pleaded in a raspy voice, “Where is he? Tell me we didn’t leave him behind! Ren?” I yelled. “Ren? Are you here? Ren? Ren?”

  The black tiger just watched me with sad, golden eyes. I grabbed at Nilima’s hand.

  “Nilima, tell me! Is he here?”

  She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. My vision became blurry, and I realized that I was crying too.

  I desperately clutched her hand. “No! We have to go back! Tell them to turn the plane around. We can’t just leave him there! We can’t!”

  Nilima didn’t react. I turned to the tiger.

  “Kishan! This isn’t right! He wouldn’t leave you. They’ll torture him. They’ll kill him! We have to do something! We can’t let this happen!”

  Kishan changed to a man and sat on the side of my bed. He nodded to Nilima, and she left us alone.

  He picked up my hand and spoke quietly, “Kelsey, there was no choice. If he hadn’t stayed behind, we wouldn’t have made it.”

  I shook my head in denial. “No! We could have waited for him.”

  “No, we couldn’t. They shot me with tranquilizers too. I only got hit once, and I barely made it to the plane despite my ability to heal. He’d been hit at least six times. I was amazed that he could still stand. He fought bravely and well and bought us time to get away.”

  I grabbed his hand as tears dripped off my chin. “Is he . . . ?” I sobbed, “Did they kill him?”

  “I don’t think so. None of them had weapons other than Taser sticks and tranquilizer darts. It appeared their instructions were to take us alive.”

  “We can’t let them do this, Kishan. We have to try to help him.”

  “We will. Mr. Kadam is already working on locating him. It won’t be easy, though. He’s been searching for Lokesh for centuries, and the man has kept hidden well. There is one thing in our favor. Ren doesn’t have the amulet, so Lokesh may be willing to offer a trade: the amulet for Ren.”

  “Fine. We’ll give him the amulet if we can get Ren back.”

  “We’ll worry about that when the time comes, Kelsey. For now, you should rest. We’ll be in India in a few hours.”

  “I was asleep that long?”

  “You were hit twice and were knocked out for about fifteen hours.”

  “Did they follow you to the plane?”

  “They tried. Luckily, the plane was ready to take off. Jason probably saved our lives.”

  I thought about Ren being engulfed by enemies while we ran away, and I choked on a sob. Kishan leaned over, wrapped me in a hug, and patted my back.

  “I’m sorry, Kelsey. I wish it had been me, not Ren. I wish I’d had the strength to carry both of you out of there.”

  My tears dripped on his shirt. “It’s not your fault. If you hadn’t been there, we both would have been captured.”

  I sat up, sniffed, and wiped my eyes on my sleeve.

  He ducked his head to look in my watery eyes. “I promise you, Kelsey, that I will do everything in my power to save him. He’s still alive. I can feel it. We’ll find a way, and we will defeat Lokesh.”

  I wished I felt as sure as Kishan that we could save Ren. Nodding, I squeezed his hand and whispered that I’d be all right. He asked if I’d like to eat something, and even though I felt knots twisting my stomach, I said yes. He looked relieved as he rose to look for Nilima.

  I wondered if he was right. Could Ren still be alive? Since the day I first saw Ren at the circus, there was a strange connection between us. Tentative and wispy at first, it grew stronger. When I went back to Oregon, the link stretched and pulled like a rubber band.

  It tugged me and tried to draw me back to him. And, in the last few months as we became closer, the connection solidified and tightened, forming a steel connection. We were part of each other. I felt his absence, but the bond was still there. It was still strong. He was alive. I knew it. My heart was still tied to his. It gave me hope. I resolved that I would find him, at any cost.

  Nilima invited me to eat something. She set out a dinner with a glass of lemon water that I sipped slowly while I thought about what I could do to help Ren. Kishan had changed back to his tiger form before resting at my feet. His golden eyes watched me sadly, and I leaned down to pet his head, reassuring him that I would be okay.

  By the time we landed, I still didn’t have a clue as to how I would find Ren, but I knew that I would never let myself be so unprepared again. The next time something like this happened, I would fight. Now that I knew I had this . . . this lightning bolt power inside me, I would practice it. I would also ask Kishan to continue to trai
n me in martial arts and maybe even in weapons. Perhaps Mr. Kadam would teach me too whenever Kishan was a tiger. Regardless, I would never let someone I loved be taken again. Not while I was still alive.

  Mr. Kadam met us at the private airport. He wrapped me in a hug. “Miss Kelsey, I missed you.”

  “I missed you too.” My eyes stung with unshed tears, but I refused to let them spill over.

  “Come. Let’s get you home. There is much we need to discuss.”

  When we got home, Kishan took my bag upstairs and left me alone with Mr. Kadam in the peacock room.

  Books were piled high on his beautiful mahogany desk; the normally organized and clean top was covered with papers. I picked up a few papers to examine the notes written in his elegant script. “Have you figured out the second prophecy?”

  “I’m close. Actually, it’s thanks to you that I’m as close as I am. The landmark that puzzled me turned out to be the Himalayas. All this time, I’d been searching for a certain mountain, not realizing that it was a mountain range I needed to find. Thanks to your report on the Himalayas and their weather patterns, I was able to open my mind to that possibility, and it led to new discoveries for me.”

  “Glad to be of help.” I set the papers down and asked quietly, “What are we going to do? How are we going to find Ren?”

  “We’ll find him, Miss Kelsey. Don’t worry. There’s even a chance he may be able to escape on his own and call us.”

  A thought occurred to me. “Will he be able to change into a man if he’s captured?”

  “I don’t know. He wasn’t able to before, but now you’ve broken part of the curse. That may make a difference.”

  I squared my shoulders. “Mr. Kadam, I want you to train me. I want you to work with me on weapons and martial arts. You taught both of the boys, and I want you to coach me too.”

  He looked at me thoughtfully for a minute. “Alright, Miss Kelsey. It will take discipline and many, many hours of practice to become competent. Don’t expect to be able to do what Ren and Kishan can do. They have been trained all their lives, and the tiger within each of them makes them stronger.”

  “That’s okay. I’m prepared for that. I plan to ask Kishan to continue working with me. I can learn faster if I practice with both of you.”

  He nodded. “Perhaps it is for the best. Not only will you learn new skills, but sometimes it helps to keep your hands busy when they are tied. I still need to focus much of my attention on research, but I will make time to train with you every day. I can also give you routines to practice on your own as well as some things you can learn with Kishan.”

  “Thank you. I’d like to help you with your research too. I can take notes, and a new set of eyes can’t hurt.”

  “We can start today.”

  I nodded. He gestured to the leather furniture and we sat down.

  “Now, tell me about this new power you seem to have. Kishan explained it to me, but I want to hear what happened from your perspective.”

  “Well, I needed to protect Ren and was so angry I think I actually saw a red haze around me. He’d been hit with darts, and he was staggering, weakening. I knew that he wouldn’t last much longer. I stepped in front of him to face our attackers. I was desperate because there were so many men coming at us. A kind of fire burned in me.”

  “What did it feel like?”

  “It felt like . . . a whoosh of power in my center, like a pilot light in a water heater that suddenly bursts into flame. My stomach tightened as if to push the heat up to my chest. My heart burned, and the blood felt like it was boiling in my veins. I felt a bubbling sensation traveling down my arm. When it reached my hand, the symbols that Phet had painted in henna reappeared and glowed red. I could hear a snap, crackle, pop kind of noise and then this power rose and spilled out of me. A lightning bolt shot out of my hand. It picked one guy up in the air and slammed him into a tree.”

  “And this power worked several times?”

  “Yes. I was able to take down several men until I was shot with the tranquilizers. Then, the power sort of fizzled out.”

  “Did the lightning bolts kill them or just stun them?”

  “I hope it just stunned them. To be honest, we didn’t stick around long enough to find out. My first target, the man who hit the tree, was pretty hurt I imagine. I was really desperate.”

  “I’d be curious to see if you can reproduce the effect when you aren’t in danger. Perhaps we can practice. It would also be interesting to see if you can widen the band to encompass more than one person at a time and to see how long you can maintain the burst.”

  “I’d also like to practice the intensity. I’d prefer not to kill people,” I added.

  “Of course.”

  “Where do you think it came from?”

  “I have . . . a theory.”

  “Really? Tell me.”

  “One of the ancient stories of India says that when the gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, faced the demon king, Mahishasur, they could not defeat him. They combined their energies, which took the form of light, and the goddess Durga emerged from that light. She was born to fight him.”

  “So, Durga’s made of light, and you think that’s why I have this power in me?”

  “Yes. There are also several references that say she wears a necklace that flashes like lightning. Perhaps that stream of power resides in you.”

  “That’s . . . I don’t even know how to feel about that.”

  “I imagine it must feel disconcerting.”

  “You can say that again.”

  I paused for a moment and twisted my hands together.

  “Mr. Kadam, I . . . I’m worried about Ren. I don’t think I can do this without him.”

  He ventured, “The two of you have become closer then?”

  “Yes. He’s . . . I’ve . . . We . . . Well, I guess I could just sum it up by saying I love him.”

  He smiled. “You do know that he loves you, as well, don’t you? He didn’t think of anything but you for the months you were apart.”

  I couldn’t help but grin. “So he was miserable, huh?”

  Mr. Kadam smiled. “Desperately so. Kishan and I never found a moment’s peace until he left.”

  “Mr. Kadam, can I ask you a question?”

  “Of course.”

  “There was a girl, an Indian girl, who was interested in Ren and wanted her parents to match them up. Ren told me that dating outside of his culture is considered inappropriate.”

  “Ah. What he told you is accurate. Even in modern times, it’s a custom that’s still followed. Does this bother you?”

  “Kind of. I don’t want Ren’s people to ostracize him.”

  “Did he express concern about this?”

  “No. He didn’t seem to care. He said he’d made his choice.”

  Mr. Kadam stroked his short beard. “Miss Kelsey, Ren hardly needs anyone’s approval. If he chooses to be with you, no one will object.”

  “Maybe not to his face, but there might be . . . cultural ramifications that haven’t occurred to him yet.”

  “Ren is well aware of all the possible cultural ramifications. Remember, he was a prince who was highly trained in political protocol.”

  “But, what if being with me makes his life more difficult?”

  He chided softly, “Miss Kelsey, I can guarantee that being with you has been the only thing in his long life that gives him a modicum of peace. His life before you was fraught with difficulty, and I would venture to say that getting the approval of others has dropped very low on his priority list.”

  “He told me that his parents were from different cultures. Why were they allowed to marry and be together?”

  “Hmm, that’s an interesting story. To tell it properly, I’d have to tell you about Ren and Kishan’s grandfather.”

  “I’d love to learn more about his family.”

  He sat back in the leather recliner, and steepled his fingers under his chin. “Ren’s grandfather was named Tarak. H
e was a great warlord who wanted to live in peace in his later years. He’d grown tired of the infighting between kingdoms. Though his empire was the largest and his armies were the most renowned, he sent word to several other warlords governing over smaller territories, inviting them to a summit.

  “He offered each one a portion of his land if they would sign a nonaggression pact and cut back their armies. They agreed, as the contract would bring each of them great wealth and properties. The country rejoiced as the king brought his armies home and prepared a grand feast in celebration. That day was considered a holiday throughout the land.”

  “What happened?”

  “About a month later, one of the rulers who signed the pact roused the others, telling them that now was the time to strike and that between them, they could rule all of India. Their plan was to first take Tarak’s ancestral lands. Then, from there, they could conquer all of the other smaller kingdoms easily.

  “They broke their oath to Tarak and engaged in fierce battle, laying siege to his city. Many of the king’s soldiers had retired from active duty and had been given parcels of land in exchange for their years of service. With the armies at half strength, they couldn’t defeat the combined armies of the other warlords. Fortunately, Tarak was able to send runners out to enlist aid.”

  “Where did they go for help?”

  “China.”

  “China?”

  “Yes. Specifically they went to Tibet. The Indian/Chinese borders of that time were not as defined as they are today, and trade between the two countries was commonplace. Tarak especially had a good relationship with the Dalai Lama of the time.”

  “Wait a minute. He enlisted the aid of the Dalai Lama? I thought the Dalai Lama was a religious leader.”

  “Yes, the Dalai Lama was and is a religious leader, but religion and the military had close ties in Tibet, especially after gaining the attention of the Khan family. Centuries ago, Genghis Khan invaded but was satisfied by the tribute Tibet paid him, so for the most part, he left it alone. After Khan died, though, his grandson, Ögedei Khan, wanted those riches and returned to take over the country.”