Page 37 of Tiger's Dream
“But so do you.”
“Yes.”
After a tense moment, he asked, “Will you do it?”
I knew what he was asking. “Cause the curse?”
He nodded.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, then…” Ren got up and dusted his hands on his white pants, smearing them with dirt. “I suppose you better find out.” He turned and walked to the door, staring out into the freshly washed clean sky. Ren inhaled deeply and said, “If it helps, I know whatever decision you make will be the right one.”
“How can you be so certain?”
He looked at me over his shoulder and offered me a brilliant white smile. “Because you are Sohan Kishan Rajaram.” Ren headed back to his cage and ran a hand down a bar. “There is no reason that you have to make the final decision tonight. It sounds like there are many more uncomfortable things in my future than just sitting in a cage.”
I stood up, took hold of his shoulder, and turned him around. “Are you saying you want me to sell you tomorrow? Arrange for your captivity from which you will find no respite for three hundred and fifty years? Wipe your memory so that no trace of our conversation lingers in your mind to give you comfort?”
Ren shook his head and grabbed hold of my arm in a familiar grip. “I am saying that I am yours in life, brother, and yours in death. I trust you to figure out the niggling details.”
The confidence he had in me was unflappable. The back of my eyes stung with unshed tears. That he was willing to give himself over like this, even knowing that his future entailed torture and beatings and more sacrifices than a man should be asked to make, made me respect him all the more.
I tugged on his shoulder and pulled him close, wrapping my arms around him. My body shook as I sobbed. When I left, Ren was in his tiger form, locked in a cage. I’d taken his memory of our conversation and his ability to shift into human form, leaving him only with the dream of a brown-haired girl who would love him someday.
With heavy steps, I climbed the stairs to our shared room and found Anamika asleep on the bed, but her body was soaked with sweat as she thrashed back and forth. Tears leaked down her cheeks and she kicked violently at the thin sheet.
“No,” she cried softly. “No, please!”
I took hold of her shoulders to shake her awake and she screamed.
Chapter 8
Crashing the Party
“Ana! Ana!” I shouted, trying to rouse her from her nightmare. “Wake up. It’s just a dream!”
She pushed at me hard, her fingernails scratching my arms. They healed quickly, but the sting lingered. Panting, she blinked her eyes open. Tears leaked slowly from the corners. Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips looked swollen and red like she’d bitten them in her sleep. Anamika trembled in my arms as I stroked her hair and shushed her.
The fact that she clung to me as if I was the only thing grounding her was a surprise. I wanted to link into her thoughts, to figure out what it was that troubled her. It seemed much worse than a simple bad dream. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I wanted her to trust me. And if I forced the issue in that way or asserted myself, I sensed there would be much more to contend with than just her temper. Ana was teetering on the edge, fragile, and if I made a wrong move, she’d burst open like a dropped melon.
“What is it?” I murmured as I tried to calm her.
She stiffened and drew away from my arms, shifting back on the bed. “It is nothing,” she said, wiping her tears away with the heels of her hands.
“You don’t have to tell me, Ana,” I said, “but I’m here to listen if you need me.”
Nodding, she drew up her knees to her chest and laced her fingers around them. “Thank you.”
My arms felt empty and I found I missed her softness. Strange to think of the goddess Durga, the warrior I’d fought with, as being soft. Her heart had beaten frantically when I’d held her, almost like a captured bird in a cage. That reminded me that I still had a passenger in my pocket.
“I almost forgot,” I said, and pulled open the square of fabric to peek at the little creature. It angled its head to peer up at me. “This little thing belongs to you. Kadam sent him.”
Repositioning her long legs so she could scoot closer, she pushed her heavy hair over her shoulder and watched as I pulled the little bird out. He sat in my cupped palm and then, when she extended a fingertip, he peeped and hopped onto it. Immediately, he chirped a little tune and flew to her shoulder, where he hid himself inside her mounds of hair.
Anamika laughed. It was a carefree, delightful sound, and I realized I’d never heard her laugh before. Smiling myself, I rubbed a hand over the stubble on my cheeks and said, “Kadam told me you raised him from an egg. Apparently, we haven’t found the egg yet. He also warned me that the bird isn’t long for this world.”
Her face fell as she took the bird from her shoulder and rubbed him behind the head. He closed his eyes happily as she stroked his feathers.
