Page 179 of Tiger's Dream
Now everything had changed. Now I believed Ana was the girl in my dream. More than that, in my heart, Iknewthat she was. And if I was being honest with myself, I did belong to her. Had belonged to her from the beginning. As a tiger. And as a man. Now I just needed to find out if she wanted to belong to me as well.
The mermaid kept talking. “Besides, I noticed the two of you were busy heating things up in the lake, so there wasn’t any real harm done.”
I wondered how she’d noticed that when she’d been frozen. Then I remembered her ability to shift into fog. Perhaps she wasn’t as trapped by the ice as she appeared to be.
The mermaid pouted. “Don’t be angry. It’s just our way. I’ll stay and help your friends just like I promised. Mermaid’s honor.” She flicked her tail, crossing the fins as if touching her heart.
Sighing, Ana said, “Very well. The Ocean of Milk has enough of our residual power to sustain you until they arrive and even for a time after should you choose to stay.”
“Oh, it has enough power. That’s for sure. Oh! I have an idea. Maybe I’ll invite over a few friends to keep me company while I wait.”
“No. You will not. In fact, to be certain that you do not deceive us again, I will freeze the Ocean of Milk.” Ana waved a hand.
The mermaid protested, “But what about me?”
Ana drained the fountain and refilled it with the milky waters of the lake. “There. That will carry you over. You will not allow anyone but the man touched by the goddess to enter the lake or to go after the necklace we are leaving behind. Do you understand?”
Kaeliora nodded impatiently.
“No one else can withstand the energy in the Ocean of Milk. Once they retrieve the key and fill the kamandal, tell them to head to the seventh temple through the tunnels that way.” Ana pointed to a dark tunnel leading away from the fountain.
“Yeah, yeah. Got it.”
“Now there is the matter of you seducing my…my companion,” Ana said.
I raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“I believe a fitting punishment will be for you to remain frozen until my friends arrive. By my estimation, that will happen within a week or so.” There was a flurry of splashing and angry shouts that quickly changed to weeping and pleas. Ana, ignoring all of it, turned to leave, but before she did, she gave a final warning. “And if you even think about kissing any of my friends, I’ll see to it that you remain frozen for one hundred years. Do we understand one another?”
The sulky mermaid shoved a handful of water over the lip of the fountain, splashing our feet. “Yes, Goddess,” she said.
“Good.”
Ana blew the girl a kiss and the fountain froze. With a quick snap of her fingers, she also blurred the mermaid’s memory of me so she wouldn’t recognize me when she saw me again.
“Feel better?” I asked Ana.
“I believe I do,” she said and gave me a conspiratorial smile as we headed down the tunnel.
When we came up to a dead end, Ana used her power to blast a hole in the rock. She held back the might of the ocean, turning the area ahead of us into a sheet of thick ice, then we walked forward, the ice moving and shifting around us until it created the long tunnel I remembered.
Soon I noticed we were being followed. The giant monsters that swam in the deep caught sight of us. I prepared for an attack. But Ana just cooed at the ugly creatures as they trailed along after us like lovesick puppies, nudging the ice and giving her mournful looks with their strange unblinking eyes. When we’d gone a sufficient distance, Ana lifted a hand, causing an underwater earthquake. Rocks rose and precious metals tore away from the seabed. Her giant pets sped away as she created the temple, complete with a door and a keyhole that would just fit the key she’d made earlier.
Stepping inside the temple, she trailed her hand over the walls, and carvings appeared, spreading out around us like waves. When we passed rooms, I saw gems and marble statues.
“Where did they come from?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I borrowed them from Jinsèlóng. His hoard was becoming too large.”
I laughed and told her of the incense, the pool, and the thick windows that looked out across the deep. With barely a thought or a whisper from her, everything I described appeared before my eyes.
Her skin gleamed in the dimness of the temple as she walked through each passageway. Ana asked me to help remove the clasp of her black pearl necklace, and after she whispered the words that would grant us six more hours, she dropped it inside one of dozens of giant oysters that each rose to the surface and cracked open their shells hungrily for the privilege of guarding her gift.
I described the statues that we’d found at the top above the pool and the giant shark and the huge jellyfish that Kelsey summoned to take us back to the surface. She was fascinated by the harrowing tale of escape. Her mouth fell open in horror when I said that Kelsey was nearly eaten and how Ren rode the back of the giant shark, sinking the trident into it.
“I would have liked to see that,” she said. “It must have been frightening.”
“Terrifying,” I agreed. “We floated in a giant clam shell for a long time, finally using the scarf like a kite. It guided us back to the ship.”
