Page 35 of Tiger's Dream
When the landlord asked for payment, I froze. I assured him that if he could guarantee our rooms, then he would be well paid. His eyes narrowed and he took in my clothing and the fact that I wore no shoes. He then informed me that only one room remained, and it would only be mine if I produced a sum that I knew was well above what he’d asked from the others.
Nodding, I headed outside to retrieve Ana. She used the power of the amulet to draw up coins and gems from the earth. I had forgotten we had that ability, though I’d seen Lokesh use it to draw a long-buried sword out of the ground. The very sword, in fact, that he’d used to slay Kadam.
She handed me the dirt-coated treasures and produced a rain shower over my hand. When they were sufficiently clean, I grunted and said they would do, then I tried to convince Anamika to disguise herself as an ugly spinster, but she refused, claiming she was unafraid of the belching, foul fellows and that there was nothing they could do to harm her.
I tended to agree, but when I escorted her into the inn, the entire room fell silent. I handed over the fortune in gems, forgotten coins, and nuggets of precious metals to the innkeeper, who stammered in amazement. He immediately produced a key to a room that I suspected had just been taken away from one of the hunters and profusely apologized for only having one room to spare.
With relief, I accepted the offered key, gritting my teeth at seeing the leers on the faces of the men. I took Anamika’s elbow. She stopped and looked at my hand and then my face with raised eyebrows. I returned her meaningful look with one of my own and said, “Come, sister, let’s get you settled,” angling my head pointedly toward the stairs. Her back was ramrod stiff, but she pasted on a Samurai sword smile and followed me.
When she began ascending the stairs, I turned and said to the open-mouthed innkeeper, “Would you mind sending up some dinner as well? My sister is very hungry.”
He nodded and asked if we would also like fresh attire. When I told him it was unnecessary, that caused a round of strangled coughs and laughter. I was handling this all wrong. I’d spent too much time in Kelsey’s century. Women were treated differently in the future. When we traveled in her time, we’d been largely ignored. Kadam had always handled the delicate day-to-day interactions with people. Ren probably could have done a much better job at distracting them and their curious glances. I’d been a tiger for too long. My instinctive reaction was to rip and tear.
Turning around, I followed Anamika up the stairs and tried to ignore the voices of the men below, who were marveling at her beauty and wondering why I’d allow such a lovely young woman to wear such revealing clothing. One guessed I wasn’t her brother at all, and others suggested the idea that I might be a flesh peddler and that she was a new acquisition I’d brought to town. They posed the idea that I might be open to negotiation.
The very notion of such a thing enraged me. Power gathered in my frame and I could feel the tiger inside. He ripped at my skin, wanting to peel it back until fangs emerged. My blood boiled and the bones in my neck cracked and popped. The tiger wanted to maim and destroy, and it was all I could do to hold him back, though the burning inside me begged for release. I gripped the railing of the stairs so hard the wood splintered beneath my hand.
Then I felt a touch on my arm. Anamika had turned back and she looked at me with concern. “Come, Damon,” she said softly. “I am weary.” Her touch soothed me and the tiger quieted. I didn’t protest her use of my tiger name, for in that moment I had been more beast than man.
The hunters below still spoke quietly about Ana. They didn’t know I could hear every word they uttered. Each one was like a lash against my skin, cutting through my mind like a spear through water. We locked eyes and I felt the trembling of her hand. Taking hold of her fingers, I squeezed them gently and nodded, then followed her up the stairs.
We located our room, and she headed to the small window, pushing back the curtains to stare up at the stars. Her arms were folded tightly across her body as she leaned against the windowsill. My stomach felt like a stone. Why had I brought her here? Why had I acted like such an animal, such a fool?
“I’m sorry I frightened you,” I said lamely.
She turned to me, her lips puckering. She sighed. “It was not you who frightened me, Kishan. Think no more of it.”
I furrowed my brow. “If it wasn’t me, then…was it the men down there? You shook when you touched me.”
A small shudder went through her frame again. To see a warrior such as she was tremble at a man’s words unnerved me.
“I do not wish to speak of it,” she said quietly, turning her back to me once more.
There was a knock on the door and the innkeeper bowed and entered, bringing a pair of candles with him along with a covered plate. He set down the plate and the odor of cooked food filled the small room. Then, he used the burning torches in the hall to light the candles. When that was done, he brought in a bucket of water, a basin, and a few cloths and set them down. “Rest well,” he said. “Let me know if you have need of anything.”
I could hear the unmistakable clink of coins in his pocket as he walked down the stairs. “Are you hungry?” I asked.
Anamika shook her head and stared into the dark sky outside. Her reflection showed me something altogether different than the goddess I knew so well. She looked…vulnerable. I frowned and then let it go. Much as she did for me, I left her to her own thoughts. We settled almost too easily into our usual pattern.
The two of us were connected at a nearly intrusive, intimate level, but we still managed to maintain a stubborn distance from one another. It was almost like we were two people with a shared adversary who had entered into an agreement to support one another purely for self-preservation and to further our own agendas.
Heavy rain splattered the window, sliding down in wet rivulets that leaked into the room. Anamika made an irritated sound and backed away, using the scarf to create towels to sop up the mess and stuff inside the cracks of the frame. The room felt stuffy, tight once the air was cut off. Damp stole into the room, accentuating the half-rotten, sour smells associated with the tavern. It was an effective appetite suppressant.
Pushing away most of the meal, I rose and told her I’d be downstairs if she wanted to take the opportunity to wash away the odors of the decaying trash outside and the dirt from her face. I’d meant it as a joke, but it was a poorly fashioned one. The hurt in her eyes hit me like a punch in the belly. Her normal reaction would have been to shove me out the door and slam it in my face, but something about this place bothered her.
The ice princess with squared shoulders and a defiant gleam in her eyes was gone. In her place was a woman with emotions stretched so tightly across her face I wondered if they would burst out of her if I touched her cheek. I’d only seen Anamika cry once and that was when her brother left. It was the tremble in her berry-red lower lip that undid me.
I closed the door behind me with a thud. Thick, dark shadows trailed me as I headed down the stairs. When I reached the bottom, I couldn’t tolerate the presence of the other men, though they’d gone quiet, most of them staring with unfocused eyes into their drinks. I headed outside. The night was heavy and warm, the rain irritating as it slicked through my hair and trickled down the neck of my shirt. I paced back and forth, my muscles taut and screaming for a fight.
The earthy scent of the ground was familiar and should have soothed me, but I’d grown spoiled living on the sweet grasses of the home of the goddess. The smell of roses and jasmine there tickled my nose as I slept, and my dreams were almost always pleasant. Even when I dreamed of Kelsey, they were happy, contented dreams, not the nightmares I’d had before.
Kadam wanted me to accept the role of Durga’s tiger, to consider the curse a gift. But to me it had been a punishment, one well deserved for allowing Lokesh to kill Yesubai. When Kelsey left, the tiger felt like a shackle.
Hiding my scent and becoming invisible, I headed to the building where they were keeping Ren. I opened the door and he lifted his head. All he could smell was the wet from the rain and the hundreds of bodies and animals nearby, yet he tilted his head back and forth, and I knew the moment when he noticed my wet footprints.
For a time, I stood there, quietly watching him, and then I made a decision and allowed my body to become visible. He jerked in the cage that was much too small for him to move around comfortably. Ren growled softly, his ears laid back against his head.
My gold eyes locked onto his blue ones. There was so much I wanted to say to him. So much he needed to hear, but I didn’t know where to begin, and this Ren wouldn’t understand. Suddenly, I had great empathy for what Kadam was going through. Inhaling deeply, I pursed my lips and let out a slow breath and then stepped forward, unlocking his cage.
