Page 66 of Tiger's Dream
When she murmured a command, the Divine Scarf left Ana’s fingertips and flowed over the outstretched palm of the old man. He rubbed the edge of the cloth between his fingers and cried out, “How is it possible?”
“What…what is it, father?” the boy asked, wetting his lips and staring at the scarf.
The man lifted his eyes to us and said, “I can see you. Both of you. Your fabric touches my mind’s eye and shows me color and shape once again.” He quickly bowed. “We are humbled to be in your presence, Great One.”
Ana smiled when the young man followed suit, and she gave them a gracious nod, bidding them to be comfortable, and opened her hands to show she meant no harm. “I am glad that the scarf gives you this gift, but I fear it is only temporary.”
“It does not matter,” the old man said, turning to his son and then back to her. “I can see the face of my son again. It is a more valuable prize than I could ever ask for.”
“We have been sent to help you rescue your lady,” she said to the young man. “As you can see, we have a magic of our own. Tell us, what were you planning to ask your wizard to do to help you?”
“I…” he stammered, “I wanted him to sneak into the palace and rescue her. He would wear my scarf as a sign that I have sent him.”
“But surely it would take a long time for someone unfamiliar with the palace to find her,” Ana suggested.
“That is true,” he answered, “but I can draw a map.”
Ana drummed her fingertips on the table while she thought. “I think it would be best for you to rescue your love yourself. You already know the area.”
“Yes, but my face is familiar to the guards. I am known there.”
“Then we will disguise you.”
“Disguise me?”
“Yes. The scarf has the ability.”
Ana held out her hand and the scarf shot toward her. “I am sorry to darken your eyes once again,” she apologized to the old silk maker.
He waved a hand dismissively and Ana wrapped the scarf around her form. When she lifted it away, she was me. The young man gasped as he looked from me to Ana and back again. “How have you done this?” he asked in amazement.
It was disconcerting looking at myself. Anamika must have sensed it, so she whispered to the scarf and my face melted away, revealing her own once more. “My name is the goddess Durga and this is Damon,” she said, indicating me. We have a great deal of magic, and we have come here for the sole purpose of saving the one you love. Will you assist us?”
“Yes, Goddess,” he said hoarsely. He knelt at Ana’s feet and clutched his hand to his heart. “I would do anything to save her.”
An hour later, we were walking with him to the city. We waited for the moon to set so we’d be surrounded by darkness. Using the scarf, we transformed his figure into that of a soldier and tied the precious scarf the girl had made him around his neck. He crept forward quietly, and when he came upon the city gate, he managed to gain entrance despite his very un-soldier-like mannerisms.
Ana and I had become invisible, blurring time around us so we couldn’t be detected, and we trailed along behind him, just squeezing inside the gate before it shut on us. Then everything bad that could possibly happen to screw up our plan did.
The lovesick fellow was stopped by a contingent of soldiers and was asked why he’d abandoned his post. The poor boy didn’t address the outranking officer appropriately or give him an acceptable answer, so he was clapped in irons and carted away to the nearest holding cell. We had to wait an hour for the group to leave him so we could release him from the chains that held him fast.
After we got him out, he lost his way, and we squandered precious time moving from building to building until he finally found the entrance to the palace wall that he frequently accessed. Again he struggled to gain entrance, and it took me and Ana causing a distraction to get the guard away from his post long enough for the silk maker to pass through.
Finally, we were beneath the girl’s window and the boy was about to climb up when I heard a guard approaching. I groaned when I saw it was the same guard who had just imprisoned our charge a few hours earlier. Ana and I were too far away to warn the young man, so she put her hand on her amulet and drew on her power. The youth, who would have been easily recognized, immediately transformed into a horse with the scarf tied around his neck.
“What did you do?” I hissed.
“I do not know,” Ana replied, her grip on the wagon wheel we hid behind intense. “I simply asked the scarf to change him to something unthreatening.”
“The scarf can’t do that. Change him to an animal, I mean.”
“Apparently, it can,” she said blandly.
The scarf had been able to change Kadam to our tiger forms but not to another animal. But then I remembered the way that Lokesh had merged humans and animals. It seemed that unifying the Damon Amulet gave Anamika access to powers that had previously been limited. “Great,” I said. “So now he’s a horse. He’s not even a fast one,” I pointed out. “He looks like he could barely pull a plow.”
“I did not choose his form,” she answered a bit too loudly. “The amulet chose it.”
“Well, the amulet chose wrong. Change him to something else. Something with a few more teeth or at least longer legs.”
