Page 138 of Tiger's Quest
I felt the break, and sharp, jagged ends ripped and tore violently through my heart like hot knives through warm butter. I screamed and thrashed. For the first time since I’d laid eyes on my white tiger, I was alone.
Kishan shook me out of the fog of my dream.
“Kelsey!Kelsey!Wake up!”
I opened my eyes and began crying fresh tears that spilled onto my cheeks and followed the old trails left behind from my dream. I wrapped my arms around Kishan’s neck and sobbed. He pulled me onto his lap, pressed me close, and stroked my back, while I wept inconsolably for his brother.
I must have slept at some point because I woke tangled in my sleeping bag with Kishan’s arms around me. My fist was pressed into my cheek, and my eyes were swollen shut and crusty.
Kishan whispered, “Kelsey?”
I mumbled, “I’m awake.”
“Are you okay?”
My hand lifted involuntarily to the hollow, raw pit I felt in my chest, and a tear leaked out from the corner of my eye. I buried my head in the pillow and took deep breaths to calm myself.
“No,” I said dully. “He’s . . .gone. Something’s happened. I think . . . I think Ren may bedead.”
“What happened? Why do you think that?”
I explained my dream and tried to describe my broken connection to Ren.
“Kelsey, it’s possible that this is all just a dream, a very disturbing one, but just a dream. It’s not uncommon to have violent dreams if you have recently experienced something traumatic, like the fight we had with the birds.”
“Maybe. But I didn’t dream about the birds.”
“Even so, we can’t be sure. Remember that Durga said she would protect him.”
“I remember. But it was soreal.”
“There’s no way to know for sure.”
“Maybe there is.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I think we should visit the Silvanae again. Maybe we can sleep in the Grove of Dreams, and I can see the future. Maybe I’ll see if we can save him or not.”
“Do you think it will work?”
“The Silvanae said if they had a desperate problem to work out, they went there for answers. Please, Kishan. Let’s try.”
Kishan wiped a tear off my cheek with his thumb. “Okay, Kells. Let’s find Faunus.”
“Kishan, one more thing. What doeshridaya patnimean?”
“Where did you hear that?” he asked softly.
“In my dream. Ren said it to me before we parted.”
Kishan got up and walked outside the tent. I followed and found him staring into the distance. His arm was propped up against a tree limb. Without turning around, he said, “It’s a pet name our father used for our mother. It means . . . ‘wife of my heart.’”
It took a long day of hiking to reach the Silvanae village. They were overjoyed to see us and wanted to have a party. I didn’t feel like celebrating. When I asked if we could sleep in the Grove of Dreams again, Faunus assured me that everything they had was at our disposal. The tree nymphs brought me a small dinner and left me alone in one of their cottages until nightfall. Kishan understood that I wanted to be alone and he ate with the Silvanae.
When evening came, Kishan returned with a visitor. “I want you to meet someone, Kells.” He held the hand of a small silver-haired toddler.
“Who’s this?”
