Page 143 of Tiger's Quest
During a lull in the conversation, I said, “Kishan?”
He grunted as he slid downhill a bit on loose gravel. “Yeah?”
“I want you to tell me everything you know about Lokesh. Where did you meet him? What is he like? Tell me about his family, his wife, his background. All that stuff.”
“Okay. To start off, he didn’t come from a royal bloodline.”
“What do you mean? I thought he was a king.”
“He was, but he didn’t start off that way. The first time I met him, he was a royal advisor. He had moved up quickly to a position of authority. When the king died unexpectedly without any progeny, Lokesh stepped into the king’s position.”
“Huh, probably an interesting story there. I would love to hear the tale of his ascent to power. Did everyone just accept him as the new king? Were there any protests?”
“If there were, he quickly snuffed out any malcontents and went about building up a powerful army. That kingdom had always been very peaceful, and we’d never had a problem with them until Lokesh took power. Even then, he was always very careful around my family.
“Minor skirmishes broke out between our armies, which he always claimed he had no knowledge of. We now think that he was gathering intelligence because the skirmishes always occurred in key military areas. He dismissed them as minor misunderstandings and assured us that he would reprimand the survivors.”
“Survivors? What do you mean?”
“The skirmishes often resulted in the deaths of his soldiers. He used his soldiers like disposable tools. He demanded their loyalty, and they gave it—even to the point of death.”
“And nobody in your family ever suspected anything?”
“If anyone suspected him, it was Mr. Kadam. He was head of the military at the time, and he felt that there was more going on than soldiersmisunderstandingtheir orders. Nobody else suspected Lokesh, though. Lokesh was very charming when he visited. He always assumed a humble demeanor around my father, but all the while he was coldly calculating our downfall.”
“What weaknesses does Lokesh have?”
“I think he knows more of my weaknesses than I of his. I imagine he abused Yesubai. According to him, his wife had died long before we met him. Yesubai never spoke of her mother, and I never thought to ask. As far as I know, he has no family left, no posterity, unless he took another wife over the years. He craves power. That could be a weakness.”
“Does he crave money? Could we offer to buy Ren’s freedom?”
“No. He uses money only as a means to get more power. He couldn’t care less about jewels or gold. He might say differently, but I wouldn’t trust him. He’s an ambitious man, Kelsey.”
“Do we know anything about the other pieces of the amulet? Like where he got them from?”
“The only thing I know about the amulet is what my parents told us. They said that the amulet pieces were carried by five warlords and were handed down over the centuries. My mother’s family had one piece, and my father’s family had another. That’s how Ren and I each got one. The one you wear was Mother’s, and Kadam wears Father’s. I have no idea how Lokesh acquired the other three pieces. I’d never heard of any other amulet pieces until Lokesh mentioned them. Ren and I wore our pieces under our clothing as carefully protected family heirlooms.”
“Maybe Lokesh found a list of the families who had been entrusted with them?” I pondered.
“Maybe. But I’ve never heard of such a list.”
“Did your parents know the amulets were powerful?”
“No. Not until we were changed to tigers.”
“You didn’t have an ancestor who lived a long time like Mr. Kadam?”
“No. Our family was prolific on both sides. There was always a young king to pass the amulet to, and in our family, tradition was to pass on the amulet when the boy turned eighteen. Our ancestors had longer lives than normal, but the life span then was considerably shorter than it is today.”
“Unfortunately, none of this information gives us an inkling as to any of Lokesh’s weaknesses.”
“Perhaps it does.”
“How so?” I asked.
“He craves power above all else. Since he is pursuing the amulet pieces at all costs, then that is his weakness.”
“What do you mean?”
