Page 164 of Tiger's Quest
He pointedly stared at me. “You gave me nootheroption.”
He’d offered me another option alright. The option to drop the whole thing, forget about Ren, and run away with him instead. It was either that or leap out of an airplane by myself.
I wasn’t sure if he was serious or just trying to get me to jump. I’d just opened my mouth to lecture him on maintaining an appropriate distance, when he growled angrily, grabbed my hand, and jumped out of the hatch.
He continued, “After we made it to the clearing, we assumed our disguises and went our separate ways. I took the form of Kelsey, wearing a replica of her amulet.”
“I took the form of the Baiga servant,” I added. It was very uncomfortable watching you be me, by the way, Kishan.”
“It was equally uncomfortablebeingyou. My job was to seek Lokesh and keep him busy, so I hid behind a building until I heard the signal: a tiger’s roar.”
Mr. Kadam interrupted, “That would have been me. I disguised myself as a tiger and ran off into the jungle to spring a few traps and draw off some of the soldiers.”
“Right,” Kishan said. “Kelsey began blowing stuff up, which drew off any stragglers, so I met virtually no resistance getting into the camp. Finding Lokesh was another matter. I had to take out his highly trained ring of guards. I disabled several of them with the chakram and took out the lights before they even noticed me. After that, I used my appearance to my advantage.”
Suspiciously, I inquired, “How exactly did you usemyappearance to your advantage?”
Kishan smiled widely. “I acted female. I stumbled into the room, feigned shock and fear, and asked all the big, strong men to protect me, saying that there was a crazy guy trying to kill me with a golden disc. You know, I batted my eyes and flirted. Women stuff.”
I crossed my arms and stared Kishan down. “Uh-huh. Please go on.”
Kishan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Before you get all huffy, which is your standard reaction to me, just stop, because I know what you’re thinking.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Oh, really? And what am I thinking?”
“You’re thinking that I’m trying to stereotype women and you in particular.” He threw up his hands in exasperation. “You’renot like that, Kells. I was just playing the hand I was given and trying to use all my assets!”
“That’s fine when you’re using your ownassets, butnotwhen you’re using mine!”
“Fine! Next time I’ll go as Nilima!”
Nilima said, “Hey! Nobody’s usingmyassetseither.”
Mr. Kadam interrupted, “Perhaps we should continue the story?”
Kishan glowered and began muttering about women in a military operation and that next time he’d go by himself.
“I heard that. You would have been carved up by Lokesh without me.” I smirked.
“Indeed.Everyperson was vital to our success,” Mr. Kadam said. “I will move on to my part, and you can finish later, Kishan.”
He sat back and folded his arms across his chest. “Fine by me.”
Mr. Kadam started by telling Nilima how liberating it was to be a tiger. “The power of the tiger is beyond anything I’d imagined. We weren’t sure if the Divine Scarf worked only with human disguises, so we’d tested changing into an animal. It seems we can change to either Kishan’s or Ren’s tiger forms, but no other animals. When we arrived, I assumed the form of Kishan’s black tiger. Then Miss Kelsey wrapped the Scarf around my neck right before we parted.
“I ran through the jungle and found several baited traps. I sprung two of them, which set off alarms, and soon heard the tread of soldiers’ feet chasing me. Shots were fired, but I was faster than they were. At one point, a group of them thought they had cornered me. They were about to fire when I changed to a man, the sight of which shocked them, and gave me a moment to spring the trap. I pulled on a rope attached to a haunch of meat, and the soldiers were lifted into the air in a large net. I left them dangling from the treetops and ran back to the camp for phase two of my plan.
“By the time I reached the camp, Miss Kelsey had already destroyed one of the two watchtowers. The villagers were running in every direction, frightened for their families. I stood behind a tree and changed my appearance again.”
Nilima leaned forward. “What did you become this time?”
“I took on the form of a local Baiga god named Dulha Dao, who they believe helps to avert disease and accident. I rallied the people to me and told them I was here to help them overcome the stranger. They were more than happy to help me tear down thehouse of the evil one. Miss Kelsey left thegadain a discreet location for me to use. It’s normally heavy for me, but when I wielded it as Dulha Dao, it felt light. With the villagers’ help, I knocked down the wall and the people helped me to incapacitate Lokesh’s men.”
Nilima asked, “What did you look like?”
He blushed, so I interrupted, “Oh, Mr. Kadam as Dulha Dao was definitely nice-looking. He looked similar to the tribesmen, except taller with a much larger frame and he was handsome. His hair was long and heavy, and part of it was wrapped in a jura at the top of his head with the other part flowing down his back.
“He was muscular, and his rather nice torso and face were covered in tattoos. He was bare-chested, covered with heavy beaded necklaces, and barefoot, and he wore a wrap-around skirt. He looked very alarming, but in a good way, especially, I imagine, when he was wielding thegada.”
