Page 99 of Tiger's Destiny
Anamika examined my jeans and T-shirt with a puzzled expression. “Perhaps some of my clothing can be cut down to accommodate your smallish stature,” she offered.
No one had ever called me small before. I stood up as tall as I could. “Just because you’re freakishly large does not mean I am small. My height is considered slightly above average in my homeland, I’ll have you know.”
“Indeed.” Her mouth twitched.
I took the backpack from Ren and slammed it over my shoulders. “I have my own clothes anyway. There is no need to cut any of your precious warrior-Barbie outfits.”
Anamika made a noise suspiciously like a growl and signaled a guard. “Take the men to their tent.”
As the brothers were being escorted away, she said to Kishan, “You may return to visit your little woman at the morning meal.”
Kishan and Ren both paused at the tent opening to look at me. I jiggled the backpack to reassure them I could take care of myself. They nodded and disappeared.
A servant entered and poured water into our goblets. Anamika sank onto the floor to make herself comfortable on the pillows. Placing my backpack as close as possible, I joined her and picked up my cup. The liquid was icy and fresh—the most delicious water I’d ever tasted.
“It’s wonderful!” I remarked after draining my cup.
Anamika grunted. “The water comes directly from the mountains. I also find it refreshing. Now, please, eat. I wouldn’t want your fiancé to accuse me of starving you.”
There were several different dishes, including bowls of toasted almonds, spicy chickpeas, pickled potatoes, lentils, and a few small pieces of fire-roasted meat. Anamika nibbled on a fragrant white fruit called lychee.
I picked up some flatbread and used it to scoop up chickpeas and the meat. “How did you hurt your feet?” I asked.
“My feet are none of your affair.”
“They looked pretty bad,” I remarked as I tried the potatoes.
She grunted but didn’t say anything more. I watched her as I ate.Who is she and why does she look like Durga?
After she pulled off a small piece of flatbread and ate it, she turned her body away from the table as if she couldn’t look at the food any longer.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You don’t like the food? A woman like you probably doesn’t like to eat anything she didn’t hunt down and kill herself, right?”
“I am no longer hungry.”
I paused with a piece of plump lychee fruit pinched between my fingers. “You’re full?” I was confused, but only for a moment. I’d met women like her before, women like Ren’s annoying girlfriend, Randi. “Oh, you’ve got an Amazon figure to maintain.”
“I do not understand ‘Amazon figure.’”
“A figure is the shape of your body, and Amazons are these tall, beautiful women who live in South America. They are warriors who don’t need men to take care of them.”
“I have no concern for the shape of my body as long as it is strong. An Amazon, as you call me, may be what I am now but I was not always so. I like men.”
She’d said it with such sincerity that I couldn’t help laughing. “I understand. I like men too,” I said. “So why are you an Amazon now?”
Anamika brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I was not always alone. I had a brother . . . Sunil. He was my twin.” The ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. “He was thesenani, in command of our forces.”
“What happened to him?”
“He was taken. Captured by our enemy.” She paused. “He is likely dead or so my men would have me believe. You asked about my feet. I dreamed my brother called to me, and I left my tent to find him. His voice compelled me forward, and I pressed on, not caring that my feet were cut by sharp rocks and torn by thorns and brambles. When I woke, I found I had experienced a walking dream and was far from my camp.”
“I’m sorry about your brother, Anamika.”
“We came here with thirty thousand foot soldiers, twenty thousand chariots, and five thousand battle elephants, along with dozens of spies and messengers. In the last battle, my brother was lost and oursena, our army, was struck down, hobbled. Hundreds of our elephants were overcome, and all that is now left of our proud warriors are a few thousand, most of whom are injured.”
“Your enemy sounds formidable.”
“He is a demon,” she said tiredly.
