Page 109 of Tiger's Destiny
Emotions running wild, all I managed to say with a tight voice was, “I missed you.”
He took a step toward me and scooped me into his arms. Though he wore plates of armor on his chest and shoulders, he held me tightly against him and pressed his cheek to mine. “I missed you too,iadala.”
The Chinese warrior standing behind him clapped Ren on the shoulder and made a few rather loud comments in either Mandarin or Cantonese. Ren set me down, and I turned to find several people staring at us. Kishan had pursued me through the crowd, his sword at the ready, until he saw me with Ren. Though his grip on his sword relaxed, his muscles remained tensed and his eyes were like hard flint. Stonily, he stared at Ren.
Anamika came up behind Kishan; her piercing gaze studied each of us in turn, her face had an unreadable expression. The crowd stilled and became uncomfortably silent as they watched the four of us. Anamika called out a command and then turned away, heading for her tent.
The returning soldiers started moving again but looked at me over their shoulders quizzically.
After handing off his horse to a waiting soldier, Ren gave me a brief smile and squeezed my arm before turning away. He quickly instructed men to set up accommodations and provide meals for the guests. Many of Anamika’s soldiers, though they treated Ren deferentially, paused at his commands and explained that Kishan had already begun organizing the new arrivals. Ren accompanied the Chinese warrior to the cooking fire in the center of camp.
I looked for Kishan, but he had vanished. Figuring he was as busy as Ren, I ducked into the tent I shared with Anamika and came upon her shedding her armor. She kept her back to me.
“I’m glad to see you’ve returned safely,” I said.
She didn’t respond.
“Are you hungry?”
The goddess-like warrior shook her head and removed her boots, replacing them with softer, more comfortable slippers.
“I see your feet have healed. So the juice worked?”
She finally turned to me, and her tight expression softened a bit. “Yes, my feet are healed. Thank you.”
“I’m just glad you’re back.” I smiled.
“Yes, I can see that.” She let out a sigh and stood. “How are my men?”
“They are good. Almost all of them are ready for battle. Kishan has been training them—and the women as well.”
Anamika raised an eyebrow. “He has trained the women?”
I shrugged. “He believes a woman should know how to defend herself.”
She puzzled over this for a moment before nodding and stepping to the tent flap. As she parted it to go, she turned her head. “Our guests are beginning to believe that we are being helped by a goddess, and a few of them have the notion that the goddess is personified in me.”
I nodded cautiously.
“They also believe that Dhiren is my consort,” she stated frankly. “It might be wise to allow them to continue in this belief, at least until the war is over.”
“I . . . I understand,” I whispered thickly as she exited.
I stood there wondering if being a consort meant what I thought it meant or if there was some back-in-time different meaning of the word.
Consort.
The term crossed my tongue roughly. It was an ugly word. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever heard a word I detested more.
“Ren is herconsort,” I whispered.
I wandered toward the center of camp. There was a great deal of noise coming from the cooking area. Kishan stood on the outskirts with arms folded across his chest and a frown on his face. The warriors had refreshed themselves and were emerging from the food tent as Ren spoke with them enthusiastically. The new warriors hung on his every word and the men of the camp, though they nodded in respect to Kishan as they passed, flocked around the “goddess” and her new “companion.”
I noticed Anamika stood next to Ren and often deferred to him when they were asked questions.
“What’s going on?” I asked Kishan.
His eyes glittered as he watched Ren and Anamika. “My brother is stealing the show, as usual. Warriors I trained for two weeks now turn to him, Anamika fawns over him, and even my own fiancée can’t keep her hands off of him.”
