Page 113 of Tiger's Destiny
Under my breath, I mumbled, “I bet he would be.”
The general went on, “Perhaps when this battle is over we can speak of establishing trade?”
The men from Tibet and Myanmar seemed interested in this offer but not General Xi-Wong.
I kept my eyes down and scribbled furiously. I had to tell Kishan what I knew. Several facts that I’d memorized in college and high school sprung to mind, and I was alarmed that the Macedonian Empire might become interested in Asia. As far as I knew, Alexander the Great never conquered anything beyond the Himalayas. We could be changing the course of history by being here, and I’d seen way too manyStar Trektime-travel episodes to be fooled into believing that was a good thing.
I took notes dutifully and was shocked at the numbers and resources the various battle leaders provided. What worried me the most about working with them was the interest they had in Anamika. General Amphimachus seemed to believe that a goddess with her power needed to be seated on the throne next to Alexander. I grunted and perused my notes.
Amphimachus spoke of his assets. He had deadly Persian chariots, catapults, and panoplies, and he said that his men could fight in heavily armored phalanxes with spears, pikes, andsarrisas. Continuing to brag, he recounted how he lost an eye in the Battle of the Persian Gate. As a reward for his bravery, he was granted property and a foal sired by Alexander’s famous horse, Bucephalus. I couldn’t help but be fascinated. He smiled and lifted his patch to show me the gaping hole where his eye used to be. I shuddered and shifted closer to Kishan while Amphimachus delighted in my discomfort.
Finally, it was Kishan’s turn to talk. He shared his philosophy of battle, some I recognized from the training Mr. Kadam had given us, and some was new to me. Anamika’s numbers surprised me. He spoke of forty thousand horsemen, one hundred thousand footmen, over one thousand chariots, and two thousand battle elephants. From what I’d seen, Anamika didn’t have anywhere near that number of men. Her army had almost been annihilated. I wondered if it was standard wartime practice to exaggerate numbers.
I did some quick calculations. According to what the leaders had said, combined they had fifteen thousand archers, two hundred fifty thousand cavalry, almost one hundred fifty thousand infantry, a thousand chariots, fifty catapults, and two thousand elephants. We were just shy of a half-million soldiers.
Plans were then made to have each leader return to his camp in a week and march his army to the base of Mount Kailash, which is where Lokesh had reportedly taken up residence. In the meantime, everyone was to enjoy the hospitality of the goddess and witness firsthand the skills of Anamika’s soldiers.
As the leaders of many nations stood, Kishan thanked everyone for his contributions and said, “Each of you has experienced great losses, but I feel that together we will achieve victory and rid our lands of this demon.”
He clapped General Xi-Wong on the shoulder. “My friends, we will be as fast as the wind, as silent as a forest, as ferocious as a fire, and as immovable as the mountain itself.”
General Amphimachus was the last to leave. He leered at me when Kishan was distracted. One of his men fastened a black cape made of raven feathers around the general’s shoulders before he exited with a flourish.
As they made their way to their tents, I complimented Kishan. “You were amazing. I think they were all impressed.”
Kishan grinned. “I borrowed that speech from one of my old martial arts instructors. Technically, the daimyo in Japan who came up with the concept ofFurinkazan,or wind, forest, fire, and mountain, won’t be alive for another century.”
I wrung my hands nervously. “Well, maybe you were meant to be the ancient source that inspired him.”
He gently pried my hands apart and held them in his own. “What’s wrong, Kelsey?”
Sighing softly, I said, “I know that we were destined to do this, to defeat Mahishasur or whatever Lokesh is calling himself these days. I just want to be careful that we’re not rewriting history. I mean, what if Alexander the Great now decides to go off and conquer China? What if we mess up our future so badly that we can’t even go home?”
Kishan pressed his lips to my fingers and studied me with his warm golden eyes. “Would it be so bad if we can’t?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean other than Nilima and missing some of your friends, could you,” he paused, “learn to be happy living here, with me, in the past?”
“I . . . I suppose I could learn to live without modern day comforts as long as you and Ren were here.”
He let go of my hands, took hold of my shoulders, and smiled. “There’s a part of me that feels at home here, Kells. Don’t get me wrong. If you were in the future, I’d move mountains to get there, but as long as you’re at my side, I feel . . . well, I want for nothing. There’s nothing else I need in the universe except you.”
Kishan kissed me softly before he led me off in search of lunch. I sighed, knowing that there was something else in the universe I needed. It wasn’t really appropriate given the circumstances, but the something else I needed was . . . Ren.
After lunch, I went in search of him. Kishan had said that he was showing Anamika how to use all of our weapons. I touched the Pearl Necklace and swallowed the guilt I felt at keeping it to myself.
It took a while because our cell phone tracking devices no longer worked, but I finally found a soldier who told me of a clearing where Ren and Anamika might be practicing. As I wound my way through the trees, I heard the sounds of quiet murmuring ahead.
“I don’t know how I would have done all this without you. Surely the gods sent you into my life.”
“Something like that.”
“Then my hope,” the female voice responded softly, “is to never give you cause to leave.”
I skirted a prickly bush and stopped dead in my tracks. Ren and Anamika stood entwined. She was enrobed as the goddess Durga in a gown of royal blue and had all eight of her arms. Each set of them were wrapped around Ren. Golden weapons lay at their feet except for Fanindra, who was coiled on the ground. She was awake and watching Ren and Anamika as they embraced.
For a brief moment, I stood there numb but then the shock pierced me. Tears blurred my vision. The salty liquid trembled there, threatening to spill over my lashes. Ren, still holding Durga, opened his blue eyes and saw me. I gasped softly as I recognized for the first time a sort of resigned distance in his glance. I couldn’t even look at Durga, for that’s who she was when she turned.
