Page 48 of Tiger's Destiny
“I don’t know.”
“Well, what should we do? Go on or go in?”
Kishan leaned over the opening, “It’s too hot. She won’t survive.”
“What about you two?” I interjected. “I assume you don’t want your fur burned off either.”
“Then we move on,” Ren said as he stood and shifted his pack.
Following in his footsteps, we started to walk away but then I stopped and turned.
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Kishan asked from behind me.
“It’s a . . . a song.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Ren answered.
“Me neither,” Kishan added.
I closed my eyes and listened. “There it is again. You can’t pick it up with your tiger hearing?”
They shook their heads.
“I hate to say this but I feel like . . . this is the place.”
“But it’s too hot, Kells.”
“Then we need to cool it off. Cooling myself off in the process wouldn’t be a bad idea either.” While brushing away the sweat that tickled the back of my neck, my fingers touched the Black Pearl Necklace.
“I have an idea,” I said to Kishan. “Follow me.”
We climbed onto the lip above the tunnel. I touched the pearl lotus flower on the Necklace at my throat and murmured a few words. A rumble shook the island, and I heard the rushing of water. Ren wrapped an arm around me when I stumbled as the ground moved.
“I hope I can control it,” I mumbled nervously with arms raised.
I focused on the wall of the caldera. The trees shook wildly, and then a spray of ocean water rushed over the wall and plunged into the basin. Visualizing the flow of water, I willed it to come closer, and it quickly rolled over the black surface of the volcano.
Steam shot up in several places and hissed with the sound of a thousand snakes. I raised my hands, cupping them, and slowly brought them together. I tamed the water, shaped it, until it became exactly what I wanted it to be, guiding the flow toward the lava tube.
Cold sea water rushed forward and surged down the open mouth of the tube. I could feel the water moving through the island traveling through tunnels miles long and I willed more and more water to come until I’d displaced something the size of a small lake from the surrounding ocean. Spreading my fingertips, I sent the cold sea water underground to flow over lava that hissed and steamed and blackened as the two disparate elements met. I stood silently with closed eyes and felt the stream’s progress until every last bit of it had evaporated.
When I opened my eyes, Ren and Kishan were watching me quizzically.
“How did you know to do that?” Kishan asked.
“I don’t know. I think it was the song. Are you sure you didn’t hear it?”
When they both shook their heads, I wondered if I was now hearing things in addition to having strange powers and control over magical objects. Whatever had been my inspiration seemed to work. The tunnel was warm but it had cooled significantly.
We stepped into the damp opening. As we descended, the tunnel twisted and became very dark, and only the glow of Fanindra’s eyes lit our way. The air felt muggy and humid. Metallic veins of fibers clung to the sides of the tunnel, and I coughed as little wisps floated in the air.
We came to a fork in the tunnel, and I turned left, only hesitating when Kishan whispered, “How do you know where to go?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I just do.”
My answer echoed sinisterly through the dark passages. I swiped the back of my neck and pulled my sticky T-shirt away from my lower back. To keep my mind off the heat and the danger, I hummed Christmas carols and thought about snow. To my surprise, Ren and Kishan joined me on “Jingle Bells,” but the song was quiet, hesitant, and when the echo came back, we sounded more like the ghosts of holidays long since forgotten.
