Page 41 of Tiger's Tale
Nikolai snorted and raised an eyebrow. His forehead dripped with sweat, and his cheeks were red and appeared hot and feverish despite the cool air. His eyes sparked with a crazed intensity. If Veru could have told him to stop, she would have. Nik always listened to her, or at least he used to. Perhaps she’d never really known him at all.
Veru huffed and took a step toward her sister, happy to see her, but when Nik beckoned her over to their side, clearly intent on using his magic against her hunter, she wanted to send a clear message that Danik wasn’t to be harmed. She angled her body in front of her hunter as if to protect him. When she did, both her sister and Nikolai snarled.
“Move away from him, Veru. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
The golden cat narrowed her eyes and sat stubbornly. If anyone was going to get hurt, it wasn’t going to be her.
As for Stacia, she didn’t understand why her sister was wasting their time. They needed to move on. She didn’t know why Veru had fallen behind in the first place. It was just like her to head off on her own, batting her lashes at some boy while she was stuck trying to pick up the slack. If she could just stay focused, they’d be halfway over the mountain by now and could get back to the palace and deal with the fallout of leaving. Didn’t she understand what was at stake?
Meanwhile, it was clear that the hunter had no intention of letting the newcomer just leave with his golden cat. He intended to fight off the interloper.
Though Nikolai was certainly not the largest, heaviest, or most muscular of their soldiers, both Stacia and Veru expected the brawl to be over with fairly quickly. To say the tussle resulted in unexpected insights was an understatement. Not only were the twins surprised with Nik’s willingness to fight Danik but they were amazed with his ease and confidence. It wasn’t his usual predisposition.
More often, when tasked with fighting, Nik was bumbling and awkward. His stance was always wrong, and he relied on Veru’s constant coaching. The only reason he hadn’t been dismissed was Veru’s sponsorship. Most of the men preferred his light touch when it came to Veru. Not only did they believe he wouldn’t hurt her but they also didn’t think he even could.
Still, the twins knew the only way they could justify keeping Nik in the Royal Guard was to train him in another skill. He hadn’t taken to the idea of medical training at first, but when Veru insisted that once he was properly trained she’d have no other surgeon in battle, he clicked his heels together and left immediately to seek out the head physic.
Their military doctor reported his progress to them often, stating that while Nik appeared to be interested, his mind often drifted and that his questions occasionally bordered on the macabre and once on the obscene. Veru laughed that off, certain the doctor must have misunderstood. Nik was blunt, to be sure, but that was why she liked him. He never hid who he was from her. Even if he was a buffoon, he was her buffoon.
But now Veru realized there was much more going on with Nik than she’d ever believed. First, he possessed magic and had never told her about it. Then they’d never really had a chance to talk about how he’d come to be in league with the strange monk who’d try to heal her mother and then impersonate a suitor either. Why he would betray her in such a way, she didn’t understand. Also, there was the question of how he knew all the secret ins and outs of the palace.
The only thing that was clear was that she didn’t know her friend at all.
Even so, what she did know was battle. And what she saw didn’t make sense. Having magic, Nik could easily use it to best his enemy in combat, and he wasn’t. He intended to fight, and he wasn’t looking for a fast exit or eyeing her for help either. In fact, the ineffectual soldier she’d always encouraged before was nowhere to be found.
All of them had been extensively trained in hand-to-hand combat, Nik included, and Veru herself had sparred with him often, so she was well-versed in his skill set, or so she thought. But the Nik she saw now held out his hands and arms at the ready in a powerful stance as he tried to outmaneuver his opponent and reach his goal—her. In all her fights, in all her training with Nik, she’d never seen him move with such dexterity and power. Frankly, it shocked her. She could also see the sweat coursing down his face, and the thought came to her that he might be ill.
Then there was Danik, her hunter and musician. She knew he was no soldier. But as she studied his trim and lanky form, she realized it was a bit too early to call the fight. With Danik’s tendency to slouch, and the easy way about him, and knowing Nik was a trained soldier with a few surprises up his parka, she assumed their little tussle would be over quickly. With Nik being the natural winner. But now she wondered.
They locked arms. Nik flipped Danik onto his back in the snow and then headed toward her, a confident smirk on his face, assured he was immediately victorious. Suddenly, his face changed as his feet were pulled out from beneath him, and he fell to the ground with a hard splat. He was dragged through the snow and tossed like a bag of hay several feet away. If Veru was human, her mouth would have formed anO, and her brows would have lifted all the way to her hairline.
Though it was true Danik spent long hours outdoors, she now realized the slouching appeared to be mostly due to his intense focus on his instruments. Veru cocked her head. It was true that heavy parkas tended to hide the shape of a body, so she couldn’t see much of Danik’s frame. To her, he’d appeared wiry, but perhaps that was more due to her current size and shape. All humans were small compared to her.
The fight continued for a while longer, and Veru noticed that Nik was panting heavily. Something was wrong. It was then that Stacia roared plaintively. Danik turned his attention to her sister, and that was when Nik finally decided to use his magic. He cast some kind of spell on Danik, who would have probably defeated Nik on the next blow.
Danik froze in place, lifting his hands. “What have you done, wizard? Can you not fight me like a man? Using your magic to blind me is dishonorable.”
Nik ignored Danik and stumbled over to the golden tiger, fell to his knees beside her, and wrapped his arms around her neck.
“Veru!” he panted. “Are you okay? Have you eaten? Did this man hurt you? I’ll kill him if you like, just give me a signal. It took so long to find you! Now that we’ve... now that we’ve finally found you... I’m feeling rather... dizzy. I think I’ll just sit down for a moment. If you don’t mind.”
Nik’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell face-first into the snowbank. Veru made a grumbling sort of squeak and leapt toward him, nudging his body, but it didn’t move. Then she turned as her sister let out a rattle and also slumped to her side. Stacia’s eyes closed, but her breathing was steady.
Quick as a flash, she ran back to Danik, who, still blind, clutched feebly at the fur on her back. The golden tiger began guiding him to her fallen friend.
“I don’t understand what’s happening here,” Danik said. “That man said the other tiger is your sister, which makes sense. But he also called you a tsarevna and used the name Veru. The only Tsarevna Veru I’ve ever heard of is the royal Tsarevna Verusha Irena Vasilia Stepanov, who, as far as I know, is still at the capital and isnota tiger.”
Veru growled softly and directed the hunter to Nik’s body, then poked her nose in Danik’s bag. He reached out a hand and found the bag. “What is it? You’re hungry? No. You want food? For them? I see. Well, I don’t see. Not really. Hold on. I think my vision is coming back. Yes. It is.”
Danik blinked rapidly, his eyes watering. Veru could tell when he got his eyesight back completely. He laughed and looked around at everything. Then pointed at Nik, gritting his teeth. “That man is evil. I don’t like him.”
Veru nudged Nik’s body.
“Maybe you want to help him, but I’m still thinking it over. I don’t trust him.”
She sat down, and he glanced over at her sister, who was slumped on her side. “Well, her I don’t mind helping. She needs food and water. I can do that much at least. I don’t have any food left though. We were going to head out to check some more traps today.”
Danik took a long look at the golden tiger, and the two visitors collapsed in the snow. “Are you sure I can leave you alone?” Reaching up to Veru’s ear, he touched it lightly, gave her a lopsided grin, and stood as best he could and hobbled a few steps. “All right. But if he steals you away while I’m gone, I’m going to set my most vicious trap for him, and it’s going to hurt.” He warned, “Oh, and if he touches my instruments, I’ll come up with something even worse.”
