Page 64 of Tiger's Tale
“Feel free,” Zakhar answered, and then climbed into the sleigh next to Danik.
“And, son?” the older woman said, turning back one last time.
“Yes?” Iriko replied.
“Don’t forget to forgive yourself as well.”
With that, she was gone, disappearing around a hill. Iriko could still hear her for a while and tracked her footsteps, but then he was distracted by Stacia’s voice. He’d been fascinated by the story of the magic boots and how they’d turned into a sleigh and reins. The tsarevna’s irritation came through loud and clear to him as he fingered the gemstones along her collar.
Why are you standing there instead of letting your tiger out?Stacia demanded.Can’t you see the magic means to make a third place so you can help us pull?
It’s not very kind of you to sit back there and make us do all the work, Veru added sulkily.
Iriko laughed, almost seeing the pout in the tone of her voice. “Back home the women do most of the work while we have meetings. We smoke and sit around a fire and make all the decisions while the women have the babies, make dinner, collect the firewood, and?—”
Soplyak. You’re full of rubbish, Stacia said.We know your mother is the leader. What are you trying to pull?
“I’m not pulling anything,” Iriko said, stretching his big arms over his head.
Veru said,That’s the point. You’re trying to get out of pulling.
“Is that the way for a proper tsarina to talk? I wouldn’t think fine young ladies such as yourselves should be using words like that,” Iriko said with a chuckle. He paused for a moment to hear their reply and then roared with laughter.
Annoyed, Nik leaned forward and asked, “Can we get going? Please?”
As if reading the minds of the tsarevnas, Zakhar asked, “Can you change to a tiger? Have you ever? I’d like to record that in my notes.”
Stomping over to the sleigh, by holding on to the harnesses, Iriko’s expression turned back into the angry young man with muscles entirely too large. “No, I can’t, for your information. Sorry, ladies. You’re on your own. I’ll tell you where to go though. You be my eyes, and I’ll be your voice.” Turning to the men, he added, “I’ll also let you know when they start to wear themselves out. Reins, please,” he said to Nik.
Reluctantly, Nik handed them over. “So you can see through their eyes, can’t you.”
“I can. The three of us are bonded. I can feel their hunger too. Not that any ofyoucare about that.”
“What do you mean?” Danik said, standing up to address the stranger. “Of course we care about...” He turned to Veru and Stacia. “Veru, you can’t possibly think... of course we care...”
Iriko smiled, his teeth as white as the snow and all as straight as pillars except for one little gap between his front incisors and his two canines, which were slightly snaggletooth. This gave him an even more feral appearance when he grinned. “It’s just too easy,” he mumbled to himself.
Without saying another word out loud, he picked up the reins and turned his head in one direction and the other. The tigers mimicked his movements precisely. Zakhar was fascinated by this and wanted to capture the strange light in Iriko’s glacier-blue eyes and how they dilated suddenly when he linked with the others.
Then the tigers broke out into a run. Danik, who was still trying to communicate with Veru, collapsed backward. If it hadn’t been for Zakhar, he would have gone over the back of the sleigh and fallen off, and the way Iriko was laughing at the sound of the poor man’s struggles, none of the others were certain the sleigh would have been turned around to collect their fallen warrior.
Shrinking back down in his seat, Danik gripped the side of the sleigh and held on. Not for the first time, he regretted seeking out their new companion. Nikolai was thinking the exact same thing. Zakhar was thinking only of the scroll and his journals and when he could begin working again, while the three tigers were now focused on only one thing: the mountain that seemed to be calling to them even though none of them had ever seen it or stepped foot on it before.
21
A BEARD DOESN’T A PHILOSOPHER MAKE
Meanwhile, the Storyweaver of the Sky, the White Shaman of the Tundra, the One Who Hears All—Above and Below, also known to the mother who gave birth to him as Vesako Alingida, a name that meant Old Man with a Spear Who Lives on a Mountain, a prophetic name if ever there was one, heard nothing but the soft echoes of his own snores within the hollow of the mountain cave he called home. Though it was blistering cold outside on the icy slopes, the cave was full of natural coal, so it was easy enough for him to keep a fire going at all times.
As for food and water, there was enough snowmelt to provide him with water for drinking and bathing. He foraged a bit in the summer and grew a few herbs and mushrooms that he used for food, tea, and visions, and then there were a few loyal acolytes he allowed to bring him supplies once or twice a year. But that early morning it wasn’t the sound of one of his followers on the mountain path or an animal, and it wasn’t the impending arrival of the three tigers he was waiting for that woke him.
All had been proceeding as it should have been, and he had been resting up for the trials that would soon be requiring his utmost attention, when an unusual disturbance alerted him to a change in the cosmos. Rising from his sleeping mat, he headed to the opening of his cave and looked up at the night sky.
Sure enough, he spied an upheaval of balance large enough to cause a crack, an opening in the passage between worlds just to the right of the polar star. Through it shot a ball of fire so bright he had to shield his eyes. Down, down it fell until it crashed nearby, causing the entire area to shake with its power and the tremors even resulted in the fall of a few of his favorite trees, much to his dismay. Vesako stood there for many hours, his hands clasped behind his back, watching the area until the rising and the sinking of the sun, the short burst of rays encompassing the puffy dust cloud created by the object for the briefest of moments.
Still thoughtful, he turned and went about the motions of creating a second fire, passing between them himself, trying to discover the meaning of the crack in the sky and the fallen object and how it might impact the upcoming trials of the three tigers headed his way. Perhaps there was some portent to the timing, he mused. Vesako didn’t believe in coincidence. Not since he was a very young man, anyway. He sipped cup after cup of hot tea and meditated, but the answer eluded him. Finally, after two days, he laid down on his sleeping mat again, exhausted, but slept fitfully.
Long before the fleeting rays of winter daybreak, his eyes flew open. He sensed another presence in his cave. “Hello?” he said. “Make yourself known to me. I mean you no harm, be you animal, human, or spirit. Reveal yourself.”
