Ghost Leopard (A Zoe & Zak Adventure #1) (29 page)

I ignored the arrow, focusing my energy on the bhagwan. I didn’t have to think about it this time, I just did it. Ripples of power shot out in ever-widening circles as I felt my energy collect and focus. It was like when you throw a stone in a lake. Once the stone has left your hand, everything else happens all by itself. The ever-widening ripples of power even looked the same, like water ripples, but in the air. The bhagwan held his wound, bracing for the attack, but he couldn’t stop it. I don’t want to sound egotistical or anything, but I blew him back with some serious power. The bhagwan flew through the air and across the gorge into a rock wall.
 

I held the bhagwan against the cliff with my mind, staring him down for a long moment. It was easy for me this time, all the color draining from the bhagwan's face. He was a mean guy and a bully and for a second it felt good to finally have him where I wanted him, but I tried not to think of it like that. I didn’t want to be a bully too.

“I’m not afraid anymore,” I said.
 

He didn’t answer me. He just let out a blood curdling wail as his tail grew shorter and his fur turned back to skin. But this time it wasn’t just any skin, it was very, very old skin. I don’t know if he just couldn’t take the abuse anymore or if the disappointment of missing the Leopard was too much, but the bhagwan was reduced to a frail old man with long white hair. He shriveled before us like a dried apple and then, I’m not sure how, burst into flame. He was actually on fire. I let go of him with my mind. I didn’t want to think of him or see him anymore. I wanted it to really be over. A piercing screech wailed out as he plunged down through the air. It was followed by a dull thud and then nothing at all. Silence. Zak and I peered over the cliff as the fire and smoke slowly cleared from the sky.

The world lightened around us as we descended the ridge. We left Rhino Butt and his goons up there. I don’t know what happened to them, but the blizzard had stopped blowing. The sun was close to rising, an orange glow on the horizon.

“That was some kind of Yogination. We’re talking awesome,” Zak said.

“Thanks.”

“Like totally freakin’ awesome.”

“I’m just glad he’s gone.”

“I don’t think you’re getting how cool that was.”

“He was evil.”

“Yeah, but still,” Zak said. “
Awesome
.”

A slight sound caused me to look up. I held my gaze there, almost unable to believe my eyes. Zak saw it too. The glacier-white Ghost Leopard stood perched above us, showing itself clearly for the first time in the soft rays of the new rising sun. The Ghost Leopard was huge, but it wasn’t frightening. Instead it was about the most spectacular thing I had ever seen. Its body was lean and muscular and its fur was bright white and there wasn’t a spot on it. There was no confusion in my mind about it being real. In that moment it was as real as anything could be. I guessed that once the sun had fully risen above the peak, it was going to turn back into a ghost but, for those few moments, it was there in the flesh right in front of us.
 

I reached for my camera, turning the lens upward. It wasn’t like I wanted to steal the Leopard’s soul or anything, but it was weird. Despite all we’d been through, and Mukta’s warning, and even my sworn mission to protect it, I couldn’t help myself. It was like the Leopard took hold of me. It just too beautiful to be true. But as the Leopard stood there, perfectly still, another thought gradually snuck up on me. The thought that what I truly wanted was to just look at the Leopard. The idea that I really wanted to be there in that moment. I didn’t want to be stuck in my head taking a picture, I didn’t want to be collecting the moment as a souvenir, I just wanted to be there. I don’t know why it hit me like that, but it did. So instead of clicking the shutter, I shared a glance with Zak and lowered my camera. I knew I was losing the shot, but I didn’t care anymore. I was there. The Leopard stood there for another second and roared as the sun rose above the peak. Then, just like that, it faded like a ghost and slinked from view. It was gone before the echo of its roar had left the valley below.

I looked at Zak and then we both looked down to where the spotted green lizard once again stood, its back arched. But instead of standing on a rock this time, the lizard stood on Mukta's red and gold carpet.

“Did you bring the carpet down with you?” I asked Zak.

“No. I haven’t seen it for ages.”

“Well, it’s here.”

“Yeah.”

“You think someone’s trying to tell us something?”

“I don’t know.”

“Get on,” Zak said.

“What?”

“Get on.”

I sat down at the front of the carpet with the green lizard. I pulled the carpet up in front of me and looked around. There was a big hill in front of us, an enormous toboggan run right down the ridge of the mountain, and it looked like it might be worth a try. Zak got behind me and put both hands on my back pushing me through the snow. At the last moment, he jumped onto the carpet.

It worked. We slid for about ten feet. Then we came to a stop.

“Oh well, it was worth a go,” I said.

“Yeah.”

I saw a twinkle enter the lizard’s eye. Zak and I began to stand.

“Did you feel that?” I asked.

“Feel what?”

“That.”

The carpet flexed beneath us causing Zak to lose his balance. He tumbled back down onto it.

“Whoa.”

The carpet flexed again.

“Hang on,” I screamed.

Zak took hold of a tuft of silk from the edge of the carpet in either hand as it bucked below us. I grabbed onto the front of the rug and the carpet literally took off. In a flash of speed it lifted us up, up and away, propelling us over the edge of the cliff and into the cold mountain air. I snuck a peak down. We were flying. There was no other way to put it. I grabbed the carpet just a little tighter as we sped above the clouds.

“Zak,” I said.

“Yeah, Zoe?”

“I just hope this carpet knows where it’s going.”

“Have a little faith, Zoe. We got this far didn’t we?”

I held on tight as our flying carpet banked around a mountain peak. Then I reminded myself not to look down. I still didn’t like heights.

Zak peered down as we flew through the air. I had asked him to do it, I wasn’t going to. We had left the snowy mountaintops and were now lower in the foothills. The air was warmer here and the mountain sun felt good on our backs. Two giant griffons glided through the air on either side of us. The birds’ feathers rustled in the breeze and I sensed that the birds were somehow guiding us to our destination. Zak looked back up.
 

“You’ll never guess where we are,” Zak said.

“About a million miles in the air?”

“Abut a million miles above Mukta's hut,” Zak said.

I decided to risk a glance over the edge of the carpet. I could see the crooked chimney of the howling hut, the train station perched immediately above it. As I looked down, I felt the carpet swoosh into a corkscrew of ever-descending circles. We were going down. I didn’t want to black out so I concentrated my gaze on the griffons. When we finally landed with a flutter, I stepped off the carpet, followed by Zak. The lizard scurried across the yard and through the crack in the partially opened door. The door creaked open a little more and then the hut began to howl. It howled softly, like the wind was blowing through it, even though there was no wind. But it was howling, anybody could hear that.

“Mukta?” Zak said.

“Shh. Mukta's dead.”

“He is not.”

For a moment, I really thought I was going to have to have a long talk with Zak about what had happened to Mukta back in the cave, but then I heard a voice.

“Zak is right, my young Mud Devil. I am not dead. I am merely moved on. Come, come, you must have a glass of chai.”

Maybe Zak was the one who needed to have a talk with me. I took a breath and entered the hut, Zak right behind me. The first thing I noticed was that, except for a little dust, things were basically the same as before. The kettle was boiling and two steaming glasses of chai sat by the fire. Everything was the same, that is, except for Mukta. He sat there meditating, levitating in the air. But there was something different about him. Something transparent. Both Zak and I stared. I took a step forward to touch Mukta. My hand went right through him.
 

“Yes, yes, my friends, I am a ghost, you see.” Mukta gestured to the tea. “Chai, chai. You must drink your chai.”

Zak reached through Mukta and handed me a glass of chai. I took a sip. It was hot and rich and sugary sweet.

“This is very weird,” Zak said.

“Not weird,” Mukta said. “This is life. I have moved on. But for you, for you I take this form.”

“But I thought the bhagwan killed you?”

“Yes, Zak, he did. He killed my body. But not my spirit. My spirit is here. My spirit lives on.”

“But how?” I asked.

“All living things live on,” Mukta said. “But not all living things see the ghosts of the past around them. You have protected the Leopard. You have done well.”

“Thanks,” Zak said.

Mukta turned to me. “I sense you have questions, Mud Devil?”

I nodded. I didn’t know how to start the conversation so I just blurted it out. “What am I, Mukta?”

“You are a very special girl, Zoe Guire.”

“Yeah, but what
am
I?”
 

 
The bhagwan had been right about one thing. I had been afraid of what I was. I think that’s why I wanted to have that talk with my mom. Why I wanted to know about my adoption. I thought I wanted to know who I was, but it turned out to be more than that. I wanted to know
what
I was. I didn’t feel so afraid anymore, but I knew that if I wanted answers, this was the only place I was going to get them.
 

“You, like me, have the mark, Zoe. The mark makes you special.”

I looked at my birthmark. The spots weren’t glowing. They were just there.

“So am I a yogi? Do the spots make me magic?” I asked.

“The spots make you what you are. I do not yet know if you are a yogi, Zoe Guire. But I do know that you have power. Power that you are only beginning to explore.”

“I’m not sure that I get it.”

“You have the spots, Zoe. The spots give you strength. The spots let you become what you must be.”

“How?”

 
“When the Ghost Leopard needed protecting, the spots let you absorb my power to protect it when I could not. But I will not always be here. Others may need your help and you can absorb their power as well.”

“So I’m a power sponge. I absorb other people’s power. Do your spots let you absorb other people’s power too?”

“The spots allowed me to do many things in my life, Zoe. Your journey will be to discover what the spots mean to you.”

“Like when I was a kid and those school girls couldn’t kick me?”

“Yes. There is no doubt that the spots were involved that day. You will need to explore this power.”

“Can’t you just tell me what it is?”

“No, I cannot, because for now, it is not clear. Like you, your powers are not yet grown. But they will reveal themselves in due time, Mud Devil. All that is not clear will be revealed in due time.”

“Oh,” I said.

“What is wrong, Mud Devil?”

I felt like screaming. Wasn’t it obvious what was wrong? I spelled it out for Mukta. “What’s wrong is I still don’t get what the spots do or why I have them. Do I have them because I’m adopted?”

“You have the spots, because you are you. You must understand, Mud Devil. It does not matter from where you come. What matters is what you are.”

We had come full circle. Indian mysticism was definitely harder than math. I wasn’t sure that I was any closer to understanding what I was than when I asked the question, but something else had been bothering me.

“In the field back at the airport, there was something big in the grass. It jumped over us and scared the goons away.”

“Yes, yes. You did not think that you would not be given help on your journey Mud Devil?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean to say is that you were asked to protect the Ghost Leopard. In that field, the Leopard was able to protect you.”

“That was the Ghost Leopard?”
 

“Do not be so surprised, Mud Devil. Did you not dream of the Leopard? Did you not sense your were being followed? The Leopard has kept watch on you since your arrival in India.”

“What about Amala?” I said.

“Amala thanks you for your service.”

“No, I mean, I know the mummies were her past lives, but she was always following us too. It was like she was everywhere.”

“Like the Leopard, Amala is also a ghost, but she is a ghost of one of the Leopard’s past lives.”

“I don’t get it,” Zak said. “Each past life has its own ghost? Doesn’t that get confusing?”

“Yes,” Mukta said. “It can sometimes be very confusing. Every being has one spirit, but every being also has many ghosts. You may think of the ghosts as the colors in a rainbow. There is one rainbow, but there are many colors. The ghosts of our past lives are everywhere.”

“That doesn’t explain the spotted blue butterflies,” I said.
 

“Butterflies travel in groups, Zoe. Amala traveled on the wings of butterflies to help you on your quest.”

“So what about me?” Zak said.

“You,” Mukta said, “were very helpful indeed. Without your bravery, Zak, the Leopard would surely have died.”

Zak smiled. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he said. “Can I keep Stryker?”

“You may keep Stryker.”

Zak pumped his fist. “Yes. What about the carpet? I’m thinking about calling it Doormat. What do you think? You think the carpet would like that, or is it kind of, sort of insulting?”

“This is up to the carpet,” Mukta said, “For now, let us call Doormat a loan. I intend that you should bring him back, should I require your services again.”

I checked the dusty, old clock hanging from the wall. I wasn’t sure what day it was. But it was just after twelve in the afternoon. If we were going to get back before dark, we were going to have to hurry.