Tiger's Voyage (30 page)

She picked up my finished work from my lap. “There, now. You see? You did an excellent job.” She smiled. “It’s time for you to return. Take this with you.”

She slipped the fabric she’d been embroidering from its frame, carefully folded it, and pressed it into my arms. “But I—”

She shushed me with a look and guided me to the wall. Lifting a delicate hand, she traced her finger across a carved thread. “I cannot speak of this anymore today. The sadness is too great. It is time for you to leave. Follow the silkworm, young one.”

She cupped her hand against the wall, and when she removed it, a white silkworm clung to the carved thread. As it began advancing along the line, I turned to say good-bye, but Lady Silkworm had disappeared. The worm made slow progress to a crack in the wall and then slipped inside. I tentatively touched the same crack. First my fingers and then my whole hand disappeared into the wall. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward to find myself encompassed by blackness.

I held out my hand in front of me, groping blindly, and gasped when I felt warm fingers touch mine. I followed the gentle pull of the hand, letting it guide me forward until I hit a barrier. Tracing its surface, I searched for an opening. The hand holding mine tugged harder and pulled me from the blackness with a pop. I slammed against a very welldeveloped, masculine chest, as arms cradled me close. I’d returned to the slightly brighter main room of the Shore Temple.

I blinked and looked up into the face of my liberator. “Ren.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

He let out a relieved sigh and briefly touched a strand of my hair.

I was about to ask him a question when I heard a voice shout out, “Kells? Mr. Kadam! I heard her!”

Mr. Kadam and Kishan approached quickly from another room.

Kishan pulled me from Ren’s embrace and wrapped me in his own. “Where were you?” He turned to Ren. “How did you find her?”

Ren replied. “I don’t know. A carving of a horse with a scarf wrapped around its neck appeared on this wall, and it hadn’t been there before. The horse transformed into a man who pointed to another carving that suddenly appeared. It was of Kelsey sitting in a chair by a window, sewing. When I touched it, my hand disappeared into the wall. Then the carving of Kelsey stood and moved toward me. I stretched out my hand, touched her fingers, and pulled her closer. The next thing I knew, she was standing in front of me.”

Kishan grunted. “Are you okay,
bilauta
? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine. How long was I gone?”

Mr. Kadam stepped forward. “You’ve been missing for the last hour. Everyone was becoming …
worried
.”

I could see by his expression that it had been worse than that. I hugged Kishan and patted Ren’s arm briefly to comfort my tigers. “I was visiting with Lady Silkworm.” I looked down at the folded silk nestled in my arm. “Come on. Let’s get back to the ship. I have a lot to tell you.”

We quickly made our way out of the Shore Temple and back to the boat.

Kishan wrapped an arm around me. “I was worried, Kells.”

“It’s okay. Everything worked out, and we got what we came for.”

“I don’t like you disappearing like that. We couldn’t even track you on
GPS
. You just vanished. Your dot was gone.”

“I’m sorry.” I kissed his cheek and squeezed his arm. “Until the curse is broken, unexpected things are likely to happen to all of us. You know that.”

“I know.” He kissed my forehead. “I just wish I could always be there to protect you. It’s frustrating when there’s nothing I can do.”

I nodded and leaned my head on his shoulder. Ren was watching us. He looked at me thoughtfully for a brief moment and then turned to look out across the open sea. When we pulled up near the yacht, Ren leapt out first and quickly disappeared into the bowels of the ship. Kishan jumped up and helped Mr. Kadam and then held out his hand to me. We went to the lounge near our rooms while Mr. Kadam questioned Nilima about the staff.

We took our seats, Mr. Kadam in the chair and Kishan and I on the sofa. I asked, “Doesn’t Ren want to know what happened? I thought he would help us with this.”

Mr. Kadam replied, “I will tell him everything later. He … only wants to be present when we absolutely need him.”

“I see.” I held my tongue and sighed in resignation, before taking Kishan’s hand and then shared the story of Lady Silkworm, starting with the line of thread I’d followed on the wall and ending with emerging from it. Mr. Kadam and Kishan kept silent throughout the whole story. When I was finished, I held out the silky gift to Mr. Kadam. He carefully unfolded it.

It was a black silk kimono. The back featured five hand-embroidered dragons in exquisite detail. They looked more like Chinese serpents than dragons. Their long sinuous bodies curved and coiled. They were bearded, had long tongues, and four short limbs with taloned feet. On the top left of the robe’s front was a map with seven dots and symbols. Mr. Kadam studied the front carefully, while Kishan and I looked at the back.

“Red, white, gold, green, and blue. Yep, those are our dragons alright.” I traced a symbol. “Kishan … look at this.” I pointed to the red dragon. It looked as if it was walking in the stars. A different symbol surrounded each of the five dragons: stars, clouds, lightning, waves, and snowflakes. “I wonder what this means.”

Mr. Kadam set down the kimono and went to his writing desk to unlock a file drawer and gather some papers. “I believe what we’re looking at is a map with instructions. It’s telling us where to go and which dragon to seek first.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“The seven dots are the seven pagodas. This one is the Shore Temple. There are corresponding numbers written in Chinese next to each temple. See here? The Shore Temple has the number one next to it.”

He traced a pattern starting at the symbol that looked like a hyphen and moved from dot to dot following Chinese numerical order.

“It’s a star!” I pronounced.

“Yes, I believe it is.”

“So, Mr. Kadam, you’re saying we should find the first dragon at the number two temple or pagoda?”

“Yes.”

“There’s a slight problem with your theory.”

“Yes, I know.”

Together we said, “There are only five dragons.”

Kishan leaned forward. “What do you think awaits at the last pagoda then?”

Mr. Kadam pressed his hands together and sat back, tapping his lip while thinking. Finally, he said, “I think the danger is not necessarily going to come from the dragons but from what you find at the last pagoda. In Chinese mythology, dragons are revered for being helpful, especially water dragons.”

“Then why do we have to go in order? If we know Durga’s Necklace is hidden in the last pagoda, why not just go there and be done with it?” I asked.

Mr. Kadam shook his head. “No. The directions were given to us for a purpose. Perhaps the dragons will guide you or help you get to the next temple. You couldn’t have skipped the four houses in Shangri-la. You had to be tested at each one before proving yourselves worthy of continuing on. I suspect meeting the dragons will be a similar test.”

I groaned. Mr. Kadam began telling us some stories about dragons, and before I knew it, I’d fallen asleep on Kishan’s shoulder.

I awoke when Mr. Kadam chuckled. “Why don’t you two head off to bed while I study this a bit further. Tomorrow I will teach you what I’ve learned of the seven pagodas. Meet me here after breakfast.”

Kishan squeezed my hand as I nodded sleepily. We said goodnight to Mr. Kadam, and Kishan walked me back to my room.

After brushing my teeth and changing into pajamas in the bathroom, I found Kishan reclining on my bed wearing only a pair of lounge pants that hung dangerously low on his hips.

“Uh … what’s up?” I stammered nervously.

He blinked open his golden eyes and looked at me. “I thought we could spend some time together if you aren’t too tired.”

“Oh.”

He patted the space on the bed next to him, and I approached hesitantly.

What is wrong with me? He is my boyfriend, isn’t he? If it was Ren on the
bed I wouldn’t have paused. Why am I so nervous with Kishan?

He watched me with a mixture of curiosity and a twinge of sadness, so I wiped the errant thoughts from my mind and lay down next to him. He put his arm around me, cuddled me against his rather expansive warm chest, and rubbed my back. I eventually relaxed as sleepiness overtook me again.

“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.

“Nothing, really. I guess I’m just nervous at the idea of being close to you physically.”

I heard a rumble in his chest. “You don’t need to be nervous with me, Kells. I’d never hurt you.”

My mind snapped back to a green-tinged fire. I’d been wrapped in Ren’s arms as he said those exact same words.
I hope you know I’d never
hurt you, Kells.
My heart beat lopsidedly. For a second, it felt like my heart would rip in half.

I put my arm across Kishan’s chest and hugged him. “I know you’d never hurt me. It’s normal for two people who are getting to know one another to feel … hesitant and a little awkward. Don’t take it personally. I like being near you like this.”

“Good,” he grunted, “because I’m not moving.” He took my hand and pressed it against his chest, holding it captive there. “Are you tired?”

I nodded. “Aren’t you?”

“Not yet. Go ahead and sleep.”

I made myself comfortable against his shoulder and slept, not even noticing when he changed to a tiger.

The next morning after breakfast, we met with Mr. Kadam who had pulled out all his research on the City of the Seven Pagodas.

“The first documented accounts of the city are records written by Mr. John Goldingham in 1798. He wrote of seven pagodas built near the sea. Either he was writing on hearsay, or they were not underwater at the time.

“As I told you before, it is rumored that Marco Polo visited the city as it is listed on one of his Catalan maps of 1275, but there is no record of this. What interests me most about this city are the ties I’ve found to Shangri-la.”

“How exactly is it tied to Shangri-la?” I asked.

“Do you remember the utopian societies we’ve researched and about how the story of the flood has common ties in every culture?”

“Yes.”

“In Shangri-la, you found objects that crossed mythical boundaries between many peoples. The ravens Hugin and Munin from the Norse, the sirens of the Greek, the Ocean Teacher of Tibet, the Spirit Gates of Japan, even the Kappa of the Chinese in Kishkindha … all of these things go beyond the borders of India and, as a result, I have begun to explore sunken cities of other cultures. The most famous of which is—”

“Atlantis.”

Mr. Kadam smiled at me. “Correct. Atlantis.”

“What’s Atlantis?” Kishan asked.

Mr. Kadam turned to him. “Atlantis is thought to be a fictional creation of Plato, though there are scholars who believe the story to be based in fact. As the story goes, the isle of Atlantis was a beautiful land that belonged to Poseidon. The king of the island was Poseidon’s son, Atlas, which is where the name came from. The island was said to be larger than Australia, located on the Atlantic Ocean, which was also named for Atlas, by the way, and was located several miles outside the Pillars of Hercules, or the Straits of Gibraltar.

“Poseidon was proud of his son and of the strong and brave people who lived on his isle. Although the paradise offered the people everything they could wish for, they became greedy and wanted more. They knew wealthy lands were not far away, so the Atlanteans created a military and began conquering territory inside the Pillars of Hercules. This in and of itself was tolerated by the gods, but the Atlanteans also forced those conquered into slavery.

“The gods met to discuss what was happening, and steps were taken to intervene. Earthquakes, fires, and floods were sent to humble the Atlanteans, but the lust for power and wealth was so heavy, they refused to change their ways. Finally, the gods forced Poseidon to destroy Atlantis. He raised the seas and caused great earthquakes to rip the land apart. In his wrath, he flung pieces of the broken isle across the ocean, where it sank into oblivion. Atlas, who had been a wise mathematician and astronomer, was punished by the gods and was forced to bear the weight of the heavens.”

“Wait a minute, I thought Atlas held the Earth on his back,” I said.

“No. Actually, he held up the sky. Homer said that Atlas was ‘one who knows the depths of the whole sea, who keeps the tall pillars, and who holds heaven and earth asunder.’ It has been said that when Atlantis was destroyed and the pieces torn apart, Atlas felt great despair and agony over his people. The gods were disappointed in him, and, what was worse, he’d lost the respect of his father. As each piece was ripped away, Atlas felt as if it had been torn from his own chest. He grieves as he bears the weight of his lost city. This is why many pictures of Atlas show him bowed down in despair as he does his duty.”

“I had no idea. Now you said there are other sunken cities. I haven’t heard of any others.”