Tiger's Voyage (45 page)

After they ate, they kept moving until it was dark again. They soon reached the beach on the western side of the island and ran along the wet sand for a time. Frantically, they searched for the hedge, but I knew they wouldn’t find it.

When they bedded down for the night, Ren stood guard first. I had the mirror zoom in close to his face. His blue eyes stared straight ahead as if he was watching me. He sighed heavily, and his pink nose twitched. I watched him until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.

Early morning of the third day brought me another hot loaf of black bread and a small cauldron full of stew. The sun hadn’t even risen yet, and as I ate, I settled by the mirror to watch the hunt’s progress. The tigers were running along the beach, taking advantage of the darkness to move freely in the open. I searched for the hunter and found him just waking up near a burned-out fire. He held a cup of liquid in his hands and looked to one side, then the other, and secretly blew some fire into his cup to warm its contents.

“That’s cheating,” I shouted at the mirror. “You broke a rule!”

The dragon looked up and grinned. I heard laughter and his voice in my head.
It’s just a warm drink, my dear. And the rule clearly states that
I won’t use my powers in the hunt. I’m not
hunting
yet this morning, so this
doesn’t count.

I snorted and watched him finish his drink and shoulder his gun. He tracked the tigers all day, and he was good. He never missed a broken blade of grass or a depression, however obscure, in the ground. Unfortunately, the ocean didn’t wash away the tigers’ tracks along the beach, so they were easy to pick up and follow. When the dragon dipped into the jungle, he stopped suddenly, and we both heard the multiple roars of big cats fighting. He quickened his pace. I asked the mirror to hurry and show me the tigers.

At first I didn’t know what I was looking at. It was a close-up of furry creatures rolling, and claws slashing. When I finally got the mirror to zoom out, I sucked in a breath as a shiver ran down my spine. Ren and Kishan were in a bloody battle with a large group of jaguars. Ren had told me that big cats don’t usually hunt together, except for lions, so I was surprised at the large group of cats working together. One of the jaguars was lying on its side on the ground, dead. Ren and Kishan stood back-to-back and growled at the circling pack.

I counted six more jaguars on the ground, but there may have been more. It was hard to tell because they were constantly moving. It was eerie the way they moved. They paced back and forth as one, circling the tigers. Their eyes never left their prey. One darted in and slashed its claw across Kishan’s face. He swiped back but missed as the lighter, more agile cat leapt out of the way. Two jumped at Ren, one from each side. He bit the leg of one, and it limped off, but the other one landed on his back, claws extended. It bit Ren’s neck and locked on. Kishan turned around and knocked the cat away, but two more jumped on Kishan.

Ren bit one in the throat and shook the cat violently. Its neck snapped, and he tossed the body aside. They bit and clawed until the spotted cats slunk off to regroup. Ren and Kishan tried to lope away, but the jaguars quickly cut them off.

They must be really hungry
, I thought. They seemed to be herding the striped cats toward some thick brush.

They started pacing, circling around the tigers again. A cat snarled and darted in but ran off before the tigers could get him. Another one did the same thing. They seemed to be playing with the tigers. A moment later, two cats leapt from an overhead tree onto Ren’s and Kishan’s backs. They bit and held. Ren was bleeding from his chest and shook hard to get the jaguar off his back. It wouldn’t budge.

The other jaguars leapt into the fray and began biting. One bit Kishan’s cheek, and another his back leg. Ren wasn’t faring any better. The tigers were panting from the exertion, and even with their ability to heal, I worried.
The jaguars could still take bites out of them. How would they
heal from that?
Ren roared, stood on his hind legs, and banged his back into a tree. The stunned jaguar released its grip and fell off. Ren was attacking the cat on Kishan’s back when a shot rang through the jungle.

The dragon had caught up. A jaguar fell dead and dropped near Kishan’s front paw. The jaguars disappeared like shadows back into the verdant jungle, while Ren and Kishan mustered the strength to run. Shots rang out again and again as the hunter pursued the tigers. A bullet grazed the top of Ren’s head, and I could hear his yelp of pain. He shook the blood out of his eyes and kept running. Another sank into Kishan’s shoulder. He roared angrily and staggered, but continued on, though with a limp.

Then they decided to go on the offense. Ren leapt onto a large rock and into an overhead tree. Kishan exaggerated his limp to let Lǜsèlóng catch up. The hunter followed Kishan’s tracks but paused when Ren’s suddenly disappeared. He paced back and forth, started down Kishan’s trail and then went back to where Ren was last seen. He stopped and carefully studied the surrounding bushes. A wet drop hit his cheek. He touched it and drew back his finger. It was blood.

His eyes widened, and he looked up but it was too late. The five-hundred-plus-pound white tiger had leapt out of the tree, jaws gaping and claws extended toward the throat of the dragon. Behind him the black tiger had leapt into the air also. The hunter sucked in a breath and everything froze. He stepped gingerly away from the two tigers, who hung suspended in the air, less than a foot away from mangling the hunter.

I screamed, “That’s cheating! They had you!”

Lǜsèlóng ignored me and walked around both tigers curiously. “I congratulate you. No one has ever gotten the jump on me before.”

“Lǜsèlóng! You are breaking the rules!”

The dragon laughed and spoke in my mind.
It doesn’t count. My rifle
was down.

I banged my fist against the mirror in frustration, but the dragon walked off several paces, aimed his rifle, and then snapped his fingers. The tigers hit each other and rolled in the dirt. They got up, shook the dust from their coats, and the hunter fired. The shot hit the dirt inches from Ren’s head. Ren and Kishan quickly broke apart and scrambled into the trees.

Fortunately, they didn’t hit any traps this time. Soon the shots and sounds of pursuit could no longer be heard. They only rested for short times and kept up their wearying pace for hours. They hit the beach on the eastern side of the island and searched back and forth, looking for the castle or the hedge.

“No. No. It’s not there. I’m over here. Across the water!” I shouted to the mirror, but I knew they couldn’t hear me. When night fell again, I wrapped a blanket around me and sat in front of the mirror. Lǜsèlóng was still searching, but my tigers were safe for the moment. Kishan’s eyes closed and soon, too exhausted to keep watch, Ren’s eyes closed too. I watched them wearily for a long time, and then I walked up to the mirror and traced the outline of Ren’s white furry ear.

“You’re not going to make it. He’s going to wear you out. The dragon cheats, and there’s not enough food to sustain the two of you. Do you hear me, Ren?” I slapped the mirror on the side of his face. “You’re going to die, and who am I going to argue with then? I’ll be a dragon’s consort on a nonexistent island, and you’ll be dragon kibble.”

A tear plopped on my cheek, and I touched the glass with my fingertip as if smoothing the fur of his brow. “It’s not supposed to end this way, you know. I didn’t get to say good-bye to you. To either of you. There are so many things we left unsaid.” I sniffed and felt tears rolling down my face. “
Please
live. Please find me. I’m right here.”

I placed my hand over my heart and felt its beat. I could feel my connection to him, the tether that bound my heart to his. If I closed my eyes and concentrated, I could feel the steady thump of his heart as he rested. I pressed both palms to the mirror on either side of his head and touched my forehead to the glass while I cried.

My eyes felt hot and my heart heavy. Then my heart started to burn. It filled me with warmth. I dashed the tears away from my eyes and looked at the mirror. Ren was awake. He’d lifted his head off his paws, and he was staring straight at me as if he could see me. Startled, I pushed back from the mirror and gasped softly as I saw both of my hands were glowing. When I pulled them away from the glass, the red light faded.

Ren growled quietly and woke Kishan, then began moving. He walked out to the beach straight toward me and took a few steps into the water. He stared out into the dark waves. It was foggy, and I knew even he couldn’t see the island in the dark. He lifted his head as if smelling the air, then, with a few great bounds, he leapt into the water. He started swimming forward. Kishan ran back and forth along the beach, not sure what Ren was doing, but eventually, he ran into the surf as well and started swimming alongside his brother.

They were coming. I clapped my hands to my mouth, sobbed in relief, and kept talking to the mirror, encouraging them to keep coming and to not give up. I pressed my hands against the glass again, but they didn’t glow like before. I tried to shoot a flare as a beacon light, but my power was still gone. The only thing I could do was stay awake and watch them swim in the dark water, using all the power of my mind to will them forward.

Silently, I prayed, asking that there would be no dark sea monster to find them. No terrible storm to overwhelm them. They swam and swam and an hour later, dragged their weary bodies onto my island and dropped down onto the sand, exhausted. They slept the rest of the night while I kept my silent vigil over them.

They were still asleep when dawn approached. I saw the dragon find their resting place on the other island and follow their tracks to the beach. He stared out at the ocean for several minutes, and then rubbed his jaw and smiled. With a deep intake of breath, he exploded into his natural form and rose into the sky. The mirror turned black.

All was quiet, and I was so tired that I dozed off. Later, I was startled awake when I felt the tower shake and heard heavy footsteps. The hunter slammed open my door and strode in. He was not dressed in his hunting clothes but in the tunic and cloak of a fairy-tale prince. He watched me speculatively.

“What happens next?” I ventured. “Did they win the first part of the game?”

“They did. Though you cheated,
deti dama
.”

“
I
cheated? How?”

“You signaled them somehow. You told them where to find you. There was no way they could have discovered this island on their own. I don’t know how you did it, but I’ll be watching you much more closely from now on. Obviously, I underestimated them. Now I’ll have to make part two harder.”

“Harder? You almost killed them!”

“Yes.
Almost.
They’ve ruined my track record now. They’ve won the battle, but I will win the war, I assure you. Still,
almost
has never happened with me before. I was right in believing this would be my best game. If you hadn’t tricked me into limiting myself, I would have beaten them the first day.”

“
Limiting
yourself! Ha! You cheated! Twice! Maybe more. I wasn’t watching you the whole time, so you probably cheated the whole way through!”

“It’s my game, not yours. If you don’t understand the complexities of the rules, that’s not my problem. Now before we start phase two, you should be properly attired, my dear.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if you’re going to play the part of a princess, you have to look it.” The dragon circled me, appraising my shape and coloring. “Ah, I have just the thing.” He snapped his fingers, and I was enfolded in whispers of fabric. The room faded to white and then started to rematerialize. I looked down and gasped. My clothes had been replaced by a beautiful gown. I lifted one hand to touch the tight sleeve that ended at my wrist.

“No, there’s something missing. Ah, I know. It’s the hair. Your hair is entirely too short.” I pulled a short curl to the front of my face and peered at it. He snapped his fingers, and I squeaked as the hair began to grow.

“Hey!”

He hummed as my hair kept growing and growing.

“Stop it!”

The hair was now past my waist, and he was busy checking his appearance in the mirror.

“Lǜ sèlóng!”

“What?” His eyes met mine in the mirror. “Oh.” He snapped his fingers again and my hair stopped growing, but it was now just past my knees, and it was heavy. “There. Much better. You can watch in the mirror if you like. This part shouldn’t take long at all.”

“Wait!”

He spun in a circle and disappeared. The door slammed shut, and I was alone once again. I pounded angrily on the door, just because it felt good, and then walked over to the mirror to check on my tigers.

A stranger stared back at me. The dragon had not only dressed me, he’d done my makeup. A bold-eyed beauty was reflected there, and I poked my cheek several times to make sure I was the same person. He’d dressed me in a blush-pink gown that enhanced my dark eyes and hair. The dress had long tight-fitting sleeves with silver embroidery at the edges and was embellished with satin ribbon. An elegant neckline, trimmed in silver, swept just over my shoulders, leaving my neck bare.

Filmy organza tippets draped from armbands and a thick silver belt hung at my waist. The skirt was tiered in alternating silk and organza, and the bodice was adorned with silver embroidery to match the sleeve edges. Twisted silver and blush piping bordered the hemline of the skirt, and I wore dainty silver slippers. My long brown hair was shiny and fell in waves from a delicate silver headband with a long pink veil. I was a beautiful, pouty-looking princess who was extremely ticked off.

I ripped the veil off my head and sat on the bed, but then grunted in frustration as my head was wrenched back because I’d sat on my stupid hair. I yanked two ribbons from my sleeve, tore them off, and braided the mass into two long French braids. I said to the mirror, “Show me my tigers.”