The Tiger Prince (43 page)

He was a huge gray-brown monster with one tattered ear. He stood with a section of a rail in his trunk, and as she watched he hurled it away from him as if it were a toothpick and reached for another. “Stop him!”

The elephant’s head lifted and he glared at them with small bloodshot eyes. He trumpeted with rage and whirled to face them.

Jane could feel the blood stop in her veins. He was like a demonic creature from the nightmare depths of hell.

Li Sung muttered a curse as he moved to the side of the track and lifted the rifle.

“No!” Dilam shouted. She reached out and knocked down the barrel of the rifle. “It’s Danor.”

Li Sung said, “I don’t care what—”

The elephant charged toward Li Sung, deadly tusks lowered.

Dilam dove out of the way. Jane pushed Li Sung to the side with such force, they both fell to the ground and rolled out of the way just as the rogue reached them.

The elephant thundered past them.

Dilam grabbed the rifle from the ground where Li Sung had dropped it. “Stay down.”

“And let him step on me with those monstrous feet?” Li Sung asked. “I think not. Give me the rifle.”

Dilam ignored him, lifted the rifle, and fired over the elephant’s head.

The elephant stopped, his trunk weaving back and forth.

Dilam fired two more shots.

“What are you doing?” Jane asked impatiently. “Warning shots won’t help. An elephant can’t know a bullet will hurt him. You’ll have to shoot him.”

“No!” Dilam fired three more shots over the elephant’s head.

The elephant shifted from foot to foot and lifted his trunk again. Then, abruptly, he turned and lumbered off into the jungle.

Jane let her breath out in a little rush, trying to steady her heartbeat. “Will he come back?”

“Not tonight,” Dilam said. She handed the rifle back to Li Sung and bowed politely. “I regret being so rude as to take your weapon, but it was Danor. I could not let you hurt him. He is a very special elephant.”

“You said he was a rogue.”

Dilam’s jaw set stubbornly. “I did not know it was Danor. It is possible he has not gone rogue and, even if he has, he is still very special. I cannot let you kill him,”

“He almost killed us,” Jane said.

“Me,” Li Sung corrected her grimly as he rose to his feet. “He charged me. He evidently thought this lowly cripple was the weakest link. I have a desire to show him his error. I’m going after him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Li Sung. The elephant is just plain crazy. How could he know you were crippled? We don’t have time right now to go after him,” Jane said curtly as she turned to examine the tracks. “And Lord knows what he did to the—my God!”

She gazed with horror at the devastation before her. Rails were uprooted, ties broken as far as she could see. She grabbed the torch from Dilam and began to walk down the track. She was scarcely aware of Dilam and Li Sung following her as she encountered disaster after disaster.

Chaos everywhere.

“Very bad,” Dilam murmured after they had traveled for some distance along the track.

It was worse than bad, Jane thought grimly. Over two miles of damage to be repaired and that meant losing a full day.

“It can’t happen again,” she said. “I don’t care how special your elephant is. I won’t lose any more time cleaning up after him.”

Dilam offered tentatively, “Perhaps he’ll decide not to do it again.”

“Decide? How does a rogue elephant decide anything? You said yourself he was insane.”

“That was before I knew it was Danor. Danor has superior understanding.”

“He damn well understands how to destroy my railroad.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “How did one elephant manage to do this much damage so quickly? We didn’t even hear him until fifteen minutes ago.”

“Because he didn’t want us to hear him.” “What do you mean?”

“He started trumpeting only the last quarter-mile or we would not have heard him. He must have had some reason for wishing to attract our attention.”

Jane gazed at her in astonishment. “You’re saying he planned this?”

“I do not know, but he is not as other elephants.”

“I don’t care if he’s not like other elephants. I want to know if this will happen again.”

She hesitated, troubled. “It is possible. He obviously did not like being interrupted.”

Jane had a fleeting memory of deadly tusks lowered to charge. “I noticed that.”

“But I will put guards on the track tomorrow night,” Dilam assured her.

“You can’t put guards along the entire line,” Li Sung said. “It is best we hunt him down and shoot him.”

Dilam’s expression became shuttered. “I will not help you do this.”

“Did you see what he did? Those tracks are—” Jane stopped, trying to control her temper. “I wouldn’t kill
any animal needlessly, but this elephant is vicious. Why won’t you help us?”

“He saved the life of my child. It would be dishonor if I destroyed his savior.”

“Then find someone else to lead us to him.”

“I cannot do that,” Dilam said stubbornly. “It would be the same thing. I will place guards on the track.”

“I could try to find him by myself,” Li Sung offered.

“You’d get lost,” Jane said curtly. “You don’t know anything about jungles.”

“And less about elephants,” Li Sung conceded. “But I know I don’t like this one, and even I could hit a target that size.”

“If you shoot him in the right spot. I’m not even sure a bullet would pierce that skin. It’s too dangerous. He almost killed you tonight.”

“I told you he did not like me.” His lips tightened. “I assure you the aversion is mutual. I will go after him.”

She shook her head.

Li Sung gave her a cold glance. “You think the task too much for a cripple?”

“I didn’t say … Li Sung, don’t
do
this to me right now.” She turned to Dilam. “This must not happen again. I want those guards armed. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

But she hadn’t promised she would tell the guards to shoot the elephant, Jane thought in frustration. She turned on her heel and headed back toward the camp.

Li Sung walked beside her. “You are worried about the deadline?”

“Of course I’m worried.”

“We still have one day’s grace.”

“If that blasted elephant doesn’t do any more damage.”

“If he does, I will go after him.”

He meant it. For some idiotic reason Li Sung was taking this elephant attack on an intensely personal level. Now she would not only have to worry about meeting the deadline but about Li Sung storming around in the jungle, trying to find that rogue. She suppressed a sudden
surge of panic and desperation. She still had two days. She would just have to work harder to make sure two days was enough to repair the damage and clear the crossing.

And pray that demented elephant didn’t take it into his head to wreck any more of her track.

i Sung knelt beside Dilam’s blanket and shook her shoulder. “Wake up.”

Dilam drowsily opened her eyes. “You wish to
nesling?
”

“No, I certainly do not.”

Dilam yawned, rolled over, and closed her eyes. “Then I need to sleep. I just got back into my blankets and must be up again in three hours. We will talk tomorrow.”

“Why should you sleep when I cannot? You’re the only one who can give me the answers.”

“What answers?”

“Tell me about elephants.”

Dilam opened her eyes and raised herself on one elbow. “What do you wish to know?”

“Everything.”

“Because you wish to go after Danor?”

“Perhaps.”

“What other reason could there be?”

“Very well, I want to go after him.”

“Why are you so angry with him?” Dilam asked curiously.

Why was he angry, Li Sung wondered in frustration. He was aware his emotion was entirely out of proportion. All he knew was that when he had looked at that tattered-eared monster he had felt something explode inside him. “He tried to kill me. Isn’t that reason enough?”

“Yes.” Dilam studied his face. “But I don’t believe you are … I think you heard the
makhol.
”

“makhol?”

“The summons. My father told me that sometimes an elephant will lay its will upon a man and for the rest of their lives elephant and man are one. Only rarely does this happen even with a
mahout
, an elephant handler.” She frowned thoughtfully. “Very curious. I’ve never heard of anyone but a very young child hearing the
makhol.”

Li Sung said sarcastically, “I assure you, I heard no summons and have no desire to be one with any elephant, much less that brute.”

“So you wish to know about elephants only so you can kill Danor if he comes again?”

Li Sung nodded jerkily. “And now I suppose you won’t talk to me.”

“I did not say that.”

“What about protecting this noble savior of your child?”

“I do not fear for Danor.”

“You should,” Li Sung said grimly.

“I do not think so.” Dilam smiled as she sat up and wrapped her blanket around her. “Very well, I will tell
you all I know of elephants. They are very like us, you know. They live very long lives, sometimes over sixty years and do not reach adulthood until they are in their teens. They travel in family herds of eight or ten and often join together with larger herds. I have counted over a hundred in Danor’s herd. Usually the leader is the largest cow elephant of the herd.”

“Another matriarch,” Li Sung said sourly. “No wonder you like elephants.”

Dilam smiled slyly. “I told you they were intelligent. The herd bull has to be very clever and strong to maintain his position. If another male elephant challenges and wins, the defeated bull leaves the herd and goes off alone. Often despair makes him turn violent and he turns rogue.”

“Like Danor?”

“Perhaps.” She shrugged. “I know Danor’s mate is leader of the herd. I have seen them together. An elephant sometimes eats over a thousand pounds of food a day and his favorite fare is the top branches of low trees. They are very tender, and if he cannot reach those branches he will push the tree over to get at them. That is why you see all those fallen trees as an elephant moves through the jungle. They must eat all the time or grow weak.”

“I am not interested in Danor’s menu.”

“No, you would rather know how to kill him. I will tell you this also, but you asked for everything and that is what you will receive. Only the males have tusks and they can do much damage with them.”

“I noticed.”

“I am not sure Danor meant to trample or gore you. They can be very surefooted and he could have swerved when you jumped aside.”

“He meant to kill me.”

“You will clearly not believe anything else.” She made a face and went on. “Elephants like water and are very at ease in it. I have seen an entire herd swimming underneath the water to get to the opposite bank, only
occasionally lifting their trunks above the surface to breathe air. It is like watching—”

“That is not important to me. Since I do not swim, I have no intention of confronting him anywhere but on dry land.”

“Do not interrupt. I will say what I wish to say.”

Li Sung opened his lips to argue and then closed them with the words unspoken. He had learned in the past months Dilam could be very stubborn and it would do him no harm to hear her out.

She nodded with satisfaction and again began to speak. Another twenty minutes passed before she finally fell silent.

“You have given me a great deal of information I cannot use,” Li Sung said. “I will have to filter the gold from the dross.”

“It is all gold,” Dilam said. “You merely have to fashion it to your needs.” She yawned. “Now, if that is all you wish to know, I will go back to sleep.”

He should go back to his own blankets, Li Sung thought. He’d learned all he needed to know. Yet, there was something else bothering him.

“Well?” she prompted.

“You never mentioned you had children before this,” he said slowly.

“You were not ready to be interested in that knowledge. I have two children, both fine boys. Medor is nine and Kalmar is four. They are being cared for by the women of the High Council while I am on this mission.”