Tiger's Quest (51 page)

I was mortally afraid. My hands shook.
I can do this! I’ve got to get a grip! Kishan needs me!
I lifted the arrow and aimed for Lokesh’s heart.

Meanwhile, I heard people shouting outside. I assumed it was the villagers and things were going according to plan. If not, then Kishan and I were in for worse trouble and soon. A huge
bang
sounded, and I smiled in relief. I knew it was Mr. Kadam. Nothing could pound like the
gada
. The building shook on its foundation. Time was of the essence. If they were attacking the building that meant the soldiers had all been rounded up and taken care of. Mr. Kadam was indeed efficient. Either that or Lokesh had abused these poor people sufficiently enough that they were on the verge of rebellion already.

I shot my arrow straight at Lokesh’s heart, but he turned at the last moment as he finally heard the bang of the
gada
and the arrow sunk deeply into his shoulder instead. The whirlwind surrounding Kishan suddenly halted, and all the items dropped to the floor in a treacherous shower. A heavy metal safe landed on Kishan’s foot; he grunted and shoved off the bulky object. I was sure his foot was broken.

Lokesh spun with thunderous rage and found me. Electricity shot out of his fingertips, and his breath froze the air, sending an icy gust up toward me. I froze and felt the blood congeal in my body thickly. I panted, more terrified than I’d ever been in my life.

“You!”

My skin broke out in goose bumps. Spitting castigating commands in what he assumed was my language, he yanked out the bloody arrow and began chanting. The arrow suddenly flew back at me. In an unconscious move of self-preservation my inner fire warmed me enough so I could move. My hands darted up to cover my face, but the arrow stopped in midair inches from my nose. I held out my hand, and it dropped slowly into my palm. Frustrated, Lokesh clapped his hands together and rubbed them viciously to make the box I was on teeter. I tumbled to the floor, painfully hitting several sharp corners along the journey. I groaned and shoved boxes off my body. My ankle was twisted sharply and pinned under a box, and my shoulder was badly bruised.

Kishan took out his chakram, which he had hidden in his shirt, and flung it toward the overhead lights. The room sank into blackness as I heard the metallic whir of the weapon move through the room. He threw the chakram a few more times but he couldn’t hit Lokesh with it because sudden winds whipped through the room, causing the disc to change direction. I crawled with difficulty to a new hiding place. Kishan caught the chakram and leapt on Lokesh. The two men fell to the floor in a mighty struggle.

Lokesh shouted to his soldiers; his voice was loud and augmented as if carried by the wind to the outside camp. I could hear it amplified as if he was speaking into a microphone, but all his soldiers were now contained. No one came to his rescue. The two men rolled toward me. Lokesh mumbled some words until a cushion of air bubbled between the men. It shoved Kishan back until Lokesh could stand again.

I stood and raised my hand. My entire arm shook as I tried to gather the courage. The fire wouldn’t come. My gut felt cold, like the fire inside me had been tamped out. Lokesh flicked his head instantly when he saw my gesture. He laughed at my pathetic effort and began muttering anew. I became stiff. I couldn’t move. A tear rolled down my cheek and froze.

Kishan took advantage of Lokesh’s distraction and grabbed an arm, twisting it behind Lokesh’s back. In an instant, he had the chakram pressed against Lokesh’s throat. The gleaming blade slid into the tender flesh, releasing trickles of blood to stream down the blade and drip on Lokesh’s blue silk shirt.

Lokesh grunted and muttered softly, “Do you wish him to
die
? I can kill him in an instant. I can freeze his blood so his heart stops beating.”

Kishan looked at me and stopped. He could have decapitated Lokesh with the flick of a wrist, but he paused, and I saw emotions cross his face. He was holding back for my sake. Lokesh cackled in a rasping voice, breathing heavily at his exertions. A deep thump and the walls shook as Mr. Kadam and the villagers continued to beat on the building, trying to knock it off its foundation.

Lokesh threatened again, “If you don’t unhand me, I
will
kill him. Choose now!” The glint of anger burned in his eyes, a smoldering fire that could never be quenched.

Kishan let him go. I groaned inwardly because I couldn’t move. We had almost won. Now we were at the mercy of a monster.

Lokesh quickly murmured again, and Kishan was soon held in the same immovable grip as I was. Lokesh straightened and ceremoniously dusted off his jacket lapels. He pressed a clean white handkerchief to his bleeding throat. Then he laughed, approached Kishan, and patted his cheek fondly.

“There, now. It’s always better to cooperate, isn’t it? Do you see how feeble and useless it is for you to grapple with me? Perhaps I slightly underestimated you. You certainly put up a better fight than I’ve had in centuries. I look forward to the challenge of breaking your spirit.”

He pulled a very old, wicked-looking knife from inside his jacket and waved it almost lovingly in Kishan’s face. He moved closer and trailed the blunt edge down Kishan’s cheek. “This blade is the same one I used so many years ago on your prince. See how I’ve kept it in such good condition for all of these years? You could call me a sentimental old fool, I suppose. I’ve been secretly hoping that I’d get to use it again and finish what I’d begun many years ago. Isn’t it fitting that I should also use it on you? Perhaps it was saved for just that purpose.

“Now, where should I begin? A nice scar would make your face a bit less attractive, wouldn’t it? Of course, I’ll have to remove the amulet first. I’ve seen how it heals you. I’ve waited so long for this piece. You have no idea how I’ve yearned to feel the power it possesses. It’s sad that you won’t be around to appreciate what it does for me.”

He pouted briefly. “Too bad I don’t have time for a little experimental surgery. I would so enjoy teaching you some lessons in discipline. The only thing that would give me more pleasure than running my knife across your skin would be to disfigure you in front of your prince. Still, he will appreciate my handiwork, regardless.”

I was afraid. If I wasn’t already stiff, I would have been scared stiff anyway. It didn’t matter how prepared I was. Fighting someone who was truly evil was not an easy thing to do. The birds, the monkeys, and the Kappa were all just doing their jobs. They protected the magical gifts, and I was okay with that. But, facing Lokesh and watching him brandish that knife against Kishan’s throat was horrifying.

I tuned him out when he started speaking of dismembering Kishan piece by piece. It was nauseating. If I could have vomited, I would have. I just couldn’t conceive of someone that cruel. I wished that I could have covered my ears. My poor Ren had been abused by this psychotic fiend for months. My heart broke at the thought.

Lokesh had the conniving persona of Emperor Palpatine mixed with the sadistic cruelty of Hannibal Lecter. He craved power at any price, like Lord Voldemort, and he displayed the pitiless brutality of Ming the Merciless who, like him, had killed his own daughter. My frame shook with terror. I couldn’t watch him hurt Kishan. I couldn’t bear it.

He gripped Kishan’s chin and was just about to cut his face when I realized that, even if I couldn’t move, the Golden Fruit would still work. I wished for the first thing that crossed my mind: jawbreakers. And jawbreakers I got. A storm of them. They broke monitors and one of the glass windows. The booming roar of them buffeted my eardrums as they fell in the command center. It sounded like thousands of marbles dropped in a lake of glass, and everything shattered and broke around us. Kishan and I wobbled and fell as we were pelted with a hail of the hard, round candy. My backpack was what saved me from breaking my neck. I was sure Kishan was hurt again. Luckily, he’d heal quickly. I would be grateful if even just one of us got out of this alive.

Soon, every inch of the floor was covered with the colorful candy about a foot deep. Lokesh was pummeled and hit hard enough that he lost his balance and went down. He spat out several expletives in his language as he tried to regain his footing and figure out where the storm was coming from. Then, he realized the knife was missing and began combing through the candy to find it. Kishan and I were almost buried by that point.

The building shook and a segment of wall crashed in the partition next to us. Lokesh scrambled to his feet after finding his knife, grabbed the amulet around Kishan’s neck, and yanked until the chain broke, leaving a red welt behind.

He bent over him briefly and touched Kishan’s face with the knife. “We’ll meet again,” he smiled horribly, “soon.” He trailed the knife from Kishan’s cheek down to his throat, leaving a trail of blood that would terribly scar but not kill. Then with a pained noise, Lokesh wrenched himself away. He waded through the jawbreakers to a hidden button in the wall. A panel opened, and he disappeared.

A few villagers accompanied Mr. Kadam into the office, and they hurried to help us into standing positions. Kishan was already healing, but his shirt was spattered with blood. The cut had been deep. I heard the roar of an engine and a ripping sound as a vehicle tore itself from under the building and sped off on the dirt road leading away from the village. I could have used the Golden Fruit to stop up his engine, but I chose not to.

I was ashamed, but I didn’t want to face him again. I
wanted
him to escape. I never wanted to see him again. I stood stiffly, berating myself for being a coward. I was weak. If I could have moved, I would have whimpered in the corner of the room, hiding. Lokesh was too powerful. We couldn’t win.

The best thing we could hope for would be to avoid him. I knew Kishan and Mr. Kadam would be disappointed with me. Some warrior I turned out to be. Giant iron birds? No problem. Kappa? I had Fanindra and Ren. Monkeys? A few bites and bruises wouldn’t kill me. But Lokesh? I turned tail and ran in the face of the enemy. I wished I could understand why I was reacting this way. He was a monster. That was
all
. Just another thing for me to fight. But, this monster had a human face. It seemed worse somehow.

After a few moments, the spell Lokesh had used on Kishan and me faded. We tried to rub our stiff limbs awake. When Kishan had recovered sufficiently, he waded through the jawbreakers to help me. Mr. Kadam gave the villagers instructions while Kishan supported me on my sprained ankle and helped me search for Ren. Fanindra decided to wake and help in the search. She shifted and grew.

I lowered my arm so she could slide to the floor, and she wound her way between boxes of weapons and bags of supplies. She stopped and tasted the air near a section that looked like a dead end. Smoothly, she slid under some boxes, and Kishan inspected the arrangement more closely. He found they were a fake display and shoved them aside. Behind it was a locked door. We were just in time to glimpse Fanindra’s golden tail disappearing under it. Kishan struggled to pry it open. I ended up using my lightning power to blow the lock. It took me several seconds to build up the capacity to use it again. Thinking of Ren still suffering was what finally got me past my internal freeze.

The door swung open, and Kishan’s nostrils widened. Inside, the dank, sweet smell of blood and human sweat permeated everything. I knew where I was. I’d been here before. It was the chamber where Lokesh had tortured Ren. Terrible tools hung on the walls and were laid out on gleaming surgical tables. I froze in horror as I looked at all the instruments and imagined the pain Lokesh had brought upon the man I loved.

Modern surgical tools were spread out upon the utility trays while the older items were stacked in corners and hung on pegs. I couldn’t help myself. I reached out and touched the frayed ends of a whip. Next, I rubbed the handle of a large mallet and began to shiver as I imagined it breaking Ren’s bones. Various knives of different lengths and sizes hung in a row.

I saw wood, screws, nails, pliers, ice picks, leather straps, an iron muzzle, a modern drill, nail-studded collars, a vice that could be used to crush whatever limb was placed in it, and even a blow torch. I touched the items briefly as I passed and wept bitterly. Somehow, touching them was the only thing I could do to truly empathize and try to understand what this experience must have been like for him.

Kishan gently took my arm. “Don’t look at them, Kelsey. Just look at me or keep your eyes down and look at the floor. You don’t have to do this. It would be better for you to wait outside.”

“No. I need to be here for him. I need to do this.”

“Okay. Just stay by me.”

Ren’s cage stood in the far corner, and I could just make out a broken form inside and a gleaming snake coiled nearby. After retrieving Fanindra and thanking her, I stood back and blew the lock off. Then I approached and swung open the door.

I called softly, “Ren?”

He didn’t respond.

“Ren? Are you . . .
awake
?”

The form moved slightly, and a pale, wan face turned to me. His blue eyes narrowed. He looked at Kishan. His eyes widened, and he shifted closer to the opening. Kishan beckoned him and reached out a hand to help.

Carefully, he stretched out a shaky hand to grasp the bar on the edge of the cage. His fingers were newly broken and bloody. My eyes filled with tears, and my vision blurred as I took a step backward to give him room. Kishan stepped forward to assist him. When Ren finally stood, I gasped. He’d recently been beaten. I’d expected that. He was already healing from his wounds, in fact.

What shocked me was that he was so
gaunt
. Lokesh had been starving him. He was likely dehydrated too. His strong frame was thin, much thinner than I’d imagined he would be. His bright blue eyes were circled with dark hollows. His cheekbones were sharp and pronounced, and his silky dark hair hung lifeless and dank. He took a step closer to me.

“Ren?” I said and held out a hand.

He narrowed his eyes at me, clenched his fist, and swung with a burst of energy I didn’t expect he had. I felt a sharp pain in my jaw and then nothing as my body slumped to the ground.