Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga #1)

I hugged Ren around his thick neck, carefully picked up the gada, and walked with Ren to the entryway of the temple. He stood there for a minute while I grabbed a tree branch and dusted away all of his paw prints.

As we walked down the dirt path back to the Jeep, I was surprised to see the sun had traveled a long way across the sky.

We’d been in the temple a while, much longer than I’d thought. Mr. Kadam was parked in the shade with the windows down, napping. He sat up quickly and rubbed his eyes as we approached.

I asked, ‘Did you feel the earthquake?’

‘An earthquake? No. It’s been as quiet as a church out here.’

He chuckled at his own joke. ‘What happened in there?’

Mr. Kadam looked from my face down to my new gifts and gasped in surprise. ‘Miss Kelsey! May I?’

I passed the gada to him. He tentatively reached out both of his hands and took it from me. He seemed to struggle a bit with its weight, which made me wonder if he was weaker than he looked in his old age. Pure delight and scholarly interest reflected on his face. ‘It’s beautiful!’ he exclaimed.

I nodded. ‘You should see it in action.’ I lay my hand on his arm. ‘You were right, Mr. Kadam. I would say that we definitely received Durga’s blessing.’ I pointed to the snake wrapped around my arm. ‘Say hello to Fanindra.’

He stretched a finger to the snake’s head. I winced, hoping she wouldn’t reanimate, but she remained frozen. He seemed transfixed by the objects.

I tugged on his arm. ‘Come on, Mr. Kadam, let’s go. I’ll tell you all about it in the car. Besides, I’m starving.’

Mr. Kadam laughed, elated and jubilant. Carefully wrapping the gada in a blanket, he stowed it in the back of the car. Then he came around to my side of the Jeep and opened the door for me and Ren. We climbed in. I put my seatbelt on, and we drove off toward Hampi. Durga had spoken, and we had a golden fruit to obtain. We were ready.





19


Hampi


On the ride back to the city, Mr. Kadam listened with rapt attention to every detail of our experience at Durga’s temple. He rattled off dozens of questions. He asked for details that I hadn’t even considered important at the time. For example, he wanted to know what the other three pillars in the temple showed, and I didn’t think I even looked at them.

Mr. Kadam was so absorbed in the story that he drove straight to the hotel and forgot to drop Ren in the jungle. We doubled back, and I walked Ren out. Mr. Kadam was happy to stay in the Jeep and examine the gada more closely.

I walked through the tall grass with Ren all the way to the tree line, bent down, hugged him, and whispered, ‘You can stay in my room again at the hotel if you like. I’ll save you some dinner.’ I kissed the top of his head and left him there staring after me.

For dinner, Mr. Kadam used the hotel kitchen to whip us up some veggie omelets with pan-fried toast and papaya juice. I was starving, and, looking at the other foods emerging from the kitchen, I felt very appreciative that Mr. Kadam liked to cook. Another guest was boiling something in a large pot, and the smell left something to be desired. For all I knew, she was boiling the laundry.

I ate a plateful and then asked Mr. Kadam for seconds to take back to my room, in case I got hungry that night. He was more than happy to oblige and luckily didn’t ask questions.

I left the gada in Mr. Kadam’s care, but discovered the snake armlet wouldn’t budge from my arm, no matter how I tried to slip, pull, and yank it off. Mr. Kadam worried that people would try to steal it from me.

‘Believe me,’ I said, ‘I would love to take Fanindra off. But if you saw the way she got on my arm, you’d want her to remain inanimate too.’

Squelching that thought quickly, I chastised myself for forgetting that Fanindra was a gift and a divine blessing, and I whispered a quick apology to her.

When I returned to my room, I changed into my pajamas, which took some doing. Lucky for me, I had a short-sleeved top. I tucked the top of the sleeve into Fanindra’s coil so her head wasn’t covered and picked up my toothbrush. I looked at Fanindra in the mirror while I brushed my teeth.

Tapping the snake lightly on the head, I mumbled with my tooth-brush in my mouth, ‘Well, Fanindra, I hope you like water because tomorrow morning I plan to take a shower, and if you’re still on my arm, then you’re going with me.’

The snake remained frozen but her hard eyes glittered back at me from the mirror in the dim room.

After brushing my teeth, I clicked on the ceiling fan, set Ren’s dinner on the dresser, and climbed into bed. The snake’s body dug into my side, making it hard to get comfortable. I thought I’d never be able to sleep with that hard piece of jewelry wrapped around my arm, but, eventually, I drifted off.



I woke in the middle of the night to Ren’s soft scratching on my door. Anxious to be close, he ate quickly and then wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me onto his lap. He pressed his cheek against my forehead and started talking about Durga and the gada. He seemed excited about what the gada could do. I nodded sleepily and shifted, resting my head against his chest.

I felt safe snuggled in his arms and enjoyed listening to the warm timbre of his voice as he spoke quietly. Later, he began humming softly, and I felt the strong beat of his heart keeping rhythm against my cheek.

After a while, he stopped and moved his arms while I issued a sleepy protest. Rearranging my limp body, he lifted me in his arms and cuddled me close. Half asleep, I mumbled that I could walk but he ignored me, placed me on my bed, and gently straightened my limbs. I felt him brush a kiss on my forehead and cover me with my quilt, and then I was out.

Sometime later, I opened my eyes with a start. The golden snake was gone! I rushed to turn on the light and saw her resting on the night-stand. She was still frozen, but now she was coiled up with her head resting on top of her body. I watched her suspiciously for a moment, but she didn’t move.

I shuddered, thinking of a live snake slithering over my body while I slept. Ren lifted his tiger head and looked at me with concern. I patted him and told him I was fine, and that Fanindra had moved during the night. I thought about asking Ren to sleep between the snake and me, but I decided that I needed to be brave. Instead, I turned on my side and rolled myself up in my quilt tightly to prevent any odd things from happening to my limbs without my knowledge.

I also mentioned to Fanindra that I would appreciate it if she wouldn’t slither up and down my body when I wasn’t aware of it and said that I would prefer it not to happen at all if she could help it.

She didn’t move or blink a green eye.

Do snakes blink? Pondering that deep question, I rolled back on my side and fell asleep easily.



The next morning, Ren was gone and Fanindra hadn’t moved, so I decided it was the perfect time for a shower. I was back in my room, towel-drying my hair, when I noticed that Fanindra had changed shape again. This time, she was twisted in loops as before, ready to be placed on my arm.

I picked her up gently and slid her unyielding body up the length of my arm where she fit comfortably. This time, when I tried to pull her off, she slipped down easily.

Pushing her back up, I said, ‘Thank you, Fanindra. It will be much easier if I can take you off when I need to.’

I couldn’t be sure, but I thought that I saw her emerald eyes glow softly for a moment.

I was just finishing plaiting my hair and tying it with a green ribbon to match Fanindra’s eyes when I heard a knock. Mr. Kadam was standing outside the door with freshly washed hair and a trimmed beard.

‘Ready to go, Miss Kelsey?’ he asked, taking my bag.

We checked out of our hotel and drove over to the wooded area to pick up Ren. We waited for several minutes, then finally he shot out of the trees and ran up to meet the car. I laughed nervously.

‘Overslept a little today, did you?’