Kelsey, on the other hand, would often get lost, wander into impenetrable brush, or need a nudge to keep her on the right track. She’d spread her things around camp. Her clothes, journal, and supplies were tossed about randomly like she was planting a garden of arbitrary things, and she’d end up leaving her scent everywhere. Any idiot who knew anything about tracking could follow her trail as easily as a herd of buffalo.
Ana, though, barely left a trace of herself. She was like a ghost in the woods, a phantom. Sometimes, as we walked, she’d disappear altogether. I’d stop and turn, straining my ears for a hint of her whereabouts, and then she’d emerge suddenly from the brush with a handful of berries or a cutting of a plant she wanted to add to her garden at home. I’d frown at her, but she’d just raise an eyebrow, taunting me to go ahead and say something. It was easier to keep the peace.
We soon came upon a group of hunters. The scent of death and fear clung to them like a disease. Jungle creatures fled at the stench, putting as great a distance as they could manage between themselves and the humans. Anamika wrinkled her nose as if she, too, could smell them. Rippling heat hung over the group languishing in the trees. The knowledge of what they were, of what they did, brought the taste of bile to my mouth.
Even from a distance where we hid in the trees, I could make out dozens of caged birds and animals, pelts of all kinds, and the unmistakable shine of ivory peeking out of large bags. One man teased a creature in a cage by offering meat and then pulling it away. His laugh cut through me. If I wasn’t angry already, I would have been after seeing him taunt the poor creature. A solid band of anger twisted in my gut at the thought of leaving Ren in the hands of these men. Suddenly, consigning Ren to a cage such as that didn’t sit so well with me. It was Ana who caught my attention and distracted me from the scene.
She drew me around a copse of trees and pointed. From that angle we could make out a few of the men climbing out of a pit. The leader grunted his instructions, and the men took one of the smaller animals from a cage, killed it, and hoisted its bleeding carcass over the hole they’d made. Quickly, they covered it with long crisscrossing sticks and then wove leaves through the branches until the pit was concealed. When they were satisfied, they picked up their bags and cages and moved off deeper into the jungle.
Deeming it safe a half hour after their departure, we stepped out of the trees, and I rubbed a hand across my jaw, inspecting the trap. “He’s not going to fall for this one. He’s far too intelligent. Even so,” I mumbled, bending down to peek through the leaves covering the pit, “there are sharpened pikes in there. He could heal from being impaled, but he’d have a hard time freeing himself.”
“Then we’ll fashion a second trap and make certain he doesn’t see that one,” she said.
“Are you sure that’s a smart idea? Even if he falls in, how can you be sure the hunters would find it?”
“We will place the second near the first.”
“Won’t the hunters realize it isn’t their trap?”
“These aren’t the type of men to honor any type of hunting code. If they see him, they will take him. We’ll just have to make sure they see him.”
Using the power of the Damon Amulet, Ana moved dirt quickly, fashioning another pit right next to the first one. When it was prepared, she erased our scents and we climbed high into a tree to wait for Ren. At first, I was worried that we’d be waiting for quite a long time, but I took us to the approximate date of the morning Ren went missing, so we’d only been sitting in the tree for a short time when I heard him.
There was a snap in the bushes, and with the wave of her hand, Anamika made us invisible. Ren poked his tiger head out of the bush and lifted his nose in the air. He took his time, listening, and then he emerged from the bush, stretched lazily, and lifted his head to peer up at the raw meat. Carefully, he circled the pit, purposely nudging the leaves covering the hole until it was exposed. He wrinkled his nose in a tiger grimace when he saw the sharpened sticks jutting up out of the hole.
Glancing up at the meat again, he licked his whiskers. It was an easy meal and he was likely hungry. Ren didn’t like hunting as much as I did. I often brought my kills home to share with him. He had the same instincts I did but he hated giving in to his tiger half. When he was close to the second pit, Anamika shot a series of arrows down on him from our perch in the tree. She missed him each time, purposely, but when he started to move in the wrong direction, she allowed an arrow to graze him so he’d head back the other way.
He leapt to the side after an arrow pierced his flank and fell into the hole she’d made. The one without the deadly pikes. Quietly, she dropped from the tree, phasing her body in time so Ren couldn’t detect her. She gathered her arrows and gazed down upon his pacing tiger form. I joined her, and together we moved off through the trees, staying close enough to watch over him but far enough away that there was no danger he’d hear us. When we were satisfied with our position, Anamika sped up time.
After two days for Ren and a few minutes for us, she took hold of the amulet, and time slowed down to normal. Ren had already been hungry when he’d fallen in the pit. I could see his ribs jutting out even through the foliage. He was likely ravenous now, so Anamika used the amulet to rain over his pit so he had water, and she chased a few small animals into it so he could eat something. Then she returned to my side and the clock sped ahead again.
As we watched and waited, I wondered if Ren would have died if I hadn’t been there at that exact time to make sure he was fed. Then I remembered how difficult it was to destroy us. Ren had his heart literally ripped from his chest and he survived that. Surely going without food and water wasn’t going to do him in.
Still, it was sobering to think that my presence had made his past self comfortable. My thoughts turned from my desire to be with Kelsey to the capture of my brother. I didn’t envy the years of captivity and suffering he’d have to endure. Three hundred years of it. I’m not sure I would have done as well had I been in his place.
We were about to give him water and food again on day four when we noticed the return of the hunters. Anamika slowed time so we could listen in as they discovered their catch. When they did, they marveled at their prize and argued for a time about whether they should skin Ren right there or take him alive.
Ren snarled at them from the pit and swiped at them with his claws every chance he got. He roared loudly and I recognized his cry. It was to get my attention. He must have sensed my nearness. I winced. The old me was wandering far off in the jungle, sulking about Yesubai and my fate. I never heard his roar for help. I’m here, I thought. I’ve got you, brother.
My brother would never know that, of course. His past self didn’t get to see the man I’d become since then. This Ren only knew a brother who had betrayed him, stolen his fiancée, and sulked in the jungle. I was ashamed of the man I’d been. If I had paid attention, I’d have noticed he was missing. Nearly four days he’d been in the pit. If I had checked in with my family more often, I could have found him easily. The fact was, his capture had been the final tragedy that brought my parents down to their death beds.
I could stop it.
Change his past. Change our past.
Kadam insisted that Ren needed to be taken by the hunters. But was that really true? If Ren had never been in the circus, he never would have met Kelsey. The idea brought a swell of sadness to my heart. But maybe, maybe, my parents would have lived longer. Maybe Kadam wouldn’t have left. Maybe Kelsey would have been better off never knowing us. I pressed my palms over my temples and squeezed. The circular logic was crushing me.