Durga summoned those who’d survived and raised her arms to the sky to bring down soothing rain. Sweet, plump droplets fell on the war-ridden land. When the fires were finally contained, we assessed the damage. Out of a community of hundreds, only dozens remained. Most of them were women. The fire had strafed the village and taken down most of the buildings. The protective wall that had surrounded the homes was broken and burnt.
We stayed long enough to dispose of the dead, burning them to ash using the fire portion of the amulet, and we used the kamandal to heal the wounded. Ana accessed the power of the Golden Fruit to provide nourishment that would last several years, and when she touched it to the ground and linked it to the amulet, new crops grew where the old ones had burnt away.
When we were satisfied that we’d done the best we could for the people, we left them and leapt through the ring of fire once more, seeking the next place that needed us, and then another. It took the better part of three days until we reached the last location.
Having been summoned to a land east of India, I set my feet down upon ground so dry that dust blossomed around us, coating both her skin and my coat. Though I’d spent most of my life in a sweltering jungle, the sun beating down on us was merciless and hotter than anything I’d ever experienced before. I wasn’t sure how long we could last.
“Where are we?” she asked. There were no people nearby and I couldn’t even make out a village. The heat was unbearable, so Ana sent away our armor and used the amulet to rain down on us from time to time to cool us off. Even Fanindra shuddered and changed into her metal form. It was as if she’d done her duty in protecting her mistress and we’d now be fine on our own. I took it as a good sign.
When Fanindra was inanimate, she required no food or water. I hadn’t realized she was ever thirsty or hungry before. Not until she spent a lot of time as a real snake living among us. I murmured a silent thanks to the snake for protecting us before. I might have imagined it but I thought her eyes sparkled as if she’d heard me. I’d gained a real appreciation for Fanindra, especially after seeing how she’d saved both Kelsey and Anamika countless times. If it hadn’t been for her, we would never have survived let alone defeated Lokesh.
The few trees we passed were stunted and dry. The leaves that clung stubbornly to the trees had curled up and hung blowing in the hot wind like thin brown ribbons. It reminded me a bit of the wishing trees at the star festivals except this one belonged at a festival in hell. We soon came upon furrows of dirt in long rows but nothing grew there. Not even weeds.
Finally, we found an abandoned village. Strewn bits of refuse and straw littered the ground. I lifted my nose to the air. It was so dry I barely caught a scent, but I traced through the town, poking my nose into each dark building until I came upon a small temple with a mound of desiccated offerings.
This is where they prayed to you, I said.
“Can you find them?” she asked.
I’ll try.
It took the better part of two hours before I found a group of starving villagers. They sat near a dried-up river at least a half hour away from the village. I could tell the river had been wide and full at one time. The banks stretched far and the bed was deep. The river rocks at the bottom were covered with fish bones. It wasn’t natural.
I shivered. From what I could tell, the fish had been killed quickly. It was almost as if someone had poisoned the water. On the banks we’d passed the dried remains of hundreds of animals who had come to the river and stayed, hoping there would be water soon. A river that large should have never dried up. The mountains in the distance would feed it year round.
As a tiger, I’d instinctively migrated to steady waterways in the summers. The waterfall where I’d first met Kelsey had dried up once in three hundred years, and that had only been for a month or so. The pool had lowered considerably that summer and many animals came to drink at the edge, but when the rains came, it quickly refilled.
I had never worried much about water before, but those days had been difficult. I can’t imagine what these animals and the villagers had gone through. Even now, the people could barely rouse themselves to acknowledge our arrival. Women cried but the tears dried instantly in the heat. Men laughed but their happiness soon turned to fits of coughing.
A child sat up. I hadn’t even seen her among the press of bodies. Her poor lips were chapped and bleeding, and her limbs were so thin I was surprised they could support her weight. Other children peeped out from beneath hastily constructed tents and sheets that had been draped between trees to give them respite from the hot sun.
“What has happened here?” Anamika asked. Her voice was picked up by the wind and amplified so all the people could hear her.
“Drought,” a woman said. “The land is cursed. An evil man has set his power against us. Half of our village is dead and the other half dying.”
“Who is the man who did this to you?” Anamika demanded.
“It does not matter. He is gone now.”
“I will find him,” she promised. “He will be punished for what he has done.”
The woman laughed. “You will never find Lokesh.”
I froze and Ana jerked in the saddle. After saying his name, the woman spat into the dirt. I noticed there was no wet spot. If I were in human form, I would have spat too, just to show support.
“He is as a wolf in the night,” she added. “Not even a goddess can roust him from his den.”
Is it possible? Can he be here? Ana asked me, an edge of panic in her words.
No. Lokesh is dead, I said with certainty.
Then how? How has he done this?
I pondered for a moment and then said, We must have come to a time when he was a young man searching for the pieces of the amulet. Have you sensed the differences in the places we’ve been? We’ve moved across lands but we’ve also journeyed through time. The twisting of your stomach tells you this. The greater the pull in your belly, the farther we’ve traveled.
Are you certain? she asked.
I twitched and bit on a thorn irritating my paw. It makes sense. Even Lokesh had heard rumors of the goddess Durga. These people, as far away from India as they are, might have heard your story too. Perhaps these are the very people who told him of you. Lokesh didn’t know he was to become the demon Durga destroyed in battle. We heard their pleas, their prayers. Now we need to fix what he has done to them.
But if he is here, let us destroy him here, now, while he is weak.
Kadam tried to do that. He said the only way to defeat Lokesh was the way we did it, with you. He said it was our destiny. He died for that belief, Ana.
I understood her wanting to kill him. I’d thought many times about going back and destroying him before he killed Yesubai. It wasn’t so much that I was still in love with her, but no one deserved death at the hands of her own father. Kadam was insistent that the curse needed to happen and that Durga and her tiger needed to rise. Seeing the work we were doing cemented that idea for me, at least a bit.
Was it the future I’d imagined for myself back when I was a prince living in my father’s kingdom? No. But I’d wanted to leave my mark on the world. I shifted slightly and glanced down at my pugmark. The deep curves where the pads of my paws dug into the dirt and the grooves left by my claws were certainly a mark. Maybe this print wouldn’t last, but I absolutely knew the story of Durga and her tiger would.
We’ll speak more of this after we help these people, Kishan, Anamika said.
Ana raised her arms in the air and channeled the power of the water piece of the amulet. Overhead, the bright blue sky shimmering with heat slowly changed. At first, only wisps of white clouds gathered on the horizon. But then, they pillowed together, growing larger and darker. The wind whipped up the dry dust in clouds, bringing with it the smell of rain.