Arul led the way through the dark forest for nearly an hour, pausing to sight the stars from time to time. The night sky shone bright through gaps in the dark canopy, lighting patches of ground with a silvery glow. ‘We’ll rest here tonight, or whatever’s left of it,’ Arul said.
Navira nodded groggily and threw off her satchel. ‘We haven’t anything to eat,’ she said, eying a nearby guava tree. ‘I just want to check that tree for fruit. I’ll be back in a little while.’
Meanwhile, Arul and Keeran spotted a grove of flame trees that would provide good cover. Stumbling from exhaustion, they rounded one of the colossal trees.
And ran straight into a pair of enemy scouts.
The soldier’s heads snapped up. They stared at the teens, the whites of their eyes bright.
Murderous eyes.
‘Watch it!’ Arul whispered to Keeran. ‘Army scouts are elite soldiers. Dangerous.’
Once the men overcame their surprise, they jumped to their feet and moved with breath-taking speed. One scout brought up his bow as the other one levelled his spear at the boys. Arul was equally fast, drawing his knife in a blur and moving in at an angle to launch his attack on the spearman. At the last second, the scout slammed his spear horizontally, the violent blow catching Arul on the jaw and sending him reeling against the tree.
Keeran’s face contorted in anger as he hurled his spear at the man with all his might. The soldier collapsed, clutching his leg and groaning.
Unarmed, Keeran straightened and turned towards the scout with the bow, charging him with a terrific cry. But an almighty kick caught him in the stomach and flung him backwards. Winded, Keeran watched the bowman advance on him, stepping on his chest and unsheathing his kattari dagger.
A close range killing weapon.
The kattari drew back, starlight catching it’s razor edges.
Arul lay sprawled on the red soil, struggling to rise, his head ringing. His vision blurred and his limbs felt powerless. His legs gave way and he fell back, a helpless scream catching in his throat.
Keeran’s going to die.
Then something entered into his mind. A powerful presence.
In a waking dream, Arul saw the very tiger he’d killed staring at him, its eyes clear as two lamps shining in the dark. He saw beyond the eyes, into a place where the tiger’s spirit moved into him.
A voice in his mind. I see you, child. My destiny was to die, so that you may live. Much depends on you.
Arul’s eyes burned with a new fearlessness. Intense. Clear. He rose into a crouch with his aruval at the ready. In the blink of an eye, he leapt behind the soldier and drove the knife up through his ribs.
His kattari arm still drawn back, the scout went slack with a groan, falling onto Keeran, the metallic smell of blood seeping through the air. Keeran screamed and thrashed about in the dust. ‘Help me, Arul! He’s killing me!’
Arul felt as though he was returning from another world, his hands shaking as the tiger’s spirit left him like a sudden wind. He flung off the dead soldier’s body with surprising ease, his eyes sweeping Keeran for wounds. Fortunately, there were none. Arul pulled Keeran up and embraced him in a crushing bear hug.
Then Jaya’s presence flooded his mind. Arul! Get down!
Arul jerked towards the ground as an arrow whizzed past his head, glancing into the shadows beneath the flame tree. The injured scout leant against the trunk with a grimace, Keeran’s spear protruding from his thigh. With bloody hands he fitted another arrow to his bow.
But behind the soldier, the pale eyes of Jaya shone in the dim moonlight. The wolf growled and charged the scout with the speed of a striking cobra, the archer struggling to turn and fire.
Too late.
Jaya leapt at the enemy’s throat just as he fired his bow. There was a terrible scream as the arrow went arcing into the dark. Wolf and man went down in a thrashing confusion of limbs and snapping twigs.
Then deathly silence.
Arul stood next to Keeran, his hands shaking like leaves. From the darkness Jaya emerged, staring at Arul with bloody jaws before silently turning away and vanishing into the night.
Keeran moaned and collapsed, the shock of the fight overwhelming his body. Gripping his aching head, Arul squatted next to Keeran, unable to speak, blankly staring at the enemy corpse. Around the dead scouts, starlight fell from the night sky like a rain of silver on the blood-soaked earth.
After a few moments, Navira ran up to the grove, her arms full of fruit. ‘Oh my God! What happened?’ Arul looked away, unwilling to think about the savagery of what had just occurred. Eyes filling with tears, he picked up his weapons and walked off, Navira and Keeran hurrying after him.
Keeran kept touching his body and shaking his head. ‘Jaya killed that archer. Ripped out his throat. As for the fellow who tried to kill me with his dagger. Well, Arul acted very strangely. He was moving weirdly. Not himself. It was scary.’
‘It’s his Amma’s pendant,’ Navira said in a low voice. ‘It’s magical.’ Keeran eyed Navira and shuddered, the teens weaving through the dark forest towards the plains. On a distant ridge, a pack of wolves began to howl as they caught wind of the fresh blood.