by Zoey Gong
Priya shrugged. “When I saw what was happening, I just got so angry that I had to do something.” She looked up and saw that the man was looking at her with tears in his eyes. She looked around and noticed that the girl and her mother were not in the room. “Will she be all right?” Priya dared to ask.
The father nodded. “She is resting. Her mother refuses to leave her side. But she will be fine…in time.” The man then had to pause as he wiped some tears from his eyes that he could not stop from falling. “Those damn British! I know who it was. He had been pestering my precious Chahna for months. She forced herself to be polite to him in passing, but she never gave him any indication that she would accept his advances—”
“I believe you,” Priya said, cutting him off. “You don’t have to explain it to me. He is—was—a bad man. He got what he deserved.”
The man nodded, grateful for her understanding.
“Why are there so many soldiers here?” Priya asked. “Even in Bombay, I don’t think I ever saw so many in one place.”
“If you came from the beach, you wouldn’t have seen our rice fields,” the father said, motioning toward the jungle. “We have harvested grains here for generations. Now, the British take most of the harvest in taxes.”
Priya suddenly noticed how thin the man was. She also realized that he had not taken a bowl of rice for himself, and she remembered the rice that had burned while they were tending to the girl. Had that been their rice rations for the day? Did Priya just eat the only rice the family had to eat? She suddenly felt sick and terribly guilty.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, pushing her bowl away. She reached for the rest of the rabbit and handed it to him. “Please, take it. Eat.”
“No, no, no!” he said, shoving it back at her. “You deserve it after what you have done for us.”
“I insist!” she said, shoving it back at him. “I had no way to cook it. Consider it payment for your hospitality.”
“I couldn’t,” the man said, though she could tell his resolve was wavering.
“Please,” Priya said gently. “Give it to your daughter if you won’t take it for yourself. She needs her strength.”
The man then burst into tears, no longer able to hold them back. “Blessed girl,” he said, taking her hand. “I think the gods themselves have sent you to us this day.”
Priya’s eyes watered at the man’s kind words and outburst of faith. She had no idea if the gods were behind her fateful journey or not, but she was glad she had been able to help the girl. She only wished there was more she could do.
“You will stay with us,” the man said, clearing his throat and standing up. “For as long as you need a roof over your head, you can sleep here.”
“You are too generous,” Priya said, standing and clearing the table.
“Please excuse me,” the man said. “I wish to check on my daughter.”
“Of course,” Priya said. “I’ll just take a walk.”
Priya then went outside, pulling her wrap around her shoulders as the sun set and coolness of evening settled in. There were many other villagers out this evening, enjoying the comfortable temperature. People were talking and laughing while children ran around playing. Priya’s heart ached as she missed her own family. She was thankful to Zayn for letting them know she was alive. She wondered if there was any way for her to send them another letter letting them know that she was still in India and trying to get home. She doubted there was any kind of postal service in such a remote village. But as she traveled, she would surely come to a big enough town eventually. She remembered the gold coins in her bag. They would come in handy as she journeyed. She could use it to buy food. But not here. The villagers clearly needed all the food they had.
As she looked around, she realized that all of the people here were terribly thin. She thought about what the girl’s father had said, about the British taking all off the village’s grains in taxes. She then remembered the countless sacks of rice she had seen on the smuggler’s ship. Anger burned in her once again at the cruelty of it. Fields and fields and fields of grains were grown and harvested by Indian families only for them to have to give it to the British for it to be shipped to a faraway land. In exchange for what? Protection? She didn’t know any British soldiers who protected Indians. They raped Indians. They only protected British families.
Nabhitha did a better job of protecting Indians than the British. She then laughed at the thought. Maybe Nabhitha was a goddess in tiger form.
She then remembered that the soldiers were still out there hunting for Nabhitha. Priya narrowed her eyes and picked up a nearby torch. She marched into the jungle, determined to thwart the soldiers and save Nabhitha.
Chapter Seventeen
Even with her torch, Priya was not sure where in the jungle to go. Should she look for Nabhitha—as if she could ever find her—or the soldiers? Nabhitha would surely hide, while the soldiers would send her away if they saw her.
“This way, men!” she heard someone yell, so she followed the voice. “Keep your wits about you, men,” she heard the man say as she got closer. It was the ranking commander. “A tiger is a dangerous predator. You probably won’t even see her before she’s got you by the jugular!”
“Shouldn’t we wait until morning then, sir?” one of the men asked nervously. “I can’t see a thing!”
“Nonsense!” the commander said. “We’ve got her on the run. Follow me!”
Priya didn’t have much faith in the man’s tiger stalking skills, but she didn’t want to leave anything to chance. She started to follow the men at a distance when she felt a hand fall over her mouth. She tried to scream, but the man turned her to face him with his finger over his mouth, shushing her.
“Zayn!” she exclaimed.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked. “I told you to stay in the village.”
“What are you doing to stop the soldiers from getting Nabhitha?” she asked.
“Just…I…you…I don’t know!” he said. “I’m not a rebel like you. I do what I’m told. And how am I supposed to take on half a dozen men anyway?”
Priya exhaled in frustration. She knew that even together, they couldn’t fight the soldiers. They needed to find another way to keep them from finding Nabhitha.
“We can’t fight them,” she said. “So we need a distraction instead.”
“Like what?” he asked.
Priya looked around, but could see nothing other than trees and the fire from her torch.
“A fire!” she said. “We can set a fire. Then the men will have to work on putting it out and Nabhitha can escape.”
“That…might work,” he said. “But where? I don’t think they will care if there is a fire in the jungle.”
“Their barracks,” she said. “They won’t want to lose their possessions.”
Zayn shook his head. “There aren’t any. The men are being housed by the local families.”
Priya grimaced at that. “That’s terrible,” she said, but she couldn’t dwell on it. “Well, what do they care about?”
“The armory,” Zayn said. “It doubles as a storehouse.”
“You mean where they keep the grain before shipping it to England?” Priya asked. Zayn nodded. “I’d hate to destroy the food, though. The people here are starving. Have you noticed?”
Zayn blushed a little and nodded again.
“But still you serve in the British army?” Priya asked incredulously. “How can you be a slave to them at the cost of your own people.”
“I’m not a slave,” he said firmly. “I have my own family to think about. My wages are guaranteed, which I need to support my parents and sisters.”
“Didn’t they just take your salary for speaking up on the smuggler’s ship?” Priya reminded him.
“They slashed it, yes,” he said. “But it is still more than I would make as a farmer.”
Priya sighed in annoyance and turned back toward the village. “We can argue about this later. We need to
steal the food, set fire to the armory, and save Nabhitha.”
“I can’t go with you,” Zayn said. “The commander is already suspicious of you. If there is a mysterious fire, he will know it was set by you. If I’m not around when the fire starts, he will surely suspect me too since he has seen me talking to you.”
“Then come with me,” she said. “We can run away now. Tonight. It would be safer if we traveled together anyway.”
“I…what?” he asked. “Run away? To where?”
“I need to get home,” she said. “Back to Bombay.”
“But what about me?” he asked. “What about my family?”
Priya shrugged. “I don’t have all the answers. But I know what I’m going to do. You can either come with me or run back to your commander.”
“Priya,” he said, and her name rolling off his tongue nearly caused her heart to melt. “What you are asking is impossible. I’ve already lost so much.”
Her heart went out to him. She reached out and dared to touch his cheek with her hand. His skin was warm and soft.
“I know you have,” she said, and she meant it. She understood that he was conflicted. “But whether you come with me or not, I’m going.”
She then turned away and hoped he would follow her, but she knew he wouldn’t. He was too much like her parents. He had invested too much in holding up the status quo, living by the rules the British had put in place. If he stood against the British, he and his family would suffer. Priya had already lost everything and was not afraid to lose more. While she desperately wanted to get home, she knew that her parents already thought she was lost to them. They wouldn’t be any worse off if she died tonight. But she had to help Nabhitha. She had lost track of how many times Nabhitha had saved her life. Plus, she could help the villagers too. They needed that food. She would sneak it away to the families and they could hide it. Then, after Priya set fire to the armory, the soldiers would think that the food was destroyed in the flames. It was a perfect plan.
Until it wasn’t.
Priya had thought that all of the soldiers had gone to hunt for Nabhitha, but she was wrong. As she rounded the armory, she came face to face with one guard that had stayed behind, and he had a rifle.
“Hey! What are you doing here?” the soldier asked.
Priya’s hand went to the knife in her belt. Her mouth went dry and she licked her lips. Could she do it? Could she really kill someone?
“What’s that?” he asked, pointing to her belt.
Priya turned and tried to run away. She couldn’t do it! But she felt a hand on her shoulder and he spun her around. She pulled out her knife and slashed, cutting the man’s arm.
The man groaned in pain and let her go as he reached for his arm. “What the hell?” he asked.
Now what? Priya thought. She needed to decide now! But she was frozen. Any choice seemed like the wrong one.
“Hey!” another voice called out. The soldier turned around and promptly fell backward. Priya looked up and saw that Zayn had punched the man in the face, knocking him out cold.
“You need to stop picking fights with men bigger than you,” he joked.
Priya felt a flood of relief wash over her, but it didn’t last long.
“Come on!” she said as she ran into the armory, Zayn right behind her. The armory was little more than a one-room hut. One half of the room stored the soldier’s weapons—guns, knives and swords, grenades, and small barrels of gunpowder. One spark could easily blow the whole thing up. In the other half of the room were countless bags of rice.
“Get rid of that torch,” Zayn ordered. Priya turned around and tossed it to the ground outside of the hut. It was too dangerous to have it inside the armory until they wanted it to blow. “Hold out your arms,” he said. He then loaded up one, two, then three bags of rice. They were so heavy, she thought her knees were going to buckle under the weight, but fear of getting caught kept her going.
“Go, go, go!” Zayn said. He tossed two more bags of rice out of the hut, then he grabbed the torch and tossed it back inside. “Run!” he told her as he picked up the bags. They both ran toward the hut where the family lived and didn’t even look back as they heard the explosion behind them.
Everyone in the village screamed and many ran toward the fire with the hopes of putting it out. They didn’t want the whole village to catch on fire.
“What’s going on?” the girl’s father asked as he opened the door and Priya and Zayn ran inside.
“Do you have somewhere you can hide these?” Priya asked, indicating the bags of rice.
“By the gods, girl, did you steal those?” the father asked.
“I liberated them,” Priya said breathlessly. “Hide them, and then distribute them discreetly among the other villagers. The soldiers will think they were destroyed in the fire.”
“What fire?” the father asked as he put his head back out the door. “Oh, that fire.”
“What is going on out here?” the mother asked as she emerged from the back room.
Priya exhaled in annoyance. “You need to hide these bags of rice,” she said.
“We need to go!” Zayn said. “The soldiers have returned. They are focused on the fire, but it is already going out.”
“Please!” Priya nearly screamed.
“U-u-under my daughter’s bed,” the mother said. “I don’t think the soldiers will dare disturb her for a while after what happened.”
“Thank you,” Priya said as she rushed into the room and shoved the bags under the bed.
“What’s happening?” the girl asked as she sat up in her bed, shaking with fright.
Priya ran her hand down the side of the girl’s face. “Nothing you need to worry about,” she said. She wished she could stay longer, but she knew they needed to go. She ran back to the main room and grabbed her bag. She pulled out two gold coins and gave them to the father. “For your troubles,” she said.
“I couldn’t!” he started to protest, but Priya stopped him. There was no time to be polite.
“I must insist,” she said.
“We will pray for you,” the mother said as Priya and Zayn ran out the door. They ran past another hut, and Zayn ducked inside. He ran out with his pack already prepared.
“When did you have time to do that?” Priya asked.
“A soldier is always ready,” he said. He then grabbed her hand and they ran down the trail that led through the jungle and back to the beach. The jungle was too dark and treacherous to try and traverse at night. On the beach, they would have the light of the moon and a relatively uncluttered path.
Priya saw that the soldiers were all still gathered around the armory, but the fire was nearly out. She hoped that Nabhitha had time to escape. As they ran down the jungle path, she looked behind her and saw a streak of orange dart across the trail and she smiled. Nabhitha was safe and was following her.
Once they got to the beach, they didn’t have time to take in the beauty of the ocean crashing on the shore at night. They kept running. If they wasted any time, the soldiers could easily catch up with them. As exhausted as they were, they ran all night.
Chapter Eighteen
Finally, as the sun rose over the sea, Priya and Zayn had to slow down. They stopped for a moment and sat on a piece of driftwood to catch their breath. Zayn reached into his pack and pulled out some dried meat and his canteen. He handed both to Priya.
Priya accepted them gingerly and felt more than a little foolish. She realized she had been too hasty. She should have made some preparations before going to the armory. She didn’t pack any clothes or food or refill her canteen.
“Thank you,” she mumbled as she ate and drank. She only took a small amount before handing them back to him. It didn’t feel right, taking his rations.
“You know, seeing you in the light of day, I think I may have been too quick to run away with you,” he said with a smirk.
Priya gasped and her hand flew to her hair. She then remembered the clunky boots s
he was wearing and her makeshift sari.
“Well, you try surviving a shipwreck and see what you look like,” she replied.
Zayn chuckled and shook his head as he looked out at the sea. “I still don’t know how you did that.”
“It was Nabhitha,” Priya said. “I was drowning. I can’t swim very well. She swam alongside me and dragged me to a longboat. Then she let me ride on her back as she swam us to shore.”
Zayn laughed, but then he noticed Priya was serious. “You…you are telling me the truth?”
Priya shrugged. “I have no reason to lie to you. I know it sounds crazy, but it is the truth. We protected each other on the ship, then she saved me and I kept her alive by catching fish.”
Zayn shook his head. “You are amazing,” he said. “Like Durga.”
“What’s Durga?” Priya asked.
“You know,” he said. “The goddess. She rose out of the sea on the back of a tiger to vanquish the evil. She is fearless.”
“Fearless?” Priya asked. “Like Nabhitha.” She remembered that she called Nabhitha by that name because the sailors had called the tiger fearless. How strange the world was.
“You would know better than I,” he said.
“Maybe Durga is my personal goddess,” Priya said. “My mother will be glad to know that.” Once she got home, she would have to learn all she could about Durga and give her thanks.
Zayn then stood up. “We should keep moving,” he said. “We need to stay well-ahead of the soldiers.”
“How far is Bombay?” she asked.
“Very far,” he said. “We are north of Goa, but not far north enough. Maybe we can procure a horse somehow.”
Priya wondered if she had enough gold to buy a horse. She hoped she did. She wanted to get home as soon as possible. Then she would tell her parents about Lord Fullerton. She didn’t know if her word alone would be enough for him to be arrested for kidnapping, but she hoped it was.
“Why did you help me?” she asked Zayn after they had resumed walking for a bit.
Zayn shrugged but didn’t offer an answer.
