She kicked and thrashed and swam towards Nour. She was getting closer, so close now Chaya could almost reach out and touch her. Chaya launched herself at Nour, grabbing at her clothes as they hurtled along.
Nour was conscious, but barely. Her eyes showed a flicker of recognition but she was too exhausted to move. Chaya struggled to tug Nour ashore, but she wasn’t helping. She slumped like a dead weight in Chaya’s arms.
“Nour, we need to get to the shore. Please. Work with me.”
She grunted as she fought against the current to drag Nour to the bank.
Rocky ledges speckled the sandy banks of the river. Chaya tried to lift Nour on to one of them.
She shoved Nour upwards towards a flattish rock. She had to get Nour out of the water and on land. Chaya felt her strength fading away. The sun burned at her head and spots swam in front of her eyes. She had to save Nour. If Nour fell back into the water Chaya wouldn’t have the strength to help her again.
She gave one last heave and rolled Nour on to the ledge, where she moaned and lay still. Chaya tried to hoist herself after Nour, but her arms had seized up. The brightness of the day dimmed into black shadows, and the last thing she saw was the water closing over her face as she fainted backwards into the water.
Chaya was in a deep sleep. Everything was peaceful here. The sound of birdsong mingled with the swishing of leaves and gush of water. Then something thick and warm wrapped itself around Chaya’s waist as she was lifted high into the air.
Her body made contact with something hard and she was shaken awake.
Chaya’s clothes and hair were soaked and clinging to her. Her cheek was pressed against a flat rock. She opened her mouth and vomited out water. Over and over again, until she felt light and worn out. She opened her eyes.
The river lay in front of her, swirling and white. Above her the blue sky arced over the horizon. A large butterfly with black and white markings on translucent wings fluttered past, its shadow crossing her face as it went.
Was this real? Or had she drowned?
If she had, she deserved it.
Neel was gone.
And thanks to her, Nour was alone too.
All of them lost in Serendib’s jungle.
A chilly wind swept her wet body and she shivered. Her arms stung from the cuts all over them. Chaya lifted her head and looked down at herself. Her tattered clothes clung to her and an enormous shadow fell across her legs.
That shadow. There was something familiar about it.
Chaya lifted herself up on her elbows, wincing as she did so. She turned to look behind her.
There, his huge tusks looming over her, stood Ananda.
“Ananda,” she whispered. “It was you who pulled me out of the river.”
So the King’s men hadn’t found him after all. He must have been roaming the jungle all that time, looking for them.
And he’d saved her. This time he’d saved her life.
She smiled gratefully at him, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep again.
When she came to, Ananda was still standing over her. She flexed her fingers and felt some of the strength come back to her limbs.
Chaya sat up shakily and pulled herself to her feet. It was evening. The sky was darkening and the jungle was full of the shrieks of crickets.
“We need to find them, Ananda,” she said. She looked along the banks of the river but no flash of red dress caught her eye. “Nour must be here somewhere. And we need to find Neel.”
She sank down on to her knees and buried her face in her lap. Who was she fooling? The jungle rose up around her, a vast swathe of darkness and light, and Neel and Nour were two pinpricks lost somewhere in it.
Something wrapped itself like a blanket around her middle, and once again she found herself lifted up in Ananda’s trunk and on to his broad back. She felt the warmth of him like an embrace and the lull of his gait as he thumped his way along the riverbank.
She rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes. “Nour?” she called out.
Ananda padded on, stepping over weeds and through flat ground.
“Nour. Can you hear me?”
She urged Ananda on. “She can’t be too far off. Nour! Neel? Do you hear me?”
Her shouts echoed through the jungle. A civet stopped in its tracks and then scuttled away, its golden body quivering in the waning light.
Where were they? And where were the King’s men? Would they hear her?
“Nour!”
Ananda lifted up his head and trumpeted. The sound boomed through the forest and was met by a whispering of trees as owls woke up and hooted. Followed by another cry. Softer.
Human.
There was a movement ahead. Chaya squinted into the gloom. Something was coming towards them.
And there in the distance, framed by a giant split ironwood tree, was Nour.
“I thought I’d never find you,” said Nour, hobbling towards Chaya. Her eyes were swollen and her face streaked with dirt. “First, Neelan. Then you.” A fresh outpouring of tears coursed down her face.
Chaya jumped off Ananda and hugged Nour. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Know what?” Nour sniffed and rubbed her eyes. She looked worn through.
“About the water. That, you know…”
“That I’m a coward who’s afraid of everything?” Nour laughed, before her body was racked by a sob.
“I shouldn’t have pushed you.”
“Never mind. It saved us, didn’t it? Otherwise we’d be with the King by now. Being put to the sword for helping a criminal escape.”
“Still. I’m sorry. I know it’s not enough.”
Nour shook her head. “Do you think they got Neelan?”
“I hope not. He might have escaped. He was ahead of us. Neel can be quick when he has to be.”
“What do we do now?”
“We look for Neel.”
“But if we stay here the King’s men will find us. And if we go too far we won’t find Neel.” Nour started to sob again. “Oh, Chaya, it’s hopeless, isn’t it?”
“No it isn’t.” There was no need to make things worse than it was. “We need to stay strong, Nour.”
Chaya couldn’t navigate the jungle like Neel did. She had no idea where they were.
“How big is this jungle?” asked Nour.
“Er, not very.” She felt terrible for lying, but now wasn’t the time to reveal that the jungle covered nearly half of Serendib. “We can do this. Come on, you ride Ananda. We’ll find somewhere to settle for the night, and then look for Neel in the morning, OK?”
Nour nodded. “It’s a good thing we found Ananda,” she said. She smiled up at him but didn’t touch him. At least she was using his name now.
Ananda kneeled and Nour clambered on to him. Chaya led them away from the river and into the trees.
The jungle was much cooler now. The sun was setting and the gaps between trees darkened into hollows. Chaya and Nour swapped places as they went on.
“Do you wish,” said Nour from where she was walking along, munching on a piece of grass, “that you could go back and undo everything?”
“What kind of silly question is that?”
“Well, think about it. You would be safe. Neel would be safe. Your father would continue on as before. Everything would be the same. But Vijay would lose his leg and never walk again.”
“I’m tired. Do I have to answer these questions?”
“I’m tired too. But it passes the time. I just wondered, that’s all. You don’t have to answer.” Then Nour added under her breath, “Especially since you never admit you’re wrong.”
Chaya ignored her. The truth was, she wasn’t sure any more.
They swapped again as they looked for a place to settle for the night. After a while, Chaya led Ananda to a halt under a canopy of trees, with a springy bed of ferns underneath. “This looks comfortable enough.”
Nour looked around sadly as she got off Ananda. “We can’t even have
a fire without Neelan.”
“We’ve got Ananda,” said Chaya. “No animal would come close with him protecting us.” She hoped that was true.
“I have something to tell you,” said Nour. “I think I’m dying.”
Chaya raised an eyebrow.
“You could be a bit more sympathetic.” Nour pulled back her sleeve and showed her arm. “Look at all these pink spots. I have them all over me.”
“Nour, I hate to tell you the obvious, but we’re in a jungle. Those are insect bites.”
Nour pulled a face. “That’s horrible. How come you don’t have them? Or Neel.”
“Of course I have them, but why would it bother me? That’s the least of our worries right now.” She looked round at the trees. “Let’s find something to eat.”
“I wish I could climb trees like you,” said Nour, looking up into the branches of a thick tree.
“I’ll show you soon, I promise. Just need to get something to eat now.”
“I mean, there’s that prickly fruit up there in the tree.” She pointed up into the branches. “There, look.”
Chaya looked up, following Nour’s finger. “It’s a jackfruit! That’s the best fruit ever!”
Nour smiled and sat cross-legged on the ferns as Chaya shimmied up the tree to pick the juiciest jackfruit she could find.
They might as well enjoy the moment. Because tomorrow they had the impossible task of finding Neel in this gigantic jungle.
“Nour,” Chaya whispered, and shook her. Dawn had broken, and shafts of light thrummed from between the trees.
Nour moaned and stretched. “It’s morning already?”
“Shh.” Chaya looked around. “I think they’re coming. We need to get going.”
Nour grimaced and staggered to her feet.
“We’ll both ride Ananda. Come on.”
Chaya dragged her stiff body up behind Nour and they swayed softly as Ananda moved off. From behind them came a faint hum, like a swarm of moths. Something about the sound, the puffs of dust drifting through, the tension in the air, told Chaya something big was coming towards them.
But Ananda was doing a good job of running away from it all, as he hurtled through the trees at top speed.
“I think we’ve lost them,” shouted Chaya, slowing Ananda down. “I don’t hear anything now.”
“You know, once this is all over, we should give Ananda a huge treat. What’s an elephant treat?”
“I don’t know.” Chaya glanced behind them. “Sugar cane maybe.”
“You know so much stuff,” said Nour as they rode under a banyan tree, its trailing leaves brushing against their legs. “How did you learn these things?”
Chaya shrugged. “It’s just stuff. Everyone knows them.” She noticed Nour’s frown. “You’re different. You’re new here. You’ll get to know things soon enough.”
Nour was silent for a bit. “I thought you were going to laugh at me,” she said. “That’s what the old you would have done.”
Something whizzed past Chaya’s ear and an arrow stabbed into a tree. Nour screamed.
Chaya tapped Ananda on his side and he sped up, thundering through the trees. Another arrow came whistling past, this time ripping through one of Nour’s sleeves.
“Oh no, they’re here, they’re here!” Nour screamed.
“Calm down, Nour,” said Chaya. She needed to think. Something wasn’t as it should be.
There was no sound of galloping. Were the King’s men now on foot?
Nour screamed and pointed behind them. “Look at that! What are those?”
They were squelching through a muddy patch where several man-sized water lizards were glistening blackly. Ananda just stepped over the scaly creatures and their whiplash tails.
“They’re called water monitors. And they’re horrible,” said Chaya as they zipped away from the creatures. She turned back to look in front of her and screamed. “Duck, Nour!”
They both bobbed down just in time to avoid the thick horizontal branch whistling towards them.
“Better keep our eyes in front!” called Chaya.
Nour nodded, her eyes fixed ahead.
Ananda suddenly slowed down, even though Chaya tapped him and urged him on. But he eased right down to a plod.
“What’s the matter with Ananda?” she said to Nour. But then she looked to where Nour was silently pointing.
Standing on the forest floor ahead of them was a man with a bow, his arrow trained straight at them.
“What do you want?” said Chaya, as Ananda came to a halt in front of the man. “Move on so we can pass.”
The man shook his head. “No.”
“Are you joking?” said Chaya. “We have an elephant. Move unless you want to be flattened.”
“And you stay there unless you want me to shoot the elephant.”
Something rustled through the trees and about ten men surrounded the girls. They all carried bows and arrows like the first, and were bare-chested and wore Chapter Twenty-Nine dirty sarongs tied up to their knees. Chaya stared at them.
Bandits!
“We’ve been waiting for you,” said the first man. He seemed like the leader, and looked slightly less scruffy than the rest. “We have something of yours.”
Something of theirs? Whatever did he mean?
There was more rustling through the bushes, and someone else emerged.
“Neel!” Chaya slid off Ananda and threw her arms around the bedraggled Neel, followed by Nour, who did the same. “Neel. Are you OK?”
The bandit holding Neel rolled his eyes and Neel blushed furiously. He gave the girls an awkward pat and untangled himself hastily. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m so glad to see you.”
The men gathered round Ananda, and one tried to rub his hide. Ananda swayed and shook his head.
“Hey, what are you doing?” yelled Chaya. “He doesn’t like that.”
“We’re taking him,” said the bandit leader. “Why do you think we were waiting for you?”
“Gamage,” said Neel to the leader. “The elephant’s getting agitated. Someone could get hurt.”
“Lead him to our place then, boy,” said Gamage, backing away from a sidestepping Ananda. “We can chain him up until he’s used to us.”
“Why would we do that!” said Chaya. “Get away now, before he mows you down.”
Gamage turned to them. “Listen, children. We’d rather kill this beast right now and take his tusks if we had our way. But we have orders to take him unhurt. So help us and nothing need happen to him.”
“Orders?” said Chaya. “From whom?”
“Stop asking questions!” Gamage looked irritated as the other men stepped back from Ananda, whose massive body kept moving from side to side. Something crunched under the elephant’s foot, sending the men retreating even further. “If the animal keeps doing this we’ll have no choice but to shoot.”
Chaya darted up to Ananda and shooed the men away. Slowly he calmed down as he saw the three of them, even rubbing his trunk on Neel’s head.
Neel rubbed him on the back. “I missed you too, Ananda.”
“Heart-warming as this reunion is,” said Gamage, “we need to be taking the elephant now. So if you’ll lead him our way, it’s in your – and the animal’s – best interest. Try anything and we’ll shoot.”
Chaya glanced at Neel and he nodded slightly. They didn’t want Ananda to be hurt.
“We’ll bring him,” said Neel.
The men led the way, all the while looking suspiciously at the children.
They followed Gamage and his men to a kind of jungle hideout. Little wooden huts squatted low among smaller trees in a clearing, and on a central platform a few other men sat smoking and chatting.
Neel dropped his voice to a whisper. “The news from Nirissa isn’t good. I’ve been hearing a few things while I’ve been here. Apparently the King is terrorising the villagers, asking them to give us up. They haven’t stopped since we left. The people are frightened and angry. They ha
te us too because of what we’ve brought on them. They don’t ever want us to return.”
Chaya staggered backwards and leaned against Ananda.
“Do you know if our families are safe?” said Nour. She’d stuffed the back of her fingers in her mouth.
“I’m not sure, but nobody in the village…” Neel looked away and swallowed. “Nobody is dead.”
A yet hovered unsaid in the air.
“Father would try to reason with the King,” said Chaya. “He’d do his best for the village.”
“I – I don’t think he can do much at the moment,” said Neel.
“Why not? He’d do anything for the villagers.”
Neel looked absolutely miserable. “He’s been arrested, Chaya.”
Chaya was speechless. The village was in turmoil and Father in jail. Things couldn’t get any worse than this.
Nour hurriedly changed the topic, as if that would make Chaya forget. “Why did the bandits take you, Neelan?”
“They wanted me to lead them to you and Ananda.”
“They must want him for his tusks,” said Nour.
“No, they were telling the truth. They do want him alive and unhurt.”
“It’s probably to sell him on.” She exchanged worried glances with Neel.
Chaya stared ahead towards the platform. Her village was in danger and she needed some time to think. Gamage and the men were sitting on their haunches, talking to the others.
“They want him for Sena, the King’s half-brother,” said Neel.
“What?” Chaya was stunned. She turned her full attention to Neel. “So it’s true? The banished prince really is back for the throne?”
“Yes, and these men are on his side. Ananda is the King’s elephant, the state elephant. They want him alive for Sena.”
“So that some day Sena can ride in to victory on the King’s elephant?”
Neel nodded.
“I can’t believe it,” said Nour. “He’s actually back. This must be the King’s worst nightmare come true.”
“It wouldn’t be for months yet that they try to do anything,” said Neel. “Sena’s people are collecting supporters bit by bit in different parts of the island.”
The Girl Who Stole an Elephant Page 9
