Page 108 of Tiger's Voyage

Kishan turned and smiled, and then pulled me to stand in front of him. He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on the top of my head. “I’m not thinking of anything much except that I’m content. For the first time in … centuries, I feel happy.”

I laughed. “So you have a thing for fighting demons and monsters, then?”

“No. I have a thing for you. You make me happy.”

“Oh.” I turned in his arms to face him. “You make me happy too.”

He smiled and trailed his fingers down my cheek. His eyes drifted to my lips as he leaned closer. I thought he was going to kiss my mouth, but he seemed to change his mind at the last second and kissed my cheek instead. He trailed kisses over to my ear and whispered, “Soon.” He held me close and as I pressed my cheek to his chest I wondered why he’d stopped.

Maybe it was something I did. I was pretty sure I wanted him to kissme and that I wouldn’t cry this time. I care for him. No … I love him. Iwant to make him happy.I bit my lip.Maybe he knows I lied about Ren.Maybe he notices we are acting strangely. No. He would say something,wouldn’t he?

I smothered the guilt as we separated and walked over to look at the kimono. The first stitched line of the star, the one going from the Shore Temple to the Star Temple, was complete. I turned the fabric over to take a good look at the blue dragon. I thought I heard a tinkling bell, and I could have sworn the red dragon winked at me. I frowned at him and folded the sleeve over to hide him from view.

The blue dragon was resting on gray clouds and had steam coming from his nostrils. I traced a cloud and heard a snort. A wispy puff rolled across my knuckles. I blew it away and looked up.

We were heading south into the starry night. The sun would be coming up soon. Ahead I noticed thick fog rolling out across the water. The stars began to disappear, captured and snuffed out by cloudy puffs. I leaned out an open door and felt wind whip across my face. The ship bounced on a wave.

I looked at my watch. Only seven hours had passed. “Kishan? I think it’s time to wake up Mr. Kadam.”

He left and returned with a sleepy Mr. Kadam, who joined me at the window.

“I’m here. What is it, Miss Kelsey?”

“I think the blue dragon’s a fog maker. Can we sail through that?”

Mr. Kadam sent Kishan to wake Nilima, and then replied, “We should be fairly safe. There are not likely to be other boats around here to crash into and most of our instruments appear to be operating. Though our satellite feed can’t seem to gauge our position, our depth equipment is functioning, so if we suddenly come upon an island, we will be alerted. The water is too warm for icebergs, so we don’t need to worry about hitting one of those. If it will make you feel better, I could have Ren or Kishan stand watch. They have excellent vision, even in the fog.”

“No,” I said with a sigh, “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Mr. Kadam must have seen my worried expression because he sought to distract me. As he checked some instruments, he asked, “Did you know the Vikings used special sunstones to navigate in the fog so they could better surprise their enemies?”

It worked. My lip twitched up in a grin. “No, I did not know that.”

“The height of the time of the Vikings was in the eighth century. As you likely know, they were famous for pillaging, and in that part of the world they’d frequently encounter fog on raids. They’d board their ships, calleddrakkars, and invade and plunder villages from Iceland to Greenland, Europe to the British Isles, and even North America.”

“How did they use the sunstones?”

“Sunstones have an unusual property. They have embedded birefringent crystals that can polarize and show the position of the sun. Any Viking worth his salt could navigate by the sun, and the sunstone worked well for them in all but the worst of storms. Researchers believe the sunstone was likely a member of the feldspar family, though there is some debate about that. We have other means now of ascertaining our location but still, I think we’ll slow our speed a bit.”

I nodded. When Kishan and Nilima appeared, Mr. Kadam sent Kishan and me to our rooms to sleep. He wanted us to get some rest before we reached the next dragon. I went to my room and quickly fell asleep.

It turned out our reprieve was a brief one. I’d been asleep for only a couple of hours when I sat up in bed with a start. I woke confused as if from a nightmare. Ren was standing at my open door, and he stared at the bed with a stunned expression.

He quickly averted his gaze and said stiffly, “You’re needed in the wheelhouse.” With that, he turned and left, closing the door softly behind him.

I was just wondering what his problem was when I felt a hand rub my back. I jumped out of the bed as if it was on fire. A bare-chested Kishan leaned up on an elbow. “Are you alright?”

“I’m …fine,” I stammered.

“Why’d you jump up like that?”

“I was … confused. Usually, I only sleep next to a tiger.”

“Oh.”

“Umm … you’re not … that is … youare… wearing something under there … right?”

Kishan grinned and threw off the covers. I squeaked and then breathed a sigh of relief. “You could have just answered the question instead of being all dramatic.”