Tiger's Promise Read Free

nose.”
    He grunted but immediately lost interest in Isha. My father deplored weakness above
     all things and detested seeing it in others. As long as I’d known him, he’d never
     taken ill, but any soldier who so much as coughed in his vicinity was immediately
     sent away from his presence. His aversion to sickness worked in my favor, but I knew
     he was far too intelligent for me to use that particular trick again.
    Circling me, he boldly appraised my appearance, and though my hands clenched when
     I saw Hajari’s vile leer displaying his blackened and broken teeth—something he only
     dared to do behind my father’s turned back—I quickly opened my fingers and smoothed
     my skirts. It would not do to show my father I felt fear or nerves. He loved nothing
     more than invoking the emotion in others. Even Hajari’s face was impassive when my
     father circled around.
    “I suppose you are attired appropriately,” my father said. “Though you know I prefer
     lavender to this gold. It brings out your eyes.” He cupped my chin and I obediently
     lifted my gaze to meet his.
    “I will remember your preferences for the next celebration we attend,” I murmured
     demurely but with just enough cheek that his instinct to exploit weakness would not
     be triggered. We both knew that another royal invitation was unlikely at best.
    My father was like a beast of prey. If a person was bold enough to stand up to him,
     he admired the gesture, but if he considered a person too weak, he simply destroyed
     him. The best way to avoid being caught between his jaws was to leave no tracks, to
     move through the space like a spirit.
    I was ten when I discovered I had the ability to vanish. At first, I didn’t even know
     what had happened. The stomping of boots outside my door frightened me, and I froze
     in place. Isha came quickly into my chamber, rushing past, straightening up my already
     immaculate room. My father preferred his possessions, as he did his people—though
     to him people were possessions—to all be in their proper places should he wish to
     find them.
    Isha’s precautions had been unnecessary. The door never opened. When she peeked outside,
     she conversed briefly with the guard and then closed the door.
    That’s when she started calling my name. “Bai? Yesubai? Where are you? You can come
     out now. Your father is away. It was just the changing of the guard.”
    “I…I’m right here,” I whispered softly.
    “Bai? Where are you? I cannot see you.”
    “Isha?” Concerned, I stepped forward, placing my hand on her arm. She let out a panicked
     squeak and ran her hands over my arms and face.
    “It must be the magic,” she said. “You’ve made yourself invisible. Can you change
     back?”
    “I don’t know,” I answered, the panic blooming in my chest.
    “Try clearing your mind. Think of something meaningless.”
    “Like what?”
    Isha looked at the boxes of flowers that had just been brought in from the market
     for me to arrange—the one pleasure my father allowed me. As I cupped each lovely bud,
     I imagined it growing wild in the sun as it stretched its leaves toward the sky, even
     though I knew that most of the flowers brought to me were cultivated. Watching the
     blooms slowly wither over time felt oddly appropriate and extremely prophetic.
    I wondered, even as a child, when my own bloom would fade and I, too, would waste
     away into nothing in my chamber, where I could draw no nourishment and never feel
     the sun on my face. Even if I just had the freedom to wander the markets myself, to
     escape briefly from the prison I lived in, that would be a reprieve I would treasure.
     “List every flower you can think of,” Isha said, interrupting my thoughts.
    “I’ll try.” Wetting my lips, I began. “Jasmine, lotus, marigold, sunflower…”
    “There. It’s beginning to work. I can see you, but the light goes through you like
     it would a wandering spirit.”
    “Magnolia, dahlia, orchid,