The Tiger Prince Read Online Free PDF Page A

with pain and subjugation when she was at Frenchie’s not to recognize the breed when she encountered it.
    “You’ve left your bungalow three nights in a row to come into the city. You’ve been meeting Kartauk?”
    “Yes.”
    He glanced down at the knapsack she had dropped on the ground. “And taking him food?”
    She nodded again.
    “That is good. It would displease me if Kartauk suffered harm or deprivation.” He reached out and gently grasped her throat. “Now, you will tell me where he is so that I may place him again under my protection.”
    “He’s hiding in one of the shops that border the river.”
    “Which house?”
    “Yellow sod. With a dirty striped awning.”
    “You describe half the shops in Kasanpore.” He frowned. “You will take me there.”
    “You don’t need me. I’ve told you what you wanted to know.”
    “But is it the truth? I think I will make certain before I permit you to leave us. You carry the lantern, Pachtal. I will escort the lady.”
    Pachtal released her arms and moved around to stand beside Abdar before reaching down to pick up the lantern from the street.
    Jane’s lids lowered swiftly to veil her eyes as sudden hope spiraled through her. Pachtal’s action left her back unguarded, and she doubted if she would get a better opportunity to escape.
    She meekly dropped her eyes as she whimpered, “Why won’t you let me go back to my bungalow? I’ve told you what—” In midsentence she lowered her head and launched herself at Abdar.
    The top of her head crashed into his mouth.
    He screamed in pain, his hand releasing her throat and flying to his bleeding lower lip.
    She whirled and tore down the twisting, cobbled street.
    “Get her!”
    She heard the pounding of running steps behind her and Abdar’s venomous cursing.
    She turned left at the corner, almost tripping over a beggar huddled in the shadows.
    She caught her balance, avoided the beggar’s outstretched grasping hands, and ran on.
    The beggar hurled obscenities after her and then let out a shrill screech of pain. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw the beggar doubled over in the street, clutching his stomach as Pachtal and Abdar ran past him. They were gaining on her, swiftly closing the distance between them.
    Panic choked her, and for an instant she couldn’t remember which way to turn. Left. Right led to the river. She must go left and try to lose herself in the bazaar. The day after she had decided to help Kartauk she had spent the entire morning in the bazaar, familiarizing herself with every stall and corner of the huge marketplace. Darkness had just fallen, and the bazaar would still be crowded. She could hide among the stalls until Abdar gave up the chase.
    She turned the corner and burst into the crowd of people in the large square.
    The bazaar.
    Copper lanterns hanging on awning-covered booths. A camel burdened with rolled carpets moving with ponderous gait through the throng.
    Noise. Beggars whining. Merchants calling out their wares.
    She heard Abdar cursing behind her, but she was already darting through the throng and between the stalls. She passed a leather vendor, a pink-turbaned cleaner of ears wielding his small silver spoon in the orifice of a customer seated on a low stool, a gold merchant, a kiosk hung with wicker cages containing raucously squawking parrots. She glanced behind her again and her heart sank. As people recognized Abdar, they were making way for him.
    Then, to her relief, she saw a small female elephant burdened with copper pots and pans and her master on the aisle that bordered the western edge of the bazaar. It was common knowledge Abdar hated elephants and avoided them at all cost. If given a choice of direction, he would surely choose another aisle. She ran ahead intothe thick crowd of people gathered around a vegetable booth to lose herself from Abdar’s view, turned left at the next booth, ran past the elephant, and then dove behind a fishmonger’s stall. She