The Tiger Prince (25 page)

Ruel muttered something beneath his breath, rolled
over, and grabbed Li Sung’s left arm at the moment he slid over the side. “Help me,” he grated to Li Sung, the muscles of his upper arms distended with strain as he supported the man’s weight. “Give me your other hand too.”

“No, let me.” Jane was immediately beside him, grabbing the hand Li Sung extended. Together they managed to pull him back on the bridge.

“Run!” Ruel leapt to his feet. “Get to the embankment.” He whirled away from them. “I have to go see what—” He broke off as he saw the last car, the maharajah’s car, teetering back and forth, its sheer weight causing it to seesaw off the bridge and tip toward the gorge. “Ian!”

Ian was in the maharajah’s car, Jane remembered in horror. Why hadn’t he jumped? She knew less than a minute had passed since she had jumped from the cab, but it seemed an eternity.

“Get off this damn bridge!” Ruel grabbed Jane’s arm and pushed her forward toward the safety of the embankment a few yards away.

The heavy door of the maharajah’s car was jerked open. Ian stood in the doorway, a bewildered expression on his face. His forehead was bleeding. “Ruel!”

“Ian! Jump!” Ruel ran along the bridge toward the maharajah’s car. The bridge was vibrating, the ties spreading like teeth in a gaping, screaming mouth.

Another sound, even more ominous, a creaking of metal on metal. The bridge jerked, throwing Jane to the ground. Her panicky gaze flew back to the maharajah’s car. Ruel had also been thrown to his knees a few yards before he reached the car. As she watched, Ian catapulted back into the car as it fell off the bridge and hung over the abyss suspended only by the coupling link to the two cars still on the track. God, let it hold, she prayed desperately. Let Ian get out!

The coupling link held, but gravity and the weight of the car was too great.

“No!” Ruel struggled to his knees, watching helplessly
as all three railway cars tumbled slowly off the bridge toward the muddy water sixty feet below.

“Ian!”

If she lived another hundred years, Jane knew she would never forget Ruel’s agonized scream of protest and horror.

The maharajah’s private car and passenger car struck the flat rocks lining the bank, crumpling like toys on impact, the wooden sides collapsing as if fashioned of paper. The locomotive sank into the water like a submerging crocodile.

“Dear God …” she whispered.

“Watch out for her, Li Sung.” Ruel was running past them, skidding down the muddy embankment toward the crumpled car on the rocks below.

“No!” Jane didn’t realize she had screamed the word. Ruel was going to be killed! He mustn’t die. She couldn’t live if Ruel died. She couldn’t live …

She started after him down the embankment but had gone only a few feet when Li Sung tackled her, knocked her to the ground, and sat astride her.

“Get off me!” She struggled desperately, pounding at Li Sung’s chest. “Don’t you understand? He’s going to die. They’re both going to die. I’ve got to—”

“And you’ll die, too, if I let you go,” Li Sung said. “Ruel’s mad to think he can save his brother. The crash probably killed him.”

“How do you know if we don’t try?”

“He’s right, Jane.” Kartauk was suddenly kneeling beside them, a lantern in his hand, his hair plastered about his pale face. “Listen to him.”

She closed her eyes, feeling the tears running down her cheeks. Ian was dead and soon Ruel would be dead too. “Did you see it, Kartauk?” she whispered.

“I saw it all,” Kartauk said grimly. “And I never want to see anything like it again.”

“It fell. It shouldn’t have fallen….”

“What?”

“Never mind.” She couldn’t lie there and give up when Ruel had not. She wasn’t certain Ian was dead, and
by some miracle perhaps Ruel would manage to get them both out alive. They had to be ready to help if they were needed. Ruel mustn’t die. He mustn’t die….

“Get off me, Li Sung.” She turned to Kartauk.” Rope. Did Ruel include any rope with the supplies he gave you?

The wreckage of the maharajah’s car balanced on the rocks percariously, half in the water. Ruel crawled through the only entrance, a gaping opening at the river’s edge.

The splendid interior of the car was now a shapeless tangle of girders, trusses, crushed timbers, and smashed and overturned furniture. The porcelain stove was upside down, releasing flames that were now licking hungrily in an attempt to destroy what little was left of the car. The fire would be no problem, Ruel thought, the driving rain was already extinguishing it. He paused just inside the car, his gaze frantically searching the wreckage.

Ian lay on the floor of the train, his body twisted and half buried under the caved-in roof of the car.

Ruel crawled forward and began tearing desperately at the debris covering him.

The car slipped farther into the river; muddy yellow water gushed into the car.

He lifted the divan off Ian.

“No, leave me …”

Ruel’s gaze flew to Ian’s face, and relief rippled through him. His brother’s eyes were open, his face contorted with pain, but he was alive.

“The hell I will.” Ruel edged the divan to one side.

The car shifted another inch, and water poured over the top of Ruel’s boots.

“It’s too late,” Ian gasped. “Save yourself.”

“Shut up.” Ruel hands quickly went over Ian’s arms and legs. “Nothing seems to be broken. Can you move?”

Ian stirred, then fell back with a low cry.

“No? Then I’ll have to drag you.” Ruel snatched the ivory-colored cords from the drapes lying on the floor. “I’m going to make a harness. Once I’m in the water, I may not be able to hold on to you.” His hands quickly fashioned the harness as he spoke. He slipped on the makeshift harness and then knotted the other end of the cord under Ian’s armpits. “Ready? Here we go.” He grabbed Ian beneath the armpits and pulled.

Ian screamed.

The cry flayed Ruel. “God, I’m sorry,” he muttered as he pulled Ian another foot. “But the car can’t stay on these rocks much longer. Once it tumbles into the water, we’ll be swept away.”

“Not your fault … coward …”

“You’re not a coward.” Ruel dragged him another foot. “Only two yards more.”

“Stop.” Ian groaned. “Can’t stand it.”

“All right.” Ruel stopped pulling and dropped to his knees beside Ian, glaring at him. “Then we’ll both stay here and let the goddamn river kill us. Is that what you want? Because I’m not leaving you.”

“Ruel, please. Don’t …” Ian wearily closed his eyes. “All right, pull….”

The next few minutes were excruciating agony for Ian and backbreaking effort for Ruel.

They finally reached the opening, and Ruel stopped to catch his breath. Ian was barely on the verge of consciousness, and how in hell was he to get him out of the car and onto the rocks with the least damage?

The decision was made for him as the car slid forward off the rocks into the water.

The current whipped them away from the railway car as if they were bits of kindling. The next moment Ruel was dashed against the rocks. He instinctively reached out, grabbing for a boulder.

Pain.

Blackness.

He had to hold on. Ian … where was Ian? He felt a tug at the harness and turned to see Ian floating a few feet away. He hoisted himself up on the rocks, then
turned and started pulling hand over hand on the cord binding him to his brother. The current was fighting him, taking Ian, jerking Ruel back toward the water.

It seemed an eternity before Ian was close enough for Ruel to reach out and drag him up on the rocks.

Ian lay still, no longer conscious. Perhaps not even alive.

“Don’t die, damn you. You can’t die.” Ruel pressed his ear to Ian’s breast. Nothing. He shifted his head higher and detected a faint heartbeat. Alive, thank God, but for how long? He adjusted the cords of the harness over his shoulders and began to crawl over the rocks, dragging Ian behind.

One yard. Two yards. Something warm ran down his shoulder. Rain? No, blood from the cords cutting into his shoulders, he realized dimly.

He reached the embankment and started up the steep incline, his boots sinking ankle-deep in the mud.

He dragged Ian five yards. Slipped back two.

Went another three yards. Slipped back five.

He cursed and started up the slope again.

“We’ll take him. Take off the harness.”

It was Kartauk speaking, on the embankment in front of him, Ruel realized hazily. Kartauk and Jane.

Kartauk swiftly unfastened the cords from Ruel’s back. “Lord, you’re cut to pieces.”

“Ian …”

“We’ll get him.” Jane was replacing the cords around Ian’s body with the rope she carried. “Li Sung tied the other end of the rope to a tree at the top of the embankment. As soon as we reach the top, we’ll pull him up.” She tested the knot. “It’s secure. Let’s go.”

Ruel staggered behind Kartauk and Jane up the embankment. The going was difficult but not impossible without Ian’s weight burdening him. It took them ten minutes to reach the top, where Li Sung waited. Together, they pulled Ian up the rest of the slope.

“Is he alive?” Li Sung asked.

“Yes,” Ruel said. “Let’s get him under Kartauk’s lean-to and out of this rain.”

A few minutes later they managed to drag Ian underneath the crude tarpaulin-covered shelter. “Take care of him.” Ruel turned and staggered away from them toward the bridge.

“Where are you going?” Jane called.

“Kasanpore. Doctor …”

“You can barely walk. How can you make it to Kasanpore?”

“No one else. Kartauk can’t go,” he said jerkily. “Neither can Li Sung … crippled.” “What about me?”

“Stop arguing with me.” He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes blazing at her. “Just keep Ian alive until I get back.”

Jane held her breath as she watched him start across the gorge. The bridge appeared to be still intact, but she couldn’t be sure after the punishment it had taken.

Her breath expelled in a rush of relief as Ruel finally reached the bank on the other side. A moment later he was lost to sight around the bend.

Keep Ian alive until I get back.

And how was she going to do that? Jane wondered in despair as she turned to stare down at Ian. He looked as if he was barely clinging to life right now, and it would be hours before Ruel could get back with help. The blanket they had draped over him was already damp and she had no way to keep him dry, no way to build a fire.

And when Ruel returned with help, they would find Kartauk.

She might not be able to keep Ian alive, but there was a chance she could still save Kartauk from Abdar. She turned to Li Sung. “I want you to take Kartauk to Narinth.”

“I won’t leave you here,” Kartauk said.

“Do what I tell you!” She had to pause to steady her voice. “I’ve lost everything else. I won’t lose you to Abdar. I’ll tell everyone Li Sung was killed in the train wreck. Perhaps Abdar will think you were on the train
and killed too. When you get to Narinth, put up at an inn near the waterfront and contact me when you’ve arrived.”

Kartauk frowned. “I don’t think—”

“Stop thinking and do what I tell you. I’ll be safer here than you will. It may take you days to get to Narinth on foot.”

Li Sung grasped Kartauk’s arm. “She’s right. There’s nothing we can do to help her, and your discovery will only endanger her. I will make sure he is kept safe, Jane.”

“I know you will,” she said dully. “Good luck.”

She turned back to stare down at Ian. At this moment it seemed impossible there could be good fortune anywhere in the world. Poor Ian. She doubted if he would ever see Glenclaren or his Margaret again. When she looked up a few minutes later, Li Sung and Kartauk were gone.

She trudged to the edge of the bridge and looked down at the rails crossing the gorge, then beyond them to the wreckage of the train in the river. Her stomach twisted and the bile rose in her throat. She turned and walked back to the lean-to.

Keep him alive.

It seemed an impossible task, but she had to try to do as Ruel had commanded. She had to salvage something from this horror. She had to save Ian for Ruel. She lay down close to Ian on the wet earth, cuddling close to him, trying to share her warmth.

“No!” They were taking him away from her. Didn’t they understand he would die if she didn’t keep him warm? “No, you can’t …”

“Shh, it’s all right.” Ruel’s voice. “They’re putting him on a stretcher to carry him over the bridge.”

She became conscious of voices, lanterns, movement all around her, and struggled to a sitting position. “Is he still alive?”

“Barely.” Ruel’s tone was clipped as he rose to his
feet and helped her to her feet. “But we have to get him out of this foul weather. Patrick has a wagon waiting on the other side of Sikor Gorge and we’ll make better time once we reach there.” His gaze searched her face. “You look as pale as Ian. Can you walk across the bridge? There are some ties missing and it’s not safe for me to carry you.”

“I can walk.” She stumbled after the four men carrying Ian, her gaze fixed desperately on the stretcher. “He has to live … my fault.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ruel said harshly. “No one’s to blame. At first I thought Abdar must have done this, but it seems to me he would have appeared by now, and why would he want to sabotage the train? I’m beginning to think it was only an accident.” They reached the other side of the gorge, and he swung her up into his arms. “God, you’re shaking yourself to pieces. It’s no wonder you’re not thinking clearly.”

“My fault …”

She woke in her bedroom in the bungalow later to find Ruel in a chair beside her bed. He had changed to dry clothes but still looked terrible. Dark circles colored the flesh beneath his eyes, and deep grooves scored either side of his lips.

“Ian?” she whispered.

“Still with us. We were afraid to move him any farther than the bungalow, so Patrick gave up his room and brought a doctor from the fort. Dr. Kendrick’s with him now. I suppose he’s doing everything he can.”

“Of course he is.”

He said haltingly, “I want to thank you for helping my brother.” He wonderingly repeated the words. “My brother. Do you know I haven’t called Ian that since we were boys together? I thought if I could keep him at a distance …” He closed his eyes. “I … love him, you know.”