He heard his mahout shout in terror as the tiger sprang for the head of their elephant. A wrap of yellow fur seemed to twist itself around the elephant's forehead as the tiger dug its claws into the protective leather padding. As Kumada tossed her head in panic, the mahout screamed again and plunged for safety, rolling through a clump of brown grass and scrambling toward the soldiers.
The tiger caught Hawksworth's eyes with a hypnotic gaze as it began pulling itself over the forehead of the terrified elephant, directly toward his howdah. Kumada had begun to whirl in a circle and shake her head, futilely trying to dislodge the wounded fury slashing at her leather armor. The tiger slipped momentarily, then caught its claws more firmly and began to climb again.
Almost without thinking, Hawksworth reached forward and grabbed the ankus, the short pike and claw used for guiding an elephant, that the mahout had left lodged in a leather fold behind the elephant's head. He wrenched it free and began to tease the tiger back.
Kumada was running now, wildly it seemed, toward a large pipal tree at the edge of the clearing. But the tiger had pulled itself atop her head and, as Hawksworth jabbed its whiskered face with the ankus, he heard a deep growl and saw a flash of yellow and claw as a sharp pain cut through his shoulder.
He knew he was falling, dizzily, hands grasping against smooth leather as he slipped past the neck of the elephant, past its flapping ear, against a thundering foot that slammed the dust next to his face.
Kumada had suddenly stopped dead still, throwing him sprawling against the base of the pipal tree. He looked up to see the tiger suspended above him, glaring down, clawing at the face of the elephant and bellowing with pain.
Then he heard the snap of the tiger's spine, as Kumada slammed it again and again against the massive trunk of the
tree, Only when the tiger was motionless did she let it drop, carefully tossing its body away from Hawksworth as it tumbled lifeless onto the grass.
Hawksworth looked up through the dust to see Arangbar pulling his elephant alongside.
"That was most auspicious, Inglish. It's an ominous and evil protent for the state if a tiger I have shot escapes the hunt. If that beast had succeeded in going free, we would have had to send the entire army into the countryside to find and kill it. Your Kumada saved me the trouble. The gods of the southwest have been auspicious for our reign today. I think you brought us luck."