Tiger Thief by Michaela Clarke Read Free Book Online Page A

They grabbed Sharat’s arms.
    “What are you doing?” hissed Lemo. “Do you want to get us all killed? Bow down! Bow to the Emperor!”
    Lemo and Hussein threw themselves to the floor, dragging Sharat with them. As they bobbed up and down with their heads touching the dirt, the guards relaxed. At a signal from the Emperor, his men threw bags of gold into the ring. Sharat forced himself to bow, but he continued to scan the room. Where
was
Emira?
    Just then one of the courtiers caught his eye. Unlike the others, he wasn’t cheering or clapping. Instead he stood behind the Emperor, watching silently through colourless eyes. Perhaps once he might have been handsome, but now his cheeks were hollow and there was a haunted, hungry look on his sallow face. Suddenly Sharat’s heart skipped a beat. This was the man who’d been waiting by Emira’s cage. The man in black.
    As he stared, Sharat heard the beating of wings and two crows dived down to rake their claws through his hair, cawing in triumph as they flew by. Then, as he ducked, he saw the man in black lift his hand and the crows landed heavily on his arm. One hopped up on to his shoulder, and the other jumped over to perch on his staff.
    Sharat wanted to cry out in alarm, but Lemo and Hussein had finished their bowing and grovelling and were dragging him out of the ring. In desperation he twisted his head for one final glance around the room. With a jolt of fear, he saw that the man in black was looking straight at him. The gaze from his pale eyes was cold and piercing.
    Quickly, Sharat dropped his head, but at the same time he clenched his fists.
    That man knows where Emira is
, he thought.
I’m sure of it!

Chapter Seven
CONSPIRITORS
    R ookh and Mohini stood in Casmerim’s shrine. In front of them lay Emira, tightly bound in spirals of golden wire – Mohini’s treacherous hoop.
    With a look of triumph in her eyes, Mohini waved her hand, and the wire hoop thickened and grew to form a golden cage. Inside, Emira looked stunned, her eyes as red as the rubies around her neck.
    Rookh eyed Mohini with approval. “Well done,” he said. “Not bad for a
handmaid
.”
    With a swish of his robes he lifted her hand to his lips and shivered as he inhaled her scent.
    A faint smile twisted Mohini’s lips, but she bowed her head in submission. “Thank you, master,” she whispered.
    Rookh eyed her with fascinated suspicion.
Playing
the subservient jinni
, he thought. He knew Mohini only too well. Thankfully she couldn’t disobey him. “Tell me, how did you do it?” he asked.
    Again, Mohini bowed her head. “It was easy,” she said. “They were already fighting over money, just like humans always do. All I had to do was mention the Emperor’s gold and Lemo’s promise was forgotten. As for the tiger, the circus brat did most of the work. He even put on the collar.” She glanced at the rubies that glittered against the tiger’s fur.
    “May I?” she asked.
    “Certainly,” Rookh told her.
    At a word from Mohini, the rubies unhooked themselves and flew to land in her hand. With a snarl Emira threw herself against the golden bars. The candelabra flickered overhead, but the cage didn’t budge.
    “Good,” said Rookh. “Now we just have to make sure she doesn’t get away.”
    He snapped his fingers and two dark little men with hunched shoulders, hooked noses and scrawny legs appeared out of the shadows and bowed. As they lifted their heads their eyes glittered, uncanny replicas of their master’s.
    “Take the tiger to my workshop,” Rookh ordered.
    The servants’ eyes shone with approval. “Yes, master!” said one. He glanced at the tiger and licked his lips with a maggoty tongue.
    Rookh gave an involuntary shudder. “Quickly!” he snapped. “I don’t have all night.”
    Sniggering, the servants approached the golden cage. As they did so, Emira lunged again, roaring in fury, but the bars held as solid as steel. With cackles and jeers they wheeled her