Green Desert - Chapter 3.2.1 - Vata

Zhíno lay unconscious on the altar, pale in the firelight. He had no wounds. I hadn’t done the ritual, not a syllable of the incantations, and yet his arm was not broken, his flesh not rent. Somehow I had performed the spell. But it hadn’t been me. I hadn’t even gotten Sıpa‘ı into the chapel. Sıpa‘ı had still been running around fine when Pí‘oro. . .

Why weren’t they here with Pí‘oro yet? “Bhanar? Tamé?” No response.

I hurried across the room, sliding my feet into the slippers on the steps. Zhíno would be fine for a while yet. Pí‘oro, however.

They weren’t in the hall. Voices indistinct in the living room. Why’d they take him that way? Why hadn’t they listened to me?

I turned the corner and collided with a large man. He caught me, more agile than a man that size should be. I should have been flat on my back, hit my head on the wall.

“Vata, my dear.” It was Pí‘oro. He grinned, still holding me like in a dance dip. “You’re beautiful.” His eyes sparkled. His cheeks glowed. It was Pí‘oro.

“Wha. . . ?” was all I could manage. He’d been almost dead.

Pí‘oro stood me up and rubbed his hands together. “How is Zhíno? We must––”

Fírí pushed past us. “We don’t have time for this.”

Pí‘oro laughed as the young blonde stomped through the chapel doorway.

“What in the names of Vuzhí and Pétíso happened to you?”