Island Fire by Bobbi Smith

Author:Bobbi Smith [Smith, Bobbi]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: The Evan Marshall Agency
Published: 2019-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Manti awoke suddenly. The dream he'd been having had seemed so real and so threatening that he was confused and disoriented. He tried to remember all that he'd envisioned, but could recall only fragments of it. Upset and unable to go back to sleep, he began to restlessly pace his chamber. Something was about to happen; the sense of foreboding he felt was almost overwhelming.

It was not often that he sought out Tikiru, but knowing that she was gifted with the power to interpret such visions, he went to her then, without pause, in the middle of the night. It was dark and quiet as he made his way to her hut, but he was so intent on discovering the meaning of his dream that he did not notice. And when he reached her abode, he stood before her hut as was customary, calling out to her a chanted, authoritative summons to which she could not, by law, fail to respond.

Nelani had been resting in her own bed when she heard the high priest invoking Tikiru to come forth. Sitting up panic-stricken, she quickly debated the chance of finding Tikiru and bringing her back before Manti would get suspicious, but she knew there was no time. Manti was here, now, and he was demanding an audience with the taupau. Rising, she dressed, lit a torch, and went out onto the veranda to speak with him.

"Oh, High Priest, why do you summon the taupau?" she asked, bowing in homage before him after she'd placed the torch in a rack.

"I must see her," he answered without hesitation.

"But she is resting and bade me not to disturb her," Nelani lied, she hoped convincingly.

Manti's eyes flashed with anger. "I am the high priest. She will see me—now!"

Nelani was afraid, but her years of training to be faithful and submissive to Tikiru steadied her. She knew she could not abandon her mistress now. Turning, she disappeared into the hut and knelt down beside the deserted bed to pray to the gods to save Tikiru from Manti's wrath.

Manti waited impatiently before the hut, and as the minutes slipped by, he became increasingly suspicious. By sacred law, he was forbidden to violate the sanctity of Tikiru's hut, but he knew he had no choice.

"Nelani! Bring forth your mistress!" he ordered, and when there was no response to his call, he entered the hut.

Manti stared incredulously at the slave girl praying beside Tikiru's empty bed.

"Where is she?" he asked as he stood rigidly behind her.

"I do not know," she answered truthfully.

His hand snaked out to grasp her by her hair, and he pulled her back against him, holding her so tightly that her neck arched painfully. Nelani gasped as he lifted his sacrificial knife from his belt and ran the sharpness of the blade softly yet threateningly down her cheek, then pressed the point to her throat.

"I would know where Tikiru is," Manti demanded again, letting her feel the prick of the bodkin. He watched with cold indifference as blood began to flow freely from the cut.

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