Soulmates Across Borders

Chapter 9

Your father wants to return to the village soon, Pango told her.

Tell him Hake and I are joining him. Solí turned to the others and said, "We're heading back to the village now to recover the dead."

"Be safe," Awai said.

"I am coming," Waiata demanded. "They need to be blessed."

"We can bring them back here. Bless them when they come back," Hake said.

She shook her head. "They must be blessed where they fell, or their souls will not move on to be reborn."

"Teach me how to bless them," Solí suggested.

Waiata shook her head again. "It requires the makutu of the seventh sacred circle. The sacred circle of the higher forces is beyond your reach. You are not prepared for such things."

Solí sighed. Finally she turned inward and said, Tell my father Waiata wants to come and see what he says.

After a quiet moment, Pango replied, He says she must come. He knows this, though he is worried. He wants us to meet him at the shade's side of the village.

Solí nodded. Hake and Solí and Waiata gathered some lilac sprigs for the return trip, made a circle with more lilac sprigs, stood inside the circle with the two wolves, and prepared to perform the makutu. They turned to mist and journeyed together back to their village as swiftly as the blowing wind.

When they arrived, Solí's father was already there, along with five summoners, all with their wolves. The three of them waved their hands to dismiss the mist makutu. Solí looked around warily, but if there were beastmen out there, they were well hidden among the trees. Solí couldn't feel anything. Her soulmate must be too far away. She breathed a sigh of disappointment, then she realized she wanted to see him again, and the realization put her in a foul mood.

The men had already found Ekara, a village summoner, who had died near the moon's side of the village. His wolf lay on the ground beside him. They'd been burned to death.

Solí put her hands over her mouth and breathed to try and hold back the gasps and sobs.

Waiata shuffled up, knelt unsteadily, and pulled out a giant pouch of crushed flower petals. They were white, probably sacred datura. She spread them in a circle around the bodies, breathed with her eyes closed for a long silent moment, and then said, "Hahre ih rungah ih te rahngimahri." She held up her holy bracelet of soul stones.

The stillness was broken by a gust of wind that came straight from Waiata. She nodded at everyone, and Solí stepped forward to help her up.

"Where are the others?" she asked, swiping tears off her face. The summoners led her around the village to the bodies of Pai and Taruta, who had died together when they tried to flee and their burning tent collapsed on them. Solí had only noticed Taruta when she had rushed through the village to save Awai and her daughters.

I hate this, Solí told her wolf. I cannot stand the idea of having a soulmate who would do this to my friends and family.

Can you reject your soulmate? He looked up at her with a whine in his throat.

I don't know. She knelt and put her hand on Pango's back. I've never heard of anyone rejecting their soulmate before.

Can you imagine rejecting me?

Of course not!

I mean, if you hated me, could you imagine living the rest of your life without me?

I don't know. I'd feel like I was half gone.

Do you feel like you're half gone now, knowing your soulmate is out there somewhere and not here with you? Pango asked.

Maybe. I don't know him well yet, but knowing he's out there somewhere is driving me crazy. I need to see him again. So I can decide if he needs to die.

If you kill him, you'll be killing yourself and me too, Pango pointed out.

Of course I know that! But I can't stand the idea of letting him live after what he did.

Maybe it's best to stay away from him then, even if it will be torture for you. It will be torture for him too, to be separated from you.

Maybe, Solí said.

Well, he deserves to be tortured after the atrocity he has committed, ordering his men to do this to our people. I certainly want to torture the monster! Pango growled

I think I do too.

Pango nodded.

Solí joined the others as they searched the village until they found Irirangi and Rua, two children who had only learned to turn themselves into mist a few moons ago. The sight of the burned lilacs spread around their dead bodies made Solí cry openly. The children had been trying to activate their spirits, to summon their mana, when a beastman had caught them. Why the beastmen felt the need to kill harmless children, Solí couldn't fathom.

The sight reminded Solí of how her older brother Amiri had died, back when she had been twelve years old. Her mother and infant sister Sanay had died that day too. Solí had always tried hard to close her heart to the painful memory, but she remembered them just about every day of her life, and the memories still brought tears to her eyes.

Waiata blessed the two bodies. Solí's father gathered up all their fallen peoples' bodies, so they could turn them into mist, and then they prepared to leave.

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898 Words ~ 9474 Total