The Lost Tohunga Read Online Free PDF Page A

your own, girl …
    And now that voice … Father? No. Impossible …
    Then it really hit her … Puarata’s dead! My God, he’s dead! She had never thought Puarata could fail. Not against a mere boy, or anyone else. The images in the scrying glass had seemed like some foolish television show. But he really was dead, truly finally gone. And I’m next … Jeff Rothwell was outside, ostensibly to help her home, but Rothwell belonged to Sebastian Venn, like so many in the organization these days. Rothwell is here to kill me …
    When Wiremu struck her down it had felt like death, but she had woken to nurses and bandages and drugs. Puarata had been there, speaking comforting words as drips fed her veins with a pale fluid he said would heal her. She had been afraid that he knew what she had said to Matiu Douglas; those words about escaping his control. But the tohunga had said nothing of it. Did he know? Sometimes it was all too much, being Puarata’s lover. It was like being in a cage with a panther. She was over sixty, despite her youthful appearance. Puarata had been tiring of her, she suspected.
    Donna , that voice whispered again. I have had a nurse place a gun under your pillow.
    She spun, but there was no-one there. ‘Father?’ she breathed, her heart hammering. A cellphone rang outside, the conversation was terse, and then footsteps approached her door.
    She tried to reach for her power, that flame inside her that Puarata had found and taught her to use. But it was weak, barely flickering after the beating and the drugs. I can’t do it … I’m losing it … She fumbled frantically under the pillow and found the gun where Father’s voice had said it was. It feltheavy and reassuring in her hand. Outside Rothwell spoke in his flat voice. ‘Miss Kyle?’
    She lurched to her feet. The room swam and her head felt like it would burst. Rothwell opened the door. She didn’t wait for him to speak, just raised the gun and opened fire. She was so dizzy her first shot missed, but the second knocked him off his feet. She staggered over his twitching body and out. A nurse appeared and she couldn’t risk that she wasn’t one of them , so she fired and watched the woman clutch her belly and fold up, her face stricken. She tottered down the hall, firing at every movement, as panic erupted about her. Red-stained walls and floors marked her trail.
    Finally she made the shift to Aotearoa, although the effort dazed her. She crumpled to her knees in wet grass, outside a smaller, older building made of wood and whitewashed plaster. A man and woman turned towards her, clad in colonial garb, and their faces swelled with concern as they reached out …
    She couldn’t be sure. So she raised her gun again.
    Click!
    The transition had destroyed the powder. The man took the gun from her shaking hands. ‘My lady!’ He looked up at the building behind her, then pulled her to her feet. ‘Come, we must leave. Venn is coming. I will see you safe.’
    Well done, daughter, her father’s voice whispered. But do not forget to whom you owe your life.

Guardian devil
    Saturday
    H ine Horatai hurried from bed as the tide rose in her belly, and a vile taste invaded her mouth. On the bed, Evan Tomoana stirred then lapsed back into sleep. Hine pushed the door shut and teetered dizzily down the hallway, through the discarded cans and spilt ashtrays, into the tiny toilet cubicle. It already stank and hadn’t been flushed, but there was no time for that. She opened her mouth with a little cough and vomited.
    She huddled there for what felt like hours, her head pounding. Then she heard a warm voice, and Ko’s kind, fleshy face loomed over her as she flushed the toilet and wiped Hine’s face with a wet flannel. ‘Jesus, girl, you look terrible.’ She pulled Hine into a sitting position. ‘There, lovey. Better now?’
    Hine nodded weakly,