Page 71 of Unfinished

“What is it?” he asked as soon as he held the device firmly in his hand. He stood outlined in the wan morning light, his back cast in shadows, a dark silhouette.

“It’s Veesha. I can’t find her. There’s no response from her device.” Only now did Sienna recognize the other voice as Faseeth’s. There was none of his laconic teasing, no hint of his usual unflappable calm.

“What do you mean you can’t find her?” R’kash was already rushing over to his desk, and his fingers danced across his tablet as he frowned down at the device.

“I went to wake her, and she wasn’t in her room.”

R’kash’s fist hit the desk and his rattle shook, a high and angry sound that grated on the ears. “Her device is located on the second ramp. It’s not moving, but check just in case.”

Sienna tried to think where the little girl would’ve gone. “Is she in the kitchen by the tree? She knew we’d be opening the presents today. Ask if he checked there yet.”

R’kash gave her a sharp nod and spoke into the device.

“No, she wasn’t there. I checked already before I contacted you. I’m heading to the ramps now,” said Faseeth.

“Go. I’ll contact the others and activate the perimeter guard.” R’kash’s hand tightened around the device to the point she worried he might break it before he released it. “Veesha is missing and she’s not wearing her communication device. I need all priests to search the temple.”

He walked quickly, pulling a pair of trousers from his wardrobe and fastening the device to the waistband. He pulled on his sandals and looked frantically back towards Sienna. “I must go.”

“Of course. I’m coming, too, but go ahead. I’m sure we’ll find her, R’kash.”

He left with a stiff nod, rushing out the door before she could blink. She hopped off the bed and threw on a pair of pants and a t-shirt before she grabbed some socks and running shoes. She pulled her hair back in a ponytail and put on the shoes and ran for the door. Veesha belonged to her now, too. She wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.

She went down the long hall to the ramps. She could already hear the others talking as she hurried down. “She’s not in the temple. I ran a second check on the temple systems.” That was Jesthi. “I know,” said R’kash, sounding like the words had been dragged out of his throat with razor blades.

She came to a rough stop at the bottom to the last ramp where the men were standing. Faseeth looked like he’d seen a ghost, and his hands trembled faintly as he looked blankly towards the bottom of the ramp.

“I have the security scanners searching for lifeforms of her approximate size. We should know something soon,” said Jesthi.

“Did she say anything to you last night, Faseeth? Anything at all that might let us know where she would’ve gone?” asked Sienna. She knew Veesha didn’t want to run away. If she was outside of the temple this early in the morning, she must’ve had what seemed like a good reason.

Faseeth’s feathers lifted weakly. “No. Nothing. She wanted to make a gift for you, Sienna, but I told her we’d do it today.”

“A gift? What kind? Did she say?”

Sienna thought back to everything they’d done together, to the way Veesha always wanted Faseeth to cut thev’tushliflowers for her after that first day in the meadow when Sienna had put a sprig behind Veesha’s ear.

“No. She just wanted to make sure she had something for you to put beneath the Christmas tree,” replied Faseeth.

Sienna turned to Jesthi. “Can you see the results of that scan you were running? Can you actively search?”

Jesthi frowned. “Yes, I—”

“Check the field with thev’tushliflowers. You know the one, R’kash.”

Jesthi removed a tablet from beneath his robes, but R’kash snatched it from him before he could do anything else. R’kash’s feathers stood up entirely straight as he stared down at the device.

“What is it?” she asked, stepping closer. It all looked like a messy jumble to her, but obviously R’kash saw something on that screen. “Do you see her?”

“Yes,” he said tightly. “Jesthi, gather the others and bring thev’kelthalarms. There’s a herd coming in, and Veesha is out there.”

V’kelth. The giant creatures that’d sounded like prehistoric terrors in R’kash’s letters. “Let’s go!” she shouted, and then she took off down the ramps. She knew where the field was. She wasn’t going to wait.

“I’ll take the glider,” she heard R’kash shout, and then he was running after Sienna, footsteps falling loud behind her until he easily overtook her. “I’ll go ahead,” he told her, and Sienna thought she nodded, but she couldn’t be sure. He’d still have to run around the entire side of the temple to reach the glider, so she kept going, racing into the courtyard. There was still a chance she might be able to get to Veesha first.

She wrenched one of the heavy doors to the outside open and let it slam shut behind her as she sprinted onto the path that split the temple’s fields. The ground still showed the signs of the harvest festival with scuffs in the dirt and trampled grass. If she didn’t hurry, those creatures would soon be leaving their mark on the plains, and Veesha might be directly in their path.

Sienna ran faster than she ever had in her life. The grass seemed to fight against her, slapping her thighs and tangling around her feet, but she pushed through, eyes scanning the fields for a swath of violet-blue and the dark feathers of a little girl’s wings.

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