through by a black stick that looked like a piece of rebar.
Panic seized him, and he reached for the stick to pull
it out quickly, but as soon as he touched it, he screamed – the burn on his arm
burned unbearably, causing even more
pain than the injured leg. Keijigen cupped his burned
palm with his other hand and looked around.
Some kind of air current was carrying him. It was moving at an
incredible speed, constantly changing direction. It was
hard to keep track of what was spinning around him, but when
he looked closely, he could make out leaves,
branches, scraps of newspaper, and black sticks like the one
stuck in his leg. Any change in flow direction
16
it could easily cause one of them to stab him
right through. The blood began to pound in his temples, and fear came over him again,
and then he saw bodies flying in the distance, just as he was.
All of them were scratched and wounded, punctured
black sticks, large and small, seemed
lifeless and flew motionless, caught
up in the current.
Looking at the bodies, the open empty eyes, the terrible
wounds, Keijigen realized that the sticks were not rebar,
but spears and arrows and their fragments. They were such a deep
black color that it was as if the void itself had taken
shape. It was cold and hard to breathe. Was
the flow really running out of oxygen? Or maybe he didn’t notice and was
poked by another piece of black arrow? Keijigen
tried not to move, trying to figure out what he could
do to get out of the vortex, but his thoughts were slow
and nothing came to mind.
Another change in the flow direction significantly changed
the positions of flying objects. It hit him on the head
some newspaper. He decided not to take it off, because the extra
movement caused pain. But then something soft bumped into him
.
«Green Alley, find Reana,»
a low voice told him.
With his good hand, Keijigen tore the newspaper off his face
and saw the angel that Milo had been
talking to outside the hunting lodge a few minutes ago.
He smiled to himself. Yeah, compared
to what was happening right now, the conversation was very nice.
Keijigen tilted his head and looked at him.
It was difficult to call him an angel now:
a black arrow was running through his chest from right to left, and his left arm, broken
in the shoulder and forearm, hung unnaturally down. His face