he promised. He looked down at the sleeping child in her arms and bent down to kiss his forehead. The baby stirred but didn’t wake.“Are you sure you are healed?” she asked.“You cannot keep me another day,” he said. “I have lain here for two months now and it is time that I go to Paterangi and defend it against the soldiers. They are coming closer now and we must stop them from reaching this village.”“Are you sure that you are able to fight?” Reka said.“Don’t twist my words, woman. I am no longer the baby I was when I arrived here. I have all I need to fight.”“No, you don’t,” said a strong male voice. Haki looked up to see Piripi, Reka’s grandfather, walking towards him, a feather cloak over his shoulders. “You are missing a mere.”“I don’t have a mere,” Haki said. “I lost my patu at Meremere. I will have to do without.”“You can have mine,” Piripi said as he slid his arm out from beneath his cloak to reveal the greenstone mere.Haki gasped and shook his head.
