A Pirate for the Dead Goddess (Legends of Rahasia Book 2)

Chapter Six

"So, where's Kaliya now?" I cross my arms over my chest, mindful of the tattered captain's jacket slung over my shoulders, mimicking ugly fish scales. I've grown attached to the jacket despite its ugliness. First man I ever killed. "Where's the lovely, ten-year-old terror?"

Ode glowers down at me, and I second-guess my snarky mouth. In fact, I find I'm at a loss for words altogether. Her eyes, they're like blood and darkness.... The darkness of a void. Of the rumored Pit that her true self was born in.

"Last I saw, my daughter had been turned into an all-devouring serpent. Kane and I are holding her back." Ode's entire frame shivers. Her eyes not entirely there. A droplet or two of blood spattering her nose. I reach out to support her, but she waves me off. "But we're old. Kane, especially, all those thousand-thousand years on him, coming back all at once..."

"You're holding her back now?" Fari asks, staring into Ode's glassy-eyed stare. "You're in two places at once?"

"Twelve, actually." Ode grimaces, clutching her side in pain. "Gods, my little girl can put up a fight. We're keeping her from devouring your mortal world right now. Back... back in the Before." The ghost of a bruise appears at her ribs, puncture-marks in her armor. "Death gets around. I just wonder who will make the pickup for me and Kane." Ode falters. This time, she doesn't bat me away as I keep her from falling on her knees.

"There, on her neck!" Farzaneh gasps. I look down, see that Ode's flesh is torn, a gash running from the bottom of her spine to the nape of her neck.

"I won't be much use to you." Ode gasps, getting to her feet again and staving off the pain. "You have to find that Witch Goddess and put an end to her curse. She fled to the mortal world to hide as soon as she escaped. She could be anyone."

"So, we're alone then?" I try to sound bored, like it's just another hit, another ship to loot and send burning. But I think my eyes give me away. I can't look away from the bloody gashes that just keep materializing on Ode's person. Ode screams at something, but there's nothing there. "We have to fight a crazed Witch Goddess alone?"

"No, Kane chose a Champion to help you. You have to find them, in the port town of Lune. The name is... is..." Ode lets out a horrid scream, her eyes back on the looming shadow that covers her shimmering frame. "Stay back! Kali, no!"

She lifts her arms overhead, the flat of her blade positioned outwards. She still doesn't want to hurt her daughter, even if Kali's now a world-ending serpent.

With one roar, a distant wail that shakes the entire ship to its foundation. A roar that pierces your ears and burrows into your bones. A roar that sounds so desperate, so horridly hungry, that you'd throw yourself to your knees weeping to make it stop.

With that, Ode disappears.

Farzaneh, panting hard behind the death goddess's dissipated image. She picks the dead rat up again, and it crumbles into bits of dust without any resistance.

"Well..." Fari whispers. "I think I'd rather go back into exile than face Kali." She frowns thoughtfully. "Scratch that. I'd even take indentured servitude over having to fight my own Witch Goddess."

I wipe dead-rat ashes from her şalvar. Her tunic is a slight scarlet tinge from the setting sun. The sunset filtering through the cellar boards. It dances in her darkened hair, lighting it from above. "Red suits you. Like you've got hold of fire."

I don't know why I say this. The dice make more sense.

Roll. Get a number or a skull. Someone dies or gets cursed.

But speak, Lucky, speak, and you just look like an idiot. Dice make sense.

Roll or die.

Speaking, who needs it when you can just command fear? Kill at whim?

Destroy errant witching gods...

"The sunset." I catch hold of what I meant to say, what my mind was trying to remember. Come on, Lucky, recover. "The port town of Lune. We don't have much time. We have to get there before the moon disappears from the sky."

She narrows her eyes at me, speaking slowly, like I'm going mad. "Lucky, you can make time. You have to."

She does that. She orders me around. I often let her. But now, now I'm anxious.

Gila... Gila... Always, Gila.

This thought makes me even more irritable. Ridiculous. How can one be jealous of a dead person? The scars on my chest ache. Those haggard stitches strain.

No thanks to the bone doctor. I should've killed him if I wasn't so bloody desperate to make a few incisions and just finally be me. Not the other part. Just me. Lucky.

Not so lucky now.

She's so close. Gods, why is this cellar so small? Shouldn't it be vacated now with that rat gone? "Fari, can't you see? I don't have time. The sun is setting, and I have to set course..."

She lifts the sleeve of my fish-scale coat up, presses her fingertips to my arm, to hold my crooked hands from once-broken fingers. A syringe glows in her palm. I hiss at the bite of the needle. "Your medicine. Second dose." She informs me. I flush in embarrassment.

I avoid looking down, just rolling the sleeve back. "Thanks." I mutter, sulky as a child.

She examines the scars peeking through my shirt. "The bone doctor really did a number on you with that sloppy surgery. But the scars work. They're stories."

I pull away then, fixing the fish-scale jacket, pulling it tighter to cover my body. I feel feverish, almost nauseous-sick. My stomach's turning knots, even as my voice gets mean. Gruff. "There won't be any more stories if we don't get to Lune." And with that, I make for the narrow stairs, breaking into the sunset above.

I don't have time for whatever this is, Fari.

I don't think I ever will.

***

Hey Pirates!

Me: Lucky, baby, do you have a crush on Farzaneh?

Lucky: Don't make me roll the dice.

Me: (o.O)