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

Chapter Ten

We crawl into port when the long night's over. The Kona creaks into Lune's brilliant harbor. The entire city glistens like crystal-glass. A city that could be on the moon as it glows. The stars never disappear here. The moon never goes down. A city for all. The beauty of night in all its silent majesty.

Lune, a city of the brightest scholars from every kingdom, and kingdoms that are still establishing. Idriolan mathematicians. Akuan engineers. Jiwanese historians. Rahasian philosophers. Artists from Okami. Writers from every empire, every age, and every background.

An academic's utopia.

A pirate's hell.

I pay our fees, in bits and bobs of currency taken from everywhere: Rahasia, Okami, Jiwa, even some Idriolan paper money.

They don't ask many questions.

They can't fathom of breaking laws here in Lune. People are as perfect as their glass houses.

It's why they don't throw stones.

We curl up on the filthy deck, worn from keeping watch. That first night, we doze away on the ship.

The next day, Farzaneh's gone ahead and bought sweet rolls, fruity oats, and coffee with dollops of cream for us all.

"You shouldn't have left the ship." I tell her, shirking off my old shirt and self-consciously replacing it with a fresher one stolen from a Jiwanese batik merchant. The fish-scale coat stays with me, dirty as it is. "What if your cursed half arrived?"

She points to her manacles.

"Don't worry. These keep my powers in check." She scans the area, watching the harbor officials mill about the dock. "Where should we start looking for Kane's Champion?"

"I'm not sure."

But she's already stopped listening to me, staring out at the docks.

"Farzaneh, spy something?"

Her eyes are glowing brighter than a powder-keg explosion now. A thunderstorm, lightning bolts hidden behind bottle-glass clouds. Strength hidden behind that stare. The strength of a predator ready to pounce.

I swallow the pulse of fear, and calm as can be, whisper. "Fari?"

"That harbor official." She points toward one of the Lune officials, dressed in mirrored robes that reflect the eerily quiet glass city. "They're not like the others."

"Why?"

She points to the harbor master, the one we paid to enter Lune. It's a reedy young man, growing out an awkwardly patchy and pimply beard. "Because they're using magic as a disguise right now. It's not a man at all... behind the magic, she's a... a con-woman."

Her nose scrunches up as she massages her temples, probing farther into the imposter's mind. Reading her thoughts like she's as transparent as the glass buildings in Lune. "The fake's gloating about stealing all your cash."

She points towards an eye-shaped amulet swinging around the official's neck. An eye amulet of Kane, the former Blind God of life, husband to Ode. Figures.

"It's always the devout who steal." I scoff. "My dice ought to shut that braggart up."

"Wait, Lucky, shouldn't we watch this Diviner first before..."

Too late, the dice already roll.

I don't care.

Nobody steals from me.