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

Chapter Eleven

"Pick up the smoking one, but be careful of the lightning running through his body still." I nod to the other Lune scholar, still lying in a heap from when I beat him with his own prod. "And bring broken-nose too."

Xander hefts one over each shoulder. I wave to the other officials, handing them a wad of slightly burned cash, and all the coins from the cowards' wallets. "Say a word about this, and I kill you and your lovely families."

Terrified, the harbor officials scatter.

Xander gives me a skeptical look. A look that says: you know they'll be back, right?

"I know, Xan," I clap his shoulder awkwardly. "We'll be long gone by then."

Damn you, Farzaneh, for making me try and be nice.

***

I pull the con-girl aside while Fari is making a poultice for her wounds. Kura's a beauty, but right now, her face is caked with blood and swollen with bruises. And she keeps biting her lip, like she's restraining herself from using her amulet. Killing me.

"Cute trinket. But the eye carved into your amulet, well it's shoddily done. Looks like someone carved it in a rush. A diversion. A decoy. A sham just like all your other powers." I nod to her Diviner's weapon. "I don't really believe you're Kane's Champion. Why are you hiding, liar?"

She holds her head up high. "Why are you accusing me?" She pulls her short hair back from her eyes, the lids low in suspicion. "Am I not good enough for you, your lordship? You aren't much to look at either." Her laugh is haggard, must taste like salt on her tongue. "And besides, I'm much more interested in your pretty witch woman than I am in you. Raven hair's a real turn-on."

She nods at Farzaneh, trying to get a rise out of me.

I chuckle. She's got a whole lot of bite. "No, not that." My lip curls, staring dead into her gray-black eyes. "Tell me who Ode's Champion is then, if you're actually Kane's chosen."

She leans back, looks around the ship, and then points at Xander. "It's him."

I smirk. "No. I'm Ode's Champion, crooked fingers and all. Not the Idriolan giant." I wag my finger at her, like scolding a child. "I knew you were a liar. Once a con-woman, always a con-woman."

Color rises through the gold-brown hue of her skin, an angry flush. She opens and closes her mouth a few times, trying to find the words, before eventually going silent.

The silence lingers. But I lean forwards, so close, yet she still doesn't flinch.

Yes, a whole lot of bite.

"Tell me who Kane's real Champion is, imposter." I nod to the electric prod I'd brought onboard, taken from the dock mob. "Or you'll wish I'd left you with the Lunes."

Silence lingers. Her eyes narrow further. "You don't understand."

I sigh, lifting up the prod. "Try me."

She shakes her head, short hair flying everywhere, wispy as it frames her battered face. The piercings glisten silver and bloody, little bumps as stars in her skin. Silver piercings to match her dark-gray eyes. "Strike me with that thing as often as you want. It won't change the truth." She bites her lip, chewing it raw. "So, maybe I'm not Champion. I was assigned to protect the real one, Soleil. I was her bodyguard, at least until she could manage her powers."

"A Diviner?"

"With a Diviner Weapon as her battle-axe. Powers of regeneration. Never ill. Never injured for long. You'd really have to slaughter her to keep her down." She smiles then, her eyes faraway. Admiration, it's practically dripping from her, a tongue honeyed with praise. "No, we were more than just that. We were... well, Sol was..."

I raise an eyebrow, not having time for sheepishness when the world's ending.

"Sol was my first lover." She coughs, then continues rambling as she struggles to ease over her embarrassment. "But I was just an immigrant to Lune, a daughter to Jiwanese philosopher-writers. Soleil could've gotten any girl she wanted. A Rahasian orphan, you know. But so powerful that she was adopted by the finest university council in Lune."

So, Kane's Champion was a badass, a prodigy, and a ladies' woman to boot.

Next, Kura will tell me that even her piss smelled like roses.

How can I compare?

I clear my throat as Kura looks on with that far-off, moony-eyed gaze. I slam the rod down to regain her attention. "Ode said I'd find Kane's Champion in Port de Lune. You were supposed to be Soleil's bodyguard-lover." I lean back again, the prod's tip almost against her neck. Just a little further, and it'd sting. "But I don't see any battle-axe-wielding Champion, Kura."

Kura looks to the ground. A streak down her face, a rust-colored liquid.

No, not rust. Tears mingled with blood.

Why in the gods' names would she be crying?

"I loved her. But now she's dead." Kura continues weeping in silence. "All because the Lune government sold her out to the Godkiller."

Great. Soleil sounded like a war goddess incarnate.

And now, I'm on my own. Alone, like always.

Piece-of-shit Lunes. I'd kill them all if I could, aside from Kura. She's still useful to my cause.

It seems that it's all the information I'll get out of a distraught Kura right now, even if I did use the electric prod. Her eyes, I've never seen eyes that empty.

Like her soul's been torn out.

I stand up then, hastily handing Kura a ripped piece of my shirt's hem to mop up her tears with. "Ali, Xander, lug those Lune mobsters on-deck now! We're going to head back out on the water and conduct a little investigation."

Voice hoarse from crying, Kura peers up at me, vengeance in her gaze. A darkness in her heart. "Make them suffer, Captain Dice. Like death's upon them, or so they'd wish it." Her voice gets even more raggedy, torn and swollen by tears and beatings. "For Soleil."

***

Hey there, Pirates,

So, seems Kane's Champion is...dead?

Poor ship for Kura x Soleil.

Poor Kura.

And no! The Godkiller's going for Aziz and Elio!

-Sophia