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

Chapter Fifteen

-IN THE DESERTS OF RAHASIA-

"I've gathered the Lune forces, Mother Goddess. They should arrive in a fortnight. Even if one of our troop ships went down, we have thousands more with reinforcements." The young woman, blood of the Rahasian scouts over her armor, half her body made of metal. Twisted metallic knobs in her spine. Half her face covered in an iron mask. Gauntlets for hands. A hearty fire, like a blacksmith's forge, heating up her insides. Iron braided through her brown skin, twisted past the still-weeping surgical incisions. Eyes a darker brown than her skin. Goddess-styled-braids for a half-goddess, with iron beads pinning them back from a widow's peak.

Running a cloth over the lethal axe-blade, cleaning the blood from the scouts that got too close to their hiding place.

"Good, and little Kaliya's got the attention of Kane and Ode wrapped up tight, some might even say constricted, like a serpent." The Matriarch coos.

"With the attention on Kaliya, milady," Sol demurs, "Rahasia's all for the taking."

Soleil. The Godkiller. One and the same.

Half-woman. Half-iron.

And a Diviner Weapon battle-axe, melded directly through her right arm. Pulsating with powers of regeneration. Making the Godkiller...

Invincible. Unless someone could get close enough to rip out the axe from her shoulder.

But they'd be dead if they tried.

"Little Soleil, I knew you'd survive the operation, darling. Replacing all that nasty human flesh with enchanted iron, bold and strong." The Matriarch of Truth, the one who, like a black widow, swooped in and took power even from her husband, the Titan of deceit and chaos. Kane would hate to admit it, but the human-loving god of life took more after his mother in looks than he'd care to admit, even if his heart was kind. She's an astonishing beauty. Obsidian skin. Glowing silver eyes. A rope of gray hair twining down her back in a heavy plait. "You look just like my son." Her grin widens. "Pity Kane didn't know you're actually Cato's demigod child. All the better for me, so you could betray him as his Champion."

Soleil looks up.

No, her memory's foggy. Not Soleil. Not Sol anymore.

Kura? No, there's no Kura. Kura's not with me anymore.

Kura belongs with the mortals. Safe.

Not with me. Not with this...

The Godkiller shivers to see her own reflection in her shield. To see how the metal twists into her body. A monster, of patchwork bronzed skin and sinew. Shadow braids wound tightly against her head. Only half a mouth, a nose, a single human eye now. Brown eyes, like her mortal mother. A farm-woman on the outskirts of the village of Raja. A poor woman. Plain-looking. Inconspicuous.

Fell in love with a war god. A devout little farm girl fool.

Dead as soon as she gave birth to Sol. Birth to the daughter of the War God, the Elder.

Cato.

Sol's father.

The god who tried to murder his own brother, Kane.

"Cato, the only son who turned out like me, even if he looked more like his father." The Matriarch of Truth clucks. Strange, how the goddess of truth can be so evil. No, not evil.

Indifferent. Caring nothing for humanity.

Just like Cato, Sol's father, when he tried to enslave all of mankind, 17 years ago. When he nearly tore the world apart in the Divine Wars.

Sol would've helped him if she could.

The Mother Goddess lifts Sol's chin up with bloodied hands. Sol struggles not to withdraw from her sticky caress. "What luck. Even if Kane and Ode eliminated Cato, I have better." She beams down at her Godkiller minion, trapped there in a body of iron and scarred flesh. "I have the Lunes, who so foolishly think I'll help them get rid of the gods forever. What idiots, they're just pawns." She laughs, the sound grating against Sol's ears. "And I have you. You're the best pawn of all. My iron horse."

"I just want Kane dead." The Godkiller whispers, voice ragged. "He had no right to take my father away from me. Cato wasn't evil. He couldn't have been. Kane stole his eyes too, you know. Kane's no better, lording his victory over my father in the Divine Wars."

Yes, Cato would have understood her point of view. He would have loved her warring spirit. Her father wouldn't have tried to kill her.

Not like her mortal grandparents did. Ashamed of their daughter's secret, of dying unwed. Of dying giving birth to a traveling seducer's infant.

Her mortal grandparents tried to kill her as a child. Tied her hands and feet, like a hog. Left her in the desert at night, left her to carrion and rot. She cried then, cried for Cato to rescue her.

But then Kane, her father's nemesis, found her instead. Breathed life back into her.

He should have left her for dead.

"The prodigal daughter, returned to take back the world. To make the humans that tried to kill her bow under her heel." The Mother Goddess laughs and claps her hands in glee. "Oh, that's perfect. Absolutely... Divine." She giggles, mad.

Sol didn't blame the Matriarch of Truth for her overzealous glee. Anybody would have gone mad if they were locked in a pit for thousands of years by her own children.

"Kane wronged us both, little Godkiller." The Matriarch grins. "Let's punish my insolent child for good."

Kura...

No, Kura's dead to me.

Just like I'm dead to her. Dead when I revealed that I was Cato's daughter. When I said I wanted revenge, to bite the hand that groomed me as his Champion. But what could Kura know? Kura had loving parents.

My mortal family tried to kill me.

"Spare the spoiling," Sol pushes a solitary braid behind her metallic ear. She forces a sick smile to her lips. "And beat the child so they will never forget."

***

Hey Pirates,

Meet the Godkiller.

-Sophia