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

Chapter Nineteen

Kane shudders, most of his body covered by bandages, like burial shrouds. Only some of his silver hair and his eyes peer through the covers. "No, Ode, don't look at my shame."

Ode waves the nurses out of the room. The mortals sprint as fast as their legs can carry them. She purses her lips at her husband. "Just because you're dying, now you think it's high time to start ordering me around."

Laughter, croaking. Wheezing. The eyes sparkling beneath the gauzy bandages. "No, I suppose I never could." Inhale, shuddering breath. A bony ribcage expands. "I feel them, Ode. People dying. War, familiar. It hurts." Tears sparkling beneath the silver eyes. "I love them. I love the humans. And they're dying because my parents, my family, believe they are nothing more than pawns. Nothing but dust that I breathed life into."

Ode takes his hand, kisses it. Peels back the bandages, sees his true face, hidden beneath the shriveled form. "The Matriarch killed your father when she escaped. Absorbed his power for her own. A lethal divorce." Ode shakes her head, the white shot through the raven curls, thunderbolts struck through the night sky. "Without their power locked into the Before, we're on our own for energy sources. It's why we're aging. But little Kaliya and her backup pirate crew will help get her back. For us. She's mommy's deadly little girl."

"I thought I told you not to interfere with the mortals. It's unfair."

"Oh, joon-am," Ode grins, replaces the bandages carefully. Teeth bared, vicious. Ruthless, her wrinkles highlighting the warlike kohl on her eyes. "You know there are no rules to win a war. Which is why the dead... they need a little wake-up call."

***

"I hate vegetables."

So much for godly wisdom. Children are children.

"Kali," I turn away, wondering how this infantile goddess can so test my patience. "Look, we're almost at the coast, and your mother will kill me if you don't keep strong."

Ali swaggers over, hiding her flask before Kali turns to look at her. The little goddess shoves her plate of potatoes indignantly away. "Correct me if I'm wrong, milady." Ali calls jovially, "but potatoes aren't a vegetable."

"I want ketchup!" Kaliya wails. What in the name of Kane's ever-loving arse is ketchup? Seeing me and Ali with our blank stares, she amends. "Never mind. You human weaklings can't even see the future like I can."

"You little..." I gnaw my lower lip raw, patience wearing thin at babysitting the brat. I take a potato wedge and nibble on it absentmindedly, eating to quell the frustration. "Thanks for patching the sails up, Ali. How are the injured?"

Ali bows her head. "Nearly a third of the crew was taken out by the blast. And Jun... well Xander is waiting at her bedside. She won't have long left with that head wound from the debris."

I look past her, sees Xander walking, haunted, among the decks of the ship. The poor giant clutches two wedding bands on a chain wound tight round his wrist. His eyes, a tragedy. Empty. Cold. Longing so much it hurts.

"First Farzaneh, now Jun," I sigh, drumming my fingers impatiently against the plate of potatoes. "How much longer till we reach the coast?"

"Land sighted!" A replacement scout cries, filling in for Jun's aching absence.

"Welcome to Rahasia. The Empire of the gods." Ali mumbles, taking in another mouthful of liquor when Kali isn't watching. "And all their sorry fools."

***

They make the burials quick as they can for our dead crew, burying them in the place where the sand of the coast gives way to grittier, more rigid dirt. Those that are religious say a prayer. Those that aren't sing songs or ballads from the dead's homeland. Those that are in-between waver between the two choices, mumbling through their grief and tearing their hair.