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

Chapter Thirty-One

            "It's useless." Ali, breathing hard from fear. Kaliya's seated at her front, with Ali's arms wrapped protectively around her. "The dead are surprisingly fast."

I glance back. "Is that Hamish? I never saw him run faster in life than that, not unless he was going for rosewater pudding." I yelp as one of the dead brushes up against me, close enough to feel their sandpapery skin against my bare ankle. "Back up, Hamish, or I'll kill you again!"

Hamish's reanimated corpse ignores me. Though I imagine, for just a split second, a sneer of resentment on his paper-wax face.

Kaliya's only contribution is to clap with glee. "Horses!"

I know you're faking it, you all-powerful time goddess shit.

But then a certain Idriolan giant catches my eye.

"Xander, no!"

"Core meum!" He cries out, running for the corpse with a bloodied bandage around her head, limping towards the battlefield. Unthinkingly, I leap and roll clumsily from my horse to protect him. My crew follows swift, abandoning their horses and unsheathing their weapons to beat back the undead.

Undead Jun loops her arms around Xander's neck, pulling him downwards, her teeth bared, her fingernails scraping at his skin.

"No!" Ali surges ahead of me, stabbing a swiped kitchen knife through what was once Jun's spinal section. Kali bounces along on her back, goading Ali on.

Jun staggers back from Xander, who I'm holding back to keep from running at his undead wife again, the dolt.

Jun's corpse looks down at the knife, then back at Ali.

Then back down at the knife.

Kura belts a different undead warrior over the head with her baton. Ali goes to stab another one. I'm in the process of finding Xander's knockout pressure point...

When we all pause to realize something.

None of the undead are actually running at us.

Undead Jun pulls the knife from her back, wipes it on her shirt, then hands it indignantly back to Ali. Ali, stunned, takes it and sheathes it.

"Kono baka!" She wags her finger disapprovingly at Ali. "You idiot! What was that for?"

Xander runs out of my arms when I'm distracted, swooping up Jun bridal style. I haven't the heart to mention we buried her when he presses his lips to hers.

Gods only know what squirmed under her skin during that time.

"My beautiful wife. Quoniam igitur expectavi. I had waited."

Ali pauses, shifting Kali's weight on her back. "I think you forgot a description somewhere in there. Like corpse-like. Or undead. Or maybe particularly lively."

The corpse-like, undead, particularly lively Jun tilts her head up. One eye glowing with a scarlet-black glow, an enchantment. "The others say the battle's almost done. Witches surrendered. The others have ripped up the mechanical men."

We all look to each other uncertainly during this strange pronouncement. What have we missed during our travels across the desert?

"All that's left is the Godkiller, facing our master at Lioness Gate."

The. Godkiller.

"Kura..." I begin hesitantly. But the short-haired girl's already running at full speed towards one of the escaping horses, mounting one of them while it's moving. Damn, for forgetting she trained with Kane's Champion. Of course, she can do that.

"I'll kill you!" She roars.

Not knowing what else to do...

I roll the dice.

Skulls.

***

Pirates,

ME: LUCKY, WHHHY?!

Lucky: I panicked.

ME: CLEARLY!

-Sophia