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

Chapter Forty-Three

Farzaneh takes my head in her hands and leans in closer. So close her eyes lock on mine, so focused. So intense. Emerald clashing with eyes like the sand of Akua. Like when a sailor dreamed of land and imagined the brightest, most impossible green after being surrounded by the sea for so long...

A harsh gust of air hits my face. Farzaneh whistles at my eye, flicking a piece of lint from my eyelash. "You got a little something there."

I straighten my mirrored Lune robes a bit, posing awkwardly as mine's a size too small, exposing my wrists. "I miss my other jacket."

"It smelled like fish. And besides. You make a fine scholar." Fari grins, piling her long, dark waves of hair tightly behind her hood. With the cowls up, you can hardly see our faces. Our mirrored robes reflect the moon above, always set in that eerily pristine sky. I wouldn't doubt it if a ward hovered over the perfect city, cloistered on their perfect, mad scientist island.

A ward to keep outsiders out, and citizens imprisoned.

Soleil walks, as if in a trance. She grabs for Kura, and sure enough, the con artist is there. Her amulet tucked beneath her robes.

Sol stops shaking when she feels Kura waiting there for her, whispering something unintelligible in her ear. I wonder, then, how Kura coaxed her out of the Pit. I wonder if Sol is entirely on our side, or whether Kura joined hers...

"And that's how you best torture someone. Magical whips." Malika hisses at Ali.

Ali snorts, patting a suspiciously knife-shaped outline in her scholar robes. Hers fit too largely. Maybe we should have marked the robes more carefully. "I'd argue for death of a thousand cuts. Good old knives. Can't do without them."

Torture methods. Of course, of all things, Ali would befriend the Witch Queen by discussing torture methods.

I glance behind us as we pass beneath the Lune University arches. We walk past the courtyards, and as the halls thin out, an uneasy feeling tickles the back of my neck.

It doesn't help Ode and Kane wear mirrored robes behind us. Following just close enough I can see them from the corner of my eye. Powerful shadows.

And when I turn around, they disappear. War taught them well. Their little girl, Kali, might have stayed to keep Princess Arnina company. But she'd be just as deadly as her parents, if not deadlier.

"Behind the chemistry labs. Past the astrology telescope." Sol shudders. "When you see the bloodstained medical instruments in wash basins, you've gotten closer."

"How'd I never notice?" Kura laments. "My parents worked here."

A set of stairs hidden behind a lock that Kura handily picks in seconds. A spiral staircase. A descent into darkness.

"They claimed it was testing on lab rats." Sol's hands automatically trace the metal gashes in her face. "Not that it makes it any—."

We all pause as we come upon the sealed, oval door at the end of the staircase.

We hear a human, whimpering piteously.

Sol's face hardens. "The Alchemist."

Hushed voices. Murmurs. Little snippets of academic garble.

"The High Lune Council." Kura adds, ear pressed gingerly to the door.

It swings open then, a man with the skin of a snake staring down at us. A woman with blue hair, angular features, and a cattle prod lever. And a man with yellow spikes around his skull that could be mistaken for hair at first glance, a rotund belly hidden beneath his Lune robes.

"Children." The snake-skinned man smiles. "What are you doing wandering the labs at night?"
***

Hey there, Pirates!

Sorry. I'm on the road again traveling, so my update schedule won't be quite so prompt. Best wishes though!

Also, if any of you could do some Lune body modifications (with anesthetic of course) would you? And what?

-Sophia