A Princess for the Witch Doctor (Legends of Rahasia Book 3)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

I'm back in the darkness, a long hall. The Dukun's cage, the door open. Empty.

A figure, hunched over. A woman.

I roll my shoulders back, determined to be unafraid. I go towards her, place a hand directly on her shoulder. She unleashes a horrible squeal, and I screech, stumbling back.

The figure bends over, laughing at my fear. I remain stoic as soon as I recognize her.

"Gods damn your tricks, time goddess!" I curse as she remains bent double, laughing so hard she cries.

She turns to me with those mismatched eyes, one blood-moon, the other gray. Her earthy skin is covered in new tattoos. Symbols that make no sense to me, some resembling a modified Idriolan or the script of Okami. The serpent appears often, swirling around her skin, sometimes devouring ships, and other times, devouring itself.

Occasionally, random strings of numbers. Markers of future years, or perhaps dates of world-ending predictions. Always changing, ink like a river on her skin.

"Would you prefer seeing Rangda instead?" Kaliya smiles, sitting cross-legged on the ground. Feeling awkward, staring down at a goddess, I join her on the shadowy dream surface.

I shudder. "No thanks. I like my toes and fingers attached to me." I pause, squinting at her. "Wait, didn't the Rahasian gods sign a pact or something? No more intervening in mortal affairs to avoid future wars." Well, unless you're Soleil talking to her father, I guess, the daughter of the god of war. Then you get an exception.

She winks at me. "Yes, but I'm the goddess of time. I exist outside time. Therefore, this conversation is happening, but not happening all at once. Never was, yet it is. Do you follow?"

"Yes."

I lied. I have no idea what she's going on about.

She moves her arm, and a row of cheap-looking bracelets clanks along her skin. Cords wrapped around her neck, the kind that blasts uncanny music. Her strange taste of futuristic fashion has her wearing some kind of baggy cloak and too-short trousers. I'm not sure I'd like living in the future, but that's not for me to worry about.

Even the Rahasian Empire will turn to dust anyways. It only takes time...

"Are you any closer to finding the Dukun's name?" She leans back on her elbows, smirking at me.

"He slaughtered his whole family, and the sultan would rather play games of politics and court manners than answer my questions. You'd like him. He enjoys being cryptic too."

"Hmm," she taps one black-painted fingernail against her lips, "I would, but some other god has marked him." She covers half her face with her hand, mimicking the sultan's birthmark. "What a pity."

Something sparks in those eyes of hers, a curious gleam. A challenge.

"Is that it then?" I leap to my feet, the walls closing in as the shadows of the dreamscape turn and twist around me. "Does the sultan know his name?"

"He knows a name." Kaliya replies.

"You enjoy these riddles, don't you?"

Kaliya pulls out a sheaf of papers, bound in a garishly painted cover. "I've been reading a lot of Alice in Wonderland lately. The author was born long after your bones have turned to dust. I enjoy it, how so much nonsense can make so much sense if you peer a little further."

I stifle my groans of exasperation, Kaliya's grinning face being the last thing I see before I finally wake up.

"Tick-tock, Princess Arni. Tick-tock."

***

Readers,

Tick-tock.

Also, let me note that the songs that accompany Kaliya's chapters usually tend to be more modern/angsty. Kinda like everyone's favorite anachronistic time goddess. ;)

-Sophia