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

Chapter Sixty-Nine

We stand in Temple District, eerily silent and even worse, completely clean and rebuilt. No sign of the riots that happened between Jiwanese newcomers and Rahasian old guards. No sign of anything but total devotion to our way of life. Our Empire. Our gods.

I shiver. We've come at night, upon my fathers' suggestion. Since they fought with Ode Ngayoh back when she was just a mortal in the First Divine War, they know her best. They also know that she often visits her worshippers in their dreams since becoming a goddess.

Something her daughter, Kaliya, probably mimicked her for.

I stare at the temple steps, hers the grandest of all. The girl who grew up too quickly and won the war against the gods. The woman who ascended to the realm of stars and took death in her grasp. The one who told me to never back down from a challenge.

The one who, ultimately, brought me here.

"Are you okay?" Zahra peers at me, dressed as I am in Jiwanese fashions. The cloth is lighter, meant for a climate that doesn't drop at night. The desert, however, is merciless. She notices the gooseflesh prickling along my arms, and she removes her royal guard cloak from her shoulders. She drapes the thicker fabric, scuffed with blade marks, over my shoulders, fastening it with a pin that shows my father, Papa Ryu's, telltale rose brand. "Better?"

I nod, nestling in the fabric, the familiarity and warmth of her. Ode Ngayoh's statue towers at the entrance. I pass it with my head down, dropping gold coins at the basin at her feet.

I pause after I take the first few steps up into the main temple area. I turn, Zahra's hand on my shoulder. She presses forwards, quickly, nipping at my lip.

I'm so shocked I can hardly register until her lips are gone from mine, the cold night air quickly replacing the places she'd been.

Zahra.

My center.

My world.

She runs her arms around my neck. On the steps, we're the same height. It's so strange, staring directly into her eyes on even footing. So intimate.

"There," she pushes my cropped hair behind my ears. I reach up and run my fingertips along her shaved head. "Let the sultan take my head for that."

"If anyone sees..." I mumble, blushing.

She leans in close, beaming as her forehead presses against mine. Her eyes glow, the pupils glittering near gold. Color of stone. Of cliff and clay and unforgiving mountain. "Then let them kill me twice."

With that, she releases me. "Now, you must go see a goddess, amira."

I nod, fighting back my nervous, shocked laughter. My blood beats through my veins even faster. A rush. "Wait for me?"

She nods, still smiling, half her face a golem. To think she's cursed. To think she's anything but blessed by the gods. To think she was born from a bloodline that slaughtered Ode Ngayoh's mortal mother. It's so strange, to believe she's anything less than perfect.

"Wait for me..." I breathe again, wanting to hear the reply.

She holds her hand out to me, grasping nothing but air as I ascend the temple steps. "I'll wait until even Rahasia's nothing but a memory." She grins, the smile not reaching her eyes. "And even then, Arnina."

***

Readers,

Who wants to help me put new sails on this ship?

-Sophia