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

Chapter Three

-ODE-

            Kane tells me his Champion's name.

            He never told his Champion that he'd picked them though. Never appeared to them. Never guided them. He didn't want to risk it, he said. Wanted to teach me how to be a proper god. Standoffish. Aloof.

            Funny, he sure got involved with me when I was his Champion.

            He says it's just right. That they're chosen without knowing it. They'll be more honest that way. More genuine of a hero, even if they believe they're not one.

            His Champion's a mystery, even to themselves.

            But at least Kane knows them.

            He always knows them.

***

-LUCKY DICE-

            I suppose I'll commandeer this story.

            Just like I commandeered that captain's ship. You know. The one with the fish-scale coat who so angered that mighty death goddess.

            Anyways, the tale of Lucky Dice goes like this.

            I let the dice go with my trembling hand. They roll end over end, finally landing on double skulls. The man flops into the water, twitching like a fish gone out of it. I look up at the death goddess's face. Her lips quirk up into a curious smile. I suppose I pleased her. I don't know if I'd care too much whether I did or not.

            I just want them all dead. Dead as my mother, Kona. Dead as the beautiful woman with thick, black hair that draped down her back like a blanket, that smelled like fresh fruit and sand. Dead as the woman who gave me the color of my sand eyes, the brown softness to my skin.

            Dead. Dead. Dead.

            Make. Make. Make.

            "We'll meet again, Lucky. But for now, this is your tale to tell." The death goddess wades into the water towards the ship. She goes too quickly though. I can't keep up.

            "Wait for me!" I cry, leaping through the oncoming waves.

            But she moves too fast. In a blink, she's gone. I'm bobbing at the hull of the mighty foreign invader's ship. The captain's cold body bumps into mine. I sling his fine jacket over my shoulder, and my ravaged arms shaking, I bite down hard on my tongue. One pain replaced by another, I stick my clumsily healed fingers into the side of the ship and start climbing. My skin on the inside of my feet and hands is filled with splinters by the time I make it to the top. Rough hands pull me over the side. The jacket flops like used netting next to me.

            Dagger to my throat. Same one that a different man used on my mother. Same damned crooked traders trying to bleed Akua dry of its resources and its people.

            I look up at the woman who pulled me over. She's dressed in relatively nice clothing. Rahasian şalvar, no shoes, and a bandeau shirt leaving her sun kissed stomach bare. The other person beside her is dressed in Jiwanese batik vests. The next, in the hakama of Okami. Another man with hair so pale it's like clear water runs through his veins, a stuffy set of trousers bunched up with iron buckles, the Idriolan brand for traitor burned into his neck.

            A crew of all creeds.

            A crew all here in the name of money to kill my people.

            But that was under the other captain.

            "You're under me now." I tell them. I don't know why I say this. Part of me thinks I've become numb to it all, to living. I just saw my mother murdered. The invaders tortured me. Broke some of my fingers. I was so crazed, I broke the rest trying to lift the collapsed beams from my family's bodies. Another half of me, the scared part, thinks it's these cursed dice in my ears. They're whispering to me what to say. How to act.

            How to become powerful.

            Say what we tell you.

            Say what we say.

            The Rahasian woman snorts at me, the ring in her nose catching the light. "Who says we're going to follow you, drowned rat? Only a water Diviner can steer a Rahasian ship. That captain was the only Diviner here. Then he keeled over and died."

            "I'm a Diviner." I make a flourishing movement with one hand. With the other, I discreetly wiggle one of the dice free.

            "Who says?" She raises an incredulous brow.

            I shake the dice in a closed fist. When I peer at the results, I see only one number's been selected. Only one curse? What a pity.

            I point to her and wiggle my hands a bit. "Me."

            Suddenly, the beams beneath her give. She falls, falls, to wherever the hole leads. The rest of the crew peers curiously over the new hole in the ship, see it leads to the cellar. The hole doesn't go through the bottom of the ship, thankfully, so it'll still float. But the Rahasian woman is currently nursing her aching head from where it made contact with a sack of dry biscuits.

            "I don't want to say I'm the captain now." I snicker. "But I am."

            The rest of the crew backs away from me in fear. "A child Diviner? And already so powerful?"

            I smirk.

            No. Just a regular child with some very powerful death goddess friends who give out wonderfully fun, magical gifts.

            I go to the wheel, too tall for me to reach. The Idriolan with the brand in his neck lumbers over. He's a big one, very muscular. He'd be a good ally to have. I need someone scary until I grow into my own. "Who was the first mate?"

            The Idriolan points to the hole in the floor that the Rahasian woman's still struggling to get out of.

            "Well, kūamuamu! Dammit." I'd learned quite a few swears from my father before he left on a ship much like this one and never turned back for me. "I need to find one. I need... I need loyalty."

            The Idriolan laughs and rolls his eyes at me.

            Impatient, I roll the dice. No skulls. Curses? Two.

            The Idriolan gets an unlucky surprise from a bird passing overhead, and the resulting sludge smears over his shoulder. Another moment, and he's howling from having stepped on a nail jutting out the floorboards. It's stuck through his heel.

            I turn around with one hand on my hip. "More?"

            Everyone on the crew goes back to work. Another assists me to the wheel to steer.

            "Let's find a better first mate."
***
Hey there, Pirates,

I love that Lucky's just as ruthless as his goddess, but also a badass besides.

If you could roll the dice, would you take that power?

Just asking the scary questions.

Thanks for voting and commenting, loves!

Sophia