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

Chapter Twenty-Two

"We go now to serve our goddess and her Godkiller. Kane's Champion was defeated, what was her name, Soleil? It shall be the same with you!" Witch Queen Malika intones, voice like the bell that tolls for the dead of Idriola, with their snowy funeral pyres in the ice kingdom. The coven, namely consisting of Rahasian witches, like Diviners but with the magic wholly inside them, and no channeling instruments necessary, back her up. They have to practically lift Malika, all of them struggling from Kaliya's time-pausing-stunt.

"We should fight them." Ali begins, sharp eyes glinting. She raises her daggers, five of them in her palm, like claws.

"Any enemy of Sol, is an enemy of mine." Kura swings the amulet, half her body visible again. She pulls the electric baton from her back. Xander braces his fists. I reach for the dice.

Kaliya raises her hand. We all go quiet, like unruly students in front of a teacher.

"No." She points to Ali, who swallows, still clutching her makeshift bandages. "I want candy. Gingersnaps. Now."

Ali drops the knife and rummages through her knapsack, pulling out a metal tin of mostly melted sweets. "But, Kali, shouldn't we chase after them?"

"No, the girl... erm... goddess is right." I nod my head, even as Kaliya's already preoccupied by the tin. The witches move quickly, like a sandstorm, made impossibly fast by their magic. "We'll fight them soon enough. And we'll only tire ourselves out in this heat. Ali, if you feel okay enough to move, then get your bandages applied. Then we'll head out. Who knows how much more we have to cover."

"Horses." Kali mumbles, working around a large gulp of gingery candy.

Horses?

For a time-goddess, she makes no sense. Which fits her just fine. Time hardly makes sense as it is.

"Yes, horses! I'd recognize that rose insignia anywhere. Rahasian scouts." Ali beams with patriotic pride for her kingdom, doing her hair back up with the daggers.

I squint at the oncoming horses, the soldiers in bronzed armor. A squad of eight.

Dear gods.

And the streaks of blood on them. The...

That can't be what I think it is dangling from the flanks of the horse, getting dragged behind... dear gods. There's hardly anything resembling a person left. I didn't know that's what the inside of a person looks like, not so many parts. And all... gleaming.

Ali swallows, hard, and covers Kali's eyes. The stubborn goddess just peers between the gaps in her fingers anyways.

"They aren't reanimated like Ode's undead army." Ali muses.

"Would you reanimate a pile of twigs when you can have the whole tree?" I counter, feeling sick even as I say it.

The horses, and what's left of their riders' bodies, rear up in front of us. Foaming at the mouth, terrified. The horses fare better than their masters though. Looks like the attacker spared them. "What did this to those hacked-up bodies?"

"An axe." Kura replies. "The bastards took Sol's axe."

Xander retches at the gory scene, heaving far too much water from his stomach.

I raise my shirt to cover my nostrils from the smell. "Pull the bodies down and take the horses. Let any other extra horses roam free, and pray they're trained enough to know the way out of this desert. The scouts don't need them anymore." I set to work cutting the first rider free. "We'll bury them quickly, then ride fast to Rahasia so the Godkiller doesn't find us too."

***

Hey Pirates!

If you could pick a weapon for this world, what would you choose?

-Sophia