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

Chapter Sixteen

​"Ah, Putri," the witch doctor uncurls from the bottom of the cage, where he'd been sleeping like the animal he is. He stretches, those eerie, masked eyes never leaving my face. "Look who came ba—."

​"Enough!" I scream, hitting Baqir against the bars of the cage. "I might not be able to let you bleed because of your blood-magic, but I can make you bruise!"

​His mask points towards the weapon, then exaggeratedly looks away. "Why?"

​"Because you're the reason all those children are dead." I hiss, smashing Baqir once more into the unbreakable bars of the cage, reinforced with Cato's net. "Because you're the reason I lost Sol. Because..."

I scream, the flanged mace rattling the earth, even if the cage just absorbed the impact. "Because you're the reason I lost my best friend!"

​I can't see behind the mask, but I sure as hell can hear his laughter. He doubles over, slicked hair falling near his shoulders now. Laughing, laughing, the voices echoing in the cramped prison enclosure.

​He runs at the bars where I am, so quick I stumble backwards, fearing he'll lash out. Instead, he just shoves himself against the bars, still snickering in fits. Mad.

"Near-unbeatable. Lovely as the sunset. Protector of humankind. And, oh, what was the last gift that your gods gave you?" His fingers curl against the bars, like serpents. "Oh, right, to never back down from a challenge. How funny, then, that you're so scared that you can't use any of your other gifts to beat me."

​"Just wait, I will break you!"

​He shrugs, falling back so he sits on the floor in front of me. The only thing separating me from throttling him, his cage. "No. Because I cannot physically tell you my name. Much like you can't reject a challenge. See..." He switches to Jiwanese, "nama saya... my name is... nama saya..."

​He starts retching horribly, scrabbling at his throat.

​His tongue swelling up.

​And his head swelling with the name of the god that cursed him.

​Rangda.

Like Ode cursed me to never back down from a challenge.

​One and the same, childish gods, all of them.

​He stops choking long enough to laugh again, throwing his hands up in the air as though he hadn't just been choking to death a second ago. "See? You can't beat it out of me. You can't seduce me and trick me that way. For all your humankind-protection, humans are nothing against a curse from Rangda. And, finally, your challenge is what got you here in the first place."

​"You..." I curse, spitting at him. The gob falls short of his pants leg. "You did this on purpose, didn't you? You tricked me, so I'd help break your damn curse."

​He shrugs. I'd imagine he has the grin of a happy, fat cat hiding beneath that mask of his. The fangs gleam, as though polished by blood and tears. "I was actually hoping you'd kill me to get me out of it. But I decided it'd be more fun to watch you suffer alongside me."

​"You're scum, you know that? And the only thing you were back at Raja was scared of dying. A real coward, to the end."

​Another shrug. I'm getting mighty tired of him shrugging. "I'm not going to pretend I ever was a good person, Putri. There's a reason I took on Rangda's curse."

​"Why did you put on the mask, then, Dukun?"

​He laughs, but this time, it sounds almost human. "Simple. It wasn't for any tragic reason. I wasn't protecting my dying sister. I wasn't trying to save my famine-struck village. I came from a family of gentlemen farmers, second son with a betrothal to an equally wealthy woman I didn't quite care for. When Rangda struck the bargain, I hadn't known suffering."

I see him then, the figure behind the mask. A loathsome leech, growing fat on expectations. He's no better than Tawil, who got a girl pregnant and ran away to the patrol squad when he didn't want to play father. No better than Pari, chasing after a hopeless crush. No better than Saban, a grumpy old man who believed girls were better off sewing than fighting.

Just a man, a weakling.

Scared, like all the rest.

"I was greedy. Rangda offered me eternal supplies of gold, and I took it." He turns away from me, and I look at his back. The tears in the batik cloth with his old, black-silk-cape ripped away. The wounds and bruises healing, old bloodstains streaked by sweat. "Greed got me here. And a princess, if all ends as the stories do, will get me out of it."

​I laugh, my turn. I use the bars of the cage to get to my feet. "You expect a lot, don't you? You think I have to actually fulfill the challenge? I already accepted it. Nobody said I had to fulfill it. I can just let you lie here for years, never ever breaking your curse. I can just let you shrivel away."

​He looks at me then, silence.

​And then, that horrid laughter.

​"No, because, at the end of the day, I'm still a human beneath this mask, Putri." He lets me finish the gaps in that one.

​And since he's a human, and I'm the protector of humankind. Which means... which means I have to help him.

​Dammit!

***
Readers,

The poor princess can't catch a break with all her "godly gifts".

If you could pick a gift though, what would you choose?

-Sophia