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

Chapter Thirty-Two

            The horse is the one affected by the dice. As it tumbles, Kura screeches. She rolls away just as the horse first tilts downwards.

The figures at Lioness Gate. We can see the telltale stone statues, feline jaws extended, roaring in silent fury at the sky. We can see the gate to the Rahasian walled city, the palace hidden within. We can just make out the figure with the axe in its arm, the Godkiller.

And that figure's head swivels round, looking to hear the horse's unnatural dying scream.

***

For just that brief moment, Soleil turns towards the sound.

She knows that voice.

She knows that voice.

Kura, that's Kura.

And in just that brief time, Ode's surged forwards, taking the axe arm and bending it near-backwards so Sol's own battle-axe digs into her throat, healing and slicing repeatedly in agony. "Surrender!" The goddess of death screams, spitting golden blood and sand.

The Godkiller snarls, trying to buck backwards and throw the goddess's choke-hold off her. But then, she sees from the corner of her eye that the girl on the horse has gotten back up. The horse fell nearly atop the girl's leg. She limps forwards, her ankle bent unnaturally. Crying out in pain with each step, she goes at the Godkiller.

That's odd.

Kura looks as though she wants to kill me.

"You killed her!" She screams her throat raw in anguish, "you killed Soleil!"

The goddess of death nods to Malika, then over to the shorter-haired con-woman. "Go, help her over here."

Malika edges her arm around Kura, supporting her limping weight. A bedraggled bunch of sailors and more undead mill aimlessly after her, just as confused as Sol.

Ode, perhaps sensing her hesitation, loosens her grip on the Godkiller, just enough to turn her head and face Kura. "Wait, it's really you! It's—."

Kura staggers forwards, wrenching her arm away from Malika.

Those iron-gray eyes, those countless facial piercings that Sol used to tease her about, saying she was more metal than woman. Oh, now how the tables have turned.

Kura rears a fist back and punches Sol in the flesh part of her face, hard enough to break her nose.

It heals, of course.

"You. Killed. Soleil."

Each word punctuated by another punch.

Sol wishes to die there, in the sands, rather than be reunited with her lover. Her lover who doesn't recognize her.

Who can't even see her through that horrid metal mask that the Matriarch of Truth had implanted into her flesh. Sobbing, Soleil falls to her hands and knees. Ode's let go entirely, watching as the whole transaction takes place.

Sol kisses Kura's feet. Kura only looks on in disgust at the half-iron creature in braids, Sol's axe embedded in her arm. Kura reaches for an electric baton at her back, to further beat the Godkiller with. No, not Sol anymore. Just the Godkiller.

"Please." Sol begs, weeping. "Kura, can't you recognize me? It's me. It's Sol."

"You wear her face. How can I tell it's Sol? You wear her flesh, her face like some twisted mask! You're just an iron monster. You lie." Kura's voice, so cold. Sol dares look up, still in tears, face bloodied but whole from the instant healing.

Sol gets to her feet, Ode pressing a scimitar warningly into her spine.

"I met you as a child. I was learning some complex mathematic equation because the Lune officials thought I had great potential for a scholar. You, on the other hand, had convinced your parents to let you attend University early because you loved learning. I was good at it, but I never loved it like you did." Sol holds her hands to her side, trying to downplay the axe as much as possible. "You cut your hair because, in some cultures, that's equal to marriage."

"Stop it," Kura clamps her hands over her ears. "Soleil is dead. You speak lies!"

But Sol continues, hopeful, eyes shining, daring. "We talked about our dreams once after sneaking out from astrology class, and you said you wanted a wife and a cottage and a library filled with scrolls with tea and honey cake overlooking a garden. I laughed at that."

"I saw you!" Kura screams. "I saw the Matriarch of Truth cut you in half. There's no way this is you. Nobody can live like this, not made half of metal. It's just a trick. A final test."

But Soleil only takes Kura's face with her good hand, caressing it, having dropped the metal gauntlet, wanting to feel Kura's golden skin with her real flesh. "And I'm so sorry Kura for laughing at that. I thought the world was built for bloodshed and war and glory. But you don't know how much I wish for that now, more than ever."

Kura pauses, removing her hands from her ears, gray eyes affixed on Sol's plainer brown ones, the one not embedded in sheet metal. "It is you." Barely breathing, nostrils flaring. "Tell me one thing, Sol. If it was between me and vengeance for your father. If Kane was right here, and you could kill him, would you do it?"

Soleil opens her mouth, struggles to speak at all.

The hesitation doesn't go unnoticed by Kura. The con-woman smirks, a sad tilt of the lips. "I see." Kura says. "So, even after all this time, you'd still choose revenge over me."

"No, no it's not supposed to go like this..." Sol's hands are wrenched back, bound by special linked chains of heated metal, to keep the axe from cutting her bindings. Manacles round her ankles. "Kane, that bastard. He doesn't know what's best for you, for any of us. No, please, Kura! That scum stole my father from me!"

"I've let you have your fun. It's the prisons for you." Ode intones warningly, bristling at hearing her husband called a bastard. "Let's see if you change your ways then, Godkiller."

***

Pirates,

That was a bittersweet reunion. Poor Kura x Sol

-Sophia