A Priestess for the Blind God (Legends of Rahasia Book 1)

Chapter Forty-Seven

"I have the... g-g-girl..." the boy stammers desperately as I step on his foot.

"On with it." I growl, hissing between my teeth.

"I have a prisoner!" The boy yelps at the glowering, bored-looking guards in front of him. They look disinterestedly over me.

"I'm Ode, the witch of Kane. The ghūl maiden." I inform them, narrowing my eyes.

The two guards at the front gate look at each other and grin. "Ah, the prince's been waiting for you, little lady."

I bristle at the insult.

I'll kill them after I'm done pretending to be captured. Feed them to my ghouls, bit by nasty, bored-looking bit.

"Onwards." The trembling boy prods me gently toward the grand front hall. The entryway to the palace is a set of arches that seem to stretch toward the heavens. The space alternates between walls of splendorous mosaics and stretches of open expanses with flocks of pretty, foreign birds with bright plumage. Prayer towers and shrines to Cato litter empty corners, and there's a shallow pool floating with small wax candles in paper boats shaped like open flowers, each a miniature sacrifice to Cato or Aziz. An army of servants and guards whisper in the shadows, their robes the same color of gold, the color of Elio's blessed sun.

I wince at all this splendor. How many villages did the Rahasian army raze to the ground to fund all this magnificence? "Boy, get me to one of the empty rooms."

"Now?" The boy's nervous eyes dart about the hall, pleading to the indifferent servants.

I growl and he shuffles over to what appears to be yet another shrine shielded from direct view of the other servants. Cato's tattooed face, carved into the wall, is made softer by the light filtering in from the slit in the ceiling high above. He still looks like a monster to me, a god who doesn't care for the women dying in a male-dominated society, for the poor and the loveless suffering at his rule. Yet, Kane's supposed to be the "Evil One" for defending them instead.

"Strip." I order, snatching the scimitar from the boy's grip in one swift movement.

"B-b-but..." His eyes grow wider.

"What, are you shy?" I roll my eyes and force him to face the other wall that has Cato's likeness on it. "Give me your armor, kid. I need a disguise." I poke him with the scimitar. "Don't make me use this." I sigh. "I won't look."

His fingers shaking, he takes off his armor. I change out of my bloody clothes, leaving the least damaged garments on as I don his armor over my own. Other parts of my clothing I tear into bandages to bind my breasts or tie as a scarf to flatten my hair beneath the borrowed helmet.

Left in his plainclothes, the boy shrinks into a corner. I wave him over. "One more thing."

"Yes?" He walks meekly over to me.

I knock him unconscious, and then drag his sleeping body over to a corner.

"Thanks, kid." I dig into my pockets for a spare coin I took off either Ari's or Yaga's body. "Use this to buy some sweets when you wake up."

I exit the shrine and start walking toward the fountain pool with all the floating candles, trying to reorient myself to figure out where that sun prince is. I barely make it a couple steps before I hear a very familiar voice call out behind me.

"Dressing in borrowed robes again, fox pup?"

***

Hey Champions,

So, Ode's finally gotten to the palace.

So many directions to go from here.

But I think I've found where I'm going to go with this.

- Who else calls her fox pup? - 

Good luck, Ode.

(You're going to need it).

-Sophia W.