The Shattered Islands: Part One: The Rakam (4 page)

I sigh with relief. "Then it begins." I take three deep breaths and exit the room. I lift the necklace around my neck and place the whistle to my lips. I blow.

And a roar rips through the skies.

***

The drakruu descends like shadow, like death. She glides around the ship, the beat of her wings a steady thrum amidst the shouts and screams as all look to the skies.

I walk forward, my sword flashing in the moonlight. "Drakruu," yells the man who calls himself Mal'Ruu, as he grabs a spear from the side of the ship. I step forward and slice open his calf. He sprays blood over the shell as he crumbles, cursing and spitting.

The crew rushes to fetch spears and arrows, and the man who calls himself Tel'Ruu notices my blade and draws his own. We exchange three moves, and then he falls, his sword hand cut from his arm. Han'Ruu yells for his men to fetch nets, yells of the stones a drakruu is worth, and then his eyes meet mine. They see the bloody men in my path, and they grow wide with fear.

He tells one of his crew, a women larger than I, to stop me. She charges, yelling, rakam tipped spear pointed at my chest. She makes it three steps, and then she is pulled into the sky. My drakruu carries her high, shredding her body with sharp teeth, and once she no longer screams and jerks, her body falls into the water like a bloody rock casting red ripples over the dark sea.

"Everyone to me," yells Han'Ruu. "To me." His crew rallies around their captain, and that is when my crew draws their daggers, surrounding Han'Ruu and his men. My drakruu lands behind me, her sapphire scales catching the moonlight as she roars.

"How?" asks Han'Ruu. "The wine—"

"We changed the cask," I say.

"But how did you know? We had the ship of a Great Family. We knew their customs and their speech."

"Even the greatest of Ruu ships do not carry thrice thickened nets, nor stone tipped arrows. They are traders, not warriors. That is for the Ra."

"How would you know this? Who are you?"

My eyes drift to the rest of Han'Ruu's crew. "I am the one who has taken this ship. I am your captain now."

Some of the men and women glance at the bodies behind me. "What if we join you?" someone calls. "What then?"

"Then your lives will be spared."

Han'Ruu spits. "Spared only to be branded traitors and tied to a rock by the sea." His crew look to him, they look to me. Their faces shift from fear to anger, to curiosity and fear again, fitful as the wind.

"He is not wrong," I say. "Those who surrender will be given to the Ruu. You have dishonored them and done far worse, and they will deal with you as they see fit."

The crew recoils, and in their frightened eyes I see that I have lost them. Better to have a chance at life here, then a promised death soon after. They begin to shuffle forward, but I will not let them. There will be no glorious battle, no triumphant last stand. I have let too many die for my cause already.

I pull the sapphire, the one I kept in my box, from my pocket, palming it in my grip. It is almost too big to grasp. I put the thread that holds it over my neck, and the stone gleams and burns against my skin. I remove my gloves, revealing my bright azure nails, and I draw the heat of the sapphire within. My black hair turns blue, my eyes glow in the night.

Both crews stare at me with shock and wonder. Stormborn, they call me. Stonebearer, they whisper.

One of Han'Ruu's men breaks from the group and runs to the side shell. I do not follow, instead I sprint to the edge of the kiasheen and dive into the sea.

There is no splash, no cold shock, no dampness as I hit the water. I slice through the waves, the sapphire burning against my chest, allowing me to move through water easier than I move through air, allowing me to speed up faster and faster with nothing to stop me. I glide under the kiasheen faster than a rakam, faster than an arrow, and I burst out from the water toward the fluke of the ship. I fly through the sky, a trail of water still following me as I curve around onto the ship, and smash myself into the fleeing man. He crashes into the ground as I land on my feet, my breath steady, my clothes dry.

Women scream. Men cry. The false crew drops their weapons. Han'Ruu runs.

***

He is on the other side of the ship now, so I jump into the water, spiraling under the kiasheen's belly. The sapphire burns but it is no longer as hot as before. It must bathe in the sun and absorb its rays to be of use to a Stonebearer, and the more it is used the more heat and light are drained, until the stone must be charged once more.

I explode from the water and curve myself to follow Han'Ruu as he reaches the door of the great shell. Someone—Calla—attempts to fight him off. They exchange a blow, but Calla's blade slips, and Han'Ruu's finds purchase in flesh.

Calla falls, her hands covering her bleeding chest, color draining from her face. She will not live from such a wound. She glances up, her gaze meeting mine for a brief moment. She smiles a bloody smile before the light in her eyes fades forever.

I take a breath, letting the rage burn and grow inside me, and then I fly through the door into the great shell, following Han'Ruu. Before I can catch him, my momentum runs out and I land running. Here, within the bowels of my ship, my sapphire will not aid me, my drakruu cannot help me.

I follow Han'Ruu deeper and deeper into the ship, letting my anger grow hotter, preparing myself for what is about to come.

I find him at the bottom of the ship, in a room that protrudes outward from the kiasheen and over the water. This room was locked before. It is locked no longer.

Han'Ruu stands over the pool of water at the base of the shell, over the wild rakam thrashing there, their teeth scraping against the walls of their prison. His back is turned to me, his voice is soft. "I am of the Ruu," he says.

"I know," I say, taking a step forward, my blade lowered. "Why did they banish you?"

"I loved a woman," he says, turning his face to me, his eyes red and weary. "All we wanted was a home together, a family. Children we could call our own. You understand, don't you, Dak'Ra?"

I pause at the sound of my true name. "You know who I am," I say, the fire cooling within me. I think of Calla and let it rage once more. "Then you know I cannot allow this."

"Why not? We were both banished," he roars. "We were both thrown to the seas, left to scavenge and scrape to survive. This was my ship, and I took it back after my first mother said I was no son of Ruu. Now, I take what I must, not because I wish to, but because they made me so. The Ra family did the same to you. You search for La'Kia because of them. You lost her because of them."

My mind drifts to La'Kia, to the sound of her laughter and the smell of her hair, and I imagine her warm embrace, her tender lips, and the way we lay atop the great mountain and talked of the children we would have and the dreams we would make real.

I take a breath, and let the image fade. I will not think of La'Kia when I do what comes next. I take a step forward. "We are not the same."

Han'Ruu sighs, and the weariness leaves his face, like a man who has had a great weight lifted, like a man who has been told he may come home. We exchange twelve moves, our blades ringing as shouts grow closer, as the rakam twist and snap and splash. Han'Ruu is fast, skilled in in his way of Ratat, but I am faster, and on the thirteenth move, I pierce his belly. He falls to his knees, groaning and whimpering. The pain makes a boy out of man. "Sa'Ra," he mutters, voicing the name of his love. "Moon of my heart. The waves bring me home." He looks up at me. "Give me the quick death, brother."

I raise my blade to his neck. I could end it now, but Calla's bloody smile flashes in my mind.

I raise my foot and kick him backwards into the water.

In the depths, where the rakam are faster and stronger, they do not worry about killing. They eat their prey alive. Some say, you die from the pain before the wounds.

After a battle, when the blood rush fades, you are left with the ghosts of those you have killed. For me, it is harder than the killing—there is too much blood lust and battle cry to think on such things then, but in the end, when the calm returns and humanity settles back into you… in the end, you remember that you are alone in your mind, and you must live with what you have done.

I should not have given Han'Ruu to the rakam, but he had killed Calla and enslaved Vasa and so many others. I wanted him to suffer. A part of me hopes he suffers still in the Deep Mother's embrace.

Kanen's crew killed the rakam hidden in the bowels of the larger ship; their heads and skins and meat will fetch a nice price at trade.

The crew cleaned themselves and the decks of blood. Those who were injured received medical care, often in the form of strong sea swill.

Many songs were sung and many tears were shed and many toasts were shared over clinking cups.

I saved my tears for Calla, whose friendship extended to so many, who died with that contagious smile frozen on her lips. Captain Kanen gave me leave to honor her in my own way, so I took her body upon my drakruu, and together we flew over moonlit waves until we reached sapphire blue waters. There, I kissed her forehead and whispered the old words of my people. And when the crone moon set, I sent Calla into the waves, where she will once again smile and laugh in the company of those she loves.

***

The rakam will come. The blood in the water draws them. So I tell Garen, who now steers the Ruu kiasheen under my command, to take us skyward. He pulls hard upon the reins, and with a great moan the giant beast tilts its head upwards and flaps its wings. We fly higher, drifting on the water. We fly higher, the wings barely touching waves. We fly higher, and we are free of the sea.

I look down upon the shimmering waves and up at the glowing sun. There is a peace in the sky that is not found in the sea. Here you feel as if you have found something man was never meant to find, a secret paradise away from the depths below. I remember La'Kia. I remember taking her flying on my drakruu, and the kisses and whispers we shared with no one around to hear. I told her then, that it was in the water I was strong, but it was in the sky I was free. How foolish I was then.

A loud moan breaks me from my haze. Kanen follows us in his ship and with half his crew, his kiasheen drifting beside mine. The blue skin of the whales is like dancing waves in the light. The shells are like gleaming pearls. The smaller kiasheen opens its mouth wide, and I know it's feeding on the small creatures that live in the sky, just as it feeds on the small creatures in the water during long voyages. The beasts are calm and peaceful. I wish I could be like them.

"You are Dak'Ra," says Vasa, standing behind me at the rostrum. She is the first to confront me, but I have heard the crew's whispers, and I know they have all guessed who I am.

"And you are of the Ra family as well," I say, turning to face her.

She nods, startled. "Yes. I have a sister back on Ra'Kia'Ruu. Three years ago, I was on a ship near the rakam teeth, training to be a Stonebearer, when this ship took me and mine. They were all sold in a week. I…"

"I understand," I say kindly. She need not relive the horrors Han'Ruu forced upon her for my sake. But there is one thing that puzzles me. "How is that you walked without chains? That you moved about the ship freely?"

Her blue eyes flash with ferocity. "Han'Ruu knew I would not reveal his schemes. If he had threatened me with my death, I would have spoken in a stone's throw. But he threatened pain and the deaths of any I told. I would not trade the chance of freedom for the lives of others." 

I nod and place a hand on her shoulder.

She recoils, startling both of us. "I'm sorry," she says.

"Don't be."

She bites her lip and turns to leave, but there is one more question I must ask. One I have already asked of the false crew locked within the shells below. "Have you seen a black kiasheen?"

She pauses. "That is the ship that took your lover?"

"It took us both," I say softly. "Later, I was sold to a family of land, she to a ship much like this."

"That is why you ride the kiasheen," she says. "You search for crews who wreck and steal like this."

I nod.

She turns her face to the side, so I cannot see her blue eyes. "I have not seen the black ship," she says.

Hours pass, and when the sun is beginning to set, the kiasheen land. We tie our ships and set up planks between the shells to easily cross from one to another. On the great shell of the large kiasheen, Captain Kanen hands me a cup of swill and holds his up for a toast. "I owe you my life and the life of my crew and ship."

"You owe me nothing," I say, "but I do have one request."

"Name it and it be yers."

"Make sure the men and women below are given over to the Ruu, and make sure Vasa'Ra is returned to her family."

My drakruu roars amongst the clouds, and we hear the splash as she dives deep into the sea to catch her dinner.

"You won't be staying with us, then?" asks Captain Kanen.

I shake my head.

"Yer woman?"

I nod.

"Then may the goddess guide your way, and feel well knowing I will honor yer request. I swear it by the Deep Mother." I grasp his forearm as he does mine. "And if ever ye need help," he says, grinning, "remember ye have friends here."

I turn to leave, and Garen grabs me in a giant hug, lifting me, cracking my spine. "So it was La'Kia after all," he says. "I'll be getting that tale right from now on, brother. You best know I'll be getting that tale right and spreading it wide and far. Dak'Ra still rides the waves."

He chuckles, rattling the bones in his beard as he puts me down. I gasp for breath melodramatically and grin. "Thank you," I say, turning to the great shell and the rest of the crew. "It has been a pleaser to ride the waves with you, brothers and sisters, but there is one more thing I ask of you," I yell. "Tell all you see that Dak'Ra still lives. Tell them he comes for the black kiasheen."

***

It is late when I stand on the rostrum with my drakruu, tightening the saddle she wears on her back. Most of the crew is asleep, and even the kiasheen slumbers, when Vasa'Ra approaches me, her white dress billowing in the wind. "May I?" she asks, raising her hand to my drakruu.

I nod. "Here, behind me, away from the head."

She stands to my side and touches the blue scales below the wing. "What's its name?"

"Her name is Rin, but I call her Rakam Eater."

Vasa'Ra giggles, and I realize it's the first time I've seen her laugh. It is short-lived as her grin fades.

"I have seen the black ship," she says, her voice trembling, "and the man who leads it. He is the one who killed my first mother when my sister and I were but children. He is the one who took three Ra ships with one. Do not go to him," she pleads, touching my hand.

"If it was my life, I would stay. But my life is no longer mine. It belongs to another, and she waits amongst the waves." I push Vasa'Ra's hand away and mount Rin. I pull something from my pocket and toss it to the blue-eyed girl.

"No, you can't—"

"Keep it," I say.

Her eyes dazzle at the sapphire in her hands. "But why?"

"Because a man once did the same for me," I say, grinning as I pull on the reigns and lift into the sky toward the maiden moon.

As I drift through the pale blue clouds, I think of that man who gave me my first sapphire.

He is the one who rides the black kiasheen.

THE END

Order part 2 now!

There is a game called Shells and Stones. Two players shake a cup and place it face down upon the table. They peek underneath and count the amount of shells with the ridges up and the stones showing three lines. They both proclaim their points. They do not have to be honest.

Now, I play another game. The rules feel the same, but the stakes do not. There can only be one winner. And if I lose...

I die.

Order here.

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