Twenty
IN THREE STRIDES, the Rakuuna reached the center of the cabin, her black eyes glittering with fury as she lunged with outstretched claws.
Tal and Holland thrust themselves in front of Charis, their swords pointed at the creature.
Charis scrambled to her feet, her dagger already in her hands. If this Rakuuna was already wounded, surely they had a chance of finishing her off. She flexed her muscles, feet sliding into the first rathma position as though she’d never stopped practicing.
Too late, she realized she wasn’t the creature’s target.
The Rakuuna buried her fingers into Ayve’s hair, grabbed a fistful, and yanked the woman to her feet. The creature hissed, sending a spray of black blood out of her neck, and bared her double row of fangs. Her claws dug into Ayve’s head, and she shook the woman like a child’s rag doll.
“Hurts us.” A terrible choking sound issued from the Rakuuna’s throat, and more blood sprayed, hitting the side of Ayve’s face.
Holland, Dec, Lohan, and Grim rushed for the Rakuuna. She used her free arm to send them sprawling across the floor. Tal planted himself in front of Charis, sword held steady.
From behind the Rakuuna, Reuben staggered in, a cut in his head bleeding profusely. His sword shook as though he’d been injured too badly to hold it steady, but still he aimed it at the monster’s back.
Lohan was closest to the Rakuuna. He belly-crawled toward her, his dagger in his hand. The creature kicked him in the chest. He crashed into the wall, twitched once, and lay still.
Holland roared and sprang to his feet, sword ready.
He was going to die. They were all going to die if Charis couldn’t find a way to control this.
“Stop!” She used Mother’s most commanding tone.
Her people froze. The Rakuuna did not. Instead, the creature shook Ayve and howled as the hole in her neck slowly widened, as though the skin was continuously burning away, like thin paper held to a flame.
From the corridor came more wails, followed by the dry rattle of the Rakuuna’s language. The bearded Rakuuna who captained the ship burst into the room, followed by three others, including the female with bluish skin and a crown of braids. A long, charred opening from the base of her neck to the tip of her chin poured black blood, and she was supported by another Rakuuna.
“You did this.” The captain pointed at Charis.
She let her eyes widen and shook her head. “Please tell us what’s happening.”
He hissed, and the Rakuuna who held Ayve spat a few words to him. Her voice sounded weak, and her black eyes were glassy.
Good to know the poison was this effective. A larger dose might have killed her outright. If Charis could talk their way out of this, she’d have all the information she needed for Nalani.
She glanced once at Lohan’s body and looked away.
She’d feel the pain of losing one of her own for the sake of defeating her enemies, but not before she had the situation under control.
“This one in food room,” the captain said in halting Caleran as he pointed to Ayve. “Hurt.”
The bluish-skinned Rakuuna began shivering uncontrollably, and Tal stepped forward, his sword lowered. “She needs medical care.” When the captain said nothing, Tal tried again. “Help her. Wash the wound and bandage it. Don’t just let her bleed like this.”
“Too late!” The captain reached for Tal, hooked a claw into the front of his shirt, and dragged him face-to-face with the shivering Rakuuna. With his other hand, the captain reached for her throat and gingerly peeled back the scorched flap of skin at the edge of the wound.
Tal turned away, gagging.
The Rakuuna’s throat was a stringy mess of tissue pocked with gaping holes. Blood and other fluids bubbled up from her chest, as though the damage went all the way down to her stomach.
“Too late,” the captain said again. “She did this.”
He let go of Tal, snatched Ayve from the wounded Rakuuna, who was now shaking uncontrollably too, and in one long sweep, dragged his claws across her neck.
“No!” Charis tried to rush forward, but Reuben blocked her with his body as Ayve collapsed next to the dying Rakuuna who’d first entered the cabin. Blood poured from her wounds, and she gasped wetly for air.
“Said you couldn’t try to hurt us.” The captain’s voice rose. “Trick us.”
“Please listen,” Charis said softly, sheathing her dagger and holding up her hands as though in surrender. “How could we have done this? Our people have been in the kitchen several times to get food for us. Nothing bad has ever happened.”
“Today bad.” The captain spat at her as the Rakuuna with bluish skin collapsed and went still.
“Yes, I can see that. But tell me what we did wrong.” Charis held the captain’s gaze and called his bluff. If any of the Rakuuna had seen Ayve put something in a bowl of stew, they would have punished her and thrown out the food. Right now, all the captain had was coincidence and suspicion.
She had to remind him of what really mattered.
“Your queen wants us alive when we reach Calera.”
The captain’s eyes sparked with rage, and his too-long fingers curved into talon-tipped weapons. “Find.”
Before Charis could work out what he meant, the two uninjured Rakuuna rushed forward and began roughly tearing the room apart. Drawers were flung to the floor. Blankets and mattresses were lifted and then tossed aside. When they didn’t find what they were looking for, they turned toward the humans. Dec and Grim were closest. In seconds, the Rakuuna had them pinned while the captain searched them.
He was hunting for the poison.
Charis pressed her arm against her side to anchor the satchel from view while her mind raced.
Could she slide closer to the drawers strewn across the floor and drop the satchel in one of them?
Or maybe let it fall to the floor and then kick it off to the side, where it might go unnoticed?
Grim was cleared, and the Rakuuna holding him grabbed Holland as the captain searched Dec.
Charis felt a tug at her belt and looked down to find Reuben quietly sliding the satchel free and pocketing it.
There was no time to react. Dec was cleared, and the Rakuuna holding him moved swiftly toward Charis, Tal, and Reuben while the captain turned his attention to Holland.
“Watch it,” Holland snapped. “I like this coat.”
“Careful,” Charis breathed as Reuben squared his shoulders.
The Rakuuna captain’s hands were damp and chilly. Charis held herself as still as possible while he searched her, trying not to focus on the scaly translucence of his skin or the smell of rot and brine wafting from his mouth.
When he found nothing, he turned to Reuben while one of the others searched Tal. In seconds, the captain yanked the satchel from Reuben’s pocket and pried open the knot. He peered inside, frowned, and then shook a small amount of moriarthy dust onto the floor. The red-brown poison glittered dully in the light of the porthole. Charis schooled her expression into calm disinterest and tried to breathe normally, though everything inside her felt sharp as glass.
The herbologist in Solvang hadn’t known exactly how moriarthy dust affected the Rakuuna because it had been so long since it had been used. Maybe the Rakuuna wouldn’t recognize it. Maybe she could think of a convincing lie. Maybe—
“What?” The captain pointed at the satchel before baring his fangs at Reuben.
“Medicine,” Reuben said, looking queasy enough that the idea of him carrying medicine might make sense.
“For what?” The Rakuuna looked dubiously at the powder.
“My stomach.” Reuben burped and patted his stomach gingerly, looking even sicker than he had a moment before. Blood from his head wound congealed on the side of his face, a stark contrast to his pasty complexion.
The captain’s black eyes stared unblinkingly at Reuben, and then he said, “Eat.”
Charis bit her tongue and shot Holland a look as the captain raised the satchel to Reuben’s mouth. She had no idea if moriarthy dust was safe for humans to eat. If it wasn’t, Reuben was about to die a horrible death, and her plan to poison the Rakuuna invaders would be revealed.
The satchel met Reuben’s lips. He clenched his fists but slowly opened his mouth. The powder spilled across his tongue, and he grimaced, though Charis couldn’t tell if it was from pain or from the taste.
The entire room seemed to hold its breath as Reuben struggled to swallow the gritty dust. Finally he opened his mouth for the captain to see that the powder had gone down harmlessly. Charis slowly unclenched her hands, relieved. It didn’t affect humans the way it affected the Rakuuna. That gave Nalani more options for the barrels of poison Orayn was bringing her.
Slowly the captain swung his face from Reuben to Charis. His head swiveled to the side as he studied her for a long moment. She kept her hands open and her expression neutral, though her mind was racing.
He wasn’t convinced.
“Search other rooms,” he said to his crew.
Behind him, Ayve made an awful gurgling noise in the back of her throat and slumped against the floor.
“May we tend our wounded?” Tal asked in the soft, nonthreatening voice he’d used to lure Hildy from her hiding place in the orchard where he and Charis had found her.
The captain shifted his focus to Tal. “That one touch stew.” He pointed to Ayve.
“She was helping in the kitchen this morning,” Tal said. “But you’ve seen for yourself that we have no way to hurt you—”
“Hurt!” The Rakuuna grabbed Tal’s chin and wrenched his face toward the sight of the two now-dead Rakuuna with their throats still oozing black blood. “Never before.”
“Can we help?” Dec asked. His voice was as quiet and controlled as always, but there was a tension in his body Charis had never seen before.
He was scared the captain was going to kill the prince he was supposed to protect.
“Two dead Rakuuna,” the captain said in a voice as vicious as Charis at her best. “Two dead human. Same.”
“Same,” Tal agreed.
The other Rakuuna returned to the room and spoke in their own language to the captain. Abruptly, the captain released Tal and turned back to Charis.
“No more up here. Live below.”
Before she could respond, the Rakuuna grabbed them and hauled them into the corridor where her other crew members were already lined up waiting. In moments, they’d all been dragged into the belly of the ship and locked in the brig.