Chapter 16
Raksh sauntered closer to us, the little sunlight that broke through the canopy darting away from him. “What... no word
of greeting from my old friends? No thanks for returning your knife ?”
I thrust out my arm, keeping a shocked Dalila and Tinbu behind me. “Stay where you are.”
“Or what?” Raksh hissed. “Will you lock me in another box? I did not enjoy that, Amina. It was not very romantic of you. It
left me weak. Left me hungry . Left me so delirious and wanting that I thought I must be going mad to sense your presence last night.”
He took another, deliberately provocative step closer, reaching out as though to snatch Dalila by the hair, and I broke. There
was no time to go for my blessed iron knife in my belt, so I lunged at him with the sword already in hand, bringing it down
on his neck in a move that might have decapitated another man.
It glanced off Raksh like his flesh were stone, leaving barely more than a scratch. Just as it had ten years ago.
And I’d been a fool to move closer. Before I could make another attempt, Raksh ripped the sword from my hands and seized me
by the throat. He lifted me clean off my feet and inhaled deeply, a fasting man breathing in the scent of a simmering stew.
Color filled his cheeks, the grayish cast giving way to warm brown.
Dalila rushed at him.
Raksh backhanded her across the chest, sending her flying.
“Marriage dispute, Mistress of Poisons. One that does not concern you. Nor you, Tinbu. Lower that bow or I will choke the life out of your nakhudha. Now .” Raksh turned to me, rage glittering in his black eyes.
“You trapped me,” he accused. “Undo it.”
I did what? Gasping for air, I clawed at his fingers. “I...” But I couldn’t breathe, let alone answer the charge.
“Let her go!” Tinbu cried. “She cannot say anything being choked like that!”
Raksh made an irritated sound but relaxed his grip. I fell to the ground. Tinbu and Dalila pulled me back, and we cowered
together as Raksh paced before us, his long, unbound hair twitching around his knees like a cat’s tail. I’d seen lions and
tigers locked up in grand mansions move like that—miserable, caged creatures treading back and forth. That’s what he reminded
me of, and it was freshly shocking I had ever thought him human.
He should be dead. He should be drowned. We had shackled and buried Raksh in a locked chest on a spit of land the ocean rushed to devour with every change of the
tides.
“Where is your ship?” Raksh demanded.
“Nowhere that concerns you,” I snapped.
“I require it.”
This demon could not seriously believe I would ever take him off another island. “I would watch the Marawati sink before I see you step foot on it again.”
Raksh kicked at the sandy path. “Your ornery mapmaker is not here, so I assume he is either dead or helming it on your behalf.
Perhaps burning you three on the beach one by one will persuade him to return.”
I was suddenly even gladder I had left Majed behind. “He will not. Majed has your measure, and the moment he spots you, he’ll leave. He would not risk returning a fiend like you to our shores. I take it you’re the one responsible for those murdered old folks back at the village?”
Raksh pressed his lips into an unhappy line. “Would that I was. There was nothing useful left of them by the time I got there.”
He might not have been the one to kill them, but I recoiled at the heartless response. “You’re a monster.”
“A monster of your making! Next time don’t leave me in a fucking box to starve. Do you have any idea how long it takes wood to rot and chain
to rust?”
“You came after my crew! You—you fed on Asif,” I managed, rage and grief breaking my voice. “You stole his soul, his very existence!”
“Ah, there you are again,” Raksh complained. “Do you know your problem, Amina? You always have to be in charge. Did you ever
think that perhaps Asif knew what he was doing and thought our arrangement perfectly acceptable?”
Oh, if I could only hurt this bastard. “No, you snake. I think you manipulated him. I think you toyed with his heart and lied
through your teeth.”
Raksh stopped in his tracks. “Oh, I lied? The absolute gall of you, woman, to say such a thing after bewitching me.”
“I did nothing to you!”
“You did! I sign contracts from Sofala to Calicut now and they are like crumbs of a meal.” Raksh rubbed his fingers together,
tossing his hand like a rich man flinging coins at beggars. “I have not been able to form a proper contract since I married
you. I am hungry, I am famished all the time. I want to know why. I want you to fix it.”
I was flabbergasted by the charge. “You think I wanted to stay connected to you? Asshole, I left you buried in a locked trunk I was hoping the sea would swallow. I would have been
happy to never see you again!”
“Then why do I still feel our connection?” Raksh demanded.
“Even now your very touch has left me stronger, and I can sense your desires swimming in my head like some sort of parasite.” His eyes narrowed again.
“It was that sorcerous marriage contract you insisted on, wasn’t it?
You snuck some language in there that made me your slave! ”
“You’re accusing me of sorcery? You were the one who wanted to get married! You got me so drunk I could barely see what I was signing!”
“You got me drunk. I had never even heard of palm wine!”
Dalila had finally had enough. “For the love of God...” she hissed. “Will you both shut the fuck up ? You’re going to bring God only knows who upon our heads with all this shouting.”
I flushed, but her warning did little to tamp down my temper. I glared at Raksh again. “What are you even doing here? How did you get off that other island? You told me you couldn’t cross water without a contract.”
A malevolent expression twisted Raksh’s pretty face. “I waited until I caught the attention of a ship, of course. Then I begged
them to understand that my head... it was just so addled from the sun, so please, sir, please—” He shifted his voice. “If
you would just put your initials to my hand, God reward you...” Raksh smiled sweetly. “Full, healthy crew. I don’t often
go for human hearts, but after starving for five years... you can actually taste the fear, the hope.” He licked his lips.
“Delicious.”
Tinbu recoiled and even Dalila paled. They hadn’t seen this side of Raksh. I hadn’t seen this side of Raksh. He made sure no one did, not when he was enjoying his time as a member of my crew.
I tried not to let it shake me, especially when I realized he’d skirted my first question. “That does not explain why you
are here .”
Raksh shrugged, far too casually. “I heard Socotra was pleasant.”
It was a nonsense answer, but his earlier words were already running back through my head. From Sofala to Calicut ... if Raksh had been traveling back and forth across the sea these past years, what was he doing marooning himself on notoriously
distant Socotra only to...
And then the pieces fell into place. There had been another person who knew us all.
“You bastard ,” I said through my teeth. “You’re the one who sold us out to the Frank.”
I could see several lies flit across Raksh’s expression before he gave in. “First of all, ‘sold you out’ is a very strong
charge. If I merely collected and relayed mostly public information—?”
I abruptly lost the fight with my anger, lunging to my feet. “You motherfucking son of a goat, I’m going to kill you!”
Raksh danced back. “Yes, because your earlier attempts went so well.” He bared his teeth as Tinbu grabbed my legs. “And you
were the first to betray me with your perfidious pact!”
“I already told you: there is nothing that connects us!”
Except there was.
Marjana.
It felt like a bucket of cold water had upended over my head. My daughter. My little love, the dearest person in my life.
My heart may have protected me from seeing the similarities at first, but now it was impossible not to notice the shadow of
Marjana in the elegant shape of Raksh’s lotus eyes and long nose.
“What?” Raksh spun back at me, suspicion sharpening his features. He inhaled like a serpent tasting the air. “You’re hiding
something. Tell me.”
I was lost for words. I didn’t know how creatures such as Raksh behaved toward their kin. Nightmarish fables of pagan gods
who devoured their offspring or drowned them beneath waves to prevent future challenges filled my mind. Raksh was the most
opportunistic predator I had ever encountered.
He could not learn of our daughter. So I did what I’ve always done in a difficult situation.
I gambled. “I know how to dissolve the bind between us,” I lied in a rush. “But it is a complicated, delicate process. A spell
of sorts, one that may be tricky to navigate.”
“How?” Raksh asked, growing breathless. “What is it?”
God guide me . “A divorce.”
“Yes, yes, I have heard of that word!” His eyes brightened with hope. “How do we do that? The divorce?” A note of worry snuck
into his voice. “You say it is complicated?”
It was a mark of Raksh’s arrogance and disinterest in the complexities of his “prey” that he even had to ask such a question.
The lying dog could divorce me right now by declaring it three times. But I had wagered on him not knowing, and that seemed
to be the case.
“Indeed,” I warned. “It is extremely complicated. There are many steps and... incantations that can be said only by the
wife.”
Raksh seemed utterly absorbed. “Then let us start right away.”
“Not so fast.” It was Dalila. “Amina is correct. To divorce is a difficult process. You would not wish to make an error due
to haste and have the marriage become even more permanent, would you?”
God bless and preserve this woman. I did not miss Dalila’s stomp on Tinbu’s foot when my other friend, looking baffled, opened
his mouth. The two of them had lived in Muslim lands long enough to know I was lying through my teeth.
Raksh gave her a cautious look. “No, obviously I do not want that. What are you implying?”