Chapter 16 #2
Dalila drew herself up. “Well, you have made it very clear what you want—a divorce and a way off Socotra—but since spilling
your tongue to this Frank got us into our own mess, why don’t you start being a bit more forthcoming about that and we shall see if we can do the same regarding the rituals of divorce?”
He spat like an offended house cat but relented. “What do you wish to know?”
“Is Falco alive?” she asked. “We spotted a ship in the shallows that looked like it came to a violent end.”
“You could say that. But yes, Falco lives. He and half of the crew made it to shore.”
“Was there a young girl amongst them?” I asked urgently.
“A girl? Do you mean... Oh .” Delayed understanding crossed Raksh’s face. “You speak of Dunya. Is she why you are here?”
“Yes, idiot. What can you tell me of her? Is she okay?”
Raksh snorted. “She seems to be regretting her youthful mistakes, but she was alive when I left.” He flashed a wicked smile.
“Though the yearning in that one, aye. She makes her father seem blissfully content by comparison.”
A sick feeling stole through me. “You would not contract with her. You would not dare.”
“I would in a heartbeat if I were able; do not be ridiculous. But Falco is no fool, and Dunya is his jewel. He kept her well
away.”
“What are you even doing with him?” I asked. “You seem too interested in self-preservation to ally with someone so dangerous.”
“I did not ‘ally’ with him,” Raksh replied, sounding insulted. “I feed off stupidly ambitious humans. He was a stupidly ambitious
human who wanted a captain and a ship to go exploring. As I also wanted to track a certain nakhudha down, I figured I could use him to get to you.”
“Except you didn’t,” Dalila noted. “We met his former agent, and it sounds like Falco lost interest in Amina and the Marawati when he met Dunya. So why did you follow them to Socotra?”
A brief flush of embarrassment filled Raksh’s cheeks. “You have not met him.”
I lifted a brow in surprise. “Oh, was it the other sort of ‘contract’ the two of you brokered, then? Did laying with Falco
cast such a spell?”
Raksh sputtered in outrage. “I did not lay with that arrogant windbag nor broker a contract. I only went along because... well—it’s your fault!” he accused, shaking
a finger in my face. “Had I not been so hungry, I would have been thinking more clearly. But the prospect of him and Dunya
hunting magical artifacts together: I could not walk away from such a prize.”
It was a ludicrous stretch to blame me for his mistakes, though I suppose Raksh did look a little worse for wear.
His unbound hair was tangled with knots and dead leaves, the lungi wrapping his waist tattered and thin.
Very thin. So thin it was impossible not to notice that his backside still looked plump enough to bounce a dinar off.
I lowered my gaze. Stop ogling a demon’s ass. Ogling a demon’s ass is what got you into all these troubles in the first place . I returned to interrogating him. “What sort of magical artifacts?”
Raksh waved a dismissive hand. “The usual nonsense humans believe will grant them power. Dunya told him there was a treasure
horde from the days of antiquity hidden in the cave here.”
“ Is there a treasure horde from the days of antiquity hidden in the cave here?” Tinbu asked, speaking for the first time since
a knife nearly went through his throat.
“Really?” I asked my friend in exasperation. “ That is how you find your tongue?”
But Raksh seemed to consider the question. “There could be such a trove. They found a lot of skeletons, and mortals were once
very fond of murdering each other to serve as guards in the afterlife.”
“And that’s what he is after?” I prodded. “Falco came all the way to Socotra on the vague promise of a treasure cave?”
His expression darkened. “I suspect Socotra is only the first of many stops for him. Falco fancies himself some sort of future
scholar-king, harnessing all the magic he can to challenge the Divine or some such nonsense. It was all very ridiculous until
it became clear Dunya actually has the knowledge of such things, if not Falco’s ambition. The girl was nattering on about historic interactions between
marids and mortals, and next you know, Falco is trying to summon one. At sea!”
I understood less than half of that. “He tried to summon a what ?”
“A marid,” Raksh repeated. “A water elemental in the form of a sea scorpion chimera large enough to eat your Marawati for breakfast. In deed, it ate half the crew before we managed to escape. But Falco was already starting to become suspicious of me, and should either of them figure out I wasn’t human, I didn’t intend to become their next experiment. So I fled.”
Fled . The word took me aback—as did his tale of this monstrous sea beast. Raksh was an overly confident, rash trickster. A demon
who devoured souls and drank ambitions like they were bread and water. And Falco had scared him off.
With Dunya’s assistance. Don’t forget that part . But Dunya was still a child. Asif’s child and one I had been ordered to return on threat to my own family.
However, there was one thing missing from Raksh’s explanation: the Moon of Saba. Did he really not know what particular treasure Falco and Dunya were after? Granted, Layth hadn’t mentioned anyone else with them on their visit to the al-Hilli
residence, and what I knew of the Frank painted a portrait of a cunning man. Perhaps Falco had kept news of the Moon of Saba
to himself.
“Is that enough?” Raksh demanded. “I have been talking for a very long time.”
“And you will keep talking if you want a divorce,” I replied. “Tell us of their situation now. I want to know about this cave.”
Raksh let out an exceedingly weary sigh but dropped to a crouch, drawing a map in the sand with one long finger. “The entrance
is a half day’s walk, but the cave itself is vast and unfathomably deep. The locals say one can wander in there for days and
that anyone who ventures too far is never seen again.”
“What locals?” Dalila asked. “Do you mean the villagers? What happened to them?”
“Falco and his men rounded them up. Carried off all the food and supplies they could and have been using the survivors for
labor.”
“So they’re still alive?” she pushed.
“Some are. But these are not gentle men you have set yourselves against. They are the nastiest mercenaries Falco could find.” Raksh rolled his eyes in disdain. “The constant dreams of bloodlust. So uninspired.”
Tinbu pinched his brow. “And how many of these bloodlusting mercenaries does the Frank command?”
“When I left, there were about twenty. But they like to get drunk and brawl, so there may be fewer now.”
My heart sank. Those were not odds I liked. Most of my crew were sailors, not fighters; we stood no chance if we were forced
to battle Falco and his men directly. “What is their camp like?”
Raksh continued his sketch. “Violent as they might be, Falco’s men are frightened of the cave. The villagers filled their
minds with horror stories and so they make camp at the cave’s mouth when the sun sets.” He marked the cave’s entrance with
a slash. “Dunya sleeps farther inside, and Falco stays between them. I would often stay in there as well.”
“Then how did you escape?”
“I found another exit.” Raksh drew a dizzying number of squiggling paths. “I used to explore the cave when the humans were
asleep. There are many branches, but if you follow this one, it takes you to a narrow tunnel that opens into the side of a
cliff. It is a very lethal drop if you fall, but if you can climb ”—he traced a line directly up—“you come out at the top of the plateau, a good distance away from the cave’s mouth. I murdered
a seagull, doused some of my torn clothing in its blood, and left it in a tunnel they could access, hoping they would think
some cave monster ate me.”
Dalila appeared dubious. “Do you think the Frank believed that?”
“I planned to be much farther away before Falco got suspicious.” Raksh smiled with all his sharp teeth. “What happy news to
run into my old friends from the dependable Marawati .”
I ignored that, studying his sandy map. “How difficult is the climb?”
“It’s straight up and as high as the cliffs.”
Dalila and I exchanged a glance.
“I should have enough rope to rappel down,” she said. “Climbing up will be more difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.
I would need to better survey the scene.”
Tinbu groaned. “Majed is going to kill us.”
“Yes, but only if we survive.” I sighed. “I don’t see another way. Our crew is not going to be able to outfight the men Raksh
has described. But if there’s a chance we can sneak in through the back...” I paused, realizing my limited possibilities
left me with a terrible choice. “But Raksh will need to go with us.”
“ What? ” Tinbu and Dalila both whirled on me.
“No!” Raksh sounded terrified. “I just got away!”
“Then you can run around Socotra looking for another ship before Falco catches you,” I sniped at him before giving my friends
a more beseeching look. “We stand a better chance at succeeding if he is with us. You know it’s true. We won’t be able to
retrace his path through the cave alone.”
“There was not supposed to be any succeeding,” Dalila reminded me. “Not yet. We came to scout.”
“And that’s what we are doing,” I replied. “Let Raksh show us where Dunya is being kept. We’ll see if we can steal her away.
If not, then we’ll reevaluate.”
It was another gamble, yes. But I needed to save Dunya and I needed to buy time to find a new way to dispose of Raksh. I didn’t trust him—I despised him—but for Raksh, self-preservation came before everything, and he clearly wanted off this island.
I prayed that instinct and my lie about divorce were enough.
“My offer stands,” I said to him again. “Help me, and I help you. There is no Marawati in your future unless Dunya is on it as well.”
“You are a fool,” Raksh said bluntly. “And no match for Falco. Knowing my luck, he will kill you and I will be tied to your
ghost forever.”
“Then make sure he doesn’t catch me. We are still married, are we not? That bond is supposed to bring me luck.”
Raksh swept away the map with an angry dash of his hand. “You better break that bond if I help you. I will not be deceived again.”
My stomach knotted in apprehension. I had no intention of taking this demon off Socotra, let alone breaking any ties that
might make him suspect something else—some one else—bound us together.
But one problem at a time. “Does that mean you accept my offer?”
He scowled. “For now, Amina al-Sirafi. For now.”