Page 72 of Damned and Broken Gods
Ramashi balked. “False gods? Iblees is no false god.”
“Then where is he?” Araz arched a brow. “Isn’t he meant to be reborn? To be among us? To stand with us in times of need?”
Ramashi sighed. “Maybe. Or maybe those are simply stories.”
“And maybe Iblees was merely a djinn and not a djinn god.”
The caw of birds rose over the whooshing of waves and the lament of the wind as we rushed to meet the island. The deck groaned beneath us, and a soft vibration climbed up my legs to settle beneath my ribs.
Vairanya turned away from the coast, moving slower now, rising out of the sea as we moved into the shallows. Water rushed off her back, and I ran portside, grabbing the ship’s mast in time to see the ancient Kaalmukha raise her weathered head from the water. She was a monolith of shimmering leathery skin pebbled with iridescent patches that glowed pink—the Vainari, now a part of her once more.
A groan filled the air, the sound like the opening of an ancient door to a place called home.
She turned her head, and her eyes opened, inky black surrounded by a white iridescent ring that looked as if it had swallowed all the colors of the rainbow. I saw myself reflected there. She blinked, and the image shifted. Still me but…not me. Taller, hair bound on top of my head, even though it was loose right now.
Moths erupted in my stomach as I peered closer, trying to understand what I was seeing. She blinked again, turning away and taking the mirage with her.
The ship swayed on Vairanya’s back as she swam around the island toward an inlet bordered by tall, thick-trunked trees with spiky dark green foliage.
The inlet was a rockface curving smoothly to cup the sea. As we approached, Vairanya turned to face the ocean before backing up until she was settled into the inlet like a puzzle piece. She groaned again, lowering herself into the water once more to become a part of the island itself.
Ramashi threw his hands up. “Welcome to Shantivan.”
Chapter 24
Don’t Look ’Er In The Eyes…
BLUE
There’s sumthin soothing about books. The way they don’t judge ya. The varied spine thicknesses, the smell of leather and old paper. The texture. I don’t mind giving ’em a dust. It’s the scrolls that piss me off. One wrong move an’ the fuckers are rolling.
“Why dontcha store ’em better?”
Bhoomika looks up from whatever she’s working on at ’er small desk. “How would you store them, Blue?”
Urgh, I hate when she answers me question with a question of ’er own. “Dunno. Not like this.” I point at the pile of scrolls in a wooden box. “Howdya even find anything in that lot?”
“We don’t often need to use the scrolls,” she says. “Most have been transcribed into books, translated in some cases.” She goes back to ’er scribblin’.
I set to work on the scrolls with the duster, stiflin’ a sneeze. Not a bad work assignment all in all. Bhoomika ain’t too bad. And she lets me ’ave cake. We been working this for a few days now, old rooms with ancient books and scrolls, stuff thatdon’t get checked out. Forgotten stuff. There ain’t any natural light in ’ere, too damaging to the books, but me ratty eyesight can mek everythin’ out just fine. Shelves that stretch up to the domed ceiling. Loads a cobwebs up there, but there’s no way I’m disturbing Madame Spider. I sense her, weaving, watchin me. She’s a biggun. Ancient, I feel it. I ain’t botherin’ ’er, no siree. I leave ’er be, she leaves me be. Pretty sure she could gobble me up, but pretty sure she knows I’m off limits, anchor an’ all.
I work in silence for a while, but silence gets borin’ pretty fast. “Hey, Bhoomy, you heard anythin’ from the demigods on Shantivan?”
“You ask me every day, and the answer is the same.” There’s a smile to her voice. “There is no news.”
“Ain’t they gonna be takin’ the test soon? They’ve been gone two weeks.”
“It would have taken them a week to reach the island. They probably haven’t even been introduced to the Shattiraksha yet.”
“The whatty-what?”
She looks up with a smile. “The Shattiraksha are ocean beings, warriors, children of the Kaalmukha named Vairanya, the last of her kind. They are vessels that an ascended rides when battling aquatic threats.”
“What kinda threats?” I hop off the small ladder and wander over to ’er desk and into the full glow of the lantern light. “You got sea monsters now?”
“The devouring force has minions on land, in the air, and in the sea. Shantivan is a prime location for attack. The waters can be dangerous there.”
“Wait, ain’t there humans livin’ there?”
