by Matt Larkin
Lembu Ampal took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can.”
And here he had no reason to do so. The man couldn’t return to serve Kertajaya, had no care for Semar or the Ignis. He needed something bigger, something greater than himself to rise above his malaise.
“I could never live with myself if I abandoned the people of Suladvipa to Ketu or Malin or Kertajaya,” Naresh said.
Lembu Ampal nodded, but didn’t look up from his silver medallion.
Fair enough. The man needed purpose. Naresh would give it to him. “Have you heard of the Spice King?”
“Someone trying to unite the Spice Isles, a new power rising.”
Naresh scooted closer and put his hand over the medallion. For a moment, when Lembu Ampal looked up, he glared at Naresh. Then he just met his gaze.
“Find him. Make an ally of him. And we will stand together against the Lunars. The Ignis may have cracked the domes, brother, but they didn’t bring the war. We and the Lunars did that. Ketu did it. Help us end it. There is no one else I can trust with this.”
It was true enough, even if he had chosen Lembu Ampal as much for the big man’s sake as for the mission. With Chandi, Ben, and Landi away, Naresh was short on people he could rely on.
Lembu Ampal looked Naresh in the eyes, as if trying to read how serious he was. “I’ll do it,” he said at last.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN
The callers at the Hill Palace never ended. House Hasta had returned, and Ratna hoped the boons and bounties she bestowed on them bought forgiveness. Thank Chandra their little daughter had survived the rainforest. Perhaps it wasn’t a leader’s duty to make all her subjects happy, but she couldn’t afford to have a powerful House plotting behind her back, either.
Not if she wanted to take the Lunar Empire from Ketu. And in the end, she had to do so. The man she’d called uncle had grown out of control. If he had listened to Malin, this civil war would never have happened. Malin must have tried to plead his case once more. She knew him.
One woman bemoaned her two sons, lost at sea.
“We don’t know what happened to that ship,” Ratna said. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do anything without knowing where they are.”
Except she could guess. The Buaya Jadian had overrun more than one vessel. Caught unprepared, even Moon Scions might struggle against a sudden assault by werecrocodiles. Rumors claimed the Buaya Jadian came in the dead of night, rose up from the sea, and took entire crews back down into the depths. Some claimed most bodies were never found because the werecrocodiles ate their victims.
Ratna shuddered. As if Macan Gadungan were not dangerous enough. At least they didn’t often swim up to ships at sea and slaughter entire crews.
“Give her something hot to drink,” she whispered to her advisor. “Make sure she doesn’t harm herself.” Or anyone else. The woman looked half-crazed.
But then, Ratna could understand what a lost child did to the mind.
Revati was alive. Beyond doubt. She had to be.
At last, she dismissed the final callers. She couldn’t right all the wrongs in one day. Many, like the poor mother, she couldn’t really help at all.
Lost your sons? Here, have some tea and a bag of rice.
What was she supposed to do for the woman? No gifts, no payment, no condolences would ever amount to even one breath of a child’s life.
And in the end, that’s why her father had been wrong to start the Fourth War. And why Ketu was wrong to continue the Fifth War. The Solars were dead, their empire gone. Now House Soma had managed to tear apart the Lunar Empire, as well. Two empires that had lasted twelve hundred years. Brought low in a few decades by Ketu and Rahu, pretenders to House Soma.
And somehow, Ratna had been too caught up in loyalty to her family to see the arrogance of it all. At least until she too had lost someone irreplaceable.
When the door opened, she looked up, expecting a slave to have brought her tea. Instead Mahesa walked into her chamber.
Thank Chandra she hadn’t lost him in these wars, as well.
He dropped something heavy, and it struck the floor with a thud. The book.
Shit.
“Mahesa, I—”
He knelt in front of her, across the table. “I came up to the cliff, sometimes, with you two. I saw your hiding places. I thought it might have been a good place to stuff your favorite flowers. Jasmine, right? But I found that space already occupied.”
Ratna sighed. “If we can’t find my daughter, I have to have it. I have to have the hope of one last place to turn.”
He rose, shaking his head. “If you won’t cast it aside, you may as well store it here. Be done with it, or don’t pretend you are.”
“You’d understand, if she were your daughter,” Ratna shouted at him as he left.
Mahesa paused in the doorway, but didn’t turn back to her before he disappeared into the hall.
Rangda damn it all. Ratna grabbed the book and flung it against the wall. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why hadn’t she just thrown it into the sea?
But the answer was easy. Because she was that old woman, begging her queen to return her lost child. Even if that queen was Rangda Demon Queen?
Yes. Even then.
Ratna shuddered and walked over to her mother’s book against the palace wall.
Had this cost her mother’s life? Damn Kala and damn the Solars and damn Rangda. They’d taken so many people from her.
Ratna couldn’t remember her mother’s face. She stroked her hair with her brush. Who was her mother, really? Calon of House Arang. Married into House Soma.
Had Queen Kenya known who her mother was? Or at least her reputation?
Ratna brushed past the servants bringing her tea. “I’ll take it in the records room.”
But she barely touched the tea as she tore through the papers. House Arang. Kenya’s records of Simhika indicated an honored daughter, stained somewhat by her friendship with her cousin Calon, who rumors called a witch.
A witch before she met Tanjung. So the other woman must have only helped Calon harness that power. But was that all she ever wanted? Power? Had she lost her life, divided her family pursuing that?
If Calon had really lost her life for practicing black magic, if she had wrought such horrors the Arun Guard came after her, had her fate been just? Because if Ratna used her mother’s book, she’d have to call on those same spirits.
The things Tanjung told her rang true, but incomplete. And the only person who had really known Calon for all those years, the only one left alive, was Malin.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN
Given his Blessings and weretiger strength, the Moon Scions in Bukit had no chance against Malin. One dove to attack his legs. Malin’s kick caught the man in the jaw, flipped him in midair.
Beside him, Pohaci cracked another soldier on the head with her ekor pari. She was quite skilled with the rope whip—stingray tail the Solars called it, for its razor edge would slice through flesh with ease.
Malin watched as another warrior tried to attack her with a keris. She sidestepped, whipped the ekor pari in an arc that ripped open the man’s face. He doubled over, clutching his head, screaming. In an instant Pohaci stepped in and clubbed her fist on the back of his neck.
Malin smirked, stepped in on another foe. The man’s ribs cracked under his right hook. At last, Malin understood why Chandi never controlled herself. The rush, the vigor that filled him with the Blessings. So easy to think it really was the blessing of Chandra.
Someone tried to sneak up behind him. Malin spun and caught the man’s wrist as he swung a club. He squeezed until he felt bones crunch. The screaming man slumped to the ground when Malin released him.
Some of the Macan Gadungan had assumed tiger form for this. Doing so would terrify their prey, but Malin preferred to take this victory in full control of himself. His Moon Blessings were more than enough. Glorious and seductive.
Pohaci turned to the side, then took off running afte
r some prey. Had to admire her enthusiasm.
Malin paused to knock a soldier senseless with a slap. A Moon Scion lunged for Pohaci with a keris. The ekor pari cracked, opening the man’s weapon hand. The Moon Scion staggered back, clutching his hand.
“Stop,” Malin said.
Pohaci froze in an instant. Only her wrist moved, as she traced her stingray tail in a spiraling arc.
The Moon Scion—Little Mahesa—had positioned himself between Pohaci and Ratna. Rahu’s daughter glared at Malin, a satchel clutched to her breast as if it could protect her, a keris knife pressed against it.
Malin sneered at the child’s attempt at defiance. “Aren’t you going to welcome me home?”
“How could you do this to Bukit, Malin? We trusted you. I trusted you, I … How many of your own people have you killed tonight? Chandi should have killed you in the arena. You’ve betrayed your empire, your king, and your homeland.”
Malin bared his teeth and the girl shrank away. Mahesa raised his good hand in a tiger claw form. Malin could smell them on each other. Lovers?
Malin couldn’t stop his chuckle. “Would you like to see a real tiger claw, boy? Put your hand down. I won’t harm Ratna for her petty words. In fact, I’m going to give her the chance to join me in the new Lunar Empire.”
She was like family, after all. Ketu deserved death, for certain, but he needed to reconcile where possible. This war had hurt the empire enough already.
“Join you? New Lunar Empire?” Ratna said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d call you a lunatic.”
Malin tried not to cringe. As a Moon Scion, lunacy had become a possibility.
“Ketu and you are both mad,” Ratna said. “And he plans to annihilate all the Jadian. You’ve just doomed any hope I had of dissuading him.”
“Then join me.”
Ratna scoffed. “After this slaughter? How could I trust you? You think anyone can trust you after you’ve sacked your own city?”
A growl rose in Malin’s throat, but he held Pohaci back when she moved for Ratna. “You forget all I’ve done for you, child. I’ve protected you every day of your life. I’ve watched over you, taught you, guided you. You offer me little thanks and no reward for my service.”
“Reward? Where were you when the Stranger took Revati? Why didn’t you protect my daughter?”
Malin leaned against the wall of a house. He still couldn’t say if letting Kala take her was the right thing. If Ratna knew he’d stood by and let it happen she’d claw his eyes out.
Pohaci shifted toward them. He saw her muscles tense, so subtle Ratna would never catch it. “She’s reckless, foolish. Kill them both.”
Malin stared at the pair for a while. Easier to kill them. Cleaner to do it and be done with it. No good would come from letting her go.
Still.
He’d held Ratna’s hand as she took her first steps. He’d carried her on his back over the mountains. He stood by as she married Kakudmi, knowing what it would cost her.
“Well?” Ratna said. “Going to murder us, Malin? Like you allowed my father to be murdered?”
Malin growled. “Allowed it?” He advanced on her, knocking Mahesa aside when he tried to interfere. “Child, I cut his head off myself.”
Ratna’s whole body trembled as she stumbled backward.
“And you can tell Ketu I’m coming for him. His reign over the Lunars is ending. Bukit is mine. Soon the Temple will be, as well. If you have any sense left in that skull of yours, you’ll stay out of my way.”
“I want no more to do with him than I do you. You’re a monster, Malin. And I almost believed in you …”
Pohaci pulled Mahesa to his feet by his hair. “You’re letting them go?”
“Yes.”
“Both of them?”
Malin rounded on her. “Release him. Maybe they can find a boat your people didn’t scuttle. They take their fate in their own hands.”
Pohaci shoved Mahesa toward Ratna.
Malin watched Pohaci. “Was he one of the ones who beat you?”
She shook her head. Good. Malin would have let her cut him to pieces for it. Better he didn’t have to hurt the boy. Mahesa had never been guilty of much more than following Ratna like a puppy.
Malin even liked him. For a Moon Scion.
He watched as Ratna and Mahesa scrambled away from Bukit, toward the beaches. Maybe they would make it. If not, well, he’d offered her his protection.
Ratna had always been stubborn.
“Come,” he said to Pohaci. “I want the defenders routed before sunrise.”
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN
“This way,” Mahesa said.
Ratna scrambled behind him, trying to keep low. The weeds and swamp grass tickled her legs. She tried not to look down. Didn’t want to know what might crawl near her feet.
The mountain road and the cliff path down to the beach were clogged with soldiers, so Mahesa led her through the wetlands. Buaya Jadian territory. Ratna felt herself on the verge of a heart attack.
“Another path,” she said for probably the fourth time. “There’s got to be another path.”
“This is fastest.” His voice was low. He cradled his right hand against his chest. He said he was fine, but the pain in his eyes said otherwise. Blood still ran down his arm.
Vicious crocodile bitch. And Malin. Two days ago she’d wanted to reconcile. Malin had said so many true things, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t an animal. He’d cut off her father’s head? She fought the urge to vomit again.
She’d only gone a few steps before the mental picture overcame her. She dropped, her knees embedded in the mud, and heaved.
Then Mahesa was there, rubbing her back. “We have to keep going, Ratna. We can’t let anyone find us.”
He pulled her to her feet. Muck dripped from her satchel. Ratna wanted to scream. If the book got wet, it was all for nothing. Thank Chandra Malin didn’t bother searching it. Mahesa ushered her through the wetlands.
A shadow moved in the water. Ratna yelped. Hand to her chest, she turned. A crocodile? Almost invisible in the murk. It could be an eye.
Mahesa followed her gaze. He yanked her arm and ran. Ratna drew her Moon Blessings. They might be weak, but she could still run faster than a normal person.
Chandra let it be a real crocodile.
Every time she glanced over her shoulder she saw nothing. But would she?
Mahesa pulled them to a stop at the edge of the wetlands. “Can you operate a jukung?”
“A little bit.” Malin had made her learn. He’d made her learn many things. Actually, he taught her almost everything. And then betrayed her.
Mahesa nodded. With his left hand he pointed at a dhow fleeing the harbor.
“We need to catch that. It’s one of ours. I know the captain.”
Ratna nodded. There were men fighting on the beach. Several jukungs stood on the water’s edge. “That one.” She pointed to one of Malin’s. A man still waited in the boat.
“Too difficult to take a boat from them.”
“Didn’t you hear Malin say he had our boats scuttled?”
Mahesa sighed.
“You distract him,” she said. She grabbed a fallen tree branch, thick as her arm.
Mahesa picked up another and moved away from her, before rushing the boat. He held the branch awkwardly in his left hand. The traitor on the boat sneered at the sight and moved in on Mahesa.
Deep breaths. She could do this. Chandi could do it. So could Ratna.
Crouching, she advanced, rising to her full height only when she was directly behind the traitor. She drew her Potency Blessing as hard as she could and ran.
Mahesa fell back as the man advanced with his keris. Once, twice, her lover parried the knife. Then he tripped backwards, landed on the sand.
The traitor readied his keris for a lunge. Ratna hadn’t expected the sickening crunch when her club connected with his skull. Hadn’t expected so much blood to cover her weapon. Blood and gray goop.
With a gasp, she realized what it was, tossing the stick away. She was going to vomit again.
Mahesa grabbed her, hauled her into the jukung. “Sail. Now.” He shoved the boat into the sea.
Others ran toward them, but the jukung already drifted out into the water. Mahesa kept pushing.
“Get in!” Ratna shouted at him.
She dared not take her hands away from her work to help him. But the master climber didn’t seem to need her help, even with one hand lamed. Mahesa hissed and swung his hand in the air like the sea had burned him.
“Hurry,” he said. He waved his arms, trying to signal the dhow.
It had stopped fleeing. Maybe the crew saw them. Ratna brought the jukung as close alongside the ship as she dared.
The sailors above threw lines down to them.
Ratna had to draw her Blessings again to climb the rope. She heaved herself over the rail and fell to the deck, panting.
Mahesa landed beside her. Men pulled them both to their feet.
“I need to see your captain,” she said.
“This ship’s captain is dead,” a man said, advancing on her.
Only then did she notice a handful of men at the stern, below the poop deck. Disarmed, guarded by men with swords.
“Trust Malin to send all those rich merchant vessels fleeing with their cargo. Lucky I was here to help take it off their hands.” The pirate nodded at her. “Welcome, Ratna.”
She recognized the man now. Rangguwani. Once lord of House Kshuparaka. Now the leader of a pirate cabal.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN
The pirates eyed Ratna, but made no move toward her. She still hadn’t quite gotten over the shock of seeing Rangguwani embrace Mahesa.
“We should retire to my cabin,” the pirate said, when they had transferred from the stolen dhow to Rannguwani’s own ship.
The satchel had grown heavy on Ratna’s shoulder, but she dared not let it go. Not with the way those pirates watched her. “How long have you two known each other?”
