Memory's Wake by Django Wexler

Author:Django Wexler [Wexler, Django]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Published: 2024-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

TEN

Axia opened her eyes, drew in a breath to scream, and realized she felt fine.

There was a line of tingling numbness down one cheek and her left arm throbbed with pins and needles, but she felt no pain. The sleeve of her shirt had been cut away, and someone had wiped up the blood. Where the wound had been was only a patch of lighter skin.

“Mask isn’t a jealous sort of god,” Kori said, “but if you were to throw a prayer or two in his direction, I doubt he’d take it amiss.”

Axia sat up. She was still on the nightspider, laid out on someone’s jacket in the shadow of a pair of water barrels. Kori sat beside her, looking as exhausted as Axia felt. Blood had matted her dark curls.

“You healed me?” Axia said.

Kori held up a finger. “Mask healed you. I just asked him to.”

“Your god doesn’t mind that we’re…you know, pirates?”

“He is a god of thieves, rogues, and spies,” Kori said, toying with the mask-shaped medallion around her neck. “Pirates pretty clearly fall under his purview.”

Axia had never felt much urge to worship, but a god of pirates would certainly have its advantages. She sat up, groaning a little.

“Shouldn’t you be helping the others?” she said.

“Already did everything I can,” Kori said. “Only so much divine puissance can be channeled through little ol’ me in any given day, and I have run right through it. I feel like a wrung-out towel.” She waved a hand vaguely. “Helgi’s still helping with the rest of the wounded.”

“Why are we back here?”

“Thought it was best to get you out of sight until you were up and about,” Kori said. “For your reputation and all. Though I have to say you’ve given that a powerful boost. I had no idea you could fight like that.”

“Neither did I.” Axia touched the cutlass beside her. “This thing isn’t magical, is it?”

“Nope.”

“Then I’m not sure what happened.” She closed her eyes, trying to recall the sensation. “I felt like I was…someone else.”

At the time, she’d wanted nothing more than to stay in the dance forever. Now, looking back on the memory of hacking Kabochek’s head off, she wanted to vomit.

He deserved it, she told herself. He was an abductor and murderer. She believed that, but it didn’t erase the image of the neogi’s severed head writhing on the deck.

“Well, whatever it was, everyone’s impressed.” There was a falseness in Kori’s tone, as though she wasn’t quite as nonchalant as she pretended. Axia thought back to the conversation she’d overheard. Even gods can be fooled, sometimes.

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Axia said. “Makes them less likely to doubt me.”

“Yeah.” Kori tipped her head back and let out a long sigh.

“What?” Axia said. “You’re not telling me something.”

“I tried to tell you. But since you didn’t let us in on your little plan, I didn’t get the chance.”

Axia felt her cheeks warming. “So tell me now.”

“Karrank is not going to like this.”

“Who’s Karrank?”

“A neogi,” Kori said. “The boss of all the neogi in Shatterspace, to hear him tell it.

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