The Shattered Islands: Part One: The Rakam by Karpov Kinrade Read Free Book Online Page A

intently at the waters. She looks down from her perch as a young man climbs up the kelp to relieve her of her duty for the night. She shimmies down, giving the shelled seat to the boy, landing on bare feet slapping against the great shell, loose fitting bamboo knit pants flapping against her skinny legs. Her hair is black, her eyes slashed with sapphire, so she must have touched the stone once, and I wonder how she came upon such a rare gem. Her arms are thick and muscled, the arms of one who leads a kiasheen, pulling upon the heavy reigns that guide the beast by its nostrils.
    "I'm free till sunrise if ye be looking for something… or someone, to do." She winks at me and saunters off, not waiting for my response, making her way within the great shell to her quarters.
    The first night I arrived on board, Calla cozied up to me during dinner and didn't take it personally when I wasn't interested. Since then she flirts lightly, as a young woman who has had many lovers and isn't concerned with where the next one comes from.
    I don't mind, but I don't reciprocate. I'm not here to find a new lover.
    Captain Kanen glares at me when he sees Calla's wink. I maintain eye contact with him, not aggressively, but not passively either. He averts his eyes first, and I turn and make my way inside the shell to my own cabin.
    I've seen enough of this night, and the captain was right about one thing. I will fall into the haze if I don't try to sleep.
    I climb down the alabaster stairs to the small shell, that odd space between the great shell and the kiasheen, where the whoosh of the ocean and the simmering sounds of the great beast's belly collide into a strange kind of music that is both beautiful and terrifying. My generous offerings bought me a private cabin toward the fluke, so I walk through the narrow shell halls until I reach the end of the tunnel. I'm about to open the door to my cabin when I pause and still my breath.
    My gloved hand is soundless as it turns the shell knob and pushes the door in.
    The man standing over my trunk does not see or hear me as I approach him from behind.
    I can smell his stink as I reach for his arm and twist it behind his back, pulling his bulk against my chest as I hiss into his ear. "You'll kindly keep your grimy fingers off my belongings, or you won't be leaving with your hands."

2
THE RAKAM
     
     

     
     
    The man stiffens in my arms, fear and panic warring with indignant anger over his face. But he is more coward than fighter and he slumps against me, sniveling. "I just be looking is all. No harm meant."
    I glance over his shoulder and see my trunk open, my few belongings smeared with his sweaty palm prints. "What were you looking for?" I ask, twisting him around and pinning him against the shell wall, my forearm crossing over his windpipe to keep him in place.
    "Yer so much to yerself, me mates and I had a wager on what treasures ye keep hidden."
    I nearly gag at the liquor on his breath. The sea swill they drink in these parts has a particularly fishy odor. "You're the one they call Clam, yes?"
    He nods.
    "And did you find hidden treasure?" I ask, knowing the answer.
    He shakes his head, shells and bits of bone clanking together in his long, weedy beard and locks of hair.
    "And will you be intruding on my space again, Clam?"
    He shakes his head again and I bore into him with my eyes, with my purpose, until I smell the piss running down his legs. I let him go and push him toward the door of my cabin. "Tell your mates I like my privacy, and if any of you are found in here again, you'll soon find yourself rakam bait."
    His eyes widen and he taps three fingers on his chest three times, a superstitious sign to ward off evil, and then trips over himself to escape my room. I hope my warning keeps him and his friends away. I hope it doesn't push them to more violent action.
    I close the door behind him after he leaves, latching a small shell to a strip of kelp to keep it locked from inside, then I move