Read The Shattered Islands: Part One: The Rakam for Free Online

and we hear the splash as she dives deep into the sea to catch her dinner.
    "You won't be staying with us, then?" asks Captain Kanen.
    I shake my head.
    "Yer woman?"
    I nod.
    "Then may the goddess guide your way, and feel well knowing I will honor yer request. I swear it by the Deep Mother." I grasp his forearm as he does mine. "And if ever ye need help," he says, grinning, "remember ye have friends here."
    I turn to leave, and Garen grabs me in a giant hug, lifting me, cracking my spine. "So it was La'Kia after all," he says. "I'll be getting that tale right from now on, brother. You best know I'll be getting that tale right and spreading it wide and far. Dak'Ra still rides the waves."
    He chuckles, rattling the bones in his beard as he puts me down. I gasp for breath melodramatically and grin. "Thank you," I say, turning to the great shell and the rest of the crew. "It has been a pleaser to ride the waves with you, brothers and sisters, but there is one more thing I ask of you," I yell. "Tell all you see that Dak'Ra still lives. Tell them he comes for the black kiasheen."
     
    ***
     
    It is late when I stand on the rostrum with my drakruu, tightening the saddle she wears on her back. Most of the crew is asleep, and even the kiasheen slumbers, when Vasa'Ra approaches me, her white dress billowing in the wind. "May I?" she asks, raising her hand to my drakruu.
    I nod. "Here, behind me, away from the head."
    She stands to my side and touches the blue scales below the wing. "What's its name?"
    "Her name is Rin, but I call her Rakam Eater."
    Vasa'Ra giggles, and I realize it's the first time I've seen her laugh. It is short-lived as her grin fades.
    "I have seen the black ship," she says, her voice trembling, "and the man who leads it. He is the one who killed my first mother when my sister and I were but children. He is the one who took three Ra ships with one. Do not go to him," she pleads, touching my hand.
    "If it was my life, I would stay. But my life is no longer mine. It belongs to another, and she waits amongst the waves." I push Vasa'Ra's hand away and mount Rin. I pull something from my pocket and toss it to the blue-eyed girl.
    "No, you can't—"
    "Keep it," I say.
    Her eyes dazzle at the sapphire in her hands. "But why?"
    "Because a man once did the same for me," I say, grinning as I pull on the reigns and lift into the sky toward the maiden moon.
    As I drift through the pale blue clouds, I think of that man who gave me my first sapphire.
    He is the one who rides the black kiasheen.
     
     
     
    THE END
     
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    There is a game called Shells and Stones. Two players shake a cup and place it face down upon the table. They peek underneath and count the amount of shells with the ridges up and the stones showing three lines. They both proclaim their points. They do not have to be honest.
    Now, I play another game. The rules feel the same, but the stakes do not. There can only be one winner. And if I lose...
    I die.
     
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    A NOTE FROM THE AUTHORS
     
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