Compass of the Nymphs

For Etta Kimble,

who at ninety-six still enjoys a good
story,

For Mae & Cleo,

who will soon be old enough to enjoy them,
too,

And for Mrs. Milleson,

who taught me how to write one

(for them and you!)

Compass of the Nymphs

Published by Sam Bennett

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 by Sam Bennett.

This book is available in print at most
online retailers.

Thank you for downloading this e-book. No
part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means including electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission of
the author.

CHAPTER ONE -

A NARROW ESCAPE

It’s easy to live life running, but sometimes
we don’t even know where we are going. Life also has those moments
where it feels like time is running past us while we sit still.

As the forestland became a blur and her feet
barely touched the ground before sprinting on, life was definitely
not going too slowly for Taisiya. She had killed a palace guard,
injured four others, and had the queen’s entire fleet chasing her
in the past five minutes alone.

Now the trees before her were getting thicker
and thicker, making it harder for Taisiya to navigate around them
to safety. Luckily for her, it also was getting harder for the
stocky guards, and as they repeatedly had to stop and regroup in
their efforts to find her, they didn’t even notice as she nimbly
began to climb one of the trees and hide amongst its branches.

Taisiya gripped one of the thicker branches
with her thighs for balance and then turned to the tiny satchel
hanging at her waist. She stifled a small chuckle as she opened the
bag while the guards were right below her, clueless that she was
dangling mere feet above their heads.

Her grin quickly disappeared though, after
realizing there wasn’t much help to be found in the bottom of the
satchel. Taisiya bit her lip in thought and grabbed a ribbon to pin
back her long, curly brown locks. The guards below had reached an
impasse, but Taisiya knew they would not stop until they captured
her.

She pulled out the sharp, serrated knife from
her bag and carefully laid it out on the branch beside her. The
knife alone would be useless from this height; she would be lucky
to toss it and kill one of the men from so high up, and after she
did, it would give away her location. All that was left in the bag
was some thick rope and another, slightly duller knife.

While the guards below had begun hatching a
plan to cut down one of the neighboring trees and continue through,
above them, Taisiya quickly devised a strategy of her own. 
She swung one of her legs up and fastened her foot to the branch
with some rope.  After tying her other foot in place, she
grabbed the knives in one hand and her satchel in the other. 
Then she waited.

The leader of the burly guards was not soft
spoken, and as he commanded his men his voice boomed over any other
noises on the forest floor. He and his brutes were anything but
intelligent, so even though they were making quite a ruckus, they
had made very little progress. This was something that the smallest
of the guards noticed, and although he tried to bring it to
everyone’s attention, he too was drowned out by the loud thuds of
fists pounding into trees and the booms of voices grunting in
frustration.

Sneaking up behind the commander, the small
guard stood on tiptoes and tapped him on the shoulder. All the
other men stopped what they were doing after the bellowing reply
of, “What?!” echoed throughout all the forest. Everyone and
everything were too terrified to make a sound. Even as Taisiya
watched above, her heart pounded a little faster as tension soared
right below her.

The tiniest guard gulped and looked up at his
commander, wide eyed. “Sir,” he said politely, “I don’t think your
plan is working. We’re wasting so much time, while the girl manages
to get farther and farther away with every second lost…and,
well…”

He never got to finish his sentence. The
commander’s eyes burned red with hatred, and he pushed the runt to
the ground, refusing to listen to anything but yes-men. The other
guards watched in silent horror, unsure what to do next. Their
commander gave a swift kick to the fallen guard who fell back in
pain. He then slowly turned around to his other men and began to
make a speech.

“Who is the most intelligent of all the
guards?” He boomed pompously. The others just nodded at him in
stunned silence as he continued.

 Taisiya was under no obligation to sit
and listen to an arrogant commander drone on and on, and she knew
that now was the time to act on her plan. She double-checked that
her legs were tightly fastened to the branch and then said a little
prayer as she released all tension in her body and let herself fall
backwards into the air. She now dangled by her feet less than an
inch away from the commander’s neck.

“…and understand that any mutiny against me
is mutiny against the queen! Let this boy be a lesson to you all,”
the commander prattled on. Every one of the other guards’ mouths
opened as they saw Taisiya floating, knowing that if they said
anything, they would most likely suffer the same fate as their
currently incapacitated comrade.

Taisiya gave the guards a little flippant
wave and then swung her body weight forward and upward, grabbing
and pulling the commander’s head with her left hand, and using both
knives to cut his throat with the right. It was now his turn to
collapse to the ground in stunned disbelief. Taisiya took no time
to watch him, though, as she was busy surveying her other
opponents.

The remaining guards reached at their sides
and pulled out their own knives and ran towards her. Taisiya flung
her body weight up and grabbed onto the ropes holding her to the
branch. She maneuvered herself back up the tree and quickly untied
her feet as the guards started to try and climb up after her.

“Who is the most intelligent of the guards?!”
Taisiya now boomed, winking coyly at the sentinels scratching the
tree bark below her. They stopped what they were doing and looked
up at her, barbarically bewildered. “I’ll tell you who,” she went
on. “That one!” She pointed to the incapacitated guard fallen on
the other side of the pathway.

They turned when she pointed and then looked
back up at her, howling with laughter. “Laugh all you want,”
Taisiya smirked, “but he will be the only one of your lot going
back to the palace alive.” With that, she grabbed her empty satchel
and flung it into the air over her head, putting on a show.

Taisiya tossed the bag to the ground, making
a thwack! as it slammed onto the forest floor, landing near the
fallen guard’s head. Everyone else turned and watched it, and it
took all her might for Taisiya not to laugh as they continued to
fall into her clutches. “Go get that bag,” she said in a tone
reminiscent of a dog’s master telling him to fetch. “It’s got the
Queen’s Elixir in it…”

Every single guard made a mad dash for the
satchel, and Taisiya smiled as she hopped off the branch and landed
adroitly on the ground. The guards were having quite a tug of war
with her empty satchel, making it even easier for her to sneak up
on them and knife them one by one like she did their commander.

As guards lay fallen around her, she dodged
the knife of the last one standing. It narrowly avoided her temple.
She ducked again and leaned forward, throwing her knife and
puncturing his stomach. He gasped in pain and clutched his chest,
dropping his knife. Taisiya quickly snatched the guard’s knife and
then kicked him to the ground. “And let this be a lesson to you
all! Mutiny against me is fatal!” Taisiya boomed, mocking the
guards and their leader. Every single one of her foes lay dead
before her.

She hadn’t counted on the living one behind
her, though. Her grin of satisfaction turned into a grimace as she
felt the cold blade of a knife brushing up against the back of her
neck. Not about to lose her cool, she decided to start up a
conversation and buy herself some time to think of another plan.
“You were faking it, huh?”

“No…not really.” The voice behind her
replied. Taisiya could tell it was the youngest and smallest guard
who must have gotten up during her brawl. His voice cracked and
showed his age…and his inexperience.

“What’s your name? I’m Taisiya.”

“My name isn’t important…”

“Good…I didn’t really care to know.” Taisiya
replied coolly.

The boy scoffed, a bit offended. “You’re
rather rude.”

Taisiya chortled. “Really? It took my not
caring what your name is for you to realize I’m not Miss
Congeniality? Do tell me, mysterious stranger, what you are going
to do with that knife?”

“I’m going to kill you,” he said, “and take
you back to the queen.”

“That doesn’t really work for me,” Taisiya
said, “I’m a little hungry and was planning to have a nice little
dinner…”

“Well, I don’t care what’s nice for you!”

Taisiya raised an eyebrow in mock surprise.
“You’re rather rude!” she mimicked. “But seriously, there’s two
options, kid. The first one involves you putting that knife back in
your pocket, running back to the palace and alerting everyone about
the fallen guards. The second plan, and this one’s my favorite, is
where you pretend you really know how to fight, and end up joining
the rest of the queen’s idiot henchmen over there. What’s it going
to be? I’ll let you decide.”

“Neither!” The boy pressed the knife deeper
into Taisiya and even managed to draw a little blood.

“I thought you were smarter than them,”
Taisiya said, biting down in pain.

The boy gave a slight guffaw, “Thought? I am
smarter than any of those buffoons.”

“But not quite as humble, I see…” Taisiya
rolled her eyes. “And if you truly were smarter, you would get that
knife off of me and go running back to the palace before you find
yourself choking on it.”

He gulped and eased up on the knife. Taisiya
knew she had won.

“The queen won’t know. No one will know. Tell
them how Captain Genius knocked you out, and when you woke up,
everyone was dead, and I was nowhere to be found. You’ll probably
even get promoted.”

“All right, all right.” he said hotly, “but
instead of me running back to the palace, you’ll be the one
running. Go. Deep into the forest, and never return. I’m being far
too nice to you, and you had better remember that. Now get
lost!”

In no position to argue, Taisiya grabbed her
satchel off the ground and made a run for it. The air stung her
wounds as she ran, and the bushes sliced at her legs. Nothing was
going to stop her now, and Taisiya continued to run as fast as she
could until the forest gave way to the little town of Solames.

She stopped and caught her breath. Although
she lived in Solames, Taisiya knew she would have to be cautious
traipsing into town after her latest attempt to penetrate the
queen’s castle. If she knew the queen well enough, there were
probably more guards waiting at her parents’ house for her arrival.
Luckily, she knew the town inside and out and expertly navigated
herself through it, arriving a block away from her parents’ house
and peering around the corner sneakily.

Her stealth wasn’t necessary. No one was at
the small hut where she lived. The lot lay in tatters as the walls
of the shelter had collapsed, and tiny flickers of still lit ashes
danced in the wind. Taisiya walked over to what was once her and
her parent’s home and knelt down, fingering the ashes of what was
once her belongings. What had happened?

A warm voice spoke up behind her. “The queen
was not pleased with your latest attempts to breach her security…”
Taisiya turned and saw it was her neighbor, kind old Melitta.

“There were palace guards all over Solames.
It was quite a sight. Two very nasty gentlemen interrogated your
poor parents. After stealing all the food, they lit your house on
fire and took your parents back to the castle with them. No one has
stepped outside since they left.”

Taisiya put her hand over her eyes to hide
her tears. Melitta knelt down and patted her on the shoulder to
comfort the girl. “Don’t you cry,” she said, “you’re only doing
what’s right.”

“But…the queen doesn’t want me finding out
what she is up to, yet she has my parents taken to the castle.”
Taisiya sobbed, “Doesn’t she know that will only make my
determination to get in even greater?”

Melitta nodded, “Oh, yes, she knows. I would
even say she is trying to lure you in. Get up dear, and come in to
my house. We’ll have more privacy there.” She took off her shawl
and wrapped it around Taisiya, covering her and her tears from any
prying eyes that may have been peeping from other houses on the
block.