Compass of the Nymphs (11 page)

Taisiya nodded. “You sound smart. What’s your
name?”

The nymph smiled at the compliment, but was
not so willing to give up her name. “Not so fast,” she said. She
cracked her fingers and, as she did, the ground trembled ever so
slightly. She held up the Nymph Compass. “Just what are you doing
with this?”

Zara went to speak but the nymph held up her
hands to silence him. A blast of wind knocked the breath right out
of Zara. “Silence!” the nymph scowled, “I am speaking to the
girl.”

Taisiya gulped, but answered,  “We are
on our way to your homeland. Adrasteia has taken my family hostage
and burnt our hometown to the ground. We were hoping that some of
your fellow nymphs might help us find a way to overthrow her.”

The nymph cocked an eyebrow in contemplation.
After a moment’s thought, she spoke. “My name is Lahara. I live a
little ways deeper in these woods by myself. For generations, my
family has lived in undisturbed bliss away from humans and other
nymphs. When I felt the sheer power in this Nymph Compass, I had
the urge to come see what was behind it.”

“Fair enough,” Taisiya nodded, “now…may we
have it back?”

Lahara tossed the compass back in the direction of Zara. It did a
dance in the air above his head, going higher and higher as he
jumped to reach it. The nymph snickered, amused. She let the
compass float down low enough for Zara to snatch it.

“Neither of you will last a minute around
full-blooded evil nymphs,” Lahara mused. She ventured closer to
Zara and Taisiya, feeling she had earned their trust. Zara still
was uneasy, and as she came close enough and put her cold hands on
his chest, he shuddered.

“He is strong,” Lahara said to Taisiya. “It’s
a shame that my powers are stronger.” She ran her fingers over his
chest once more, and this time she stopped his heart from beating
momentarily. His face went pale before she loosened her grip.

“We’ll take our chances,” Taisiya said. “It
seems that most nymphs know better than to mess with me.”

Lahara scoffed, but nodded. “I don’t fear
you,” she remarked, “but I do see something in you that I’m sure
scares the dark ones.”

“And what is that?” Taisiya asked. She was
losing her patience.

Lahara could sense this. She replied simply,
“Light.”

Taisiya glared at Lahara. “Indeed. Now, let
us be on our way.”

All too ready to leave, Zara went to turn.
Lahara wasn’t so eager for the humans to leave. With a snap of her
fingers the river water jumped up, forming an impassable wall. “I
can’t let you leave,” she said. “The good nymph in me would never
send two humans off to their death at the hands of my evil
sisters.”

“I don’t care what your conscience says,”
Taisiya spat. “We will be leaving now.”

Zara hid behind Taisiya and placed a hand on
her hip. He whispered in her ear, “Please, Taisiya, don’t make this
worse.”

He may have whispered, but Lahara still heard
every word. She spoke up to him, “Don’t worry, dear, I appreciate
her tenacity. As a matter of fact, I’ll only let you leave on one
condition:  I come with you.”

Taisiya narrowed her eyes, “What’s the
catch?”

Lahara’s eyes flickered with life. “No
catch,” she said, “It’s just been so long since I’ve gotten out of
this forest.”

“Am I honestly supposed to believe you will
protect us against your nymph sisters?” Taisiya snarled. Zara
anxiously tightened his grip around her hip.

The nymph shrugged her shoulders. “No.”

“Then why in the world should we let you come
along?” Taisiya growled, bewildered.

Lahara traipsed over to Taisiya and whispered
in her ear. “On our way there, I will teach you how to use the
power of us nymphs to protect yourself against any evildoers. I’m
sure they’ll treat you more nicely if you bring a lost nymph back
to them, as well. Having me come along with you is priceless.”

The nymph brought up many good points.
Taisiya mulled them over. “I don’t want to learn to be like a
nymph, though.”

Lahara rolled her eyes. “That’s the same as
saying you don’t want to overthrow the queen, dearie. In fact…come
with me.” Lahara cracked a finger at Zara’s hand around Taisiya’s
hip and he winced back in pain. The nymph grabbed Taisiya’s hand
and pulled her back into the forest where she had been hiding and
watching them.

Once they were out of Zara’s view, the nymph
pointed up to the sky and as she did so, it became dark all around
them. Taisiya gulped and watched in stunned silence as Lahara paced
in front of her with a glowing ball of light in her hands.

“The boy should not see the powers dark
nymphs use any sooner than he has to,” Lahara explained. The
glowing orb of light in her hands grew bigger, hovering above them.
Lahara bowed before it, and Taisiya lost her focus as the darkness
took over.

Despite it being pitch black, Taisiya could
hear the leaves rustling wildly and felt the wind bring a cold
chill to her skin. The ball of light then faded to black, and with
a weak whimper, Lahara succumbed to her power and fell to the
forest floor.

Taisiya gasped but not at the fallen nymph.
There was now an image of her parents where the light had been
glowing just seconds before. The sound of silence was deafening
until a familiar voice boomed from the image.

“Where is she?!” the voice of Queen Adrasteia
roared, while the image of Taisiya’s parents showed their obvious
distress.

“We don’t know! She told us to wait for her
in the glen, but she never came!” Taisiya’s father whimpered.

Suddenly, Taisiya’s parents disappeared from
view as the queen turned around to speak to one of the guards of
the prison cell. “I am done with them,” she hissed, pausing to
survey the entire cell quickly.

“What, your majesty?” the guard dared to ask.
It was Nathaniel.

“There is evil afoot…” The queen scowled. Her
brow furrowed deep in thought and soon after the picture faded away
and with it, all the darkness in the forest.

Taisiya stood staring at the faded image,
desperate for it to come back. She blinked and came back to reality
when the lifeless form of Lahara began to stir.

The nymph slowly picked herself up, clutching
her head in pain. Her breath was labored as she asked, “Did it
work?”

Taisiya bent down to help her up. “I think
so,” she stammered, “You’re saying I can learn to do that?”

Lahara let out a weak chuckle. “Maybe some
day you will be able to eavesdrop on commoners, yes. I doubt either
of us will ever find the strength in us to invade that terrible
nymph’s mind.”

“How did you do that?” Taisiya asked as
Lahara dusted herself off.

Lahara scratched a few leaves out of her
hair. “I summoned all of the dark energy I could muster. The power
that comes from darkness is quite powerful, but it still took more
than I could bear to break into the mind of that woman. You have
quite a powerful opponent.”

Taisiya nodded. “That’s for sure…but are
there things nymphs do that don’t take up so much of your energy?
Ones that we could use, say, in a fight?”

Lahara nodded. Zara was coming back into
view, so she became rather tightlipped. “All in due time,” she
whispered to Taisiya.

“We’re back!” Taisiya called out. She had
expected Zara to be panicked and nervously awaiting her return, but
instead he was wading his feet in the river water nonchalantly.

He turned at the sound of her voice and
smiled. “I missed you.” He got up and went over to give her a
hug.

“That’s it?” Taisiya asked skeptically, “you
weren’t scared at all?”

Zara raised an eyebrow. “Scared? No. Maybe a
little nervous…but I know you can handle yourself.”

“But the darkness…and…and…” Taisiya
stammered. Lahara shook her head to silence the girl. It was
obvious that what they had been doing had stayed close to them,
unnoticeable to anyone at a distance.

Zara gave Taisiya a quizzical look but
decided it was best not to ask questions. Instead, he gave a polite
nod to Lahara, accepting the fact that she was more than likely
going to be accompanying them from here on out whether he liked it
or not.

There was something in the eyes of the nymph
that put his stomach in knots. He could see there was a definite
darkness to her; it scared him how she reminded him of Adrasteia.
Lahara’s lily-white façade was, in his opinion, just that – a
façade. If there was one thing he learned about nymphs from
Adrasteia, it was that looks could be deceiving. The most charming
and beautiful looking nymph could have a frightening and ugly
soul.

Nonetheless, Zara and Taisiya followed as
Lahara led them deeper into the uncharted territory of the forest.
Eventually, they arrived at a little nook that held a small
cottage. The nymph warned them to stay outside as she disappeared
inside. She came out a couple minutes later donning a warm black
coat and carrying what Zara and Taisiya presumed were
guidebooks.

Zara took the Nymph Compass out of his pocket
and was sad to see that it still would point only at Lahara. The
nymph noticed his aggravation and said softly, “Don’t worry, I know
the way.”

With that, she plucked the compass from his
hands and stored it away among her things for safekeeping. Zara
grumbled to himself but followed along as Lahara led the way. The
quaint view of her little cottage soon disappeared and the quiet
flow of the river came bubbling back into earshot.

“You know it would be much faster if we cut
through the woods instead of taking the river,” Zara protested.

Lahara’s lips pursed as she tried to hold
back her laughter. “Silly boy,” she cooed, “my way will get us
there much faster.”

“What’s your plan?” Taisiya asked.

The nymph explained herself. “I am still a
little weak from earlier today,” she said, giving Taisiya a knowing
glance. “However, I’m doing well enough to use some of my powers.
It shouldn’t be too hard to build us a raft and use get the wind
going to make sure we go along at a nice speed. We’ll make our way
to the end of the river where there is a nice little harbor, and
from there we can acquire a boat better suited to our needs.”

“Great!” Taisiya said. “This is all working
out much better than I had anticipated.”

Zara rolled his eyes and bit his tongue.
Lahara went to work putting on a grand show as she conjured up a
raft. She waved her arms grandiosely, and the leaves across the
riverbank danced to life in the wind. They swirled around in the
air, joining together and sticking to some mud that she raised from
the waterside. Before their very eyes, a sturdy makeshift earthen
raft appeared.

It stayed hovering inches above the flowing
water. Lahara kept one hand doing a sweeping gesture towards the
raft and used the other to point to the wagon filled with their
belongings. “Let’s see if it’s resilient enough. Mister Biceps,
will you be ever so kind?”

Zara’s eyes glazed over, but he went and
picked up the wagon anyway. This was no small task—all the heavy
tomes, armor and food packed on the top added up to be quite a
challenge. He didn’t quite understand why she wasn’t smart enough
to levitate the stupid wagon herself, but once he began lifting the
load and saw Taisiya watching him longingly, he forgot about
it.

The wagon was soon tossed on the raft, and it
dipped and swayed uneasily. All three watched with baited breath
hoping for the best. It slowly stopped rocking and became still.
Lahara breathed a sigh of relief, gently lowering the raft down on
to the water. She grabbed Taisiya and Zara’s hands and led the two
safely onto their improvised boat.

Zara and Taisiya made themselves comfortable,
and Lahara busied herself summoning the wind to give haste to their
travels. There wasn’t very much room on the tiny raft, so Zara and
Taisiya found themselves leaning against the wagon to support their
backs. Their long day of traveling was starting to take its toll,
and the break was much needed.

Taisiya found her eyes closing from
exhaustion. She rested her head on Zara’s shoulder and fell asleep.
He was now wide-awake and decided to quietly eat a little snack to
replenish his fading energy. He glanced over his shoulder and was
content to see that Lahara was resting her eyes, too. Still, her
hands were softly swaying back and forth with the wind as it
propelled the raft forward much faster than the current alone could
take them.

Zara sat quietly and watched the land as it
breezed by him. During his time as Adrasteia’s top spy, he spent
his hours doing what now seemed the most mundane tasks: 
listening in on townspeople or overseeing the training of new
warriors. That didn’t seem as much fun now that he was on a true
adventure. Despite the exhilaration, he also felt a pang of guilt.
Back in the queen’s wicked castle were Taisiya’s parents and his
own brother. When Zara was there pretending to be an ally to the
queen, he knew he could watch over how others were treated. Now
that he was labeled as a traitor, he feared the queen may not take
so kindly to his family, and he knew that she would not be gentle
with Taisiya’s. There was one thing that Zara was certain about; it
was now his duty to protect Taisiya and to ensure her safety in
rescuing her parents.