Compass of the Nymphs (7 page)

Taisiya wasn’t so appreciative of the queen’s
fury. The guards were gaining on her and fast. She fired an arrow
backwards at them, and although it didn’t strike, it scared them
momentarily and slowed their pace.

She knew the forest by heart. Every rock,
every branch—it was all like a second home to her. Finding the glen
would be no problem for her, but she feared that she would be
leading the guards right to her parents if she got there too
quickly.

Taisiya had no clue on how to shake the
guards off her scent. She was starting to lose her breath and even
considered ditching the bow and arrows. She knew that if she did,
the guards would pick them up and use them against her.

She glanced over her shoulder once more and
realized they were gaining on her too fast. It wouldn’t be long now
until they captured her. She did the only thing she could think of
and ran in the opposite direction of the glen. The more distance
between her parents and the queen’s militia the better.

Taisiya could feel her body starting to shut
down after being exerted for so long. Using her knowledge of the
forest to her advantage, she turned around and started running
backwards through the woods with her eyes on her would-be captors.
She drew another arrow and released it; it hit one of the guards
square in the chest. His comrades didn’t even stop to check on him
as he fell over dead.

She gulped, knowing there would be a
significant clearing coming up. There would be nowhere to run and
nowhere to hide. She pulled out another arrow and loaded it,
waiting for the right moment to release it.

The shot had almost fired when Taisiya
collapsed into a heap on the forest floor. Running backwards had
caused her to run right into none other than Zara. They both yelled
and hurried to disentangle themselves from one another while the
guards came charging at them.

Taisiya had hit her head hard and was a
little dazed and confused as she tried to get up. The guards had
gotten close enough to draw their weapons. Without even thinking,
Zara picked Taisiya up and carried her over his shoulders and
darted back in the opposite direction.

Neither Zara nor Taisiya had enough time to
pick up the bow and arrow that had fumbled out of her grip in their
scuffle. The queen’s sentinels had now grabbed it—something Zara
didn’t realize until an arrow went whizzing past his head. Running
in a straight line was no longer an option.

His situation was made worse by the fact that
his quick pace had made Taisiya even dizzier, which caused her to
become completely incapacitated. It was no struggle for Zara to
carry her, but with the queen’s men in hot pursuit, he wondered how
long it would be before he needed to take a break.

They were all now getting further and further
out of the forest, backtracking into town. It’d be hard to tell how
many traps the queen had waiting for them in the village. They were
slowly, but surely, getting boxed in.

Zara was trying to come up with an excuse for
the queen to not kill both of them once captured, but was coming up
empty. The arrows the guards were shooting were getting closer and
closer to hitting them; some were so close that Zara could hear the
sound as they sliced the air.

He took a deep breath and then sat Taisiya
down, concealing her behind a tree. She was weighing him down, but
he wasn’t about to go on without her. Instead, with her safely
hidden from view, he turned around and went to give the guards the
fight they were so eager to get.

They soon spotted him, with his dagger drawn.
It was a pitiful sight. “Zara! Just give it up already.” The guard
closest to him called. “We don’t like this any more than you
do.”

Zara snickered, knowing they were lying.
Queen Adrasteia had her men trained from birth to be ruthless
killers that thrived on murder. Every single one of the men closing
in on him would love nothing more than to kill him. He held out his
tiny dagger to keep them at bay, but it wasn’t working.

“Where is the girl?” one asked. “She wasn’t
as strong as you thought? Ran off to save herself, did she?”

It took all of Zara’s strength not to tell
them the truth, but he knew if he lied that Taisiya would have a
better chance of survival. “We split up,” he said simply. “It was
my idea. She wanted to stay and fight you.”

The guard that had asked gave a slow clap of
derision. “How brave!” he said scornfully. The man beside him had
an arrow drawn, waiting for the signal to release it right through
Zara.

The leader was just about to give the motion
for all of them to kill Zara when one of his men in the back let
out a pained scream. Everyone turned to see the horse Taisiya had
ridden into town galloping its way through the queen’s men. They
dashed to get out of its path, but it still managed to topple most
of them to their knees. It came to a stop in front of Zara and
bowed its head.

Zara’s jaw dropped in amazement. “Dee!” he
called out to the horse. Dee was the horse Zara rode when he would
do the queen’s bidding. He’d named her himself, and the two had
become quite attached to each other over the years.

He jumped on her back, and they were off.
Zara navigated Dee through the woods and to Taisiya. Thankfully,
she had started to come to and was excited to see Zara coming to
her rescue. He held out his hand to her and pulled her up on the
back of the horse behind him. Holding on tight, the two of them
glided off and away from the guards.

Once they had gotten far away, Zara petted
Dee’s mane and said, “You really saved the day, Dee.”

Taisiya looked at him. “Dee?”

She couldn’t see it, but he was beaming with
pride. “Dee is my horse! The queen’s men would have killed me if
she hadn’t come running through the woods to the sound of my voice.
It’s good to see you again, too.”

“Thanks!” Taisiya called. “Thank you for
saving me back there. I wasn’t too sure I could trust you before,
but now I know.”

Zara gave a small chuckle. “I’ve always been
on your side, trust me.”

Taisiya glanced behind them to see if anyone
was still following them. The only thing behind them was the
forest. She sighed in relief. “I think we’re going to make it.”

“Me too.” Zara said, “Where are your
parents?”

“I told them to go to the glen that’s deep in
the forest and to wait for me there. Hopefully, they made it.”
Taisiya said. “Let’s turn around.”

They had just come to the outskirts of the
forest. Zara nudged Dee to turn around and go back in, but she
whinnied and would not enter. “That’s odd,” Zara said, nudging her
again. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get Dee to go back
into the forest. “What’s the matter girl?!”

Dee raised herself off the ground in fright,
nearly bucking Zara and Taisiya off her. Taisiya had to scramble
and grab Zara’s sides to stop from falling. Zara then guided her
further away from the forest; Dee trotted on happily. Whenever he
would motion for her to turn around, she would get spooked.

“This is strange,” Zara said. “let’s get off
her.”

The two hopped off Dee’s back, and Zara began
looking over her coat to see if she had any injuries. He scratched
his chin. “I don’t see anything that would make her act so upset
whenever I push on her side to turn around.”

While Zara was examining Dee, Taisiya looked
up at the trees and the sky over the forest. Something unusual was
going on. She sniffed the air, taking in a strange smell. Looking
back up at the sky, she saw it. “Zara,” she said, hoping her eyes
were playing tricks on her.

Zara looked up at her, but she didn’t need to
say a word to get the message across. Taisiya was pointing up at
the sky. When Zara looked, they both instantly saw it. Billowing up
and out from the trees deep within the forest was smoke. Taisiya
knew in her heart that it was coming from around the glen.

Zara’s eyes widened, “Where there’s
smoke...there’s…”

“Fire.” Taisiya finished for him. They looked
at each other apprehensively.

“Maybe,” Zara said, trying to rationalize the
situation, “your parents have found some food and are cooking
it?”

The sky was getting more and more black with
smoke every second. Before Taisiya could even respond, Dee bolted
in fright and took off running. Zara turned and looked at the horse
as it galloped away, but Taisiya turned the other way to see what
Dee had been looking at before she was spooked. A burning red fire
was dancing its way through the forest, devouring everything in its
path. Trees were burning; brush was igniting everywhere.

Taisiya panicked and grabbed Zara’s hand.
They ran to follow Dee to safety. “It’s the queen!” Zara shouted.
“They’ve probably found your parents and are now setting the whole
forest on fire to bait us. What are we going to do?!”

Taisiya let out a frustrated scream. “We’re
going to hide!” she said, and the two then ran further into
Solames.

As they came closer to the houses, Taisiya
and Zara slowed down to be on the lookout for any patrolmen the
queen may have set up after the fight in the town center earlier.
Sure enough, guards were patrolling every major street in town.
“Where are we going?” Zara whispered as he watched them.

“To the only place that I know for certain is
safe,” Taisiya whispered back. “Follow me.”

Taisiya hadn’t known until just seconds
before Zara asked where they were going. They had been coming to
the town center once more, and the houses that dotted the landscape
among the official buildings were unfamiliar and unlikely to harbor
two fugitives. Right after he asked, she laid eyes on a little
shack that blended in with the other buildings and realized exactly
who they needed to pay a visit to: Ammon.

The only problem with this plan was the fact
that Ammon’s home was in the thick of the town center, and guards
were swarming all around it. Taisiya led Zara behind someone’s
house and then pondered what to do next.

“You blend in pretty well with the queen’s
henchmen, but I stick out like a sore thumb,” she said as she
looked him up and down.

He shook his head, “No, they could spot me a
mile away. You may think we’re all the same, but I’m nothing like
them. Besides,” he stuck his head around the corner, and she
followed suit, “they’re dressed in all black, and I’m in
white.”

Taisiya groaned. “There’s a little shack
along the way there, and if we can get to it, I know we’ll be safe.
By the looks of it, we won’t be able to get there, though.”

Zara cocked his head in thought. “What if…”
his voice trailed off. “What if…we fight fire with fire?”

“Hmm?” Taisiya replied.

“Stay here,” Zara said. “I’m going to go
create a distraction. When the time is right, get to that shack.
I’ll be right behind you.”

Taisiya nodded and then Zara jogged down the
road, disappearing behind one of the many houses. Taisiya sat and
waited for his distraction and began to wonder if it would ever
come – or how she would know when the time was right.

A few minutes later, Zara’s distraction made
itself apparent. All the guards went running from their posts in
the same direction. Taisiya looked back but saw nothing out of the
ordinary. Nonetheless, once the coast was clear she made her way to
Ammon’s door and quickly let herself in without knocking.

Now that she was familiar with his home, she
found the trick door to his real home and knocked on it. She could
hear him shouting “Coming!” from deep within his library. While
Ammon was coming up, Taisiya poked her head out of the shack door
and scanned the area for Zara. He was nowhere to be found.

Her eyes then darted to the sky, which looked
all too familiar – smoke was flowing up from what looked like one
of the houses down the road. Gazing closer, she could see the
flames as they ate up the roof and started to spread. Total panic
had hit everyone in the area, and they had all gathered in the
streets while the guards tried to put out the blaze.

Engrossed in the pandemonium, Taisiya jumped
and screamed when Ammon snuck up and whispered in her ear, “What’s
going on?”

After Taisiya calmed back down, Ammon asked,
“Did I scare you?”

“A little,” she laughed. “Someone’s house has
been set on fire. It was one of the queen’s spies that did it –
Zara.”

Ammon was listening intently as she
continued, “He did it for me, though. Zara’s not a big fan of the
queen…and she tried to kill him today, as I’m sure you saw.”

“No,” Ammon shook his head, “I like to live
my life in my library. I didn’t go to the meeting today, even
though the queen’s evil men did come around and tell me attendance
was mandatory. I doubted they would count everyone; I was right. Go
on.”

“Oh, I see,” Taisiya nodded. “Well, the queen
was trying to kill me and my parents after she caught me sneaking
into the castle after them. We escaped, and when she realized we
had, she revealed in front of the whole town that she knew Zara was
helping us, and tried to kill him.”

Ammon gasped, “That’s awful.”

“She would’ve killed him too,” Taisiya went
on, “but I sent an arrow at her and it gave Zara enough time to get
away. We’ve been looking for a safe place, and I figured there was
no place safer than your underground sanctuary. He set the fire to
distract the guards that were patrolling the streets here looking
for us.”

“Well?” Ammon asked.

“What?” Taisiya replied.

“Well, where is he?!” Ammon said, getting up
on his tiptoes to look out through the cracked door over Taisiya’s
head.

The two waited silently in vain for a few
minutes for Zara to make a grand entrance. The fire was being put
out, and the smoke was starting to dissipate; the guards soon went
back to their normal posts. Ammon shut the door before someone
spotted Taisiya.