Compass of the Nymphs (13 page)

Taisiya thought of all the people she had to
be grateful for, mostly Zara and Lahara. There was no telling where
she would be if Zara hadn’t saved her multiple times. Lahara also
proved to be an invaluable ally. Her power over the elements had
saved them days in travel time, of which they had none to spare. In
fact, it seemed that if she
hadn’t
been there to get them to
the shipyard in time, Queen Adrasteia would have beat them to it
and taken over the land. With all the bad luck that seemed to
follow her, Taisiya knew that the good luck was what had been
keeping her a few steps ahead.

She fingered through a couple of the books
that lay in piles among the ointments, food and clothing. A couple
of them had been waterlogged beyond repair. Taisiya tried to
examine the spines of the books to see what knowledge had been
lost, but as the books were very old to begin with, it was no use.
One thing she did notice, however, was that the couple of books
Lahara had brought along survived the journey impeccably. There
wasn’t a single damp page or bit of ink smeared in sight. As she
flipped through Lahara’s texts, it was almost as if she could feel
the power within its binding.

Lahara took a moment to leave the helm of the
ship and came over to join Taisiya. “You can sense your abilities
that are waking up from their slumber, can’t you?” Taisiya nodded,
and Lahara continued, “It is a gift. There is so much potential
dwelling inside you, Taisiya. I just hope that on our journey I can
bring some of it out and prepare you for the dark and evil place
that we are headed.”

Taisiya sat looking at the books in silence.
Lahara absentmindedly pinned her hair up in a bun and began sorting
through the pile of food. “Taisiya, dear,” she beckoned, “would you
mind sorting through the potions and salves here? Over there is the
captain’s cabin. We can store our goods there; if we should need
something in a hurry, it will be quickest to get it from there,
seeing as it’s the closest room to the deck.”

Taisiya nodded and scooped up the variety of
unguents. Lahara gathered the food and followed her into the
captain’s cabin. Inside, they found a grand room with a luxurious
bed, tables, parchments, and other various belongings of the ship’s
rightful owner. Lahara cleared off one of the tables and laid the
food down. Taisiya went off to sort the potions on the bedside
table.

The majority of the medicines had no label,
or at best a very vague one. Once they were all neatly organized,
Taisiya put some more of the cream on her palms. “Lahara,” she
asked, “is there really magic in these potions?”

Lahara thought for a moment before answering.
“Well, there’s no such thing as ‘magic.’ At least not to
nymphs.”

“The things you do with the elements…how is
that not magic?”

“You’re very clever,” Lahara smirked, “I
suppose we nymphs see the word magic, especially when used by
humans, as spells and spirits, witches and whatnot. The elemental
power you’re speaking of is different; it’s a natural ability.”

“You’re not giving me a real answer,” Taisiya
said, raising an eyebrow.

“The simple answer is that I do not know,”
Lahara replied. “I’m sure a variety of those concoctions were made
with at least some aid from us nymphs. On the other hand, I highly
doubt there are any of the elemental abilities, or as you call it,
‘magic’ bottled in them. That would be very hard and painful for a
nymph to extract from herself.”

“Hmm,” Taisiya thought for a second. “What’s
the difference?”

Lahara waved her hand in a flourish. The ship
seemed to rock back and forth ever so slightly. “I just used my
natural abilities to control the wind. You would say that it aided
me in rocking the ship…you wouldn’t say that my ability is in the
ship, would you?”

“So, the legends are true? These potions and
cures they sell really are crafted by nymphs?” Taisiya was getting
an unsettling feeling in her stomach. Her parents had told her many
stories as she grew up, and most of them she assumed were
fairytales or folklore. If something as simple as this were true,
she shuddered to think of the darker stories she had been told.

The nymph nodded. “Most certainly. Long
before humans even knew that good nymphs had infiltrated their
lands, we had been using our powers to make a living. Some of the
ingredients in those potions would be next to impossible to attain
without some sort of assistance from a nymph. Still, it’s not like
we’ve bottled our powers…or put them into a ruby.”

“You sound a little bitter,” Taisiya
remarked.

“I suppose my bitterness has been taught to
me by my parents, whose parents taught it to them. There never
would be a ‘bad’ nymph if we did not have the need to use our
natural abilities for evil against humans.” Lahara sighed and
joined Taisiya sitting on the edge of the captain’s bed. “So, how
did you meet Mr. Dreamboat out there? You two don’t seem like the
type that would normally get along.”

“We’re not,” Taisiya said indignantly. “He
used to be the queen’s top spy. He knows all that she is up to…he’s
very useful.”

Lahara let out a small chuckle. “You say that
as if you expect me to believe you’ve only befriended him because
he’s an asset to you.”

“That’s the only reason I’ve befriended you,”
Taisiya said crossly.

The nymph wrinkled her face in offense. “That
may be so,” she said, “but I’m not dumb. One thing’s for certain –
he has a soft spot for you.”

“It’s…sweet…that you think that, but he’s
more the type of man the queen would go after than me.” Taisiya
started, “Sure, he’s attractive…”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence. Zara
came strolling through the door and she gulped, stopping to catch
her breath. Lahara gave Taisiya a sly smile and got up to greet
him. “Ah, Zara…”

“How are things going?” he asked with a
smile.

“Wonderful,” the nymph replied. She walked
over and joined him at the table for food. “I was just thinking
about you, handsome.”

Zara was taken aback by Lahara’s sudden
flirting (and Taisiya was silently outraged.) He chuckled awkwardly
and took a seat. Lahara joined him and pulled her hair back away
from her face. Zara obviously was trying hard to pay her no
mind.

“Are you…putting a spell on me?” he asked in
horror.

The nymph cackled but shook her head. “No,
silly boy. As easy on the eyes as you are, you are too young
for
me
.” She turned her gaze to Taisiya. “Join us, Taisiya?”

As obvious as Lahara’s attempts were to rile
Taisiya up, Taisiya was more outraged at the fact that she had been
so easily taken in. She had always been independent and even as a
child was stronger and more focused than the boys. The last thing
she ever saw herself wanting was a relationship with one. It irked
her that the nymph had seen so plainly that she was beginning to
change her ways.

The three had quite a feast that night, and
ate some of the wonderful food Ammon had prepared for them.
Thankfully, Ammon was overzealous in his provisions and had easily
bought enough food for them to make do with Lahara joining their
traveling party. He also was smart enough to send along food that
needed little preparation. Their meal wasn’t quite the delicacies
they had eaten back in Ammon’s library, but it satiated them just
as well.

By the time they had all finished eating,
night had fallen. There was a cool breeze blowing, and Taisiya and
Lahara put on their cloaks and went onto the deck to be alone as
Zara humbly tidied up from their supper. Lahara reached into a
pocket of her cloak and pulled out a long roll of parchment she’d
pocketed from the cabin. She unraveled it and the two glanced at a
map of the trade routes.

The map was very rudimentary for the most
part, but had obviously been very effective over the years.
Previous captains had etched notes and drawings in uncharted areas.
No one had drawn in Ethnymphai, though. Lahara studied the map for
some time, trying to get her bearings as she occasionally glanced
up at the night sky.

“This boat normally follows a trade route to
a land called Egypt,” Lahara remarked, running her fingers along
the map. “Most of the good nymphs that fled our home found
themselves escaping to the land called ‘Italia’, as it was the
closest human occupied destination.”

Taisiya listened, taking it all in. Lahara
continued, “This map shows Italia as being quite close to where we
departed…If memory serves me properly, that would put Ethnymphai
right around here…” Lahara drew her fingers together in a pinch at
a little spot on the map in the sea down from Italia. “Taisiya
dear, go fetch me something to write with from the cabin.”

Taisiya darted off and came back with a pen
and some ink. Lahara craftily got to work and soon the map had a
new etching on it. Taisiya looked at the drawings Lahara had made.
Beside the little dot noting Ethnymphai, she had written ‘The
Unsafe Place.’

“What does that mean?” Taisiya asked, “The
Unsafe Place?”

“For many years,” Lahara explained, “the
humans that sought to destroy us and claim our land for their own
called our island The Safe Place. They sought to have their safe
haven all to themselves…I don’t want any humans getting any ideas
after this map and ship are returned to their rightful owners.”

Taisiya sighed, “There is so much that I
don’t know or understand.”

“I will teach you,” Lahara said. “We’ve got a
good three days here at sea. You won’t learn it all, but you will
be nicely prepared I should imagine.” The nymph had no clue as to
how wrong she was.

After a much-needed night’s sleep, the
travelers were well rested and ready to endure another day at sea.
The sun was beating down from high in the sky, but there was still
a considerable wind chill that kept them all under the warmth of
their cloaks. Zara went back to the crow’s nest for his task of
being the lookout while Taisiya joined Lahara at the wheel with a
couple of her lesson books.

Lahara would occasionally glance up and make
sure they were sailing smoothly, but for the most part they spent
the day engrossed in the lessons. Taisiya learned that centuries
ago the inhabitants of Ethnymphai didn’t even realize the gift they
were blessed with. The island was sacred; it was lined up perfectly
with the sun and the moon. The citizens eventually evolved and
honed in on the innate skill of wielding the powers of the
world.

The power nymphs had with nature could be
used to accomplish just about anything that a nymph sought out to
do. She or he (Lahara explained that, although rare, some men did
eventually learn the skills that nymphs treasured) used the
elements around them to make their lives easier. It would be easy
to have a simple mastery of all the elements, but most nymphs would
specialize in whichever they deemed most valuable.

The elements that nymphs could summon were
Water, Fire, Earth, Light, and Darkness. Water Nymphs would be
happiest at sea and spent most of their time offshore of the
island. They were able to control the waters and its healing
powers, breath underwater and some had even evolved into growing
fins. Fire Nymphs prided themselves on being quite the opposite of
a water nymph; they were impulsive, temperamental, and fierce. They
had a mastery of fire and were much more offensive than the water
nymphs.

Taisiya learned that Lahara was an Earth
Nymph to be specific. Earth Nymphs were kind-hearted and avid
guardians of nature. They were extremely crafty and if you got on
the wrong side of one, she could use the ground beneath your feet
to give you a run for your money. Earth Nymphs could also control
the air and wind when they were on the offense.

Nymphs of Light were not as serene as Taisiya
had assumed. These nymphs were the closest to the enchantresses
that scared the little children in legends. Light Nymphs used their
powers to see the future and, in some cases, control it. Anyone who
believed that a Light Nymph was an enemy of the Dark Nymphs was
quite wrong. In fact, the two groups often would join together to
unleash their devastating powers.

Even Dark Nymphs weren’t originally so bad,
though. They had a penchant for shadows and the night, but with the
darkness came great power. Indeed, it seemed that over time the
majority of the nymphs that wandered into the dark side had a flair
for using their powers for evil purposes, but there were still many
who used it for good.

It wasn’t in any of the textbooks, but Lahara
took the time to explain that after the great schism occurred,
there rose up all kinds of evil nymphs from all the elements. They
each kept to themselves for the most part, with one ‘queen’ for
each element. Queen Adrasteia had been the only evil nymph to leave
Ethnymphai, and Lahara supposed that was because ruling over one
class of nymphs was not enough for her. Lahara also feared that
Solames was not the first town that the queen had depleted in her
thirst for powers that called upon sacrificing young children.

After studying the history of nymphs and
their abilities for hours, the two agreed to have a snack and rest
for a while. The adventurer in Taisiya was getting the better of
her, so she decided to grab Zara a snack and join him in the crow’s
nest. Lahara chose to eat in peace in the captain’s cabin, leaving
the two friends alone.

When Zara saw Taisiya he grinned and reached
down to help her get up to the crow’s nest safely. Once she had her
balance again, she tossed him a sandwich in thanks. He took a big
bite and asked her how her studies were going with Lahara.

“Pretty good,” Taisiya replied. She still was
finding it hard to believe how much she had learned in so little
time. “The view up here is lovely.”

Zara nodded. “Trying to change the
subject?”

“No!” She replied honestly, “I just wouldn’t
know where to begin in telling you about it all.”