by Sam Bennett
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.
“Don’t worry,” he said soothingly, “I’m sure he’ll make his way here soon enough.”
Taisiya nodded and followed Ammon down the steps to his library, but she had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Not long ago, she viewed Zara as nothing more than another one of the queen’s terrible servants, but now that she had gotten the chance to see his true colors, she began to worry about his safety.
Ammon could sense Taisiya’s restlessness and decided to not push her any further about what had happened. Instead, he showed her an extremely comfortable plush couch for her to rest on while he went and prepared something for them to eat. As concerned as she was, Taisiya was also extremely famished, so she sat down with ease and eagerly waited for whatever Ammon was fixing. She was delighted and astounded when he came back with a platter of swordfish—quite the delicacy—and two cups of rosé.
He sat the food down on one of the small tables in front of Taisiya and then took a seat in one of the chairs opposite her. Rather than try to make idle conversation, they ate in awkward silence, their ears awaiting any sound of Zara coming in the shack above. Their plates were soon empty and their bellies full, but Zara had not yet arrived.
Taisiya was exhausted, and as much as she wanted to be on the lookout for her friend, she couldn’t stay awake any longer. As she began drifting off to sleep, Ammon went and got a blanket to cover her. She curled up and rested, hoping that when she awoke, Zara would be safe and sound.
CHAPTER SIX –
THE MYSTERIOUS COMPASS
“Good morning!” Ammon smiled as Taisiya began waking up. She had no clue how he knew it was morning seeing as there weren’t any windows in an underground house, but she didn’t question him.
“Good morning to you, too,” she yawned back.
Ammon was once again milling around his kitchen, and soon he was bringing over plates for their breakfast. He sat down three platefuls of delicious blueberries and yogurt along with matching cups of water. It was nothing as fancy as the supper they had eaten last night, but it still looked delicious. Taisiya’s stomach rumbled with delight.
“This looks good,” she said, ready to dig in and eat up. Ammon just stood there looking at her with a grin on his face and his eyebrow cocked. She was confused. “Wait, what?”
Ammon just chuckled and sat down, taking a plate and pushing the third one to the opposite end of the table.
“Who’s that for…?” Taisiya said, “No…is he…? Did he?!” She couldn’t get the words out fast enough.
“It’s for your friend Zara,” Ammon said with a laugh. “He got in a couple hours after you fell asleep.”
“Where is he?!” Taisiya said through a mouthful of berries.
“He’s in the secret library,” Ammon said, “looking through some special papers to help you two take down the queen. He’s quite a nice fellow, you know. I’d been complaining as I showed him around the library about my back hurting, and he whipped out an ointment that did the trick. I can’t feel a thing, but who cares! I even joked that it’d be much easier on me if I had his body instead of this old one, and he said he’d work on it.”
They both laughed. A load of tension had been taken off of Taisiya’s shoulders now that she knew Zara was safe.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he snuck me a love potion,” Ammon joked. “I’m quite enamored with him.”
Taisiya shook her head and gave a haughty chuckle. “I watched him buying potions,” she said, “but when no one was around, I tossed the love potions out.”
Ammon’s eyes twinkled. “I’d wonder why he was buying love potions, but I guess the question answers itself—he clearly is enamored with someone himself.”
Taisiya rolled her eyes. “How boring…love potions. He probably was buying them for the queen; it wouldn’t surprise me that she’d need them just to keep her servants able to tolerate her!”
Ammon was about to reply when the door to the secret library flew open and Zara came bounding out, his arms filled with books. Taisiya and Ammon rushed over to help him carry them all. When Zara saw Taisiya was awake, he smiled. “Miss me?”
“No…” Taisiya lied smugly, “but I did worry. What happened?”
“Come, come,” Ammon said, taking an armful of old books, “we’ll discuss this as we eat. Food is energy; food is life!”
After they were sure the books were all safely stored on one of the reading tables, they all sat down and continued eating. It was no longer awkward with Zara there. In fact, the conversation flowed with ease as he told them what had happened the night before.
Zara explained that once he’d set the fire, it had caught on a little too quickly. Everyone was screaming and drawing attention to the blaze before he could get back to safety. As the queen’s patrolmen rushed over to see what had happened, one had spotted him and ran after him.
The guard had chased Zara into the woods, and Zara knocked him out. Their scuffle had drawn the attention of the other guards, though. Zara decided it would be best for everyone if he spent the night hiding out in the forest. Even if they found him, Taisiya and Ammon would be safe.
Ammon wiped some crumbs from his mouth and said, “You’re a very noble man.” Zara blushed, and Taisiya nodded along in agreement.
“What are all the books for, though?” she asked.
“Well,” Zara said, giving them both a wink, “being the old nymph’s spy does have its advantages. I know what she’s up to.”
“Nymph?” Ammon asked curiously, “are those rumors true?�
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“I’m afraid so,” Zara nodded grimly. “The queen tries to keep that hushed, though. Adrasteia comes from a whole family of them…Nymphs of Darkness, though, I’m afraid.”
He got up and walked over to the table where they had deposited the books. He fingered through them until he found a dilapidated old book with a torn forest green cover. The title of the book was faded, making it hard to read that Edafos Nymphai was embossed on it in a fancy script.
Zara brought the book and a map back with him and sat it down on the table where Ammon had cleaned up their breakfast. Getting down on his knees, he unrolled the map and pointed to the book. “This,” he said, “is very old text, and in it is the history of what many believe to be a sacred island. It’s called Ethnymphai; its name literally means ‘Nymph Nation.’
“A very long time ago, the inhabitants of Ethnymphai were at peace with one another and welcomed travelers. Sadly, there was a schism among the nymphs, and as a result, they decided to cut off their slice of the world from everyone else in the hopes that no unprepared humans would fall victim to the evils that one side of the schism was inflicting upon the other.
“They’ve put up a very strong deterrent, and anyone that navigates towards their island gets confused and either turns around or heads off in a different direction. Once you leave Ethnymphai, it is very hard to get back. That’s why no maps today even acknowledge that it’s a real place; many people even say it’s made up, and the stories of evil nymphs are meant only to scare children into behaving.”
He paused and pointed now at the map. “This map,” he said, “is so old that it was scribed before the schism. Of course, Adrasteia ordered it to be removed, but we’re lucky that Ammon here saved it.”
“You mean the queen comes from that island of nymphs?” Taisiya asked, looking at the map.
Zara nodded. “Yes,” he said, “but she’s different than most. After the schism, it was the bad nymphs—those who used their powers for things like vanity and control—that stayed to dominate Ethnymphai. Adrasteia left willingly, you see.”
“Why would she do that?” Ammon asked, puzzled.
Zara shuddered. “She bragged about this quite a lot. While the nymphs at Ethnymphai are evil, they were no match for her. She sought more power, more domination than one island. Adrasteia also knew that the evil nymphs would do nothing but continue to quarrel and war amongst themselves until only one was left standing. There were many evil sorceresses to get past in Ethnymphai, but the rest of the world had much greater odds for her. She left willingly, and has been using her powers to rise to power ever since.”
Taisiya scratched her head. All this talk of nymphs had flipped her world upside down. “Why did she pick here of all places, though?”
“Ammon, do you remember when she took the throne?” Zara asked, knowing the answer.
Ammon shook his head. “She’s been the queen ever since I was born.”
Taisiya’s jaw dropped. Zara gave a little laugh. “Exactly,” he said to her. “When Adrasteia left the island, she quickly found out that the queen that was ruling over Solames was in poor health, and so she came to the rescue. Adrasteia disguised herself as a nurse, and so the king and queen allowed her into their castle. She fooled them by using her powers to make the queen get a little bit better.
“They believed in her and trusted her. They had no clue she was an evil nymph…not even after she killed the queen. The king had become so infatuated with Adrasteia and was convinced that she had done all she could to save his wife that he decided to marry her. Not surprisingly, soon after their marriage, the king himself died in his sleep and she has been ruling with an iron fist ever since.”
Both Ammon and Taisiya shook their heads, frowning. Queen Adrasteia was more evil than either one of them had even begun to imagine. Zara got up and fetched another book, bringing it back to them. The royal blue book was in slightly better condition, and they could all read the title, Everlasting Youth, easily.
“Adrasteia has always been kidnapping children from the villages,” Zara said matter-of-factly. “She feeds on them. The only other copy of this book is in her castle. It describes the very torturous ways that a nymph can use her powers of the darkness to drain life out of others to prolong her own. It is so evil, in fact, that the other dark nymphs on Ethnymphai don’t even practice it.”
“Wow,” Taisiya said, grabbing the book and flipping through it. Inside the pages were many illustrations depicting children in various states of pain. Ammon leaned over and looked at it with her.
“It’s incredible,” Zara said. “She even got away with it for many years undetected. You see, back when she first usurped the throne, she was much younger. She didn’t need many children to keep up her youthful appearance. One child every few months quickly turned into a child every month, and so on and so on, as the years went by. She is so old now that she has literally depleted all of the youth in Solames.”
Ammon looked over at Taisiya and gave her an encouraging smile. “All but one,” he said hopefully. Zara looked down at the floor to hide the fact that he was smiling, too.
He tried to change the subject. “She’s known for a little while now that Solames is useless to her. When there would be boys born in Solames, she wouldn’t feed upon them; she would have them kept in her castle and raised to become warriors. She now has quite an impressive army, as you’ve seen Taisiya. Now that Solames has no hope for her, she plans to use her army and invade other territories to keep herself alive.”
“But…how is it possible that she hasn’t feasted on me, or whatever?” Taisiya asked. “I’m a girl…”
Zara’s face turned red once more. He started to speak, but Ammon interrupted him. “Nothing is impossible!” Ammon said, “Don’t ask why and just be thankful that you are here. It is obviously for a reason.”
“I guess so,” Taisiya said pensively. She couldn’t think of one reason why the queen wouldn’t have killed her by now. Maybe she herself was a nymph too, and one nymph couldn’t kill another? Either way, she had a feeling that with all the books Zara had been researching, she’d soon find out.
“Do you think anyone in Solames is in danger, now that there’s no children left?” Ammon asked.
Zara bit his lip. “I’m honestly not sure. I would put nothing past her. All hope is not lost...I spent quite some time looking at the books that she has had banned, and I think that we have to somehow get to Ethnymphai. If we are lucky, the nymphs there will be able to help us.
Adrasteia is too powerful to be defeated by the two of us.”
Taisiya rolled her eyes. “The only problem with that is the island has protection around it. There’s no way we could get to it.”
Zara smiled, “Yes, I did realize that.” He was prepared for any problems Taisiya had to throw at him. “I still don’t think it, or anything for that matter, is impossible.”
“Just last night, I doubt you would have believed in any of these stories as being real,” Ammon pointed out.
Once again, Taisiya rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. They both had good points, and it frustrated her. She didn’t like it when she had no clue what she was going up against, and it bothered her even more to think that the queen was so powerful.
Zara hesitated incase Taisiya was going to make a smart remark, but after a few seconds of her glaring at him in silence, he went on. “See, I don’t think anyone has ever really set out to look for Ethnymphai. The deterrent could just be folklore.”
“You’re willing to go the distance in the hopes that it’s just a lie?” Taisiya cocked an eyebrow and gave a derisive laugh.
“No,” Zara said sharply, “I’m willing to go the distance because I’m armed with knowledge. These maps and books explain it all. You just have to have faith.”
“Faith alone never solves anything,” Taisiya replied tartly.
It was Zara’s turn to roll his eyes at her. “Fine,” he said, reaching in to his pocket.
He pulled out a lo
ng, gold plated compass on a string of beads. The needle inside the compass’s housing appeared to be crafted from a ruby, and it radiated the tiniest amount of light. Zara handed it to Taisiya and let her look at it.
“I found this,” he said, “in a fake book. It was actually a little lock box, and when you opened the cover to it, this was inside. The title of the book was The Traveler’s Guide to Unseen Destinations.”
Taisiya held the compass up in the light skeptically. She wasn’t sure what was inside the ruby to make it glow, but she was sure there was a logical explanation for it. “I still don’t buy this.”
Zara sighed. “The needle doesn’t point north,” he said. “I’m positive it points to Ethnymphai.”
Taisiya let out a laugh. “You’re positive?! Okay then, what is this magical contraption doing in Solames of all places.”
“I don’t think Adrasteia even realizes it still exists,” Zara said. “She ordered that Ammon burn all of these books, as a matter of fact. I’d say it belonged to her; she had a vast collection of books in the castle. As years went on and she grew more and more paranoid, she emptied her library and had the books destroyed to assure herself no one would be able to stop her.”
“Fine,” Taisiya muttered, “let’s pretend I believe you. What’s your plan?”
Zara gave a relieved smile. “We’ll have Ammon go in to town and purchase food and supplies for us, and tomorrow we will sneak out of Solames. A few towns over there is a harbor; we’ll take a boat and guide it to where Ethnymphai should be – the compass I’m sure will be helpful. It shouldn’t be more than a week’s voyage. We’ll take it from there once we arrive.”
“And what if these evil nymphs aren’t on our side?” Taisiya asked.
“We’ll just have to take that chance,” Zara shrugged.
Taisiya sighed. “So I’m running from one evil nymph to a whole island of them. Great.”
Zara placed his arm on her shoulder comfortingly. “I know it sounds bad,” he said. “I do have some incentive for you to go, though. I didn’t want to have to tell you, but since you’re not being that cooperative…”