Daxton - Episode 14
The 5th Compass | Tales of Stonehaven [2,677 words]
Daxton is the first book in the 6-book series, The 5th Compass, which takes place in Stonehaven. Released in serial form, two episodes each week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The audio version is coming in the future for paid subscribers only. Visit the table of contents for a list of previously published and upcoming episodes.
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Spire returned to the Shadow. He was not expecting to see three other boats bobbing aimlessly in the water. He climbed aboard and was surprised to see the other three captains of Silverblade’s crew milling about.
“What is this, a party? What has happened?” Spire questioned, but none of them answered as they wondered what troubled him. He calmed when he saw Captain Silverblade appear with Wendynn in tow. Standing under the morning sun, her long auburn hair falling about her face, she was glowing, an appearance common amongst pregnant women. Spire wondered if the others could see this slight difference in her as they listened intently to why they were summoned.
“Gentlemen, I am glad you came. I want to first thank you for how valiantly you fought beside me, yet again, against the swine who call themselves the royal army. Together we are unbeatable, but I’m sure you saw my dismay upon hearing the name of the Paragon. I cannot tell you all that I know of this person, but what I can tell you is he brings Death in a way that cannot be stopped, not even by us.” The men began to talk over each other in protest at what she said.
“Stifle your tongue and let the captain finish!” Spire shouted. He could tell there was something more important she wished to tell them.
“I have called you all here because there is something important, and dangerous, I need you to do.” She lifted a bag she held in her hand that until then none of the men even noticed she carried. She opened it and pulled out one compass. Spire recognized it right away and he smiled to himself as he thought of Riven and wondered what he was doing. “I need you each to take one for me to the furthest corners of Stonehaven and hide them where no man or beast may ever find them.”
Again, the men looked upon her with concern, unsure whether or not she had lost her mind since their last battle.
“Can we ask why you need us to do this?” Captain Arco asked. The captains who stood on either side of him nodded as they wanted an answer to his question as well.
“This is why.” She moved too quickly for any of the men to react, especially Wendynn, whom she handed the bag of compasses to before pulling a dagger she kept tucked in the waistband of her pants. With the blade facing her she plunged it into her heart. They all ran towards her, but she stepped away from them. “Stay where you are. I am fine.” She removed the blade and showed them it was clean, no blood. She also pulled down the corner of her shirt where it pierced through but left no mark on her skin.
“What sorcery is this?” Ojo, another of her captains, asked.
“This is what I am trying to tell you. I am immortal.” The men gasped and stepped away from her in disbelief.
“Have you gone mad? Who has done this to you?” Wendynn asked, shoving the bag of compasses he held back into her hands. He noticed Spire was the only one who did not seem surprised or even concerned when she pulled the knife from her heart. “It was you, was not it? What did she order you to do?” He rounded on Spire who drew his sword in defense. Wendynn drew his and their swords clashed with each other as a fight, long in the making, began, but Captain Silverblade drew her sword as well and brought it down between theirs, separating them.
“Stop it at once. This is not a game we are playing. I do not have time to explain to you why I did this nor should I have to. You men are my bravest and best. I could’ve chosen anyone, but I chose you. I need you to take these as far away from here and from me as possible.”
“You have yet to tell us why these compasses? What is their significance?” Arco asked. Of all her captains, she appreciated his questions because they were always important. Unlike Wendynn who always questioned her based on his heart and not his head.
“In order for my immortality to hold my soul had to be split and contained elsewhere. I am trusting you with my life.” She handed out one compass to each of the four captains. “In your hands, you each hold a piece of my soul. If all of them should be destroyed it will bring an end to my life.”
“You cannot be serious?” Wendynn walked away from her. He could not bear to hear anymore. It was more than he could handle. And to tell him all this in front of the other captains, so he could not properly express his anger and disappointment, he felt was unfair.
“When do you want us to leave?” Spire asked, keeping an eye on Wendynn in case he should blindside him out of anger.
“Immediately. If the Paragon is already here, and I believe he is, then he will come for me soon. I cannot risk his finding out about the compasses. He will grow even angrier when he discovers I will be harder to kill than he anticipated.”
“You cannot expect us to leave you here without our defenses?”
“I trust your men are more than capable of fighting without you?” she asked, and they all agreed, yet had worried looks on their faces. “Then it is settled. I want you to take the smaller ships and take these as far away as possible. Do not come back here sooner than three quarters of a year. For if you do, I will know you disregarded my direct orders. I want you to travel by sea, by land, and by mountain to hide them. I am trusting you with my life, do not make me regret my choice.”
All the captains stood in a row, and with the compass in their left hands they brought them up to their chests and spoke loudly, “On our honor.” She smiled, proud at the men who stood before her. She knew they were more than capable for the task that lay ahead.
“Wendynn?” she asked, turning her attention to him. “I require your services as well.”
“Don’t tell me you have another compass for me? I won’t take it if you do.”
“Quite the contrary. I need you to accompany Spire.”
Both men turned on her and spoke simultaneously, “No.”
“Where I need you two to go is important. Again, don’t ask me why for even I don’t know the answer. All I know is you must journey here,” she handed Spire a folded piece of paper. “Don’t show me the contents, I haven’t seen it and I must never see it. Just take it and open it once you’re both far from my sight. Now go, the lot of you. I have never cried before and I don’t wish the first time to be as I watch my best men leave me all at once.”
Spire tucked the piece of paper she gave him in his breast pocket and followed the captains off the Shadow. Wendynn refused to move. He waited for her to make the first move. She knew why he waited and looked over his shoulder, the men were not yet out of their sight. She smiled at him and he knew she wouldn’t be giving him the sendoff he wanted. His heart turned to ice with every second she remained unmoved. He could stand it no longer and left the ship without a word. She wanted to tell him not to hate her, but she couldn’t. He could never know of the child she carried. She knew it was best her unborn child never know who his parents were. She couldn’t bear to think the harm that would come to him if anyone ever found out the most hated pirate in all of Stonehaven had a child.
As the men rowed away from her ship, she waved to them for the last time. She walked towards her cabin when out of the sky fell a note carried in the beak of a falcon which circling overhead.
She picked up the parchment and unfolded it to find a note from Nelle. She was captured by the Paragon, tortured, and released. She needed to see Silverblade immediately.
“Wendynn!” she shouted, forgetting he was long gone. “Cripan!” she shouted soon after. A young boy bounded up the stairs and stopped short in front of her.
“Yes, captain?” he answered loudly as he saluted her.
“At ease,” she said sniggering at his enthusiasm. “Tell the men I need my boat made ready. I must go ashore.”
“Yes, captain!” He turned and quick as lightning he was back at the stairs about to descend.
“And, Cripan.” He stopped on a dime when he heard his name. “Get yourself ready as well. You’ll be accompanying me.” With a smirk on his face unlike any she’d ever seen on one so young, he ran down the stairs. Hearing him shout orders to the men she thought he would might make a good captain one day.
Within the hour her boat, the most exquisite ever hand carved, was carried out and lowered into the water for her. Cripan appeared as if out of nowhere and rushed past her to climb down into her boat so he could help her onto it. She left orders for the men who remained and promised she would return before nightfall. Before she sat down Cripan had already grabbed both oars and started to row so quickly she fell backwards into a seated position.
“Sorry, captain.”
She feigned a smile so as not to worry him for causing her to fall. “Carry on, young squire. Make for the Serpent’s Head. There is someone there I must see. Make haste!” He started to row again with vigor and what would take a full-grown man at least an hour to get to shore took him nearly half. He tied the boat to the dock and was about to climb up first when she stopped him. “No, young man. This is as far as you may go. it is dangerous in there.” He showed his youth as his face began to pout and it broke her heart. “I need you to be my lookout. If you see anyone suspicious coming you run inside quick as you can and tell me.”
His eyes lit up at the opportunity to be a lookout for a pirate he admired more than anyone in the world. “But what if that suspicious person should enter the tavern before me?” She could tell he was a smart boy.
“You let me worry about that. Just keep an eye on the coastline for me. I won’t be long.” She held his chin in her hand and turned his face from side to side. “How old are you, Cripan?” She did not allow anyone in her crew that was not yet sixteen years of age and he looked much younger.
“I’m seventeen,” he answered, pulling his face out of her hand and turning away. She knew he was lying but would have to wait to question him when they were out of the imminent threat of danger. She needed to speak with Nelle and find out what happened to her.
Captain Silverblade climbed up onto the dock and took in a deep breath. Going ashore was not something she did very often. There were men in the royal army who’d love an opportunity to put an end to her. So, whenever she got the chance to sneak onto dry land she soaked up as much of it as she could. First, by breathing in the trees and the grass and dirt. Those things meant very little to those who lived on land every day, but to someone who was surrounded by water day-in and day-out, it was paradise. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before lifting her hood up over her face to hide from those who may notice her.
She entered the Serpent’s Head and found it teeming with men as always. She'd heard stories from the men she allowed to come ashore about this place, but this was the first time she ever stepped foot inside.
Her eyes darted around looking for Nelle, who she expected to be surrounded by men, but she could see no large group of men gathered. Perhaps she was wrong in assuming this was where Nelle wanted her to come. Or worse, it may have been a trap planted by the Paragon! How foolish she was not to have considered this first when the note dropped at her feet! She reached under her cloak for the hilt of her sword as she backed out of the tavern, watching that no one made a move to follow her. Once she returned outside, she heard a voice she didn’t recognize call her by a name rarely used.
“Leonara.” She spun in place and squinted her eyes to adjust to the darkness, searching for the source of the voice. “Leonara.” She finally found it, just around the corner from the Serpent’s Head. A miserable looking hunched over hag who wore a cloak similar to the one she gifted long ago to her best friend, Nelle.
“Why did you call me that? And where did you get this cloak? There is only one person who I know owns such a garment.”
“It is I, Leonara.”
“Nelle…” Her voice faded into silence as she looked upon her friend with fear and sorrow. “Who has done this to you?”
“The Paragon. After torturing me he left me looking like this out of spite I suppose. You understand, I had to give him something or he might have taken my life. I was never as strong as you.”
“You did not tell him of my child. Please, say you did not—.”
“Do not worry, I did not reveal your pregnancy, although I almost wish I had. What I told him was far worse. He knows of the four compasses.”
“Four?” Even though she was reduced to a hideous hag a sly grin spread across Nelle’s face and Captain Silverblade knew what she had done. “Bless you, Nelle. You may just have saved my life yet again.”
“I trust you did as I commanded with them?”
“I have. They are already on their way. But what of you? How can this be undone?”
“Let me worry about that. I won't be this way forever. You have more important things to worry about. Have you decided what you are going to do about the boy?”
“I think I'll let him stay in my care,” Captain Silver replied. She assumed Nelle spoke of Cripan, then realized she did not yet know of him. She placed her hands on her stomach. “It will be a boy?”
“Yes.”
“You will take him when he is born.”
Nelle scoffed at her suggestion that she care for a child. “What would you have me do with him?”
“Take him as far away from me, the open sea, and pirates, as possible. This war is mine. I started it and I intend to finish it. I won’t have him harmed for the sins of his mother.”
“You are a great many things, Silver, but what you have done is not born of sin.”
Nelle wished she could argue in defense of Silverblade keeping the child but knew she must take the child if he were to ever have a normal childhood. Silverblade was meant to put a stop to the king of Gaspar and the Paragon. Her son would only be a distraction. The kind of distraction that would bring more enemies and possibly his death.
Nelle laughed at the idea that the best chance this unborn child had for survival was with her, a hag.