[Episode 4] Spire and the Dragonwood Affair

[Novelette] Tales of Stonehaven [1,284 words]

Spire and the Dragonwood Affair is the first of five novelettes in The 5th Compass series. Captain Silverblade, the most feared and hated pirate in all of Stonehaven, has put her life in the hands of four of her most trusted pirates. Their mission is to each take possession of an enchanted compass and hide them where no one can ever find them. This is the story of Spire and how he got on with hiding the compass given to him.

“Are you sure we want to be headin’ in this direction, sir? Perhaps we should ask Cap’n Spire if this be the way?”

Ever since Wendynn charted the course for Spire’s men, he’d been trying his best to avoid questions he knew they would ask. The most important among them; why are they headed towards Dragonwood? Wendynn didn’t look forward to making a voyage to a place he’d never been but heard plenty about from the tales his father told him.

Dragonwood was where conmen and those looking for conmen, frequent. Men who would sell their own mother for a bit of coin or worse, those with nothing left to live for would leap into Suicide Shore.

As much as Wendynn never wanted to step foot in such a place he had to admit, it was the perfect place to hide something that needed to remain hidden.

“We can ask him, but as I already told the others, my orders come directly from him.”

“If that be true, why don’t he tell us his self?”

“Now, Skud, since when do you doubt the word of one of Silverblade’s men?” Spire asked, climbing the steps to the wheel of the ship where Wendynn had been steering.

Without a word, the questioning pirate nodded, ducked his head, and retreated down the steps to make himself useful. Wendynn couldn’t believe how a man like Spire commanded such fear and respect from these men, most of which were easily twice his size.

“Took you long enough to emerge from your room. What were you doing in there? Sleepin’? We got work to do and very little time to do it,” Wendynn argued, stepping aside so Spire could resume his rightful place at the wheel.

Spire inspected the sweat stains on the handles Wendynn had been gripping and grimaced. He grabbed different handles and smiled at no one in particular. “What is your rush? Silverblade gave us no timetable, which means the job will take as long as it needs. I am not one to rush the journey just because you’re homesick.”

Wendynn grabbed the wheel, forcing it to a complete stop. “I am not… homesick. My urgency is not for the sake of the mission but our lives. I have heard rumors of what goes on in Dragonwood ever since I was a boy—”

Spire started to laugh. “Rumors? A boy? Are you telling me you still believe the tales our parents tell us when we were young to scare us?”

“My father never lied to me. He was an honorable man…” Wendynn choked on his words and turned away from Spire to grip the rail opposite the wheel.

Spire pulled a lever beside the wheel which locked its coordinates in place, then let go.

“How can such an emotional man have ever become a pirate, I wonder,” Spire said, folding his arms and leaning back against the railing beside Wendynn. “I promise you, we will not be in Dragonwood long enough to meet with whatever fate your father has you so worried about.”

Wendynn observed Spire’s expression closely and wondered a question he spoke aloud before he could stop himself. “You have been to Dragonwood?”

“In a manner of speaking. Yes. More like I ran away to Dragonwood.”

“No man runs towards Dragonwood, unless he has a death wish,” Wendynn scoffed. He knew Spire was jesting with him.

“Or as a last resort. We didn’t all grow up in large castles, Wendynn.” This made Wendynn sit up and take notice. No one besides Silverblade knew of his upbringing, and that was only because they were childhood friends. And although he lived in a castle, it was not for reasons of station or birthright. But how could Spire know that?

“I never grew up in a large castle. Where did you hear such an untruth?”

“Mermaids off the port bow!”

The shout alarmed both Wendynn and Spire as they both tried to run down the steps side by side. Finding it difficult to navigate, Spire relented to take command of the wheel while Wendynn descended the steps to get a closer look at the cause of the alert.

“Where?” he asked, approaching the man who shouted. Taking his hat off his head the pirate pointed straight, not too far in front of where the ship headed. Wendynn squinted and held his hands over his eyes to shield them from the sun for a better view.

“Well? What do you think?” Spire shouted down to Wendynn. They both saw at least half a dozen mermaids swimming around in the water, all of them looking straight at the ship. Turning around was not an option, as it was common knowledge that any mermaid could outrun a ship. It was best to approach them head on and without fear.

“They’ve spotted us, we can’t retreat.”

“What are your orders cap’n?”

Wendynn looked around the ship at all the men waiting for a decision. “Pull up every rope and ladder along the sides of the ship quickly. We will pass right through them. If there is nothing for them to grab onto, we might get by. Mermaids are usually creatures of habit and prefer to remain close to home. Let’s just pray they consider these waters their home and won’t follow us once we pass them.”

Spire gave a nod to his men to follow Wendynn’s orders, and they hurried about, pulling up all the ropes and ladders they had along all sides of the ship.

The closer they got to the mermaids in the water the sooner it became clear to them that there was something wrong. They did not appear to be moving at all, not even to get out of their way as they were gaining speed with a strong wind that picked up and carried them forward.

“Drop the anchor, lower the sails,” Spire shouted to his men. Without hesitation two of them made for the anchor and taking a firm hold of the long rod, rotated it round and around, lowering the anchor to the ocean floor as quickly as possible, bringing the ship to a complete stop.

“What is it? What do you see?” Wendynn asked Spire who ran down the steps and towards the front of his ship, never taking his eyes from the figures in the water before them.

“Don’t you see? They are stone.”

Wendynn looked out into the water, again shielding his eyes from the midday sun. Spire was right! From a distance they looked like real mermaids, but up close he could see they were stone. The question that worried him now was, were they alive at one point and if so, who would do such a terrible thing? Perhaps they were turned to stone and left in the water to send a message to others who would dare continue their journey.

“Should we go around them?” Wendynn asked.

“Do you suppose…” Spire let his question trail off into an unanswered silence. Neither of them wanted to think a descendent of a dragon could be nearby, capable of such power.

“If we are to believe the less evil answer, that someone carved these figures from stone elsewhere and placed them here, why? As a warning?”

“If this is meant to be a warning, it failed. We could easily just go around them. No, I think whoever passed through here encountered these mermaids who were very much alive and did this to them,” Spire reasoned. But Wendynn refused to believe anyone, even the most gifted, could be capable of doing such a thing.

“Then we go around them?”

“Yes, lets. I don’t want my men to stare at them any longer.”