The Forbidden Compass Trilogy: Book One- Caged

Irelle jumps up when she hears a cell door being opened. The guards leave, and she feels her heart sink. Krade’s cell is empty, and Fenn sits with his head in his hands. She had been hoping that, by some miracle, they would both survive.

“What did you do?” She screams at him.

He doesn’t meet her eyes, just stares in the distance. “I’m sorry! It was an accident! I stabbed him. It was his idea. But I…” He chokes and stares down at his hands. “But I couldn’t heal it. I don’t know why! He was so cold!” He puts his head back in his hands.

“Where is he?” Irelle asks, anger and fear pouring into every word. It takes all her willpower not to scream at him.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry, so sorry.” He looks like he has been broken. Irelle throws a few water balls, trying to get her anger out, at Fenn, at the arena keepers, at herself. She should have done something, anything. Someone else is dead, and she didn’t stop it. She hears another cell door open. The guards have come for Mahna. She’ll die too; she’s too gentle to kill someone. Fenn will follow her. Everyone she even starts to care about dies. She’ll always be alone.

Mahna stands tall, brave, and when they try to chain her wrists, she lashes out. Their eyes and mouths fill with dust and their keys fly into her hand. She races past them, slamming the cell door and locking it on them, except one gets past her. She races past him, unlocking first Fenn’s cell and then Irelle’s. Fenn walks out dazed. Irelle hears him ask Mahna, “How did you do that?”

Mahna shrugs, answering simply, “There’s always earth in the air.”

Irelle brushes roughly past them and grabs the guard, who is rubbing dirt out of his eyes, shoving him in the cell bars. “Where is he? Where’s the dragon?” She screams in his face. The guard claws at his throat, gagging. Irelle releases him, and he slumps to the floor.

He rubs his throat and croaks, “He’s down the left corridor, with the rest of the dead.”

“Is he dead?”

“Not when we left him there, but he’s a goner. Why do you care so much about that monster?” The guard sneers.

Irelle grabs by his collar again, shoving him hard against the bars. “We might look like beasts, but we’re not the monsters here.”

She throws him roughly into Fenn’s old cell. Mahna shuts the door and locks it. Irelle has no idea where this ruthless, strong girl has come from, and where the meek, scared girl has gone.

They run towards where the guard had indicated, reaching the dead, which is an unguarded, wooden cell. They search the bodies. Irelle feels bile rising up in her throat. She sees Heno’s body, tossed carelessly amongst the others, many which are already decaying. The air smells like death and blood. They finally find Krade. He is lying in the middle of the floor, unmoving. Fenn checks his pulse. “He’s still breathing, but barely.”

Irelle kneels next to him, watching as he inspects the wound. It had turned black and frosty, the white frost spreading slowly over him. “What did you stab him with?” Irelle asks sharply. She barely notices him flinch. If it was what she thinks it was, they can’t waste time with words. He pulls a knife out of his boot, handing it to her. She inspects the blade and feels her heart go cold. It is frost silver, a metal produced by mer to combat with the dragons’ firesteel. It freezes any but mer who use it, she doesn’t know how Fenn had managed it. He probably had healed himself without noticing.

“What is it?” Fenn asks. Irelle can’t answer, her words are frozen in her throat with dread and anger. She wants to scream at him, hurt him, do anything but confront the truth. The truth that anyone, especially dragons, that gets wounded by frost silver are as good as dead.

“Frost silver,” Mahna answers for her. “It’s poisonous to dragons.” Fenn groans.

Irelle touches Krade’s wound, feeling the ice building up inside his body, freezing him from the inside out. The ice! Ice is water in solid form. She can pull it out. “I think I know what to do.” She says, “Mahna, stand guard. Fenn, I’m going to try to pull the ice out of him, can you heal the wound after I finish?” He nods, and she sets to work.

Closing her eyes, she touches Krade’s wound, singing a drawing note, a note used to draw water out of the air, mixing it with a melting note, a note that melts ice She feels the water being pulled out of Krade’s body. He shudders, but she keeps digging. She plucks slivers of ice out of his body until there’s nothing left, releasing it back into the air. She leans back, panting for breath.

Fenn mends the wound and wakes Krade who groans. “What happened? I remember Fenn not being able to heal me…” He trails off as he notices Fenn kneeling next to him. “Did you figure it out?”

Fenn shakes his head. “No, Irelle did.”

“The knife Fenn had was frost silver; it’s poisonous to dragons,” is the only explanation she feels needed or wants to give.

“That would be the second time you saved my life. Thank you.” He says, making her squirm. He sits up, leaning back on his elbows for support. “What’s your excuse this time, sea urchin? There was no danger of bloody clothes.”

“I don’t like watching people die.” She answers.

He shrugs, clearly unconvinced. “How did you get here?”

“Mahna attacked the guards when they came for her and took their keys.” Irelle answers. Fenn opens his mouth to say something, probably about her nearly going insane, but she cuts him off with a glare.

“Really? I didn’t know you had it in you, Mahna.” Krade says, clearly awed. Irelle swallows down the pointless jealousy clawing at her throat. Jealousy that could get him killed.

Mahna shrugs at the door. “We better move before they find us.”

“Right, reunion’s over!” Fenn says, jumping up and helping Krade to his feet. They try to move quickly through the maze of corridors, blindly searching for a way out. Krade is still pale and weak, so they move agonizingly slow for Irelle. Sometimes, she finds herself racing ahead only to have to turn back and wait for the others, tapping her toes with boredom and impatience.

Krade stops, leaning heavily against the wall. “Just go, leave me here. I don’t think I can walk another step.” He says between pants.

Irelle walks up to him, arms folding, standing on her toes to reach his height. “I just saved your life! I am not going to let you just quit after that! We have to keep moving! We are this close to making it out of here alive!” She uses her hands to emphasize her point. “Either we all make it out together or we don’t make it out at all, got that?”

“Alright, sea urchin, let’s keep moving.” He says, pushing himself off the wall, his eyes glinting with amusement. She wants to punch him.

“Stop calling me sea urchin, hothead.”

“No promises, fish girl.” She wants so badly to punch him. She would, but behind them she can hear the sounds of orders being shouted and heavy boots thumping through the corridors. It will have to wait. Just as she thinks they will be caught, the sound of running feet coming from all directions, they run into a room, shutting the door behind them. Irelle holds her breath as the sound of footsteps moves on.

She hears Mahna gasp as the room shudders and moves up. Irelle struggles to keep her balance in the tight space. She tries to open the door, but it stays shut tight, the all too familiar sting of blood iron filling her hand. The room stops moving, and Irelle feels her heart drop to her feet as the door opens to reveal the arena, the crowd cheering as they step out into the light. This will be my last cage. I might never get another chance to punch him.