The Forbidden Compass Trilogy: Book One- Caged
Chapter 17

Krade stares at the destruction Mahna created. Regaining his senses, he sees people picking themselves up from the rubble, cries of grief and pain filling the air. He sees Mahna running to Irelle, exchange a few words, and Mahna grabs Irelle under her arms. They are high in the sky with a few powerful thrusts of Mahna’s wings.

Krade turns to Fenn, who is staring at the mass destruction with awe, his arm still draped over Krade’s shoulder. “Fenn, we have to go.” He says, breaking him from his awestruck state. Fenn nods, turning pale. The boy who can rob a lord’s castle without fear is scared of heights? Krade asks himself, he picks him up anyway and flies into the air.

This is his first time flying with nothing holding him down, and he feels adrenaline course through his veins as the wind whistles in his ears. He can hear Fenn screaming under him, but he flies on, curving around the fluffy white clouds. He can see Mahna’s brown shape in front of him. After nearly an hour, Mahna flies towards the ground, where a copse of trees stands waiting. Krade lands beside her, releasing Fenn, who stands up, dusting himself off.

“Next time, I’ll stick to the ground.” He says before running behind a tree, retching sounds soon following.

Irelle is staring at the ground, kicking at a tree root. Mahna is sitting against a thick trunk trying to catch her breath. “Irelle is very heavy.” She gasps out, giving an unneeded explanation for stopping.

Irelle turns on her, trying hard to keep a straight face. “I am not! You just don’t have the strength.”

“Or maybe it’s because you just destroyed an entire arena.” Krade supplies.

Mahna slumps against the tree, staring at her hands, which are red with blood, most likely from Fenn. “I can’t believe I actually did that. I killed all those people.” She curls up on herself, any sense of humor gone in an instant.

Fenn appears from behind his tree, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. He stands there, surveying the scene before him. He looks up at the sky, where the sun is beginning to set. “I’ll go replace us something to eat. I’m hungry for real food, not the slop they fed us.” He climbs swiftly up into a tree and disappears among the red and golds.

Krade feels his hands itching to do something. He’s not good with feelings, except for maybe anger. “I’ll build a fire for the food.”

“You can’t!” Irelle jumps up from where she’d been sitting with Mahna, comforting her.

“Why not?” He asks, confused.

“We might have gotten out of the Devil’s Lair, but they’re not going to let us get away that easy. Smoke would be like a beacon in the sky saying, ‘Here we are!’” Her face turns red with anger and frustration. “How stupid are you?”

“Relax, sea urchin, I can make a fire without smoke.” He tries to reassure her.

“The light will still give us away!” She shouts, standing on her toes to reach his face.

“And we can fight off anything that comes our way! How else are we going to cook the food and stay warm?” He retorts, looking down at her.

“Fine! Build your stupid fire!” She yells up at him before storming off to sit by Mahna.

He collects the fuel, placing it in a hole Mahna had dazedly made. He pulls the heat out of the air and changes it into fire that licks up the dead leaves and twigs. He had made sure the fuel was completely dry, asking Irelle to pull out the liquid in it, making the fire smokeless.

Fenn appears from the woods, holding two plump rabbits by their ears and his bow in his hands.

“About time, I’m starving.” Irelle says as he sits down by the fire.

“Sorry it took so long, I had to make a quick arrow. I used my last one fighting the scorpic.” He sets out an arrow with brown fledging and a stone tip.

Mahna fingers the tip. “Where did you get the feather?”

“One had fallen off your wings. I hope you don’t mind?”

She shakes her head. “No, that’s fine.”

He grins. “Great. Nice fire. I’ll get these ready.” He holds up the rabbits.

“Actually, I could cook those in a few minutes.” Krade says, remembering his fight with the dragon.

Fenn hands them over. “Be my guest. That won’t be the strangest thing I’ve seen lately.”

Krade studies the soft fur, stifling the embarrassment threatening to heat his features. “I don’t know how to skin them or anything, just cook them.”

Fenn takes them back and disappears into the trees, saying with a smirk, “Wouldn’t want the girls to get sick.”

Irelle shouts after him, “I just helped kill a giant insect and saw you covered in bug guts! I think I can stomach a little rabbit blood!” But she stays where she is.

Fenn returns a few minutes later, holding the cleaned and skinned rabbits and their fur. He tosses the furs to Irelle. “For your clothes.” She just nods and accepts them. He hands the rabbits to Krade. “Work you magic.” He sits down in front of the crackling fire.

Krade pulls heat from the fire and pushes it into the rabbits, cooking them from the inside, like he did the dragon. Soon they are cooked, and their skin is crisp. He looks up to see the others staring at him.

“Great oak leaves.” Fenn breathes. “Mahna, can you make me a knife?” Krade hands the rabbits over, feeling self-conscious. Mahna hands Fenn a knife that had appeared in her hands, the handle and blade crude stone. Fenn divides up the rabbits, and they feast, the good food and the taste of freedom helping them relax.

“It will probably take a while for the word to get out about us, but it won’t be long before every bounty hunter in Megnia and the Four Corners is after us.” Irelle says, changing the mood.

“Probably. We maybe have two weeks considering that about five hundred died in the earthquake or whatever it was. Drop that to a week thanks to Irelle’s little speech about our specialness.” Fenn adds, licking his fingers.

“That means I’ve killed five hundred and one people.” Mahna says, staring at her hands, which are clean. They all look at her quizzically, but she doesn’t explain.

“Mahna, it seems like you’ve read a lot. If you were a servant, when did you replace time to read so much?” Fenn asks, failing again at changing the subject.

Mahna shakes her head. “I never said I was a servant. And you tend to have a lot of free time when you’re locked in a tower!” She bursts, looking down again at her hands, face red.

“You were locked in a...tower?” Fenn asks, shock clear on his face.

She sighs loudly and looks at him. “I’m Lord Madrid’s niece. He kept me in a tower.”

“Why?” Irelle asks.

“I have no idea.” The look on her face says she truly does not.

Fenn asks what Krade thinks is an irrelevant question. “Was the tower wooden?”

She gives him a look of questioning. “Yes.”

“I saw it when I robbed your uncle. Maybe he knew you could move earth and locked you there because of it.” Fenn explains.

“Maybe.” Mahna plays with her hair. Looking up, she asks the question Krade’s been waiting for and dreading. “Why were your eyes red before your and Krade’s fight?”

Fenn runs his hands through his hair. “Um...Yeah...That. You know my mother was the village healer, right?” She nods, though Irelle perks up, clearly uninformed. “And that she died in the fire that destroyed my village?” She nods again. “Well...um…” He runs his hand over his face. “Ugh. Krade, you explain.”

Krade obliges, though he hates doing it. “My father was the village blacksmith. I’ve never met my mother. My father was also the village drunk. Sometimes, he’d get so drunk that he’d lose his mind and take his anger out on me.” He pauses as he catches a glimpse of the pity in Irelle’s eyes. “Anyway, about the fire. I started it. I didn’t mean too. One minute I was working in the forge, the next I was on my knees, fire pouring out of me and everything disappearing into flames. Then I woke up in what was left, just ashes and smoke.” He goes on to explain how he had found his sword, joined the Hunters, fought the dragon, and then his fight with Fenn and how the sword had showed them what had really happened, the whole while avoiding Irelle’s eyes. “So, we discovered that there’s a mysterious man that can turn people into monsters.” He concludes, staring at the popping flames.

“That’s quite a story, but why were your eyes red, Fenn?” Mahna asks again.

Fenn runs his hands through his hair again. “When an elf gets very angry, their eyes change to red, and all they can think of is what they are setting out to do. I had convinced myself that Krade was my mother’s murderer, but in reality, it was this hooded figure. I jumped to stupid conclusions and nearly killed somebody.”

“I can’t imagine having a parent that doesn’t love you, that beats you. It must have been so hard.” Irelle says, still shocked by Krade revelation.

He shrugs. “You get used to it if it’s all you know. I think he did love me, in his own way. I think he just was so angry about so many things, and he didn’t know who to blame. So he blamed the boy who had been left on his doorstep as a baby by a women he had thought loved him.”

“So, we’ve all spilled out our secret pasts except for you, Irelle. What secrets are you hiding?” Fenn asks, drawing the conversation away from lost parents, for which Krade is grateful.

She glares at him, but answers. “My mother died from heatstroke and my father just...disappeared. I’ve lived alone for three years and made it just fine, but it feels good to talk to people again. And to not have to hide who I am.” She says, her shell opening just a little to reveal the pearl inside. But just as quickly it snaps shut. “That doesn’t mean I’m going soft or anything.”

“I wasn’t going to say you are. Wouldn’t even dream of it.” Krade tells her, meeting her shimmering blue eyes over the fire. Are those tears? She smiles for real, and he smiles back.

“One thing is for sure, we’re going to do everything in our power to stop this ‘hooded figure.’ We might be the only ones who can stop him, who know about him. He could be out there right now, building himself a monster army and ruining more lives.” Fenn’s eyes are determined as he says this.

“Like Irelle said, it’s all of us or none of us.” Mahna says, chin raised, brown eyes flashing.

They all nod their agreement. All of us or none of us.

They finish eating, lying down to sleep for their first night free together. Irelle and Mahna curl up together, Mahna’s wings forming them a feathery blanket. Fenn volunteers for first watch, promising to wake Krade for his. Krade falls asleep, tired from the battle and almost dying. It feels good to have his past off his shoulders.