skin? Broken vessels? I strained to see through the partial vision. Worse, I still couldn’t hear a single sound. Even my breaths had been silenced.
It didn’t matter. Listening wasn’t required as I dug down deep and gathered the last vestige of my strength. I just needed enough grit to stay awake and turn the dial.
The world narrowed to my father’s song and the rotation of the brass casing in my hand. North to south. I depressed the center pin on which the needle turned. Two clicks. Did I just feel a spring release inside? My pulse quickened.
Carefully, hurriedly, I followed the series of steps in the rhyme, gritting my teeth as pain swept up and down my body, wracking me from the inside out.
When I reached the end of the song, the needle felt unsteady as if it had been ejected from its housing. I slowly lifted it away, shaking with shock. It had never done that before. Whatever had held the dial onto the compass had been rotated away like a vise opening its toothy grip.
My fingers trembled as I untied the leather thong around my neck and inserted the stone in the hole in the center.
It fit.
Start and end north.
I turned the compass north.
A series of springs vibrated inside the casing. Without my hearing, I couldn’t detect mechanical movements, but I imagined a stack of wheels turning in the chamber, or gears with teeth, sliding levers into notches and shifting pins. Maybe it wasn’t that complicated, but the damned thing had eluded me for seven years.
Until now.
The seal around the casing parted, and for a moment, I didn’t believe my eyes.
It was unlocked.
Painful breaths rushed forth as I cracked it open and found two miniature scrolls of paper within, each no larger than the jade stone.
With only one usable hand, I placed it over the little rolls of paper and worked my fingers in an agonizing attempt to unfurl one of them. The grueling effort became worth it the instant I saw my father’s handwriting.
My beautiful daughter,
If you’re reading this, I’m probably gone from this world and waiting for you in the next. I have so much to tell you, starting with
The tiny paper was snatched out of my grip. With a bellow I couldn’t hear, I scrambled after it. Only my limbs wouldn’t cooperate. My body was too broken to seize the hand that stole my father’s letter. More hands fell upon me, taking the compass, the jade stone, and the second scroll.
The grief that assailed me was unwieldy and devastating. It replaced my blood with poison, my air with smoke, and my limbs with lead weights. I couldn’t breathe or move. Still, I tried.
I reached through the haze, shaking violently, seeking anyone who would listen.
“Please. My father’s letter… I beg you.” I pushed the words out, but not one reached my ears. “I can’t hear. My ears… Something’s wrong. I just want to see the letter. Please.”
The dense mist glowed in pale shades of gray, swirling around me as I lay on my side, bleeding and cracked in so many places. From this angle, with my cheek on the deck, I watched innumerable black boots stepping around me. One pair stopped an inch from my face, and Madwulf lowered into a crouch.
He held one of the tiny scrolls and unrolled it between his big fingers. Then he started reading.
I focused on his lips and made out the word daughter. He was reading the letter out loud, reading my father’s words of love, and I couldn’t hear any of it. I couldn’t interpret the heavy brogue that shaped his cruel mouth.
“Please, Captain.” I tried to lift my hand toward him. “That was…written…for me. I can’t hear…”
He dropped the paper on the deck, and it furled into its original rolled-up shape. His boots pivoted, and he walked away, his attention locked on the second scroll in his hand.
The letter lay only two…three paces away. The chain on my ankle would reach.
Try, Bennett. You can do it.
I rolled to my chest, swallowed my cries, and pushed the blood-soaked curls out of my face. Bearing down against the dizzying agony, I dragged myself forward on my elbow. Shoved another inch with the toes on my working leg. Scraped the raw bone of my arm across the deck. Hacked up blood. Bit down. Pushed again.
Oh God, give me the strength.
I just needed to reach the paper before it blew.
Just help me reach it. Dear God, it’s all I’ll ever ask.
I heaved