Emerald Seas

Chapter 26

The compass closed with a soft snap within Kate's fingers after staring at the red arrow for quite awhile. Her eyes rested upon the small flame on top of the dripping candle on the nightstand. She wondered what the compass was telling her. Suddenly Kate remembered her mother who had known a lot about all the legends of the seven seas. Some of the books she inherited were placed in the trunk with her belongings in the corner of the room. Lifting herself from the bed Kate opened the lid and started searching through her belongings. Finally finding the book she was looking for, she blew off the dust that covered the dark red cover of a small pocket-sized book. Moving down on the white sheets of the bed again her fingers moved the pages quickly, searching for one particular page. The corners of her mouth rose once she found it after quite a while, a page with a drawn picture of what looked like the exact same compass. The tip of her index finger moved along the top of the page with gold letters spelling out a title.

'The thing you want most..' Kate whispered to herself. Reading quickly it told her about a magical compass that guided you to the thing you desired most. It was unfindable and many sailors and treasure seekers had been searching for it over the course of decades. It seemed to be a powerful tool many men desired. After reading the full two pages she turned over the page that continued the information about this supernatural artifact. But quickly Kate learned there was a large part of the page missing. It seemed to be ripped out and it made it impossible to finish the information about the compass. Kate lowered her shoulders in disappointment. Her fingers moved over some of the ink lines that seemed to be written onto the page like some sort of notes. She recognized it to be her mother's handwriting as she had written down notes on a lot of the legend books Kate had received after she passed. For a moment a weak smile moved upon her face lid up by the candlelight. But soon her expression turned serious again once she read the few lines that were still there.

'Danger! Do not betray..' Kate mumbled the only four words still visible on the pages of the compass' information, the rest was ripped off along with the page. Kate was confused and wondered what her mother meant by that, but she couldn't figure it out without more information.

After a while closing the book Kate returned it to the trunk along with the other books. In her left hand still the compass in a tight grip. It seemed she had obtained an artifact her mother might have been searching for. It made her feel sorrow and happiness at the same time, to have something that her mother searched for and Kate secretly wondered if she would have been proud.

Suddenly the Endeavour tilted a little too much to the side and Kate heard Cutler cursing when his lantern moved down from his desk with a loud noise, shattering on the floor. Kate tripped and accidentally tossed the compass from her hand underneath the bed. Her eyes winded and quickly bending down she tried to reach for the compass in the darkness underneath the bed. It was out of her reach and still, on the floor, she noticed Cutler behind her.

'Are you alright my dear?' he spoke quickly and moved her up as he thought she had fallen out of the bed.

'Yes' Kate whispered her eyes moving from Cutler to the compass still underneath the bed a few times.

'What was that?' Kate saw Cutler moving toward the coat rack and quickly took his black cape to get upstairs. Cutler back in front of Kate kissed her forehead quickly and as their eyes met there was a sudden loud explosion. They both tripped and Cutler trying to catch Kate landed on top of her.

'We're being attacked?!' Kate whispered while she was helped up by Cutler again.

'Stay inside' he commanded her with begging eyes. Watching her for a moment he quickly moved to the door to leave for the deck.

Kate quickly moved down next to the bed again and reached for the compass. Finally, inside the palm of her hand, she moved it inside her pocket after dressing into a gown. After dressing she was pacing up and down the office. They were close to Port Nassau, this passage was a well-known route for Pirate ships. Her father, known as a famous pirate hunter, had long ago been the one to set Nassau free from pirates just before he had left with her to the Caribbean when she was younger. Lord Florence had given back the island to the British Crown and that had made him a big target for pirates. Even though it was swarmed with pirates just before the coast of Nassau, Kate did not expect them to attack a warship like the Endeavour.