The Stone Compass

Chapter Four, Summer 2037

Pretty woke up with an icy right side of his face. He’d been leaning against the bars of his prison, arms crossed, lips chapped because he’d been sleeping with his mouth open. “Fugg,” He managed and rolled the cricks out of his shoulders. He hadn’t been sleeping deeply enough to wake with disorientation and looked over at Blink who was calmly hugging his knees to keep in warmth. 

Once Pretty started moving, Blink looked over at the Leader. “Hi.”

“Fuck this place,” Pretty said, taking a deep breath. “There’s a wholeass building right there that we could be in. This is a miniature island; there’s nowhere we can run. Just get us out of the wind.” He pointed to the ski resort building thirty feet in front of them.

“I got such a bad headache right now,” Blink said. “Right behind my eyes.”

“When I move, my head hurts.” Pretty tried to move as little as possible for fear of shifting from his warm spot on the ground. 

“What are we waiting for?” Blink said.

Pretty didn’t have an answer, but wanted one as much as Blink, so he offered his best guess: “The Shepherd, I guess. He can’t leave us here forever. This is fucking torture and I’m so damn thirsty too.” The Leader started looking in his backpack for his water bottle. Once he found it, he took a long drink of the icy water.

“That’s probably really cold now, huh?” Blink said, looking in his own backpack. 

Pretty exhaled in annoyance after the drink. “This cold sucks right now.”

Blink added, “And we’re from Pennsylvania; we’re supposed to be used to it now.”

Pretty recalled Sandy’s words: “Sandy said if we weren’t minders we were useless to the Shepherd. Think she was joking?”

“No.” 

“So we’d better be minders then.”

“Yeah. But what if we’re not?”

Then we fucking die, Pretty thought and then said: “We’ll find some way to escape. We can convince some of these kids to make some kind of jailbreak. Who the hell would want to live on a floating island like this?”

Blink seemed to be mulling something over, like he was preparing to disagree. Pretty knew that look in his younger sisters’ eyes; the desire and courage needed to risk annoying the designated Leader.

“What?” Pretty asked.

“If I’m some kind of useless fraiser and I get fed to a novis, I’m going to be really annoyed.”

“Yeah, I would be as well.”

“But what if we’re both something useless?”

“‘Piss on that,’” Pretty quoted. “We’re nothing useless. And Sandy said there’s also a good chance we aren’t fed and instead are sold to someone else.”

“Like slaves?” Blink said.

“Dude, I don’t know, I’m just guessing.”

Blink sat back. “Fuck!” He struck the wooden bar with his elbow. “I’m not ready to die.”

“Fuck that, we aren’t dying.”

“You know what’s crazy?” Blink said.

“What?”

“The best week of my life was also the scariest and the one that I almost got killed by some crazy monsters.”

“Why was this past week the best week of your life?” Pretty said.

“I finally found some friends and got into the Astronomy Club. Those were two things I’d wanted for a long time.”

“What the hell did you do before you met us? You didn’t have any friends?” Pretty couldn’t believe that. 

“Maybe if I had more free time I would have asked my dad to play baseball for Winton Middle or something, but I was always working with my dad mowing lawns. That was how we lived, man. I had no friends. Could have made some if I joined a team or a club maybe.”

“What about the arcade?” Pretty didn’t know why he asked this. 

“What about it? Who the fuck makes friends at an arcade, Pretty?”

“Cool it, man. I don’t know, alright?”

“I don’t know whose fault it is that I didn’t have friends until a week ago.”

“I thought you had an older brother?”

“Jeffery wants me dead as much as I want him dead. That asshole can go fuck himself six times over.”

“Shit,” Pretty said, looking away. “You really like us if this past week was the best week of your life, huh?”

“It was like Myles said: I’m pretty sure I love you guys. I’ve never felt a good feeling like being part of something. It’s crazy to think someone would now say ‘where’s Blink? We’re missing an Astronomer!’ just because I wasn’t there. I don’t feel like that around my dad or brother or anyone else.”

Pretty stayed quiet, letting Blink say his piece.

Blink took another breath. “I knew I was missing something even though I didn’t know what I was missing. I felt so empty and unsettled, but I still feel like this is only the beginning. There’s no way we can die right now; they can’t kill me when I just found what I was missing!” Blink put his fingers under his glasses to smother the tears in his eyes. “I’ve gotten the shit-end of the stick all my life! And right as I found what makes me feel alive, life says ‘fuck you, Blink Mayer! Now your life ends!’” Now the Pilot of the Astronomy Club was furiously speaking through sobs.

“All my life of being alone? It felt like even God wasn’t around; I was alone since I can remember being alive at all. No friends, just working! My idea of fun was fishing! What kind of faggot does shit like that? And when I finally made a breakthrough…” His crying took over his words.

Pretty’s stomach felt like it was being mashed like clay. It was a medley of feelings that pushed on him from every angle, but he could definitely feel sympathy and failure in the mix. Sympathy for the lonesome, antisocial kid who recently joined their club. And failure on his part; like he, ‘Pretty’ Beau Lewis, selfishly kept the Astronomy Club to himself, Langley, and Myles.

“I feel like I let you down, man,” Pretty said without thinking.

“It’s not your fault, Pretty,” Blink said. “You’re probably going to die too. What’re the odds we’re both minders and the Shepherd wants us to stay?”

Pretty buried his hands in his pockets and swallowed. He didn’t want to accept that he was going to die, but Blink’s constant reminders were affecting him now.

“I’m not going to die,” the Leader said. “But if I do somehow die, I only wish that I get to see Myles and Langley again.”

“You won’t get that if you die here. Unless by some miracle they get dropped in here with us.”

“I wish I had said more to my mom,” Pretty said. “Wish I said goodbye to her and my sisters.”

“Man, if I had an older sister instead of an older brother, I would probably have liked life better.”

Pretty wanted to talk, but he felt that Blink’s story had priority at the moment. There wasn’t a reason to get mad at the Pilot, the kid who could drive a car, because he was catching up on a lifetime of lonesomeness. 

“What would you have to do or say or think before you would be fine with dying?” Pretty asked.

Blink thought about it for a while and then asked, “Say that again?”

“Would you ever be okay with dying? And what would you have to do to be okay with it?”

“Jeffery and my dad would have to ask for my forgiveness for all the shit they did to me.”

There was a long pause as Blink’s mouth hung open like a smoking gun out of bullets. It wanted to say more things, but nothing came out. Eventually, he closed his mouth.

“What about getting laid?” Pretty asked.

Blink laughed. “Man, I thought getting friends was good enough. What kind of idiot girl would want someone like me?” 

“A smart one,” Pretty said. “You know all kinds of shit. And what kind of badass brings a fucking flask into an arcade? And you got us all buzzed in our clubhouse, and you know how to drive a car, and are an expert fisher, and tough as hell; we pulled you out of the river and you didn’t even look at your cuts, you just sipped your cider and were like ‘whatever’. Girls dig that, man.”

Blink smiled like he half didn’t want to believe it, but half of him had thought he was cool all along. “Who do you think would like me?”

“Who’d you like back in Winton?”

“Laura Knight,” Blink said quickly.

“Laura would dig you, but you gotta chase girls. They love that.”

“Like you chased Mariah?”

Pretty felt his ears grow warmer. “That’s different.”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

“Do as I say, not as I do. I don’t like her anymore.”

Blink said, “If we go back…” And he remembered how far into the future they were. There was no ‘going back’.

Pretty sighed and the conversation died away. The two boys sat in the cold watching the overcast day pass alongside them. Gray shades of cloud hovered everywhere and misted the rest of the island. About twenty minutes passed and Pretty realized he could barely see the house that was in front of them. The fog made the whole situation dense and cold.

Only a few minutes after this observation, three figures approached the small prison. One was tall with arms as long as himself: Pet. The other was a hooded, old black guy with a staff: the Shepherd. The last was a cloaked boy: someone they hadn’t met yet.

Pretty and Blink stood, shouldered their backpacks and glanced at one another.

“What do you want with us?” Pretty said to the Shepherd.

The Shepherd only clicked his mouth twice and Pet took a few toddler-ish steps toward the prisoners. It reached into the cages and curled its long, many-jointed fingers around each boy and lifted them.

Pretty and Blink instinctively fought against the hands even as they were laid down in front of the Shepherd and other boy. The bruises around the Astronomers’ waists from being lifted previously were still tender.

“I left you in there to ensure you didn’t run off. I want to speak with you two now and show you what the Stone Compass is. I’m not a slave-owner; everyone on this boat is here by choice and those who wish to leave may do so.”

“So the fucking prison cells are for decoration. Got it,” Pretty sneered.

“Come inside; it’s warmer there,” the Shepherd said.

The Astronomers followed the two inside and watched Pet swing up onto the top of the house with his snaky, long arms and disappear to the other side. They first walked up the stairs of the deck and then were led inside. The air was warm and out of the wind. Pretty and Blink glanced around the interior, noting the visible beams in the ceiling, the large lobby with strong, stone tables and chairs. There were several hammocks tied to the beams above and three faces poked out of them with intense curiosity.

“How’d they get up there?” Blink whispered.

“Long-Arms probably stuck ‘em up there as some kind of stupid punishment,” Pretty said.

“They’re hangers,” the boy said, taking his hood off. Only it wasn’t a boy, it was an attractive girl slightly older than them with her long brown hair braided around her head.

“Why the hell are all the boys on this island actually girls?” Pretty said to Blink.

“I’m the Shepherd’s right-hand prophet; I help him steer the boat and make decisions,” She said with a strange air of… love and understanding. Like she was a nurse.

The Shepherd led them to a table and sat down with them. The girl sat next to him. Pretty and Blink sat across the table from them. 

“I am the Shepherd. This is Eve.” He touched her back lightly and brought his hand back. “What are your names?”

“If she’s a prophet, shouldn’t she already know them?” Pretty said, sitting back with his arms crossed. Blink sat quietly with his hands warming between his legs.

“I already do, but we want to hear the names from you,” Eve said.

“You’re not gonna believe this, your Shepherdness, but again, my name is Pretty and his name is Blink,” Pretty said. Blink nodded.

The Shepherd leaned over the table, searching their faces for lies. Apparently finding nothing, he looked to Eve who shrugged.

“Your names are strange. Would you like to change them?” the Shepherd asked.

“No,” both boys said at once.

“That’s fine. We don’t know why you landed here, but if you’re on the Stone Compass, you are part of my fleet of fraisers and have the freedom to choose between being sold, being fed to one of the many creatures I have, or staying and working for me,” The Shepherd said.

“Those are some terrible options,” Pretty said. “What if I said ‘fuck that, let us hop off of this flying tub at the next stop without being fucking sold and pretend like we never met.”

“Pretty, I am assuming if you were to choose, you wouldn’t choose death and are weighing between the other two options. Perhaps you don’t want to work for me? Why not see how the Stone Compass operates and consider staying?” The Shepherd said.

Pretty had another smart remark in the chamber, but Eve offered her hand on the table and looked him in the eye. “You’re new to the planet. Do you know what prophets can do?”

Pretty’s eyes flipped between the open hand and the girl’s gentle face. Kinda pretty. I wonder what Mariah’s doing right now? Her face smiled, from her eyes to her chin like she’d heard him. He felt his heart start beating quicker. “Hell…” He said and slowly reached out his own hand. “Am I supposed to take your hand?”

She answered by taking his hand and saying, “Close your eyes.”

Pretty obeyed, feeling his crotch grow warmer. She was putting some kind of spell on him, wasn’t she? If he had kept his eyes open, he would have seen that she offered a hand to Blink as well.

“Keep your eyes closed and remember you’re safe,” Eve said. “Your hands are quite cold. Sorry to keep you out there so long.”

“It’s okay,” Blink said.

Pretty once again was amped to spew a needling comment, but instead, as clear as his regular vision, he saw the Shepherd, but with less silver in his beard. Pretty opened his eyes to make sure his eyes had been closed. Eve had her eyes closed and the Shepherd glanced disapprovingly at Pretty. The Leader closed his eyes again and saw darkness, but it changed again to that same vision of the Shepherd. Pretty felt he wasn’t himself anymore; he was someone else with a different attitude, a different background, more courage, wisdom, and tact. He felt… kind and loving. And he was walking with the Shepherd who was someone he trusted and loved as well.

Pretty opened his eyes, pulled his hand away, and said, “Fuuuck that.” He looked at the Shepherd who was calm, watching Blink and Eve who were sitting quietly in the strange trance.

Pretty gestured to Eve. “What is sh-” 

“Quiet!” The Shepherd hissed, making Pretty jump.

Pretty watched Blink for a few seconds, noticing his eyes were relaxed shut behind his glasses and a smooth smile was on his face. Pretty didn’t touch her hand again, but continued studying the Pilot and stealing glances of Eve every few seconds. 

A half-minute later, Blink and Eve opened their eyes simultaneously and locked eyes. 

“That was amazing,” Blink said. “Can we do it again?”

“Maybe later,” Eve said.

“What did you see?” Pretty asked.

Blink stared at the table trying to explain what he saw. “I dunno… I just understand this place a lot better. She showed me her experience and some of the things they do here.”

“What is that? That thing you did to me and him?” Pretty said.

“It’s like the reverse of mind-seeking. How much do you know about prophets?” Eve said.

“Nothing.”

“I see. Well, do you know what psychedelics are?”

“Yeah. It’s like watching the Pink Elephants on Parade from Dumbo.” 

Eve sat back slightly and looked to the Shepherd who frowned and then nodded. “Yes, I guess that’s a simplified way to describe it. It’s not just a light show. It changes your mind permanently, but not in a damaging way.”

“What were you doing to us? What did you do to him?” Pretty said.

“I showed images of the history of the Stone Compass. To show that we can be trusted and that the decision is truly up to you to stay.”

“What if we want to leave and don’t want to be sold?”

“Pretty, I want to look around. I think this place is safe,” Blink said.

Pretty sat back and looked up the exposed beams in the ski resort. All of the faces in the hammocks were poking out and quickly disappeared.

“Who are they?” Pretty pointed.

“They’re hangers. They help with airborne attacks, messages, save those who have fallen off, and other things that require flying.”

“So what if we aren’t minder then? Looks like you need all kinds of fraisers’ help, no matter what their power is. So hangers can fly?”

“You know little about fraisers, eh?”

“I know that they’re called fraisers and that prophets can do weird things with their mind, but that’s it. How many kinds of fraiser are there?”

“Four. Prophets, minders, hangers, and hushes. And you’re right, we do have a use for all of the fraiser types, but we only keep the best of the best. Mind-seeking is a highly advanced propheting technique which takes much practice and a certain type of mind. Some prophets simply can’t do it.”

“Can prophets read minds?” Pretty asked, looking at Eve. The Shepherd looked with him.

Eve adjusted her seating and took a breath. “Yes, in two ways. We can hear your thoughts, whatever you’re thinking at the time, but probing into the actual mind is a very personal venture. Usually prophets can’t read minds like that because it becomes so intimate that they back out. I imagine…” She trailed off and then cut off the explanation with: “It’s horribly intimate.”

“So you’ve done it before?”

“I tried a couple of times. I could do it if the need truly arose, but I would rather not.”

“Sounds like it’d be a super useful skill.”

“Not as useful as you may think, Pretty,” The Shepherd said. “The Stone Compass is a haven for fraisers, but it is also a business. I take no pleasure in selling and trading fraisers as a commodity, but we are not strong if we carry dead weight. You must give more than you take, like Eve. She helps steer the ship, directs attacks and defenses, and guides mansions to good locations.”

Pretty and Blink quickly looked at each other and back to the strange couple across the table. “You said ‘guides mansions’?”

“Mansions can be guided?” Blink added.

“Mansions are interdimensional vehicles. Eve helps guide my mansions when inexperienced novis need help traveling to find food.”

“And by food you mean kids like us?” Pretty said, sitting forward.

“Around your age; maybe a little older. Natural fraise in children has increased over the past twenty or so years. It became easier to find which is why I started a novis farm in the first place, but just starting out we had difficulty finding some.”

“Then it couldn’t have been you who sent the mansion to Bushkill Avenue to kill us. We were on the run from novis when we came here. We’re only here because of a couple of boneheaded novis who were trying to eat us.”

“It couldn’t have been me. And Eve hasn’t been alive long enough to have sent it.”

“But someone else could have, huh?” 

“Doubtful; most of the mansions roamed on their own in those days,” the Shepherd said. “Now, of the three options I have presented you, what will you be doing?”

“We don’t know,” Pretty said. 

“Blink, it seems Pretty needs more time to think. Have you made a decision?”

“Yes,” Pretty said. “His answer is ‘no to everything.’”

“I am asking Blink now,” the Shepherd stared at Pretty.

“I… would like to see more of the Stone Compass,” Blink said.

“You’ll be assigned a room with a couple of other fraisers. For now we would like to determine what fraisers you will be.”

“You can do that?” Blink said with both fear and excitement.

Pretty said nothing and sat like someone found guilty of a crime. 

“I can do my best,” Eve said.

The Shepherd nodded. 

“It’s easier if I’m holding your hand.” Eve reached her hand out. “One at a time.”

Blink automatically put his right hand out as well.

She sat with her thumb in the center of his palm with a look of focus and concern. “Hmm,” She said lightly. Then she released Blink’s hand.

“I didn’t feel anything,” Blink said.

“You shouldn’t have felt anything. It’s growing, I think. Still too weak to know for certain what fraiser he is. Maybe in a few days? It’s hard to tell how fast their fraise is developing,” Eve said to everyone.

Pretty put his own hand out without a word. Eve took it in both hands and their eyes met. Pretty jerked backward; her glare had such a weight to it. Part of him missed Mariah every time he looked at this new girl. A different part of him, one that he didn’t know existed, was uncontrollably attracted to Eve, a girl he had just met. She’s doing something to me, just like she did to Blink to change his mind so easily.

Eve took his hand and pressed her thumb lightly into the center of his palm. This time her face was both focused and interested. “Hmm.” She held onto his hand much longer, then looked him in the eye again with that same powerful, sympathetic look, and eased her hand from his. “I’m not sure,” she said.

Is she lying? Pretty wondered. If so, why would she lie?

As the Shepherd started speaking, he saw her subtly make eye-contact with him and shake her head, no. 

“Is it leaning in a particular direction?”

“It’s not that, it’s just more advanced than Blink’s. It may be because of his environment. He’s not a prophet, that’s for sure,” Eve said.

“How long do you think it will be before we know which fraise they are?” The Shepherd asked.

“A week or so. Perhaps shorter if we help them along; we won’t be able to see how strong their fraises are for about a month. These are just guesses; I’ll be able to gage better by tomorrow.”

“How long until Stablefield?” the Shepherd asked.

“Three to four days excluding today.”

“That doesn’t give us a great amount of time. We’ll nurture their fraises in that time and decide what to do with them before and while we dock. This is the Great Hook; we can’t stay for more than a few hours. It won’t do to keep them longer than we need them, especially if they have no desire to stay here.”

“Shepherd, perhaps they can stay in my room so I can better monitor them?” Eve said.

“Yes,” the Shepherd said. “I was about to ask if you were open to that. And keep one of the hushes with you for protection. We still know little about these new fraisers to trust them.”

“I’ll ask Harrie to stay with me,”

“Harrie isn’t very strong. I’d feel better if you took Elyse.”

“Harrie is deft and sleeps with one eye open. She’s perfect. And these boys aren’t strong.”

Fuck you too, Pretty thought as he scowled at Eve. She rolled her eyes over to him with that same strong glare. She can hear the thoughts that I’m thinking, he thought. Eve nodded, looking at him.

He narrowed his eyes. DICKS. BIG, BLACK DICKS, Pretty thought as loudly as possible, staring at her.

Eve started like she’d been poked with a needle. “I’ll escort them now,” she said and cleared her throat. All four rose from the table.

“Pretty, Blink,” the Shepherd said, “welcome aboard the Stone Compass.”

“Thanks,” Blink said.

“Yes, thanks,” Pretty said.

The Shepherd went one way, his amber-tipped staff clomping alongside his gait, and Eve beckoned them to follow her the opposite way.

“This resort used to be used for people to ski. Skiing was apparently popular for when the mountains were fixed to the ground; you’d attach your feet to two long planks and slide along the snow. I don’t know of anywhere that has skiing anymore,” Eve said.

“We know what skiing is, Eve,” Blink said. 

“You said you were from back in time?”

“And that didn’t seem to surprise you too much. You were almost just interested rather than amazed that someone from back in time landed on your boat,” Pretty said.

Eve just shook her head. “Nothing stranger than the truth. Nothing shocks you more than when you have expectations.” They were now walking down a carpeted hall. There were no lights, but all of the doors were open on either side, each door leading to a different room. Some of them had napping fraisers. They walked to the back of the hallway where two doors lay.

“These are for the Shepherd and I,” Eve explained. “Others would stay with me more often, but they found that when I sleep in the same room as them, I begin prophesying in my sleep and all I do is speak what they’re thinking at that moment. They find it easier to sleep elsewhere. I also have an irregular sleep-cycle since I keep track of many different things for the Shepherd.” She led them into her room. There were three bunks, six beds total, but two of them were covered in stacked books and journals and a third was half-covered in scattered, opened books.

She closed the door behind them. “I will help you.”

Pretty and Blink looked around the room for a second or two and then back to her. “Help us?”

“The Shepherd is almost surely going to sell you once we reach Stablefield; he has no intention of keeping you here. I’ll help you escape this and find your friends as best I can, but you should know right now that if he can’t sell you into a horrible slavery and eventually a death by the hands of the Cavaliers, he’ll feed you to one of his many novis. They haven’t been eating well lately. You’re in danger.”

The Astronomers’ eyes widened. 

Pretty backed up. “Why help us?”

“I’ve been in contact with someone who promised me a gift even the Shepherd couldn’t grant.”

“Do you know this person? I thought you had been here pretty much all of your life?”

“I’m sure we can trust him,” Eve said. “Atlas Black is powerful. And he is a prophet like me, meaning he wouldn’t break a promise like this.”