Chapter 12

Chapter 12

They instantly reacted, all jumping to their feet. Except the centaur, who was already standing. The wizard cast a shield spell, the centaur just glared at me, the girl pulled out a knife. What use would that be against magyk? I wondered.

I raised my hands as if in surrender and sat down, leaning against a tree trunk.

“Who are you?” Akeelay demanded, looking shocked. Was she in charge, then? And did she remember me?

“My name is Kaolin,” I replied.

“What are you?” the wizard asked, more curious that accusing. She had obviously noticed my gray-striped aura.

I sighed, grateful for the question.

“If you ask Lymlock-“ they stiffened visibly at the sorcerer’s name, which I had expected - “I’m a traitor. If you ask me, I’m an ex-sorcerer who wants to join you.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Akeelay asked incredulously. “This is all some kind of trap planned by Lymlock, I’m sure.”

“I think he would prefer that,” I replied, half-smiling at the memory of him getting so angry.

“Verita,” Maybelle said, pointing at me. “Now,” she said, sitting down as well, “tell us your story.”

And I did. Not that I actually had a choice. The truth spell that she had just cast forced me to tell it. But I would have done so anyway, because I wanted them to hear it, so they could trust me.

“And so,” I concluded, “I decided to come find you, so I stole a pegasus and came. I was able to find you because Akeelay ran into me a while back.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that. He seemed strange - oh, sorry, no offense.”

“I was always strange for a sorcerer. Even my family has mentioned that on multiple occasions,” I assured her.

“Maybe you were always meant to be a wizard,” the wizard suggested. “You were just born into the wrong family.”

“Maybe,” I said. That was a curious idea. “What are your names?” I gestured to the wizard and the centaur, but Akeelay answered first.

“I’m Akeelay, but apparently you already know that. This is Maybelle and Dossik.”

“Nice to meet you all,” I said, really meaning it. Of course, I had to mean it in order to say it. The truth spell was still in effect. Remembering this, I turned to Maybelle. “Could you remove the truth spell?”

“Why?” she asked, instantly suspicious. “Is there something you’re hiding?”

I sighed. Evidently, the road to truly earning their trust would be long. But I was prepared to travel it.

“No, I just don’t want to have to tell the truth all the time. If a sorcerer comes along and recognizes me, I can at least lie and pretend to be trying to capture you. As long as he isn’t looking at auras,” I added as an afterthought.

“Of course, Lymlock will probably spread the word about your betrayal,” Dossik said.

Akeelay started laughing, trying to suppress it. We all looked at her. Between spurts of laughter, she got out, “I keep trying to imagine how he looked when he found out about what you did. You actually said that you wanted to see how angry he got?”

“Yes,” I answered, grinning at the memory. That was one of the best times during the whole adventure, seeing him so enraged and so unable to do anything about it. However, I sobered quickly, realizing that against a good shield spell, I was just as helpless. I really had to learn some self-defense without using magyk.

“So, can I join you then?” I said, addressing the topic that everybody seemed to be skirting around.

The other three all looked at each other.

“I say no,” said Dossik. “Although he may be a wizard, he is just barely one. He was a sorcerer and would likely have no problems if he ever felt the need to switch sides. He has nothing truly tying him to our side.”

“I think he should join us,” countered Akeelay. “After all, he knows a lot about the castle, and he’s told us that it seems like Lymlock would rather kill him than us, so he’s getting just as much out of this as we are. There’s safety in numbers, after all.”

“So it comes down to me?” Maybelle asked. “Thanks, guys.” She laughed. “Well...I don’t know. Maybe we should give him a chance. Sorry, Dossik.”

“I believe that we will regret this in the near future. However, it will be fine if he travels with us and helps us for the present.”

“It’ll work out fine,” Maybelle said. “Let’s just trust him for now, okay?”

“All right,” said Dossik. He still looked unsure, but he wasn’t frowning anymore. He looked kind of confused, actually. It was strange.

During all of this I was just kind of standing there uncomfortably. Have you ever felt how awkward it is when other people are deciding your fate (or even something less important)?

“I won’t let you down,” I promised. “Now, the spell?”

“All right,” Maybelle sighed, pretending to be annoyed. I had a feeling I would like these girls. The centaur, I wasn’t so sure about. “Isir!”

I felt the release spell negate the truth spell instantly, and I sighed in relief. People who have never had any kind of spell on them don’t understand how constricting it is, even a simple one like that. It almost hurts your throat, being unable to say anything that isn’t entirely honest.

But enough about that. We walked through the forest, in the same direction the others had been walking, I assumed, for days.

I finally thought to ask, “So where are we going anyway?”

“Melzult,” Akeelay replied. “To a magykal artifacts museum, to get a feather that will wake up anybody asleep because of the same kind of potion that Lymlock used on the king and queen.”

That wasn’t what I expected. Actually, I didn’t really know where they were going, but that wasn’t what I had expected.

“That’s a really good idea. Thank you so much for letting me help.”

She looked at me, presumably trying to determine whether I was being sarcastic or honest. I shrugged, implying it was true. She grinned at me.

We walked. It was boring.

Night fell, and I realized that I didn’t have a sleeping bag like the others. Well, Dossik didn’t have one either, but he was a centaur. I conjured one quietly, but couldn’t get to sleep for a long time. I was thinking about what Maybelle had offhandedly said earlier, about how maybe I was supposed to have been born a wizard. Could that be true?

Was this my destiny?

That sentence does sound strange, even to me as I’m writing it. Before I started this quest - really, before meeting Lymlock - I didn’t believe in destiny. But Lymlock convinced me to join him. It didn’t sound quite right for me, but my sister Argil joined him, and my parents got me to go with her.

My older sister has never had any trouble being a “normal” sorcerer. But me, on the other hand...

I finally fell asleep.

I woke up at the familiar blast of a spell. Only magykans can hear the sound of a spell, and most don’t even register it anymore, it’s such a normal occurrence for them. I’ve always noticed it, though.

I popped up, ready for action. I found myself facing three sorcerers, one of whom happened to be Argil. She brushed her curly black hair, so like mine, out of her eyes and glared at me.

“I hear the rumors are true, then, little brother,” she said spitefully, throwing the last two words at me like a curse.

“Depends what rumors,” I replied, readying myself to cast a quick spell the instant the conversation stopped. While I spoke, I glanced around at the others. Akeelay was standing on my left, holding the same knife she had grabbed the day before when we had met. Maybelle was on my other side, also preparing to send a spell out. Dossik was strangely absent.

“The rumors about how you’re a traitor and need to be killed as soon as possible,” she said. “Sensih!”

She aimed the unconsciousness spell at Akeelay, and I was too slow to react with a shield spell. I watched helplessly as Akeelay lifted her knife to block it...and jumped in surprise as she expertly reflected the spell at Argil.

Maybelle and I shot simultaneous spells at one of the other sorcerers a moment after that, taking care of him.

The last sorcerer glanced at his fallen companions and shrugged.

“Tarka!” he shouted before we could do anything. He seemed like he was about to say more, but Dossik leaped out of the patch of trees behind him and trampled him to the ground, either knocking him unconscious or killing him instantly.

“Wow,” I said. “That worked out better than I expected. We’re a good team.”

Maybelle and Akeelay smiled at each other like they were sharing an inside joke.

“You took out that first sorcerer,” Maybelle said, and they both laughed.

“That first sorcerer was my sister,” I said. They looked at me, startled.

“This might sound weird,” Akeelay said, continuing with, “but I keep forgetting that you used to be a sorcerer. You just seem wizard-ish to me. Does that make any sense?”

“It does to me,” Maybelle replied. “It’s just, I don’t know, like I can be comfortable around him.”

Akeelay seemed like she was about to reply, but stopped. She had a strange expression on her face.

But I didn’t think about that for long, because the first hints of dawn were starting to appear over the horizon.

We ate some breakfast and then left.

It was midmorning before we started to see the tips of trees in yet another forest. But this was no ordinary forest.

“This is-” Maybelle started.

“We’re-” I began at the same time.

“Go ahead,” I said.

“This is the border forest,” she finished.

“We’re almost there,” I confirmed. “But we have to be careful here. This forest is infamous for having all sorts of magykal creatures, from both kingdoms. We have all the dangers of unicorns and pegasi with none of the assurances of knowing that’s the worst there will be.”

“Kaolin is right,” Dossik said. “We ought to proceed with extreme caution. This could be very dangerous.”

“Right then,” Akeelay said. “Let’s go.”

We stepped into the forest, with its deep green foliage and slightly off colors. After a few beats when nothing happened, we all visibly relaxed. It was obvious that we each had expected something awful to happen the moment we entered. I had thought that I was the only one who felt that way.

“We are going to continue heading in the same direction we have been travelling, correct?” Dossik asked.

“Cor-I mean, right,” Maybelle responded.

We walked. None of us were very eager to keep going. We were all hesitant to take the lead. It was kind of a strange way of walking, but it worked. It was actually a while before anything happened.

But when it happened, it was big.