Chapter 13

Akeelay

Chapter 13

Kaolin. I didn’t know what to make of him. He was a traitor, obviously, but not for us. For us, he was actually really helpful. But could I trust him? My brain said no, but my instincts told me yes.

Dossik wasn’t nearly as much of a mystery. He was a centaur. He was naturally good. It wasn’t at all as much of an issue for him.

But I had more pressing matters to deal with. We had entered the border forest. Nobody else had mentioned its nickname – the Forest of Doom. Wasn’t very creative, but I wasn’t going to argue with the truth of it. I had never been there.

About midday was when something actually happened. The first thing any of us noticed was a shadow flying over our heads. Looking up, I caught an instant’s glimpse of red. The second thing any of us noticed was the forest burning down behind us.

“A phoenix!” Kaolin shouted. “Move!”

We ran blindly away from the fire behind us. I glanced back every so often and, strangely enough, the trees didn’t seem to be affected by the fire. They were burning, sure, but they weren’t going down at all.

I shouldn’t have looked back. I stepped into a small pit and tripped. The fire, almost as if it was alive, descended upon me. I was too shocked even to scream as I stared at the red, dancing flames.

Suddenly, somebody yanked my arm and pulled me out of the way. I glanced up and was looking into Kaolin’s eyes.

Releasing my arm, he yelled, “Jitfu!” The fire dwindled and died.

“Thanks,” I said, breathing heavily.

“No problem,” he replied.

I glanced back to where Maybelle and Dossik were. They had stopped running and were looking back at us. Maybelle seemed to be breathing hard as well, but Dossik didn’t look winded at all.

“You okay?” Maybelle called.

“Yeah,” I replied. “Thanks to Kaolin.”

“Oh, um, no problem,” he said. We stood there awkwardly for a moment.

“Okay, well, let’s go!” I said, breaking the momentary silence.

We walked on, hoping not to run into any more malevolent creatures that day. I did see a seemingly normal horse running through the forest a short distance from us, and wondered if it was a klate. But we kept going.

When the sun started to set, we had dinner. With the excitement, all of us had forgotten about lunch, so we ate hungrily.

“How long should it take us to reach our destination?” asked Dossik.

“It’ll take about 5 more days,” Maybelle replied, then added, “Of course, that’s only if nothing else happens to delay us.”

“Well, with our luck, who knows? It’ll probably take a fortnight,” I said. I was always the cheerful one, wasn’t I? But it was true.

“What are we going to do about tonight?” Maybelle asked. “Set up a shield spell?”

“Sure, I could do that,” said Kaolin. “Or, you know, we could both do it together,” he added quickly. It was obvious that he knew we still didn’t fully trust him. I, for one, really did trust him, though. I felt like he was sincere about helping us.

“Okay,” Maybelle said. She got up. “Should we get started?”

They walked off a little ways into the forest, and I was left alone with Dossik. I couldn’t believe that it had only been a day since him and Kaolin had joined us. It seemed like they had been with us forever.

I thought about asking Dossik what he thought about Kaolin, but I decided against it. I would probably get something vague like, “You never know with sorcerers.” Centaurs are infamous for being really smart, but not explaining anything.

They returned after a few moments.

“Are we safe for tonight?” I asked.

“We should be, assuming we don’t get hundreds of spells thrown at us. Anything that approaches should get sidetracked and go another way.” Kaolin said.

“So anyway, how are we going to get the feather?” Maybelle asked after a few moments of silence.

That was the question that I believe all of us were thinking about, but nobody wanted to bring up.

“We should ask if we can borrow it,” Dossik said.

“But what if they say no? How are we going to get it then?”

“We’ll have to steal it,” I said, resigned to that idea. “After all, we do have a lot of magyk here.”

“I’m sure that the museum’s walls are lined with caerthin,” Maybelle said hopelessly.

“There are other ways to get things than magyk,” I pointed out.

Kaolin coughed awkwardly. “Actually, I’m immune to caerthin.”

“You are?” Maybelle asked. “I’ve never heard of that gift before.”

“Yeah, it really annoyed Lymlock,” he replied. “I used it to set the wizards free.”

“What?” Maybelle gasped. “They’re still alive?”

“You didn’t know? The rest of the wizards, the ones who had left to go defend that town that was being attacked, were captured and put in the dungeon. They were being guarded, but that wasn’t really a problem.”

“Why did you not tell us this when you were telling your story when we first met you?” Dossik asked.

“You didn’t ask,” he replied simply. “If you had, obviously I would have had to tell you.”

“But back to the problem we were talking about. You can cast a spell to get it, right?”

“Yes, but it’s harder even for me to cast spells around caerthin. It takes more magyk and is very tiring.”

“Why don’t we try the non-magyk way first?” I suggested. “Then, if we need a backup plan, you can get it or whatever if there’s an emergency.”

“That works for me,” he said. “Everybody agreed?”

“I do not know about that,” Dossik said. “I suppose it is no secret that I still do not trust you.”

“Come on, Dossik,” Maybelle said. “It’ll be fine. That’s why we’re going to try it the ordinary way first, and have him use magyk as a backup plan.”

“All right,” he agreed. “You are absolutely sure that this feather will awaken the king and queen, correct?”

We all looked at Maybelle, because she was the one who had told us about it in the first place.

“Yes,” she replied confidently.

“How did you hear about it?” I asked, curious.

“Oh, you know, you hear things,” she said vaguely.

“Wizards like to talk. It doesn’t matter if it’s important or not, they just like to spread rumors,” Kaolin said.

     “How did you know?” Maybelle asked. “That’s pretty much an exact definition of the castle wizards.”

     “Sorcerers are the same way,” he replied. “But we talk more about things that kill others, not things that are helpful.”

     I yawned. “Can we just go to sleep now? The shield will protect us even from sorcerer attacks, right?”

     “It should,” Kaolin said. “But even if it didn’t, most sorcerers wouldn’t venture into the border forest. Most normal people wouldn’t, either. Too much danger. I’ve heard there are undiscovered species in here, and the only reason nobody’s catalogued them or anything is because they’re too scared to enter. And… a lot of the ones that do… die.”

     “Well, I’m going to sleep now.” And I did, hoping against hope that nothing would happen.

     When I woke up, it was actually morning. I was amazed that nothing had happened.

     “Seems like the shield worked,” I said, my voice raspy from the long night.

     “Yep,” Maybelle said. She was already awake, and so was Dossik. Kaolin was still asleep.

     “What’s for breakfast?”

     “We could have eggs,” Dossik said. “I was looking around last night and found a nest of eggs. They seem to be about normal size, so I do not think we would have to worry about eating phoenix’s eggs or worse.”

     “Or worse? I guess an undiscovered species, but I don’t want to know what would be worse than them bursting into flames when you break them open.”

Phoenix’s eggs actually do that, even when the babies are hatching. I’ve heard that it’s interesting to watch, to say the least.

“We might as well try them,” I said. “After all, Maybelle and I only packed for two people, and magykally created food isn’t that great.”

Food is one of the harder things to create. A lot of things can be magykally created, but food rarely tastes good when it’s made through a spell. It’s not officially banned, like money, time travel, or living things, but nobody really likes to create food, unless there’s no other option.

 “Should we wake Kaolin?” Maybelle asked.

“It should not matter, as long as we return quickly,” Dossik replied.

“Hopefully nothing will burst into flames,” I said, and we went.

Nothing burst into flames, which was nice.