Chapter 26

Kaolin

Chapter 26

There was the click of the door being unlocked, and Akeelay and I jumped apart automatically. Maybelle came in and the door was closed and locked again behind her.

“What was that?” Akeelay asked, beating me to it. I was going to say the exact same thing.

She smiled mysteriously. “I’m pretty sure Lymlock’s going to let us go tomorrow,” she said.

“What?” Akeelay and I demanded instantaneously.

Maybelle laughed. I had a feeling that she had said it like that just to catch us off guard. It had succeeded, and I had no idea what she was talking about.

“You saw me convince that sorcerer to take me to Lymlock before, right?” she began.

“Oh!” Akeelay gasped suddenly. I swear I could almost see the metaphorical light bulb flicking on over her head. But mine was still dim, so I asked Maybelle to explain.

“Okay, so I convinced that sorcerer to take me to him, and you both thought I was insane. But while you two were gone - and you’re going to have to tell me exactly what happened eventually - I came up with a plan. Remember when I convinced Dossik to let you come with us, Kaolin?”

I nodded.

Akeelay, apparently unable to resist, said, “Her gift is persuasion!”

Maybelle looked a little put out that she hadn’t gotten to say it all dramatically, but I nodded, suddenly understanding.

“So you got that sorcerer to take you, because you knew you could convince Lymlock to let us go? That’s brilliant!” I said. “But why is he going to let us go tomorrow, instead of today?”

“Well, he was saying something like, ‘I don’t think I should let you go,’ and I couldn’t let him change his mind, and I had to come up with something quickly. So I said, I think, ‘Why don’t you think about it overnight, and then come see us in the morning?’ And if he comes, then I can get him to let us go, because he’s already been considering it.”

“Cool! This will be perfect! And then when we get out of here, we can go find Dossik, and get on with our quest.”

“Yeah! So, what happened when you went to see Lymlock?” she asked.

Akeelay and I looked at each other.

“You want to explain that one?” I asked her, half-joking.

“I was kind of out of it for a while there, so you might want to do it,” she said, giving me the responsibility.

“Okay,” I sighed, pretending to be upset. “So, what happened was Lymlock said that he had been thinking...”

“That’s a first,” Maybelle laughed.

“Which is exactly what I said,” I agreed. “So then...”

I told her the story. Akeelay kept bursting in with her point of view, but I didn’t mind.

When we finished, Maybelle said, “Well, that’s worse than mine. At least for me, I got to keep my magyk. But that’s just awful.”

“Tell me about it,” Akeelay muttered.

“Sorcerers,” the three of us said simultaneously.

“I’m glad we’re going to get out of here, though,” Akeelay said. “I mean, obviously, but can you believe it’s been less than a day since we got here?”

“At least since we woke up,” Maybelle pointed out. “We could have been here for days. I don’t know how long we were out.”

“Whatever,” I said. “It doesn’t really matter. Let’s just sleep now.”

Akeelay’s stomach grumbled. “I’m hungry. Does anybody have anything?”

“I wish,” Maybelle said. “I would be eating it.”

I hadn’t realized how hungry I was, but as we were talking, I found that I wished we had food too.

“I’m not sure...” I said. “Maybe I can - ”

I focused on my magyk for a moment. I thought I had enough, so I tried it.

“Joholqu ikel.”

Three sandwiches appeared, thanks to the “create” spell.

“Thank you so much,” Akeelay said, grabbing one.

“It might not be that great, you know how food...”

I felt lightheaded for a moment and didn’t finish Running out of magyk wouldn’t help, and I wished I hadn’t tried it. After a few moments, though, I felt a little better and picked up a sandwich as well.

It tasted pretty bad, but at that point I would have been willing to eat almost anything. Running out of magyk did tend to make you hungry.

We ate in silence, more because we were too busy shoving the food in our mouths than because we were all deep in thought.

After I finished, I was still hungry, but I would live until we got out of there.

I yawned, causing Maybelle to yawn, who caused Akeelay to yawn. We laughed.

“Let’s go to sleep,” I said. “Doesn’t seem like the light”- it was coming in through the barred window in the door -“is going to die down any time soon.”

“Probably not,” Maybelle agreed, laying down on the hard floor.

I did so too, and it was just as uncomfortable as it looked.

“At least things can’t get-” Akeelay started.

“Don’t say it,” I said. “They inevitably do.”

And with that, we all went silent and were asleep in moments.

The next morning, we woke up one by one. I awoke first, but I stayed quiet, thinking about how we were probably going to get out of there that day.

What if we didn’t, though? the pessimistic voice in my head whispered. We all were counting on being released that day, but what if we weren’t? It would be just like Lymlock to do something like that - raise all our hopes only to laugh in our faces and slam the door.

But I trusted Maybelle, and so I hoped that her powers were as strong as she thought they were. If she could convince Lymlock to let us go, what couldn’t she do?

I just hoped that it would work.