Keeper of the Lost Cities Story; The Lost Secret

Chapter 30

Kai props herself up against the tree to see Mr. Forkle, Elwin, Tam, and a floating cloak running to her. Kai tries to speak, but her voice is drained.

"Kai are you okay," Tam says as he approaches her. His face looks pale as he looks down at her foot.

"She certainly is not okay," Elwin mutters, but Kai decides to ignore that for the time being and she points to her throat and shakes her head.

"What?" Tam asks.

"She can't talk," Elwin says snapping a light orb around her head and neck. "It looks like you've lost your voice,"

Kai nods to confirm.

"You lost your voice?" The floating cloak asks. Kai doesn't even want to know what is up with that whole situation. "How,"

Kai just shrugs and points to her throat again.

Talk to me through this, Mr. Forkle transmits, making Kai jump.

'The Neverseen took me,' Kai thinks. 'You can look at my memories, but it's not pretty,'

Thank you, Miss Behar, I am so glad you're safe

Kai isn't sure what Forkle is thinking while he goes through her brain, all she can think about now is how much pain she is in.

Elwin is rubbing some kind of ointment on her skin, but every touch hurts.

"I'm so sorry Kai, but this is going to help," Elwin says.

His finger brushes a really sore spot, making Kai scream out in pain. Tam quickly grabs her shoulders to keep her from falling over.

"We need to get her to the Healing Center," Elwin says, "And without her fading,"

Forkle snaps out of his trance quickly. "We'll need to each wrap some of our concentration around her,"

Kai groans softly as Tam and Elwin lift her to her foot. Her other one lifted off the ground.

"Here goes nothing," Tam says as Mr. Forkle holds up his Pathfinder to go to Foxfire.

The leap feels normal to Kai, so she is hoping that it hasn't made her injuries worse. As they appear at the front entrance of Foxfire Kai immediately falls, making Elwin and Tam rush to catch her.

"Kai!" Linh says running to us. She has tears streaming down her face. "I'm so glad that you're okay,"

Tears spike Kai's eyes, she can't talk, but she wouldn't have been able to express her gratitude anyway.

"She can't talk," Elwin says.

Linh chokes on a sob. "Oh my god,"

"Tam do you think your levitation is strong enough to take her to the Healing Center," Elwin asks.

"Umm, I think so," Tam says at the same time that Linh says, "I can help,"

"Perfect,"

Kai feels her body being lifted into the air. It is a weird sensation when she's not controlling herself. She begins to float through the door.

"Keep her leg steady," Elwin says when Kai begins to hold her ankle.

It takes a while for them to twist through the hallways to get to the Healing Center and Kai is about ready to pass out when they get there.

"Hold on Kai," Tam grunts. The twins look tired and strained from levitating.

They float through the door, but Kai's eyes are already closed. She feels her ankle throbbing, but otherwise, she feels numb. She hears the voices in the room, but she also can't hear them at the same time.

"Just sleep Kai," A voice tells her.

She smells the sweet smell before it's poured down her throat. Kai coughed and choked on the liquid, she didn't want to taste the sedation but the darkness still came down onto her. She feels herself fade into the darkness of her consciousness.

The next time Kai wakes up, she doesn't hear any voices but when she opens her eyes Fitz and Sophie are staring into each other's eyes. It is very awkward to watch them.

"Okay," Sophie says, "Somehow we got sidetracked. We're supposed to be figuring out what to do about meeting with Fintan,"

They are meeting with Fintan? Kai wonders why they would meet with that murderer.

"Right," Fitz says. "So... maybe we should test where we're at. We could count to three and each says which way we're leaning. See if it syncs up,"

Kai tries to sit up but groans. Her body feels so sore that she can barely move.

"Kai!" Sophie shouts.

Kai sniffles in response, she's still not sure if she can talk or not.

"Kai, you're awake," Elwin says rushing to her side. He snaps a ball of light above her head. "Hmm, your head looks okay... does it hurt?"

Kai shakes her head. Her body feels sore and her ankle throbs, but her head feels fine.

"Oh Kai, you should be able to talk again,"

Kai clears her throat and tries to talk.

"Ye-yeah," Kai's voice is raspy, but her throat doesn't hurt anymore. "It doesn't hurt,"

"Good good," Elwin says. He snaps his fingers again and floats an orb around her ankle. "Okay, Kai. Thankfully, you weren't hit as hard as Sophie or Fitz, but you do have an echo. We're not quite sure what the effects of it are, but it could be bad."

"Oh," Kai says. "Ho-how long have I been asleep?"

Fitz grimaces, he'd been asleep for a while.

"Okay, it's not as long as you're thinking," Elwin says. "It's been about four days,"