---
Master Hale's mouth tightened and then let go. "Headmaster," she said, and now her tone held something like wonder, "you have not taken that word in longer than I have been here."
"I have been waiting," Snake said simply.
Fizz leaned close to John's ear. "Say yes fast," he whispered. "Then I can eat cookies faster."
John did not say yes. Not yet. He looked at the old man with the long silver beard and the hooded eyes and the small hookah that burbled like a calm creek, and he asked the only question that could make sense of the size of the offer. "Why should I trust you?"
