Magitech Rises (The Exceptional S. Beaufont Book 3)

by Sarah Noffke

  “But why?” Sophia asked. “I mean, how did you even get this position, and why do you stay?”

  Ainsley scratched her head as she thought about the question, her finger grazing the scar on the side of her head. “You know, Miss, I can’t recall. I want to say it’s because I love riders and dragons and wanted to serve the Dragon Elite, but that doesn’t sound like me. Actually, reptiles used to gross me out in my old life. I’m not entirely sure how I got here. The whole memory has faded.”

  Sophia gave her a skeptical expression. “That’s very strange.”

  “Is it?” Ainsley asked. “I guess. When you’ve been around as long as me, I think forgetting things is normal. I mean, I don’t even remember how I got this here scar.” She pointed to the mark on her temple.

  “You don’t?” Sophia questioned. “How could you forget that? It seems like it was likely a near-deadly blow.”

  She shrugged. “Probably. I don’t recall anything about it. Used to bug me all the time. All the centuries of nothing to do around here helped me to forget.”

  Sophia thought about this for a moment and decided she should catalog this information for later investigation. “So, the portal door,” she resumed, steering the conversation back to the more pressing matter. “Can you help me keep Hiker away from it for a bit? Just until I figure out how to explain it or get the Castle to cover it up?”

  Ainsley’s eyes sparkled with delight. “Oh, yes. I love any opportunity I get to deceive that man. I’ll just tell him the Castle is doing monthly construction on this corridor and he has to take the long way around to his room. It will take him an extra five minutes to get there, and he’ll grumble bitterly the entire time about it.”

  “Great,” Sophia said with zero inflection. “Then he’ll be extra mad when he finds out what I’m hiding.”

  “If,” Ainsley corrected.

  “Right,” Sophia said. “I mean, maybe the Castle will delete the portal door.”

  “I doubt that,” she sang.

  “I wonder why it even had me create this passage between the House of Fourteen and here,” Sophia mused. “Do you think it wants the members from there to be able to come here?”

  Ainsley shook her head. “No, they won’t be able to. Rules are pretty sparse around here, but one thing is certain: only the Dragon Elite and those who serve them can cross into the Gullington or enter the Castle.”

  “Oh, well, and a magical lynx,” Sophia corrected, thinking of Plato.

  Ainsley gave her a hesitant expression. “Is that why I found cat hair in the pantry? I thought the spell I used on Evan was finally starting to work.” She shrugged. “Oh, well, I’ll try a different spell. Maybe something that turns him into a toad.”

  “If no one can come here, what’s the point of the portal?” Sophia asked.

  Ainsley thought about that for a moment. “I’m guessing it has to do with magical energy sharing. I don’t remember things all that well, as we’ve already discussed, but I remember the Castle was once connected to the House or something like that. I think it had to do with energy. I mean, it appears you’ve simply unlocked a door that was probably there all along.”

  “So there!” Sophia exclaimed. “Hiker can’t be mad. It’s not my fault.”

  The housekeep cackled. “Oh, that’s cute, S. That’s real cute. Hiker can be mad on a clear day when he’s been served breakfast in bed with absolutely no problems in his life. I’ve seen him.”

  “Fine,” Sophia grumbled. “I’ll sort him out after I figure out what to do with the portal, and the Castle delivers on its end of the bargain. Maybe Hiker will be happy with me for recovering The Complete History of Dragonriders.”

  Another laugh. “You are too much. Have you thought about going into stand-up comedy like those guys you show me on the YouTube?”

  “It is just YouTube, no ‘the,’” Sophia corrected. “And you’re starting to make me think the Castle isn’t going to make good on its promise.”

  “I warned you not to go making deals with this place,” Ainsley stated with conviction.

  “I know, which was why I worded the deal just right and made it promise,” Sophia said.

  “Oh, well, if you did a pinky promise, then never mind.” Ainsley’s head tilted back as she continued to laugh.

  “I did what the Castle wanted,” Sophia argued. “Why wouldn’t it make good on its end?”

  Ainsley’s face turned quite serious. “The Castle has its reasons for hiding that particular book, and I’m guessing it isn’t handing it over just because you risked yours and Mahkah’s life and went on a wild goose chase for it. I hate to break it to you, S, but I believe you’ve been had.”

  Sophia grimaced. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because if the Castle wants you to have something, then you do. If it doesn’t, you won’t. And when it wants someone to do something, well, it makes promises it doesn’t intend to fulfill.”

  Sophia growled and clenched her fist by her side. She didn’t want to believe a word of this, and yet this mysterious, sentient Castle was the strangest being she’d ever known, and it probably shouldn’t be underestimated.

  Ainsley stretched, yawning again. “I’m going to go put up construction blockades at the end of the corridor to keep Mr. Wallace from seeing what you’ve done. You see? When I promise, I make good on it.”

  “Thanks,” Sophia grumbled. As the housekeeper strode away, her long brown skirt swayed with the movement.

  “Oh, but on the bright side,” Ainsley sang over her shoulder. “At least you got that really cool thing that sends you back in time. I’m sure you can do all sorts of fun stuff with it. I’d ask to borrow it, but I’ll just steal it from your room when you’re away on a mission.”

  “Right,” Sophia said, drawing out the word. She realized the gold token could never leave her side. She was its protector now. She’d made a promise to Papa Creola and would keep that.

  Ainsley was right. Although she couldn’t spend a lot of time in the past, she didn’t see the harm in doing a little snooping and seeing what things used to look like before the dark ages. Before everything changed for the Dragon Elite.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  After the housekeeper had left, Sophia faced the portal door.

  “Castle, please tell me Ainsley isn’t right, and you’re not actually going to go back on your end of the deal?”

  Silence greeted Sophia’s ears.

  “Right, and about this portal business you got me to do for you,” Sophia began. “You are going to fix it so Hiker doesn’t murder me, right?”

  No answer.

  Sophia crossed her arms and seethed. She tried to come up with a threat that could impact the Castle, but she couldn’t think of one. The Castle was all-powerful. There didn’t seem a way to make it deliver on the deal or get rid of the portal now that she had created it.

  Then she remembered the switch. “Oh, what if I go back to the House of Fourteen and hit the switch in the other closet in the past? I bet that would—”

  The candlelit chandelier creaked overhead. Sophia caught movement as the structure fell from the ceiling. She dove to the side, rolling out of the way just before the chandelier connected with her head.

  The fixture hit the ground with a great crash. Sophia covered her head as she continued to run, putting as much distance between her and the flying debris as possible. Bits of wood and candles were scattered everywhere, creating quite the mess. Now this part of the corridor really would be under construction.

  Sophia stuck her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at a wall. “That’s how you’re going to play, is it? You’ll just take me out?”

  A suit of armor at her back tipped forward and hovered above her, suspended in the air like it was about to crash down on her. Sophia didn’t flinch.

  “You’ll kill me to keep the portal open?” Sophia asked the Castle. “Is that right?”

  The suit of armor rocked back on its heels, and as if it had a real per
son inside, the knight lifted its large sword, brandishing it at Sophia.

  She simply narrowed her eyes, holding the gold token in her hands. Her gaze drifted to the portal door. She knew the Castle could read her thoughts and had no illusions. It realized what she was going to do next.

  Holding her breath, Sophia sprinted for the door, intending to go through it. She heard the armored suit charging after her, but she was much faster. However, as she leapt over the broken bits of chandelier, the portal door disappeared.

  Sophia felt around on the wall, looking for the handle, but there was nothing there. She heard the armored suit continuing to lumber in her direction. Thoroughly fed up with the Castle, Sophia lifted the gold token.

  “Fine, you can block me that way, but I’ve got other options,” Sophia said and flipped the coin from present day to the other side, sending her back to the reset point.

  Everything went black.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  As before, light started to sprinkle into Sophia’s vision, illuminating the space around her and allowing her surroundings to take shape. Also like before, when everything was clear, her environment was purely black and white. She was in the past again, at the reset point. However, this time she was in the Castle.

  Thinking she’d outsmarted the Castle, Sophia spun and looked at the portal door. It was there just like before.

  “Ha-ha,” she exclaimed, stepping forward.

  As before, the door vanished just as she was about to grab the handle.

  Narrowing her eyes, Sophia considered kicking the wall. “You’re being really rotten, I hope you realize!”

  There were other options, but Sophia didn’t want to even think about them since the Castle would learn what she was considering and try to stop her. More likely, try to kill her. She worked to block her thoughts with a technique Clark had taught her.

  The gold token in her hand, she readied to turn the timeline back to the present day, when a voice she recognized echoed down the corridor.

  “He’s adamant a war is brewing that will affect even the House of Fourteen,” Ainsley said, hustling through the hall in Sophia’s direction. She looked almost the same as she did in the present time, except maybe younger in small ways. Fewer wrinkles. And the scar! It was gone.

  “I fear he is right,” a man striding beside her said. Sophia had never met this man, but she felt like she had. He was none other than Adam Rivalry. She recognized him from the painting of the dragonrider that still graced the top of the first landing of the stairs in the entry.

  Just like in the painting, Adam’s long white hair hung around his narrow face. He was tall and thin, unlike Hiker, who was built like a line-backer. The older dragonrider also had a long white beard, which he was currently tugging.

  “Well, I’m not sure what we can do if the House of Fourteen refuses to listen to us,” Ainsley said, hurrying past Sophia. No one seemed able to see her in this reality either. Curious to hear their conversation and learn more about the Dragon Elite before the reset point, Sophia sped after them, the gold token in her hand.

  Ainsley wasn’t dressed in her usual plain brown clothes. Most days, Sophia found her in a long burlap-type dress, wearing clunky boots. At this point in history, she looked less like a housekeeper and more like royalty in a beautiful dress made of velvet that cascaded on the floor behind her as she moved down the corridor. Her long red hair was elegantly braided down her back, Normally Sophia saw her with it loose and frizzy, hardly looking brushed and lacking any style Around her neck and on her fingers she wore huge gems that looked very expensive and heavy.

  “I know we will have to battle Thad and his army of rogue riders soon, but I fear the biggest danger will affect the mortals,” Adam said in a conspiratorial whisper.

  Ainsley cast him a worried expression. “Why is that?”

  “Recently, I snuck away to spy on Thad,” Adam said in a hushed voice. Sophia had to close the distance to hear him properly.

  “You know Hiker told you not to do that,” she admonished.

  He shook his head. “And you know I do what I damn well please, regardless of what that man says.”

  She smiled at him despite the disapproving glint in her green eyes. “Good thing you’re his best friend, or I fear he’d have kicked you out of the Castle long ago.”

  Adam chuckled good-naturedly. “He could damn well try. Can you imagine if he ever got to be like that, simply throwing riders out of the Castle for not behaving? We’d have no one left.”

  The pair stopped at the first landing of the staircase, looking out at the entrance hall. Sophia had been so engrossed in their conversation that she hardly noticed they’d walked the distance.

  The painting of Adam and his dragon Kay-Rye didn’t hang at the top of the landing like it did in the present day. Instead, there was a rather long painting of the Dragon Elite riders, two rows of men in armor. The first row consisted of a dozen men on one knee. At their back was another dozen men, their chins held high and bravery radiating from their regal stares. Behind them was the Castle, with a rare blue sky in the distance.

  Sophia knew the Dragon Elite used to have healthy numbers, but she didn’t realize just how many riders there used to be or that they gave off such authority. They were the world’s adjudicators, Sophia reasoned.

  Ainsley and Adam looked out over the entrance hall as many of the men depicted in the painting hustled back and forth, running toward the dining hall or in the direction of the weapons room on the far side.

  They made cheerful comments to each other, their camaraderie evident as they prepared for something. Sophia could only guess it was the Great War that preceded the dark ages when mortals were disallowed from seeing magic for several hundred years. This was the Dragon Elite’s last day before their numbers were slashed and their roles as adjudicators were erased.

  “What is it you learned on this secret spy mission?” Ainsley asked Adam in a whisper.

  He leaned closer to her. “I saw Thad Reinhart meeting with Talon Sinclair.”

  Ainsley’s head whipped around so fast her braid nearly whacked Adam in the face. “Are you certain? He’s a Councilor for the House of Fourteen.”

  Adam nodded. “I realize that. What has me more worried is it appeared Thad was selling Talon something he called ‘magitech.’”

  Ainsley’s eyes widened. “What’s that?”

  Adam shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’ve heard Hiker mention it in reference to Thad. He said he had a hunch Thad was doing something with magitech but couldn’t say why.”

  “You know why,” Ainsley stated ominously.

  Adam nodded. “Of course, I do.”

  “Why?” Sophia heard herself say as she stepped closer to the pair.

  They didn’t answer her question, though. Adam continued, “I was too far away to make out everything they said, but I know I heard something about mortals being cut off from magic.”

  Ainsley’s mouth fell open. “How could that happen? I mean, that’s one of the worst possibilities. Can you even imagine?”

  Adam shook his head. “I don’t even want to fathom the possibility. It would hurt the whole world. It could destroy magic since they are the ones who keep the balance for it.”

  “Are you certain of what you witnessed?” Ainsley asked.

  Adam toggled his head back and forth. “I’m not entirely. I do believe Thad has given something to Talon.”

  “This magitech you speak of,” Ainsley stated.

  Adam nodded. “But the true implications aren’t clear.”

  “Then you can’t say anything,” Ainsley said with conviction.

  “I agree,” Adam affirmed. “I reasoned Talon could be trying to trick Thad. Maybe he’s setting him up.”

  A look of hope flickered on Ainsley’s face. “Maybe the House of Fourteen is going to join us after all.”

  Sophia wanted to run forward and tell them they weren’t. Warn them that drastic action had to be taken right away.
/>   “That was my thought,” Adam said.

  “And if you go to Hiker right now with this information, he won’t have enough details to do anything about it,” Ainsley reasoned.

  “I realize that,” Adam stated. “I think it’s better to wait and see what happens after today.”

  “Yes. Hiker is still confident he can negotiate with Thad,” Ainsley said, her eyes searching the men below as they sped through the entrance hall, excitement and tension brewing around them.

  “I hope he can,” Adam said, his voice grave. “After what I did to Ember, I’m not sure Thad will be as reasonable as we expected. I think this only ends with destroying that man.”

  “You know Hiker will have trouble doing that,” Ainsley warned.

  “Then I’ll do it.” Adam drew in a breath. “I owe him that much. I owe Hiker my very life.”

  “Thad didn’t lose it because you killed his dragon,” Ainsley reasoned. “Remember, he’s always been the bad one. He should never have lived. We know that now. We know when there are two, one must always be killed.”

  Adam took this in before agreeing with a nod. “I know. And he isn’t as powerful as he once was, so maybe he can be reasoned with. Maybe this will be swift.”

  “My only concern now is how the House of Fourteen will play into things,” Ainsley said. “That bit about Talon is curious.”

  “Keep it between us, please,” Adam encouraged. “There’s no reason to worry until after today if things don’t go well. If everything fails today, then we will investigate this magitech more fully and determine what it is and how to stop it.”

  Ainsley agreed with a nod as Adam offered her his arm. She was so different than her usually kooky self as she took his arm and allowed him to lead her down the stairs where the men all halted at the sight of her, bowing respectfully and muttering, “Good day, Ms. Carter.”

  She nodded to them and smiled pleasantly like she was a queen being led through a crowd of her people.

  Sophia wanted to run after them and warn them. Tell Adam and Ainsley that after today they wouldn’t have another opportunity. This was the reset point. It was the last possible moment before everything shifted. This was the day when Thad Reinhart and his forces battled the Dragon Elite. The leader of the Rogue Riders had appeared to have lost, but he didn’t. Thad faked his death and went into hiding, building an empire he’d later use to try to crush the Dragon Elite, the Earth, and anything precious left in the world.