The New Elite

by Sarah Noffke

  Mama glanced at Wilder before shaking her head. “No, it’s better if you don’t. If no one does. But yes, you have got to lose your rider for a bit. Adapt, Hiker. Move on.”

  Sophia drew her gaze to Wilder, studying how he fidgeted nervously and wasn’t even listening to Hiker and Mama Jamba’s discussion. He had been preoccupied all through the meeting. Now she knew why.

  He was setting off on another mission for Subner, the Protector of Weapons. She understood having to keep secrets, as she had to do when recovering the Complete History of Dragonriders or digging up information about Hiker, Ainsley, and the Dragon Elite. However, that didn’t make it any easier to be kept in the dark.

  She wanted to know Wilder’s secrets, to be a part of them and help.

  “Are you even listening, Sophia?” Hiker called to her.

  She jerked her head up, blinking to attention. “What is that?”

  He sighed dramatically. “Of course. Now I have another rider who doesn’t pay attention. I asked if you would investigate the McAfee.”

  She nodded automatically. “Yes, of course.”

  “I don’t know what is on that ship,” he went on. “And even if you are on the McAfee, it doesn’t mean you will be safe. The Pond is unpredictable.”

  “What else can you tell me about the McAfee?” Sophia asked.

  Hiker shook his head. “Nothing. It is apparently a ship that can sail on the Pond, which I have yet to see. This is all brand-new information to me, but it might have been included in the Complete History of Dragonriders. I’m not sure.”

  He gave her a pointed expression, knowing she had possession of the book. Sophia hadn’t even had a chance to crack the book open, and she didn’t think that would change anytime soon.

  “It’s a very strange ship,” Evan said, looking out the windows at the Pond. “I wonder who it belongs to.”

  “It was Quiet’s ship,” Sophia told him. “I know that much.”

  Hiker lifted his chin and gave her a skeptical expression. “How do you know that?”

  “Oh,” she said, sucking in a breath and realizing she hadn’t filled them in on everything. “Well, I saw a painting above Quiet’s bed when I was—”

  “How were you in his room?” Hiker asked. “I have never seen it.”

  “Nor ever even been in the servant's wing,” Evan added.

  “That area of the Castle is open now. I went to give Quiet the antidote,” Sophia explained.

  “So, will he be joining us soon?” Hiker demanded.

  So much had happened with the battle and Trin Currante and the egg being stolen. Sophia hadn’t had time to explain everything she had been up to. She briefly explained about Queen Anastasia Crystal and the antidote and needing to learn Quiet’s real name. When she was done, everyone was quiet for a long moment.

  Finally, Hiker turned and looked straight at Mama Jamba. “You know what Quiet’s name is, don’t you?”

  “And you know I’m not sharing it,” she answered.

  He sighed. “Of course, you are not.”

  “If that man wants to share his name, he will,” Mama Jamba declared. “It’s not my job to do so, and doing so will change everything for him.”

  “How?” Hiker demanded at once.

  She wagged a finger at him. “Oh, no. I’m not giving spoilers, you know that.”

  The Viking rolled his eyes at her. “Fine. So, the McAfee is Quiet’s ship. How did it get to the Pond, and how can it sail on those waters when I have never seen a ship out there? I didn’t think anything could survive. That has always been part of our protection for the northern border.”

  Sophia glanced out the bank of windows at the bobbing ship. It was a beautiful sight. “Which brings up so many other questions, like how did Trin Currante know that ship could get through the northern border? Or how to find it?”

  “All questions Quiet could answer for us if he was coherent,” Hiker grumbled.

  “Oh, and if we could understand a word he said ever,” Evan joked.

  “Which also begs the question of how Trin Currante found out how to bring down the Barrier or what she did to the Castle and did she do something to Quiet to make him sick,” Sophia mused, the different questions streaming through her head rapidly. That morning, she had discussed with Hiker the theory she had about Quiet being poisoned. They had started to put some things into place to ensure it didn’t happen to any of the rest of them. The strategy didn’t make Hiker comfortable, but he had gone along with it, showing some flexibility.

  Hiker chewed on his lip. “There is a lot we don’t know for sure. I want answers, and I want them soon. Mahkah, you go and research this Saverus organization. Find out as much as you can about what the company did and what happened to them and how Trin Currante could be controlling the cyborgs they created.” Hiker turned his attention to Evan. “I want you to…go and help Ainsley. She is disoriented and trying to care for Quiet and keep this place running, which is still falling apart.”

  “Sir, really?” Evan mumbled. “Help the housekeeper? You remember I’m a dragonrider, right?”

  “Barely. But Ainsley isn’t right,” Hiker said. “And you can’t really leave, can you?”

  Evan sighed dramatically. “Fine, but when this flesh wound is healed, I’m going to go on a real mission.”

  “Your spleen was filleted like a fish,” Mama Jamba corrected. “Get rest, dear Evan, or you will rupture and bleed to death.”

  It was not what the dragonrider wanted to hear, but he nodded reluctantly.

  Hiker drew his gaze to Sophia. “You know what to do. Gather clues so we can go after that dragon egg. The longer it remains outside our borders, the further from our grasp it will get.”

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Mama Jamba was waiting for Sophia when she left Hiker’s office. She had that look about her when she was up to something, which was almost always.

  “Walk with me, dear,” the old woman said, making for the stairs.

  Since one didn’t argue with Mother Nature, unless they were Hiker Wallace, Sophia did as she was told. She had been about to take off for the Pond to investigate the McAfee.

  Mama Jamba halted at the top of the stairs, which were still missing sections, the cool air from the bottom floor wafting up through the various holes. The others had tried to use renovation magic to fix the stairs or other hazardous areas. They had tried magic wherever they could to fix the Castle, but none of it worked. Before the Castle wouldn’t allow them to change things using spells, and even now it needed their help, that rule still seemed to be in place.

  Mama Jamba paused and glared down at the broken set of stairs. “Oh, this is simply getting annoying.” She waved her withered hand at the old staircase, and it was repaired immediately, looking brand new.

  “That is better,” Mama Jamba said with a sigh, gliding her hand along the railing as she hurried down. Sophia tested the first stair before following her to the entryway.

  The ancient woman swept her hands back and forth as she made her way for the kitchen, repairing furniture and putting the chandelier back on the ceiling. “I mean, I don’t like to do everything for my children, but I can only live in squalor for so long.”

  “Is this when you are going to tell me what is wrong with the Gullington so I can fix it?” Sophia asked, chancing the question although she sensed it was useless.

  Right on cue, Mama Jamba gave her a sideways smile and a wink. “Nice try, darling. No, I’m afraid I can’t give you any more help than I have.”

  “Will you at least tell me how to get Quiet to tell me his real name?” Sophia asked. “If he dies while I have the antidote, well, it just seems so ridiculous and unnecessary.”

  Mama Jamba stopped in front of the kitchen. “Honey, his blood won’t be on your hands if he decides to die rather than come out with his truth.” She looked out one of the windows running along the side of the dining hall, which looked remarkably better than it had a few moments prior. A fondness crossed ove
r her face as she stared out at the green rolling hills. “Quiet has been a very devoted servant to this place, and I would be sad to lose him. However, a mother’s job is to bring children into the world, teach them the best we can, and let them make their own decisions. Nobody should ever be forced into anything. Otherwise, the results will never be what you expected.”

  Sophia sighed, used to getting this type of advice from Mother Nature. She wasn’t sure how it would help her. She had a cure that would fix Quiet, and maybe he could figure out what was wrong with the Gullington and help fix it. He would be able to shine some light on this McAfee business. She was scared to board the ship, not knowing what she would find or if the Pond would capsize the boat. Maybe the pirates had used a special spell to get the boat to cooperate on the waters of the Pond. None of her postulating mattered because Quiet was laid up in his bed, being stubborn, not giving away any secrets, and refusing to take the antidote.

  “Mama Jamba, I know you won’t overstep boundaries in most cases,” Sophia began, deciding to try one more time. “Like you have fixed things here in the Castle for us, don’t you think, just this once, you can tell me how to get Quiet to share his name? At least give me a hint?”

  Mother Nature’s bright periwinkle eyes were piercing when she looked at Sophia. “Oh, I have always liked your persistence. It’s one of your best and most irritating qualities. But that is the thing about our children. You know what the poet, Kahlil Gibran said on the subject of children?”

  Sophia shook her head, never even having heard the poet’s name before.

  “He is one of Quiet’s favorites,” Mama Jamba offered. “One of mine too. I remember when that man was born, a new shade of rose started growing that day. Quite remarkable the things humans do to this Earth in all the right ways, wrong ones too, unfortunately.”

  Mama Jamba closed her eyes, pulling in a breath. “Anyway, Kahlil wrote a poem on children. It reminds me of you. Of Quiet.” She opened her eyes and began reciting the poem from memory:

  “You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

  For they have their own thoughts.

  You may house their bodies but not their souls,

  For their souls’ dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

  You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you.

  For life goes not backward nor tarries for yesterday.”

  “Thanks for that,” Sophia said, enjoying the poem without knowing what to do with it.

  Mama Jamba gave her a knowing look. “Oh, you are disappointed, aren’t you, dear?”

  Sophia slumped immediately, defeat tunneling in her mind and heart. She couldn’t hide the expression on her face, but even if she could, Mama Jamba would have seen through her façade. “I love poetry. I really do. But I’m not sure how that helps me right now as I try to help Quiet, and the Gullington, and recover the lost egg, not to mention defeat enemies who we know so little about. I guess I just wished you would tell me something specific, but I know you work through love and in mysterious ways.”

  “Well, like Kahlil Gibran so well said, I can give you my love but not my thoughts. And I can house your body, but not your soul.” The old woman directed a finger at the cold, dark fireplace, and flames jumped to life, filling the room with warmth and light. “Now, that is better. There was a chill in the air before. Anyway, I wanted to check on Ainsley and Evan to ensure they are getting along. Do you want to pop into the kitchen with me?”

  Sophia wanted to say no and wallow around in her frustration that her greatest assets were the strongest entities in the world, and they refused to directly give her information. Instead, she reluctantly nodded.

  Mama Jamba smiled politely. “Well, then follow me. If anything, this will be of great entertainment.”

  Sophia followed the woman to the swinging door.

  Mama Jamba pressed her backside into the door and paused before stepping into the kitchen, a thoughtful expression on her face. “The reason I can’t reveal more obviously is that I can’t tell you how to think. You have got to figure this out on your own. But also, it wouldn’t matter if I did. If you want Quiet to reveal his name, you must find that which houses his soul, and I’m not that, as the poem so accurately explained.”

  Sophia nodded slowly, putting together all of Mama Jamba’s strange words. She recognized Mama had eloquently told her what she was looking for, without doing so. She had done as she always intended and gave her children the information while letting them decide for themselves.

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  “That is not where that goes,” Ainsley scolded when Mama Jamba and Sophia entered the kitchen.

  The housekeeper was seated on a stool in the corner and slumped against the wall, her color pale and her hair dull. Sophia hadn’t seen her that day and was shocked at how much she had changed. Whatever spark the Castle had been putting in the shapeshifter to keep her alive had dimmed. Ainsley was alive, though, and that was what mattered most.

  Evan lifted a large platter and placed it on a middle shelf. “Here?”

  Ainsley shook her head. “You are messing with me now, aren’t you, Cracker Jack?”

  Hiding a grin, Evan put the platter on the floor. “Oh, I get it. You want it here.”

  The housekeeper narrowed her eyes at Evan before directing her gaze to the two women standing in the entrance to her kitchen. “He really is insufferable. I think it would be better if you just invite the sheep in off the Expanse to help me.”

  Mama Jamba shook her head, striding into the kitchen and making straight for a basket of fruit on the center aisle. “Don’t be silly, dear Ainsley. We both know sheep have horrible organizational skills. I wouldn’t so much as trust one to fold my socks.”

  Sophia was about to laugh when she realized the strange old woman wasn’t joking.

  “Okay, I’m done putting away the clean dishes,” Evan said. “What would you have me do next?”

  Ainsley appeared so listless it hurt Sophia’s heart. The elf leaned her head against the wall and looked ready to pass out at any moment. “Chop up the onion. If you use magic to do it, remember it will burn your eyes a bit more than if you used manual means.”

  The kitchen was in better shape than Sophia had seen it when she and Wilder first discovered Ainsley screaming about all the rotten food right after everything had happened with the Castle and the Gullington. Quiet had gotten sick, and Ainsley had started to degrade.

  Mama Jamba said Ainsley would be okay for a week or so if she didn’t exert herself, and she must stay in the Castle no matter what. This meant Evan would be doing all the cooking since Hiker didn’t trust any outside food sources.

  Since they had discovered Quiet might have been poisoned, all the food would be bought from extra secure sources through the House of Fourteen and prepared in house. That had been the new strategy Sophia got him to try this morning. She hoped it was the beginning of a whole new era for the leader of the Dragon Elite but didn’t want to bet on it.

  “Onion…onion…” Evan said, looking at the basket of vegetables delivered that morning through the portal connecting the Castle to the House of Fourteen. Sophia had only to send a quick message to her brother to get a crate of supplies. She explained she’d fill him and the others in on more soon, but to keep any information about the Gullington secret. The last thing they needed was Bianca Mantovani and Lorenzo Rosario getting wind of this and making a case that the Dragon Elite was a liability.

  “It’s the white orb looking thing, dear,” Mama Jamba offered, pulling a box of vanilla wafers from the pantry and opening them up. “You should make banana pudding for dessert.”

  Evan picked up the onion and pulled his sword from his sheath, a dazzling glint in his eyes. “Sure, but first, I have to chop this. Do you want it sliced, diced, or what?”

  “First of all,” Ainsley said, holding out a hand to Mama Jamba for a vanilla wafer, “if you use a sword in my kitchen t
o do anything besides slaughter demons or murderous villains I will make your life hell when I recover. Secondly, banana pudding never goes over well when I make it.”

  “No sword, huh?” Evan asked, sheathing his weapon and looking around. “How do you expect me to chop this?”

  Mama Jamba pointed to the cutting board. “Try a knife, dear.” She handed Ainsley a handful of cookies. “Maybe Evan will have beginner’s luck with his banana pudding.”

  Ainsley was not happy with this answer as she nibbled on the cookie.

  “Can I get you anything, Ains?” Sophia asked. She had never felt so helpless. Ainsley was degrading, Evan was injured, Mahkah missing a body part, and Quiet was in and out of a coma.

  The housekeeper pulled an apron from the wall and threw it at Evan. “Put this on and wash your hands, would you?” She directed her attention to Sophia. “No, thank you, S. Beaufont. I mean, if you could make this awful flu or whatever it is go away, that would be welcome. I don’t understand why I had to catch this bug at the most inopportune time.”

  Sophia nodded sympathetically and caught the knowing expression in Mama Jamba’s eyes. They both knew Ainsley had fallen ill because the Castle had been keeping her alive all this time, but the housekeeper didn’t know. Or if she did, she immediately forgot.

  Evan tied the apron around his waist, trying to be a good sport about his new job reassignment. “Okay, chop onions. Then what?”

  “Then marinate and braise the lamb chops, knead the bread and start it rising, dice the potatoes, soak the greens, make the banana pudding, and clean up after yourself when you are done,” Ainsley listed, sliding off the stool and tottering for the door.

  “Wait, what?” Evan called to her. “What did you say after ‘marinate the roast?’”

  Ainsley gave him an amused expression at the door. “You will figure it out, or you won’t. Either way, I will be there to critique your cooking as you have so thoughtfully done for me for one-hundred-long-years. I’m going to go and take a nap if I can figure out where my room is. I sleep in the basement, right?”