by Sarah Noffke
Hiker cleared his throat and directed a pointed look at Mother Nature.
She scrunched up her shoulders. “Oh, right. My apologies. Hiker, this is your office and your meeting.”
He nodded, looking around at the riders. “Take a seat.”
“But we shouldn’t make ourselves comfortable?” Wilder dared to ask, a hint of mischief in his voice.
“This isn’t your bedroom, so no,” Hiker answered at once.
“Copy that,” Wilder replied, not taking a seat but instead remaining rigid.
Sophia shook her head at his playful act and slid down on the sofa next to Mama Jamba, hoping to get the meeting started.
“I agree,” Mama Jamba said to her. “Let’s get down to business, Soph.”
Hiker cut his eyes at the two women.
Mama Jamba shrugged, pulling out a nail file from the pocket of her velour suit and beginning to work on her long nails. “Again, my apologies, Hiker. Your meeting. Please run it how you see fit.”
He nodded, resuming his pacing. “Yes, I will.”
Hiker picked up a report on his desk and ran his eyes over it. “I think there are a few cases worldwide that we should start with to make our roles as adjudicators known more widely.”
“I thought we were going after Thad Reinhart,” Evan interrupted.
Hiker lowered his chin. “Well, we will, once I know where to look for him or his dealings.”
“Doesn’t she know?” Evan asked, pointing at Mama Jamba.
Sophia shook her head at him. “It’s not polite to point.”
“You tell him, Soph,” Mama Jamba said, running her file across the tip of her nail.
“Oh, I forgot it’s the runt’s job to teach us all manners,” Evan said with a sigh.
“As I was saying,” Hiker began again, “I haven’t been able to pinpoint where to start our search for Thad Reinhart. The facility north of here, which I believe was part of one of his operations, has since been deserted with no leads. I believe that by intervening in these cases around the world, it will draw Thad out. Once he gets wind that the Dragon Elite are back, he will come after us.”
“How do you know?” Evan asked.
“I know,” Hiker said with confidence. “Which is why it’s more important than ever that we be ready. War is imminent.”
“Which is why most of us have been training,” Evan said, looking straight at Sophia. “While some of us have been getting pedicures.”
She ignored him, waiting for her moment to reveal the information Mae Ling had told her.
“Sophia is well aware that she needs to finish her training,” Hiker stated. “Which is why when the three of you go on these cases I’ve gathered, she will stay behind and train with Lunis.”
“What?” Sophia bolted forward. “But I should—”
The murderous expression Hiker gave her made her halt.
“I should go to the House of Fourteen,” she amended, sitting back again.
“Because?” he asked.
“Because they are the ones who asked us to find Mama Jamba when their seers saw events that would need her attention,” Sophia argued.
“So?” Hiker continued to question.
“So, it might be helpful to give them a status update and see if there is any information they can offer us on Thad Reinhart, now that we know he’s behind the evil they were seeing,” she explained.
Hiker considered this for a moment.
“And working with the House of Fourteen, rather than on our own, will help us to maximize our resources,” Sophia continued, persuasion laced into her tone.
“Smart thinking, little lady,” Mama Jamba commended. “I like it when others work together, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Hiker shot Mama Jamba an impatient glare. “I’m not sure that’s the best use of your time, Sophia.”
“Well, then can I go look into this?” Sophia asked, holding out her hand, a file on the Nathaniel facility on Catalina Island materializing. She’d gotten up early to research it. There was definitely something shady about the top-secret area that deserved their attention. She’d been able to find a few aerial shots that suggested weapons of mass destruction were being housed there.
Hiker yanked the file from her hand, a skeptical glare on his face. He opened the file, his eyes growing wider as he flipped through the folder’s content. “How did you find this information?”
Sophia looked sideways at Mama Jamba. “I went and got my nails done.”
An abrupt laugh fell out of the squirrel’s mouth that was sitting on the empty bookshelf.
Everyone turned to look at the strange creature with its paws over its mouth as it continued to giggle. The squirrel turned and looked behind itself as if everyone in the room was looking at something behind it.
“Ainsley,” Hiker said, his tone punishing.
The housekeeper morphed into her normal willowy appearance, sitting on the cabinet, her legs crossed. “Hello,” she said to the room before looking directly at Mama Jamba. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Mama Jamba winked at her. “And yours, Ainsley Carter.”
“You know that you’re not supposed to be in here during meetings,” Hiker scolded Ainsley.
“Which is why I was in disguise,” she said, scooting off the cabinet and striding for the door.
Hiker shook his head before returning his attention to Sophia. “In all seriousness, tell me where you got this information on this Nathaniel facility.”
“She told you,” Mama Jamba answered for her. “Nail salons are wonderful places to get information. People there talk, and if you listen, you can learn things. Should I schedule a pedicure for you, Hiker?”
He gave her an incredulous glare. “Of course not! I simply want to know where Sophia is getting this information. I want to talk to this person who told you about this place.”
“Oh, no,” Mama Jamba stated, shaking her head. “You see Mae to get your nails done, or you don’t see her at all.”
He scoffed, thoroughly offended. “I will not go to a nail salon!”
“Then you’ll have to rely on Sophia to get this information,” Mama Jamba stated, turning to face her. “And as a bonus, you’ll get pampered. Maybe next time she can give you a new hairstyle.”
Sophia grabbed at her blonde locks. “What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Nothing, dear,” Mama Jamba said. “But a little more poof might be fun for a change. Big Dallas hair is my new favorite thing.”
“What are you two talking about?” Evan asked.
“Enough,” Hiker cut in. “I’m going to this Nathaniel facility while you three—”
The look Mama Jamba gave him apparently cut Hiker off.
“Right,” he said with a growl. “As your leader, it would be best for me to assign this to one of you.”
Mama Jamba nodded proudly and continued to file her nails.
“And since I found the case,” Sophia offered, a hint in her voice.
“Then you’ve done quite enough,” Hiker stated right away.
“But I’ve already gone into one of Thad’s facilities,” Sophia argued. “I know about the magical tech that he uses. I’m familiar with—”
“But you haven’t finished your training, and you went to that facility without my consent,” Hiker cut in.
“Oh, burn,” Evan whispered loudly.
“You had kicked me out of the Castle,” Sophia argued.
“Regardless of how things happened, neither you nor I are going to this facility,” Hiker stated. He turned his attention to Mahkah. “As our most seasoned rider, I trust you can do reconnaissance on this.”
Mahkah nodded, taking the file from him. “Yes, sir. I’ll report back to you with what I learn.”
“And the rest of you will go on adjudication cases,” Hiker said, looking back at the others.
“So I get to go—”
“Except for Sophia,” Hiker amended, making her deflate.
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br /> “But sir—”
“I think,” he began, interrupting her again, “that you’re right about sharing information with the House of Fourteen. If you found this tip getting your nails done, then it might be good if we keep communications open with the House.”
“And who said that an old dog can’t change,” Mama Jamba said under her breath, inspecting her polished nails.
“What was that?” Hiker barked.
“Nothing,” she chirped in reply.
“But when you return, Sophia,” he continued, “you will finish your training. There will be no cases for you until you’re completely ready.”
“Which only took me about a hundred years,” Evan offered. “So good luck, girl.”
“Thanks,” Sophia said, hoping it didn’t take her a hundred years to pass her training.
She needed to be out there, solving disputes, finding the bad guys, and making the world a better place. But she also needed to follow Hiker’s orders, or he was going to kick her out again and set them back more. They may not see eye to eye on all things, and that was okay, but they needed to mostly get along, or finding solutions for mortals’ disputes would be impossible.
How could they solve other’s problems if they couldn’t solve their own?
Chapter Nine
It was strange that although Sophia had been born and raised in the House of Fourteen, it didn’t feel like her home anymore. Maybe it never had. Once she felt the comfort that the Gullington gave her, she knew the difference.
In the entryway, she halted, staring at the golden passage dazzling with the ancient language of the Founders. She couldn’t understand what it said even as she ran her hands over it, making the symbols dance.
Liv could read the language because she was a Warrior for the House of Fourteen, but to Sophia, it was gibberish.
“You’ve returned,” Plato said, materializing beside her as she strode down the corridor.
The lynx hardly spoke to anyone but Liv, but lately, he’d been a bit more open to her. It was strange to find him there without Liv, but popping up randomly was definitely his thing. It was like he wanted to spook those he visited, but it hadn’t worked on Sophia that time.
“Of course I’ve returned,” she stated, turning back to the long corridor and appreciating the elegant beauty of the entryway. It was different every time she saw it, morphing to accommodate whatever was going on in the House of Fourteen at the current time. “Why wouldn’t I?”
He flicked his tail back and forth. “Someone worries that with your new position, you’ll abandon the House altogether.”
She sighed, having sensed this. “Well, you can tell her that I’d never do that.”
The feline scoffed at her. “I was referring to Clark. I read his journal last night.”
Sophia would have laughed but she knew he was being honest. “The Dragon Elite are used to existing separate from the rest of the magical organizations, but I’m trying to change that.”
“Spoken like a true Beaufont,” he said proudly.
Something occurred to Sophia and she halted, looking down at the black and white cat. “You knew my parents, right?”
He arched a skeptical eyebrow at her. “I’ve paid my debt in full. I’m no longer under obligation to—”
She waved him off. “No, I’m not sure what that’s all about, but I have a different question.”
He studied her for a moment. “Your mother’s favorite color was gray-blue.”
“The same as Liv’s,” she stated.
“Your father’s favorite book was The Great Gatsby,” he continued.
“Also the same as Liv’s,” she affirmed.
“And they both listened to way too much folk music.”
Sophia laughed. “Thanks for the insights. But actually, that’s not what I was wondering about.”
Plato’s mouth twitched. “Well, I’m not sure what else I can offer.”
Sophia wasn’t like Liv and Clark, deeply connected to the family she’d lost. Of course, she missed Ian and Reese, her older sister and brother, but that was because she remembered them. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember her parents, and strangely she thought she was better off for that. She had witnessed the dull ache in Liv and Clark’s eyes when they recounted memories of their parents. Sophia didn’t have that. Instead, she had a void where her parent’s memory should have been.
That wasn’t even the problem for her. It was the sword at her side, Inexorabilis. It was her mother’s sword, made by a very talented elf. It held the memories of her mother, and it had the benefit of years of battles. But unless Sophia bonded with the sword entirely, she wasn’t going to be the best fighter she could be. She and Lunis had figured that out recently and concluded that to complete her combat training, she was going to have to bond to the sword. She wasn’t entirely sure how to do that.
Before she could expand, Plato’s eyes slid down to the sword, where her hand had fallen absentmindedly. “You need to bond to your mother’s sword,” he guessed.
She blew out a breath. “No wonder Liv keeps you around. You’re good.”
“She keeps me around mostly because she can’t get rid of me,” he answered.
Sophia laughed. “I doubt she’d want to ever do that.”
“Ask her that tomorrow when she finds out what I did to her favorite sweater,” he said coyly.
“What did you do to it?” Sophia asked.
“I made it into a bunch of different sweaters,” he replied.
“Well, that sounds nice,” she stated.
He tucked his chin, appearing guilty. “For mice…”
“Oh, well, thankfully, Liv is forgiving.”
Plato gave her a curious expression. “We are talking about Liv, as in Olivia Beaufont, right?”
“I won’t tell her that you called her that,” she said.
“Thanks. That would be for the best.” Plato continued to walk beside her. “Now, your mother’s sword. What do you want to know so you can bond to it?”
“Well, what do I need to know?” Sophia asked.
He shrugged. “It depends on the sword. See, unlike Liv’s sword, Bellator, which was created for her, yours was created for your mother Guinevere. That means it bonded to her and is keeping allegiance to her, maybe believing that she’s coming back and it shouldn’t lose its loyalty.”
“But she’s not,” Sophia said, strange hope in her voice.
He shook his head. “I’ve seen a few return from the dead, and your mother is definitely not a candidate. I’m sorry.”
She nodded.
“My point is,” Plato continued, “that Inexorabilis won’t bond to you until you convince it that your mother is gone and not coming back and that you are the rightful heir and should be trusted.”
“How do I do that?” Sophia asked him.
“Well, it might seem a bit impossible,” Plato said, disappointment in his voice.
“Why?” she asked, sharing his tone.
“Well, for starters, you’re going to need an expert in weapons who can read the past experiences of your sword,” Plato explained. “I would recommend you see the person who created your mother’s sword, Hawaiki, but she’s taken a long worldwide voyage with her dragon, Indikos, and I suspect she’ll be hard to find since she’s constantly on the move. Unfortunately, I’m pessimistic that you’ll find a weapon’s expert, as I’ve explained. They are extremely rare.”
Sophia smiled, thinking of Wilder and his ability to see all the experiences a weapon has had. “I might actually know someone.”
“Of course you do,” he said with a sigh.
“So if I can somehow locate this person,” she began slowly. “Then what do I do?”
“Then you murder them and extract all their blood so that you can start the ancient spell of unlocking.”
Sophia rolled her eyes. “Seriously, what do I do?”
He huffed. “My jokes don’t work on you either.”
“Maybe C
lark,” she offered.
“Oh, he loathes my jokes. Always thinks I’m serious until I burst out laughing in his face.”
Sophia rolled her hand forward. “Go on then. Tell me what you know about this.”
“Fine,” he said as they made it to the end of the long corridor. “Once you travel the globe and find this rare person, then they need to hold your mother’s sword and find the moment when she bonded with Inexorabilis and do something quite impossible but necessary for you to proceed.”
“What is it?” Sophia asked.
“They have to erase that moment when she bonded to the sword,” he explained.
“What?” she said in shock.
“Inexorabilis can’t bond with you as long as it is bonded to Guinevere, even if only in memory,” he stated. “So in a way, you’re setting it free. It will remember all their battles, but then once that bonding memory is erased, it will be open to bond with you.”
Sophia nodded, taking in everything he said. “Okay. That doesn’t sound that difficult.”
Plato halted, shaking his head at her. “It’s not that which is difficult, Sophia. It’s that when you erase that moment from Inexorabilis, you erase it from the world. Whatever your mother did when she bonded to that sword will change. It will be undone.”
“Which means…”
“It means your first act after bonding with Inexorabilis will be to fix whatever you undid,” Plato offered.
“Is it possible that she simply cut a bunch of firewood when she bonded to the sword?” she asked, scrunching up her shoulders with uncertainty.
“Maybe,” he stated. “But it’s more likely that she freed hundreds or fought and slaughtered an ancient beast. So…”
“So I’ve got my work cut out for me, don’t I?” she asked.
“If you want to bond to that sword, you have to do something that probably took your mother years to accomplish,” he stated.
Sophia nodded. She needed to finish her training. There was no other option. And she didn’t have years. Which meant she had to work fast, but more importantly, smart.
Chapter Ten
Even though Sophia had entered the Chamber of the Tree before, it still felt like trespassing. She wasn’t a Warrior or a Councilor, and they were the only ones allowed inside the holy chamber. Her dragonrider blood changed all of that, giving her access to places most weren’t allowed.
