Ultimate Resolve (The Exceptional S. Beaufont Book 12)
Page 28
“Sonnet the Hedgehog!” Lunis nearly fell over laughing. “See what I did there? You ask for hedgehog jokes and Shakespeare jokes, and you get both! More for your money. You’re welcome. Remember to tip your waitress. Try the veal. I’m here all week.”
Sophia was grateful when her phone buzzed in her pocket.
“Don’t you dare get that,” Lunis warned. “This is my time. Uninterrupted by awful people you’re related to—”
“Her name is Liv,” Sophia cut in with a laugh.
“Or dumb boys who stalk you,” he continued.
“Wilder is my boyfriend, and the stalking is mutual between us.” She held up the phone. “This is neither. It’s a message from Mortimer.”
“Oh, well, that’s okay,” Lunis stated. “He’s a cool fella. Hey, can I get a Brownie for Christmas when it comes around?”
“You recently got a hedgehog,” Sophia argued, glancing at the message from the Brownie.
“He’s such a mess-maker,” Lunis replied. “I need someone to clean up after him.”
Sophia giggled while reading the message from Mortimer, which explained that he was okay. That relieved her. However, the next parts of his message had the opposite effect.
She jumped to her feet, panic racing through her. “We might not be here for Christmas when it comes around. The whole of Scotland might be gone unless we act fast.”
Chapter Ninety-Five
“She plans to bomb the whole of Scotland?” Hiker bellowed when Sophia told him the contents of the message she received from Mortimer. It included the Rogue Riders' location, the extenuating circumstances they’d have to endure to get in there, and Versalee’s current plan to get rid of the Dragon Elite.
“Apparently, she figures that if she takes out the entire mainland of Scotland, she’ll wipe us out too,” Sophia explained, giving Mama Jamba a sympathetic look—this was part of her world after all.
“She’ll also murder five million people,” Hiker argued, thundering across the floor of his study.
“My contact said that although we need to be swift in our efforts to stop her, Versalee isn’t close to being ready,” Sophia explained. “She needs to secure enough bombs because it’s crucial to her plan that they’re all dropped at the same time.”
Hiker’s face contorted with disgust. “She’s one sick individual.”
Sophia agreed with a nod.
“I think it’s time that you share with me who this contact is who gives you insider information,” Hiker demanded. “These are serious allegations so I need to know I can trust this person.”
“It’s not a person,” Sophia stated. “And it’s not one individual. It’s thousands of them. They're Brownies and report to my contact, Mortimer.”
“The leader of the Brownies?” Hiker asked with total surprise.
“Very smart, dear,” Mama Jamba commended. “They’re everywhere and see everything. Good thinking employing them for such purposes.”
“Well, they’re Liv’s contacts, but I borrow them, and Mortimer likes helping,” Sophia explained.
“It is smart,” Hiker affirmed. “I think we can trust them.”
“And the Brownies need our help,” Sophia went on. “Specifically, Mortimer does. He’s in trouble with his union for helping Liv and me. We need to stop Versalee and prove that it was only because of his help that we were able to save the entire country of Scotland—a place full of mortals, who the Brownies serve.”
“And our home,” Hiker growled.
Sophia nodded. “We know what Versalee is up to now, and we know where to find her.”
“Yeah, about that…” Hiker didn’t look at all hopeful. “How are she and her riders able to live inside an active volcano?”
“Mortimer says that he believes it’s her dragon, Ash’s element,” Sophia answered.
Hiker’s eyes widened. “Of course. Lava. Being around it and so close to it continuously would make both dragon and rider very strong, allowing them to shield their own.”
“Then the question is, how are you all going to get in there to stop them?” Mama Jamba asked.
“Can you make the volcano erupt?” Hiker questioned hopefully. “Then when Katla spits them out, we’ll cut Versalee in two.”
“I wish I could,” Mama Jamba sang. “There are a lot of people who would be harmed by such a thing, neighboring cities and farms in Iceland.”
“Need I remind you that we’re about to get bombed?” he seethed.
“Not yet,” Sophia stated. “We have time. I have another contact who I believe can offer me some insights about how to withstand the volcano’s heat. At least, it’s worth a try.”
“Your message from Mortimer says that even if you can withstand the heat, there’s a lock of sorts,” Hiker countered.
Sophia chewed on her lip for a moment, thinking. Suddenly her eyes brightened with a realization. “I think I have a way around that too.” The information about Bellator that Subner had told her seemingly randomly came rushing back to her. It was all starting to come together. She grinned at the leader of the Dragon Elite. “As a bonus, Wilder secured a bow and arrows that shoot ice that spreads out. It’s incredibly powerful and effective, and I have to believe it will be of use in this battle.”
Hiker didn’t look as hopeful, but he nodded. “This is no longer a battle. We’ve graduated to full-out war. Whoever wins this will decide the fate of this planet.”
Chapter Ninety-Six
The music from the mariachi band that played outside the Mariasol restaurant at the end of the Santa Monica Pier wafted through the open windows along with the smell of saltwater and ocean breezes.
Sophia had to slide her way through the crowded Mexican restaurant, craning her neck to look over people to find her party. She saw Liv and King Rudolf Sweetwater sitting at a corner table next to the bank of windows with views of Malibu in the distance, the shore and the expansive ocean glistening in the sunlight.
“Oh good, our waitress is here. We can order,” Rudolf said to Sophia upon seeing her.
She lowered her chin and regarded him with a hooded gaze. “I’m not your waitress.”
“I don’t mind if the hostess takes our order. I need drinks pronto,” Rudolf said in a haughty tone. He pointed at Liv sitting opposite of him. “She bred with a loser so she can’t drink. Therefore I’ll be drinking for her. Bring me two pitchers of margaritas to start.”
“How sweet of you,” Liv said dryly, scooting over to make room for Sophia to sit.
Rudolf gave Sophia a disapproving look when she sat, as if she was slacking on the job. “I’m reporting this to your manager.” He looked around.
“Do it,” Sophia encouraged, then turned her attention to Liv. “How are you feeling?”
“Mostly fine,” she answered. “I can’t sleep, and my back aches, but other than that I can’t complain.”
“Oh, are those typical pregnancy symptoms?” Sophia asked.
Liv shot her a look of confusion. “Pregnancy symptoms? No, that’s not the reason for my insomnia and backaches. That’s because the trolls and centaurs are fighting again and I constantly have to send them to their timeout corners.” She sighed. “It’s fine. They’ll wear themselves out like toddlers after a long tantrum, and I’ll have a break.”
“And a baby,” Sophia said fondly.
“That seems like a piece of cake after the week I’ve had,” Liv admitted. “Babies are simple. Give them what they want, and they’re happy. Give a troll what he wants, and he throws a fit because he doesn’t want to want potato chips, and getting what he wants makes him all existential. They’re complex beasts.”
“It sounds like it,” Sophia agreed as the waitress trotted over.
Rudolf looked straight at the mortal and pointed at Sophia. “She’s being insubordinate and refusing to take my order or do her job.”
“Oh, really?” the waitress said, pushing her long brown hair behind her ear, wearing a confused expression. “What do you do?”
“It’s not nice to talk about your sister that way,” Rudolf scolded before glancing back at the waitress. “I’ll have two macho mega patronita margaritas. No salt. No ice. And one straw.”
“Those are meant to be shared with a few people,” the waitress explained. “And they’re eighty dollars each.”
“Oh really?” Rudolf replied. “Make it three then. But bring them out one at a time, ten to fifteen minutes apart.”
The confused waitress looked at Liv and Sophia as if they were Rudolf’s parents and she required their permission.
“Be ready to make a fourth,” Liv suggested. “The king is an expert at only one thing.”
He nodded proudly. “I’m the master of conversation.”
“Drinking. You’re an expert at getting drunk,” Liv corrected and glanced at the mortal. “I’ll have the Camacho’s nachos with chicken and carne asada. Tell the chef that if every chip isn’t touched by loads of cheese, they are being thrown off the pier.”
Fear bounding in the poor waitress’s eyes, she looked at Sophia. “I’ll have the same.”
When the waitress pretty much ran away from them, Liv tapped the table to get Sophia’s attention. “You needed me for something?”
With a bashful look, Sophia nodded. “I need you and Rudolf to go and take care of some pirates I left off the Amalfi Coast. I thought you two could take the Serena there and finish them off.”
The look of annoyance that Sophia was expecting covered Liv’s face. “So you want me to go on a mission with Captain Airhead…”
Rudolf pursed his lips. “No, silly girl. Sophia wants you to go on a mission with me. It will be fun. Just like old times. Remember when you summoned me to the Arctic to fix a glacier?”
“That was, like, last week,” Liv stated dryly.
“And there was that one time you wanted to get your caricature drawn on the Santa Monica pier, and I told you that the paper wasn’t big enough,” he said fondly.
“That happened like ten minutes ago,” Liv replied. “My cartoon butt would totally have fit on that paper.”
“Maybe,” he said doubtfully. “Yes, Sophia, I’d be happy to take my ship out there and teach some pirates a thing or two. Liv and I have fought pirates together.”
The Warrior nodded. “It’s true, and Captain Jackfruit wasn’t the downfall that I thought he’d be. He might have saved the day, but don’t tell him that.”
Rudolf leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner. “Your secret is safe with me. Do you think we can find this Captain Jackfruit? He might be useful in securing our victory.”
Sophia looked at Liv, giving her a sincere apologetic expression. “The pirates are on a ship called the Dark Echo that just left the Amalfi Coast. The captain is known as Silver Toe, and he has enough stolen treasure to fund a small country for decades. I have to go stop Scotland from getting taken off the map. Otherwise, I’d go back and take care of the scoundrels myself.”
The waitress hurried over, her face obscured by the largest margarita glass Sophia had ever seen. She had the stem in both hands and was careful not to let the lime green liquid slosh over the side as she slid it onto the table in front of the king of the fae.
Rudolf’s eyes lit up with excitement as he wrapped his lips around the straw and took a large slip, making the pool of liquid recede in the glass.
“Well, this seems like a worthy enough mission,” Liv stated. “The trolls and centaurs are probably okay with not being supervised for a day. I’ll take care of the pirates for you, Soph.”
“We,” Rudolf corrected.
Liv patted her hip where Bellator was sheathed and nodded. “Yes, that’s correct. My sword and I will take care of the pirates. Rudolf will probably sleep off lunch on the poop deck.”
“There’s something else I need to ask you,” Sophia said a bit sheepishly, bracing herself for the next request she needed to make.
Chapter Ninety-Seven
“Are you out of your mind?” Liv asked her sister when she’d told her what she wanted.
Sophia cringed a bit. “I know that it’s your sword and—”
“Keeps me alive every single day,” Liv cut in.
“I’ll keep you alive,” Rudolf offered, having finished his first margarita by the time that the two mountains of nachos arrived.
“You’re the reason that I often consider jumping off cliffs,” Liv remarked dryly.
He nodded understandingly. “I have heard that from a few hundred people.”
“Soph, you can’t be serious,” Liv began, pulling at a chip, the cheese creating a long string that connected it to its brethren. “You want me to go with this sloshed fae to the middle of the ocean on a search for deadly pirates—”
“He has a ship,” Sophia offered. “Which you will need to find these guys, who aren’t deadly. I had a meal with them, and they were sort of charming if you looked past the eyepatches and hooked hands and a lifetime of bad choices.”
“They’re pirates,” Liv argued. “They’re always deadly because they have no respect for…well, just about anything. And they don’t care if they lose a finger trying to get the upper hand.”
“Or several toes,” Sophia added.
“I, for one, think it would be impossible to get the upper hand if you don’t have all your fingers.” Rudolf held up his palm and folded his fingers down. “See, there’s no way that it can be the upper one. It’s too short without all the fingers.”
Liv glared at her sister. “You want me to go fight pirates with this.” She pointed at Rudolf. “And without this?” She then pointed at Bellator.
“I have an excellent reason,” Sophia begged.
“You have a new black dress and need a funeral to wear it to?” Liv asked, mock-seriously. “Because it’s either him or me.” Again she indicated the king of the fae.
Sophia shook her head. “It was Subner who told me that I needed Bellator.” She tilted her head back and forth. “Well, he gave me the clues, and I figured out that I need Bellator. There’s a locking spell on the Rogue Riders’ location, and I need a key.”
Liv leaned back, realization dawning. “Subner told you that he enchanted Bellator so that it could unlock hard-to-open doors.”
Sophia nodded. “Yes, and I think he intended for me to use Bellator. He sent Wilder and me on a mission to get a bow and arrow to battle the Rogue Riders. Apparently, he already knew what we’d face but couldn’t be bothered to tell me so Mortimer had to spy.”
Liv took a bite of her nachos, seeming to be in heaven for a moment. “Oh, yes, I’m all too aware of how that man knows all sorts of things that would help me out, but it apparently would kill him to tell me. Sometimes I wish it would, and he’d get the urge to gab.”
Sophia laughed. “Yeah, you two are still feuding, I can see.”
“I think it will be our thing for many, many years to come,” Liv replied.
“I know that your sword is your lifeline,” Sophia began. “I can loan you Inexorabilis for the time being.”
Liv shook her head. “That won’t work. I think the sword wanted to ensure that you bonded to it and not me. If I use it, it shocks me.”
“The same thing happens to me when I touch those small holes in the wall,” Rudolf related, slurping the last of his second margarita.
“Those are electrical outlets you fish for brains,” Liv stated before returning her attention to Sophia. “It’s fine. You can take Bellator. I’ll borrow Clark’s.”
“He has a sword?” Sophia was surprised.
“The cane that used to belong to our father,” Liv explained. “It has two hidden swords in it, remember?”
“Oh, that’s right,” Sophia said when the memory of the pure silver swords that broke apart from the intricately decorated cane surfaced.
“They’re perfect for dueling with pirates because they never fight fair and u
sually multiple ones come at you from different directions,” Liv said with confidence. “I’ll have one for each hand and can really slice and dice.”
“After you make me a salad, we’ll kill some pirates,” Rudolf said, snapping his fingers at the waitress. “Speaking of food, I’m ready for my next margarita.”
Sophia gave her sister a nervous smile. “I owe you big for this.”
Liv shook her head and unfastened the sword from her side. “Never ever do you owe me a damn thing. I once fought so that the world would be a better place for you to live in. I never realized I was fighting so that one day, you could fix this planet, but I’m so grateful I did.”
She handed over the large, giant-made sword to Sophia. “Take care of Bellator, and it will undoubtedly take care of you. I don’t have to remind you that swords have personalities and wisdom and will often save us even if we don’t wield them in battle.”
Sophia took her sister’s sword and smiled. “Thank you. I’ll bring it back safely.”
“I know you will,” Liv replied fondly. “Take down those Rogue Riders once and for all. I have a baby shower I need you to plan.”
Laughing, Sophia realized how strange her life was. Few, she believed, fought pirates and got fitted for a bridesmaid dress all in the same week. Or were required to enter a volcano and later plan a baby shower for Father Time’s warrior. However, Sophia Beaufont would have it no other way—ever.
Chapter Ninety-Eight
Sophia was that much closer to being ready for the Dragon Elite to face the Rogue Riders. Being prepared was key, and she and Hiker knew that. If they stormed into Mount Katla now, they’d be at a serious disadvantage. But she had Bellator, and that was quite literally the key to getting into Versalee’s lair. Now they needed a way to protect themselves from the intense heat in the volcano.
Sophia had to give it to Versalee—she was a smart cookie, thinking of putting her headquarters next to her dragon’s element. If the moon was always out and always full, then Lunis would be exceptionally powerful and could lend that strength to Sophia and the other dragonriders. It was the same for Wilder and Simi on a windy day or when Evan and Coral were next to a large body of water. For that reason, Mahkah and Tala were best at ground combat, although they were exceptional fliers.