by Sarah Noffke
Mama Jamba glared at the dish before bringing her attention to Sophia again. “Magicians do control the elemental force of wind. And some magicians…” She gave Sophia a very pointed look. “Well, their emotions and internal turbulence can be so great they quite literally influence the weather conditions when they aren’t aware of their feelings.”
Mahkah, who had been sitting quietly at the table, glanced up. “Is Sophia influencing things because she’s so powerful or because she’s not harnessing her powers correctly?”
Mama Jamba shook her head. “Neither, dear. It’s because she has an internal state she’s not aware of, and it’s manifesting outwardly as the wind.”
Sophia grimaced. “I don’t think so. I’m fully aware of everything going on inside my head.”
“What about your heart?” Mama Jamba challenged.
Both guys whipped their heads around and waited for Sophia’s response.
“What about my heart?” Sophia asked, wishing they were having this conversation in private.
“Well, I think safe to say the tumultuous winds are a result of some emotions in your heart you’re conflicted over but aren’t even aware of,” Mama Jamba imparted.
Sophia shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m fairly aware of my emotional state and have no heartache.”
Mama Jamba held up a finger. “Oh, but I didn’t say heartache. That would be a different weather pattern altogether. Possibly rain if you were an elf. I think you have feelings you’re unaware of and don’t know what to do with.”
Wilder gave her a serious expression, clasping his hands together in front of him on the table. “What are these feelings, Soph?”
She shook her head at him as she took a seat. “I don’t have feelings.”
Wilder whipped around to face Mahkah, a mock expression of surprise on his face. “She’s a robot! I knew it.”
Ignoring him, Mahkah said, “I won’t comment on the feelings, which are none of my business—”
“Thank you!” Sophia exclaimed.
“However,” Mahkah continued politely, “I will say the dragons are having difficulty negotiating through the air during training due to these high winds.”
“So, Soph needs to figure things out, is what you’re saying,” Wilder declared.
“Sophia needs to do whatever she likes,” Mahkah replied. “I’m simply stating a fact.”
Mother Nature ran her hands over her hair again. “I vote for some meditation and therapy.”
Wilder looked at Mama Jamba. “Can’t you do something about the winds if it’s bothering you?”
She gave him an offended expression. “That would be a gross misuse of my magic, dear. I created this Earth and the elements upon it and much else. You don’t see me trying to live life for you too, do you?”
Wilder’s eyes slid to the side with indecision. “No...”
“That’s because a mother creates, but she doesn’t dictate,” Mama Jamba instructed. “If I intervened every time one of my children took over the weather patterns, well, I’d never get my beauty rest.”
Evan came into the dining hall, whistling casually. Stopping a few paces from the table, he pointed at the covered dish. “What’s that?”
“Food,” Ainsley answered, bustling back through the kitchen door and carrying a large bowl of white rice.
“It doesn’t smell right,” Evan whined, taking a seat with a skeptical expression.
“You don’t smell right, but you don’t see me pointing it out,” Ainsley fired back.
Evan rolled his eyes. “I believe you just did.”
Hiker wore the same cautious expression when he entered and took his usual seat at the head of the long table. The riders all nestled at one end together, leaving the other twenty-some-odd seats empty.
Sophia couldn’t imagine the dining room table full of dragonriders. She wondered if it would happen in her lifetime. It was hard to say since it was unknown when the dragon eggs would hatch or if they’d have riders. So many unknowns. She wondered if that was what was silently affecting her heart.
“I need you to review an email I got to see if it’s spam or not,” Hiker told Sophia as Ainsley hurried back from the kitchen with a tray of flatbread.
“I can do that,” Sophia answered, happy the old Viking was using the computer and checking his email.
“What’s spam?” Wilder asked.
“Things we don’t want,” Hiker answered.
“Like Evan?” he joked at once, winking at the other rider.
Evan shook his head. “I get no respect.”
“Why do you think it’s spam?” Mahkah inquired.
“Well, I’m not sure,” Hiker began. “There’s just something off about it, but it’s from this Nigerian prince.”
“It’s spam,” Sophia said at once.
“You haven’t even looked at the email yet,” Hiker argued.
“It’s spam,” she repeated.
“But it—”
“Spam,” she interrupted. “Don’t reply. Don’t give him your account information. Just delete.”
Hiker shook his head. “How do you know these things?”
“I get out,” she replied. “And I was born in the last century.”
Evan was the first to lift the lid off the mystery dish to eye the contents. “What is this?”
“Food,” Ainsley replied once more.
Hiker gave her his usual annoyed expression. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“It’s a curry dish,” she answered. “I thought it would be fun to mix it up a bit.”
“I don’t like things mixed up,” the leader of the Dragon Elite seethed, already unhappy about the meal before even taking a bite.
“No, you like the same boring food prepared the same way for hundreds of years,” Ainsley pointed out, her hands on her hips and her voice full of frustration.
“I think a bit of change is great,” Mama Jamba sang as she ladled the curried meat onto her rice.
“Thank you,” Ainsley said, curtsying and holding out her brown dress to the side with both hands. “I got the spices from a new vendor at the market. I thought I’d experiment with them.”
Evan fanned steam from his face as he peered down at the plate he’d prepared. “Is it a bad sign it’s burning my nose before I’ve even taken a bite?”
“It might be a tad bit spicy,” Ainsley admitted.
The fork clattering to Hiker’s plate made everyone’s heads jerk up. “A tad?” He grabbed for the water goblet and drained it.
Sophia dipped the tines of her fork into the sauce and licked it. Immediately she copied Hiker, grabbing for her own water to quell the fire in her mouth.
The others, including Mama Jamba, pushed their plates away.
“What is your problem?” Ainsley asked, her voice shrill. “It’s perfectly good.”
“It’s inedible,” Hiker complained.
The shapeshifter pointed to the gnome, who was shoveling the curry into his mouth. Sophia didn’t remember seeing him come in, but he was small and strangely stealthy. “Quiet likes it!”
“Quiet has an iron stomach and breathes fire,” Evan said, his eyes wide as he watched the groundskeeper finish off a plate of the food and go for seconds.
“Oh, well.” Mama Jamba tapped her plate and made the food disappear. “I guess I’ll just eat rice and bread. It will humble us.”
“I don’t want to be humbled,” Hiker grumbled. “I want meat and potatoes.”
Ainsley pointed to the kitchen. “Then, by all means, go make yourself something to eat.”
“That’s your job,” Hiker growled.
Mama Jamba smiled and tore a piece of bread in two. “Oh, this reminds me of the beginning before spices had crossed over from other regions. We often ate plain rice and bread.”
“When was that?” Wilder asked as he chewed on his own piece of plain bread.
“Before you were born,” Mama Jamba answered. “Well, before any of you were born. Simpler
times then.”
“I live in the present and would like the food of this century,” Hiker said with a seething stare directed at Ainsley.
The housekeeper looked at Sophia. “Then ask her to get you some Taco Bell from Uber Eats.” She hurried for the kitchen, her nose high in the air.
“You’re fired, Ainsley,” Hiker called after her.
“Thank you, sir,” she called from the door. “Would you like chicken or lamb for dinner tomorrow?”
“Lamb would be fine,” he answered at once, not missing a beat.
Chapter Twelve
Sophia tightened her cloak around her neck as she walked through the Castle. She wasn’t used to wearing the garment inside, but it was quite drafty with the high winds outside whistling through the walls.
“Can’t you shut up the cracks, Castle?” Sophia asked, holding the collar of her cloak around her neck and shivering. Nothing got into her bones more than the chill of the wind.
The Castle could install electronics inside of itself even though it didn’t have electricity, it could redecorate on a whim to play pranks on Evan and even hide an entire fifth story, and yet it couldn’t seal up the cracks.
“Figures,” Sophia muttered to herself as she found the door for the portal to the Great Library.
She pulled out her phone and checked the time. She was a little early for the appointment she’d set up with Trinity, which gave her an extra moment to consider the wind business again. She shook her head. That was the last thing she wanted to think about. Her gaze fell on the closet door on the other side of the hallway, the one that led to the House of Fourteen, where she was headed after getting the book from Trinity.
Unfortunately, after finally getting the Complete History of Dragonriders back, she wouldn’t have an opportunity to sit down and read it. She’d promised Hiker she’d visit the House and make an announcement from the Dragon Elite to the Council. She was grateful she had the role of diplomat to the House of Fourteen, but it was a strange burden for her. She didn’t think the Councilors would ever see her as anything but little Sophia Beaufont. They didn’t see her as a fierce rider who adjudicated over worldly affairs but as the small girl who used to play ball in the hallways a few years ago.
“Maybe that’s what is weighing on my heart and creating the wind,” she wondered aloud to herself.
“That isn’t it,” Ainsley said, appearing out of nowhere.
“What?” Sophia asked as the housekeeper breezed by without stopping. “What are you talking about?”
“The wind.” Ainsley turned about to face Sophia and walked backward. “You’re causing it, but not because you’re conflicted over how those who used to know you see you now.”
“What? Well, then what is it? And how do you know?” Sophia asked. She was accustomed to taking advice about her life from those who shouldn’t know anything about her.
“Because the Castle told me,” Ainsley explained, still walking backward and getting farther away. “It’s more about how the new people in your life see you, and how you see them. How you feel about it all.”
“What?” Sophia asked and followed the shapeshifter. “Can you explain?”
Ainsley halted and threw her hands down, annoyed. “If I have to explain to you what’s in your heart, then you have much bigger issues. Sit, think, and feel on it. You’ll figure it out.” She turned and then spun right back around. “Or, here’s an idea. Go on an adventure. All things come to light when you’re risking your life for something.”
Sophia grimaced at the housekeeper. “Thanks, Ains. I think I’ll just go and hang out with a skeleton and collect the rarest book in the world instead.”
Ainsley shrugged. “Suit yourself. You’re so boring and predictable.”
Chapter Thirteen
The door on the other side of the portal clicked right on time, signaling it was unlocked so Sophia could enter the Great Library.
She pulled back the door in the dark closet and was assaulted by the stream of light that fell on her from the library. The long banks of windows, filled with Tanzanian sunlight, ran the length of the room and seemed to go on for miles. It would take someone years to explore every inch of the Great Library. The only one she was aware of who had read all its books was Trinity, the librarian, and he was an immortal being who was literally just bones.
“Welllll, hellllo,” the skeleton said.
Sophia smiled at the librarian who looked like he’d jumped out of a Halloween movie with his skeleton smile and whimsical style. He always seemed on the verge of doing a tap dance, his clackity bones making a pitter-patter sound.
“Hi, Trinity. How are you?”
He clapped his boney hands together. “It’s another fun day in the Great Library. Thousands of books were added to the library today, so I will be kept up all night reading.”
Sophia couldn’t help but laugh at his enthusiasm. It was infectious. “Do you really read every single book that comes in here?”
He nodded, his neck making a low squeaking sound as the joints ground together.
“Every single book written comes to the Great Library?” she inquired, still astounded by how incredible the Library was.
“Yes, the very moment it’s completed,” he answered.
“But what about editing?” she asked.
He began to walk, a silent cue for her to follow. “Oh, all updated versions are automatically incorporated into the book. It’s magic, obviously!”
Sophia giggled. “Obviously. Do you have any favorites?”
The skeleton threw his arms wide to the shelves towering all around them. The Great Library was two stories filled with endless volumes of books. The windows showed the sunlight on either side of the arched ceiling as it reflected off the crystal blue waters of the ocean.
“I have so many favorites,” he began. “It depends on the genre. Fantasy, science fiction, thrillers! Oh, and then there’s non-fiction! The best stories can be found there.” He stopped abruptly and turned as a podium rose from the floor. Sitting on top of it was a large book she recognized and had only seen once.
Trinity held out his hand. “Like in your book, The Complete History of Dragonriders. I found quite a few tales in there. Things fiction authors would love to steal for their own riveting stories.”
“You mentioned in your letter you put the lock on the portal between the Great Library and the Castle because of something you learned in the book,” Sophia began. “Can you tell me what it is?”
Trinity didn’t launch into his answer right away. Instead, he tapped his phalanges against his jaw as he thought. “I guess you’ll find out soon enough when you get to the middle part of the volume.”
Sophia eyed the huge book with doubt. “I wouldn’t bet on it. I really don’t have a ton of reading time, to be honest. Any information you can give me will be appreciated.”
He glanced over his shoulder to where the portal door was located and the lock hanging off the side, unlatched. “Actually, this whole thing reminds me you shouldn’t stay long. I need to lock up things. It really is for the best. Just in case.”
“Just in case of what?” Sophia inquired.
“Well, I’ve suspected this for a long time. When the Castle is connected to other things, it is influenced by them,” he started and then paused for effect. “Do you know what that means?”
“Does it mean the Great Library will take on sentient aspects too, responding to the thoughts and whims of its patrons?” she questioned.
He shook his head. “Good guess. Think of the Castle as a major organ in the human body. The things it is connected to, like the Great Library, are other less vital parts of this system. If something were to happen to the Castle, it would affect the things it’s connected to, as a heart affects the blood and smaller organs in humans.”
“And vice versa?” Sophia asked.
“No, actually,” Trinity disagreed. “You would think, but that’s what surprised me. The Castle is stronger than the Great Librar
y and the House of Fourteen, which I now understand it must be connected to as well.”
“Why do you suspect that?” Sophia asked, curiously and then added, “Although you’re absolutely correct.”
“Because in order to open a portal to the Great Library, the first one must be established at the House of Fourteen,” Trinity explained. “It’s a network of systems, like a section of highways. You can’t get here without taking the interstate from the House of Fourteen. Does that make sense?”
“Not at all,” Sophia grumbled, feeling overwhelmed.
“Well, then take my word for it,” Trinity said with a laugh. “The book explains it much more succinctly than I did, but it is also much more complex. I’ve studied all the world’s sciences and magical laws, and this one is quite intricate. Like a combination of quantum physics and advanced magical theory. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
“Which is why it’s in a giant book that can’t be duplicated and went missing for a long period of time, I’m guessing,” Sophia mused.
“Right you are, S. Beaufont!”
“What you’re saying in essence is, the portal to the Great Library couldn’t be opened until the one to the House of Fourteen was established, right?”
“Correct,” Trinity chirped.
“Are there other portals that could be opened from the Castle?” she asked.
“Quite possibly,” he agreed, rocking forward on his feet and back again.
“Can you elaborate on this whole Castle being the vital organ business and why that would cause you to put a lock on the portal door between here and there?” she questioned.
“Yes,” he affirmed. “It’s really just a precaution. Although I don’t have any reason to suspect, I concluded that if something happened to the Castle, it could infect things it is connected to.”
“What would happen to the Castle?” Sophia worried.
“Nothing and possibly everything,” Trinity stated matter-of-factly. “As I said, it’s just a precaution. But the Dragon Elite are in a pivotal time. It’s a great time for you all to take back your rightful roles and reign. I’m excited as anyone, but I fear enemies will come out of the woodwork if you will allow me to use such a cliché.”