by Sarah Noffke
Letting out a breath, Sophia suddenly felt lighter. “I’m just grateful we found a solution that benefited everyone and avoided violence.”
“It won’t always be that way,” Lunis warned.
“I know,” Sophia said softly. “But for this time, the people of Reerca have a future, with an economy that is sure to flourish with an incredible new export.”
“And they’ve created a viable partnership with Thealth,” Lunis stated.
“Yeah, instead of negotiating border controls, we made it so the citizens of Reerca didn’t want to emigrate.”
Lunis looked at the Pond, an eager expression in his eyes. “And two peaceful nations sit side by side, a new promising partnership about to bloom between them.”
“Right. And the rapoo population will hopefully recover,” Sophia said, remembering watching the strange creatures mine for the first time. It had amazed everyone in attendance. Well, not the corns. They simply watched protectively, eyeing the humans with skepticism. Bermuda’s presence seemed to put them at ease, and now that she had accepted her role in helping the rapoo, she and Sophia had struck a deal. It was amazing to her that solutions worked out for so many as a result of adjudicating a single conflict. It was unexpected and entirely beautiful.
“That’s what we were born for,” Lunis said, having spied Sophia’s thought.
“I’m starting to understand that,” Sophia began. “I guess I expected being a dragonrider would involve more battles than discussions.”
Lunis watched as a flock of birds crossed the Pond, a hungry expression in his eyes. “History supports your perception.”
“You’re ready to hunt,” Sophia guessed.
“That I am, but I’ll stay with you until you’re ready to go up to the Castle.”
She smiled at him. “Thank you, but I’m okay.” Her gaze caught Quiet, hurrying back from the Pond, taking the same path he had the last time she’d seen him nervously glancing over his shoulder. Similar to that last time, the gnome seemed worried that he was being followed or something.
“What do you make of his suspicious behavior?” Sophia asked Lunis.
“I think that if anyone will figure it out, it will be you,” her dragon stated. “Now, I’m going to take you up on your offer and take my leave.”
Sophia’s stomach rumbled. “Eat a bird for me.”
He shook his head. “Eat your own bird.” Lunis launched into the air soundlessly, his blue wings a brilliant contrast to the gray sky.
Sophia was surprised that Quiet hadn’t noticed them on the other side of the hill, but it was probably because he kept looking between the Castle and the Pond, missing them tucked into the rolling landscape.
Using her enhanced speed and stealth, she hurried across the grounds, approaching the gnome from the side. He put his back to her when she was only five yards away. His gaze jumped to Lunis in the sky before he swung around, his beady eyes connecting with Sophia’s.
She halted, trying to appear inconspicuous. “Hey, there—”
Her words were interrupted by the gnome snapping his fingers and making her disappear.
Sophia sucked in a breath, nearly choking on it as she teleported and landed with a thud in the entry of the Castle.
Disoriented, she swung around, trying to get her bearings and feeling like her insides had been hung up to dry before being shoved back inside her.
Suddenly she was breathless, her chest rising and falling dramatically. “Why?” she asked herself, considering bolting back out of the Castle since the groundskeeper was definitely up to something suspicious.
“Why what, darling?” Mama Jamba asked, her slipper-covered feet scooting across the stone floors. She had curlers in her hair and a perspiring glass of iced tea in her hand.
Sophia blinked at Mother Nature. “You always know what’s in my head before I do. Why are you asking when I suspect you already know what I mean by why?”
Mama Jamba laughed. “Because it’s more fun if we actually have a conversation. Otherwise, it would be quite boring around here. And I don’t actually know exactly what’s in your head. For instance, I know that you’re wondering a why connected to Quiet, but I don’t know any more than that. Similar to Father Time, I can see things, but not everything.”
“Oh,” Sophia said. “I guess that makes sense. I was wondering why Quiet keeps transporting me when I sneak up on him and what he’s hiding.”
“Well, who likes to be snuck up on?” Mama Jamba reasoned.
“I get that, but he’s suspicious.” Sophia covered her mouth, something suddenly occurring to her. “Maybe he’s hiding the Complete History of Dragonriders.”
Mama Jamba took a sip. “Or maybe he’s got stomach issues and you’re catching him hurrying to the loo.”
Sophia narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think that’s it.”
“It could be,” Mama Jamba stated. “I mean, no one wants anyone around them when they’ve got gas, and you’re trailing after him.”
“No, I think he’s hiding something,” Sophia mused.
“And why do you think he’s hiding the Complete History of Dragonriders?”
“Well, because it’s missing,” Sophia explained. “And it’s supposedly in the Gullington, and it’s the one book that the Great Library doesn’t have.”
Mama Jamba’s fingers slipped on her glass. She covered up the blunder, grabbing it with her other hand. “Napkin, Castle.”
A moment later, a napkin appeared in the air.
“Thank you,” Mama Jamba said, taking the piece of cloth and wrapping it around the glass. “Now, I think you’ve got enough to worry about. You shouldn’t be worrying about this silly book.”
“It’s not a silly book,” Sophia argued. “Much of the history isn’t in the incomplete version.”
“Naturally, darling,” Mama Jamba chirped. “Hence the name.”
Sophia’s eyes flicked to Hiker’s study at the top of the stairs. That was where she was headed next, and he’d have some tough questions to answer.
“I just feel like there’s an important reason the Complete History is missing,” Sophia stated.
Mama Jamba suddenly appeared conflicted. “I don’t like to tell those I love to avoid their feelings. However, in this case, I’d like you to focus your attention somewhere else. Not forever, but until the time is right.”
“Why?” Sophia asked at once.
Mama Jamba smiled. “It is a child’s prerogative to ask that incessant question, but it is a mother’s right to say, ‘because I said so.’”
“When will the time be right to look for the book?” Sophia asked.
Mother Nature held out her free hand and touched Sophia’s chin, her fingertips warm even though they had just been wrapped around the cold glass. “You will know. Just as your body knows when to wake from sleep or eat from hunger, you will know. Simply listen.”
Chapter Eighty
Hiker Wallace was peering out the tiny window in his office when Sophia approached. The office was still cramped, having shrunk recently, all the furniture crammed together. The bookshelves were still bare, the books having been removed by the Castle and not found, even after Ainsley’s attempts to locate them.
For a moment, Sophia sympathized with the man before her. He wasn’t from this era, and entering the modern world obviously wasn’t easy for him. He’d lost so many in the five-hundred years he’d been on the planet. And she knew that he desperately wished the Dragon Elite was the way it had been, but there was no looking back.
And worse for the leader of the Dragon Elite was the newest realization that the last of the dragon eggs and the total of the dragon population mostly resided within the Gullington. Ten dragons. That’s all that they knew they had.
However, for as much sympathy that Sophia had for Hiker, she also knew that he wasn’t always trying hard enough. It was always one step forward and two back with him. He wanted to embrace the modern world but refused technology. He wanted the Dragon Elite to ta
ke back their roles as adjudicators but dragged his feet when it came to missions. And he was definitely hiding something, but what she didn’t know was why.
Clearing her throat, Sophia stepped into Hiker Wallace’s office. “I think I know why the Castle is punishing you,” she said, striding into this study and halting just in front of the Viking.
He turned, a tired expression on his face. “Because it’s a deranged old building whose only pleasure is to annoy me?”
She shook her head. “Because you’re keeping secrets.”
Hiker visibly stiffened. “Maybe. I have a lot of secrets. That’s the role of a leader.”
“Important secrets,” Sophia added. “Things that we should know about. Things that affect the dragonriders and what we’re out there facing.”
“Look, Missy.” Hiker strode to his desk, picked up a piece of paper, and then dropped it. “I’m responsible for the lives of many. It may not be as many as the Dragon Elite once had, but I’m still responsible for you and the men. And now that our role as adjudicators has returned, I can’t allow you to be privy to everything. You may not like it, but that isn’t my concern. It’s keeping you alive, which means guarding knowledge.”
“Good speech. However, I disagree,” Sophia argued.
“Of course, you do,” he growled.
“Yes, guarding information is important, but I think telling us Thad Reinhart was a dragonrider is pretty important too. Furthermore, I think hiding that knowledge could get us killed.”
Hiker’s gaze fell to the floor for a moment. “How did you hear about that?”
“So it’s true,” she stated, her eyes narrowing with defiance.
“Answer my question.”
“It’s in the Forgotten Archives,” she answered. “There is a list of riders from before the Great War. You are on it, and Adam. Imagine my surprise when I saw Thad’s name.”
“I don’t really want to.” Hiker nodded, running his hands through his blond hair. “You have access to that text through the House of Fourteen, I suspect.”
“I suspect it’s in the Great Library too now, but that is irrelevant. Why didn’t you tell us?” Sophia asked. “Do the other guys know?”
He shook his head. “And that is what is not relevant.”
“Not relevant?” Sophia exclaimed. “Mahkah is still recovering from near-death after going to one of Thad’s facilities. One of his magical tech jets killed Adam. Evan and I were nearly killed recovering those dragon eggs. We are looking at a war with Thad Reinhart. He’s the reason this planet is in flux. I think pertinent details like the fact that he was a dragonrider should be shared.”
“But you’re not the leader of the Dragon Elite, are you?” Hiker questioned.
“No, I’m just a young, inexperienced woman who knows nothing about this world, except that you’re covering something up.”
He narrowed his light eyes at her. “What happened with your adjudication case? Why are you back so soon?” Hiker asked, obviously wanting to change the subject.
“I finished it,” she stated, folding her arms over her chest.
“Finished it?” he questioned. “How?”
Sophia sighed dramatically. “The impoverished nation will soon be wealthy. The other nation will be partners with them. A species of animal is now looking at avoiding extinction. And the unicorn hybrids didn’t kill me.”
For a long moment, he studied her before letting out a long breath, relaxing slightly. “I’ll need a full report on that. I want every single detail.”
“I’ll email it over,” Sophia shot back defiantly. “What’s your email address again?”
He picked up a piece of blank parchment and thrust it at her.
“What do you want me to do with that? Make you a paper airplane?”
He growled. “Write down your report. You know full well that I don’t have email, nor will I ever.”
Sophia sighed, taking the piece of parchment. “Fine, but you could at least try to embrace technology.”
“Because some pain in my ass says so?” he fired back. “That’s not how it works.”
“Seriously,” Sophia began, “Thad Reinhart was a dragonrider. We should be addressing that.”
Hiker stormed to the other side of the room, his boots clomping on the floor. “There’s nothing to address. He had a dragon. Thad was one of the corrupt ones. There’s one or two in every batch. He got out of control. Something happened to his dragon and we thought that we killed the man himself, but obviously we didn’t. And he’s adapted.”
“Adapted?” Sophia asked. “He owns several major corporations. He has magical tech. He’s—”
“I’m aware that he weathered the storm better than most dragonriders during our blackout,” Hiker interrupted.
“What happened to his dragon?” Sophia asked, realizing he kept talking about it in the past tense. It made sense to her that if this global leader was running corporations, it was because he didn’t have a dragon, something that would keep him grounded to the Earth rather than sitting high in a skyscraper, as she pictured Thad Reinhart doing.
“She was killed,” Hiker said, a new bitterness surfacing on his face. “It was an accident, but irreversible. After that, Thad went on a rampage.”
“Oh,” Sophia said, her heart suddenly aching at the thought. She couldn’t imagine living without Lunis. And actually, she didn’t think it was possible. “I thought that our lives were tied to our dragons’. How can he still be alive if his dragon is dead? In the Incomplete History of Dragonriders, it says that when one dies, the other quickly follows for one reason or another.”
Hiker nodded. “That’s the way it has always gone. I don’t know how he’s lived all this time without her. Thad must have figured out a way around it. He is obviously a master with magical tech. I’m guessing he found a workaround.”
“And you’re certain the dragon is dead?” Sophia asked.
Hiker bit his lip, his eyes distant. “I’m certain of it.”
“Because you were there,” she guessed.
“It’s not important,” he said, shadows of ghosts dancing in his eyes.
“Are there other relevant details you’re keeping to yourself?” she dared to ask.
“You don’t know what’s relevant,” he argued. “That’s my job.”
“I just want to be able to trust you.”
He studied her for a long moment. “In my day, leaders didn’t have to earn trust. Riders followed them simply because they’d earned that title. But you seem to be from this generation, which thinks I have to prove something to you.”
“What’s wrong with that?” she asked.
“It’s against everything I’ve ever known,” he boomed.
“But the world is different from what you’ve ever known,” she argued.
Hiker shook his head. “We aren’t discussing this anymore. And you won’t tell the others about this Thad business.”
“Why?” Sophia questioned.
“Because I said so,” he fired back.
She shook her head. “You and Mama Jamba…”
“We know what’s best, kiddo.”
Anger rose up in Sophia, making her want to stomp her feet and yell, but that would only reinforce Hiker’s point, so she tried to breathe through the fury.
Hiker thundered back over to his desk, picking up a folder. “You finished your case, and as promised, I’ll allow you to go after the only dragonrider I can locate.”
“What? You will?” she asked, shocked. Was Hiker trying to get her to forget about this Thad Reinhart business? Was he bribing her? Or was he simply a man of his word?
“Well,” he said, drawing out the word. “I’ll have to review the case you just finished, but it sounds like, despite my concerns, you solved it effectively enough, finding solutions for more than just the two related parties.”
“And no one got hurt,” she added.
He cut his eyes at her. “Sometimes, someone needs to get hurt.”
“Maybe,” she fired back.
“There’s a lot that I don’t understand about you, Sophia Beaufont. But the way you work your cases isn’t one of them. I’ll give you that. You’re a good adjudicator, but you have much to learn.”
“So do I have to complete my training before going after this lone rider?” she asked, taking the file.
He shook his head. “No, we don’t have that kind of time.”
Sophia rolled her eyes. “Hey, I’m back before the others from my case.”
“My point,” Hiker began, “is that I don’t think you need to complete your training for this particular case. As far as I can tell, this lone rider is simply that. He’s a loner, living away from society and of course, other dragonriders. He might be a bit inept with social cues, but we may be able to fix that over time. I don’t remember much about him, but I’m willing to give him another shot if you convince him to return to the Gullington.”
“So, you want me to persuade him to come back and give us another chance?” Sophia asked, thinking that sounded fairly easy.
“I want you to use your instincts,” Hiker corrected. “If he doesn’t seem stable, then you are to leave him. If he does, he can follow you back to the Gullington. Without you to guide him, he won’t be able to find it since it is lost to those not welcomed by the Dragon Elite. But firstly, you must assess the situation. If he isn’t right, we will cut our losses and figure things out on our own.”
“What does that mean, sir?” Sophia asked, sensing a new tension in the Viking.
Hiker let out a long breath. “As far as I can tell, this is the only rider left.”
“Besides Thad Reinhart?” Sophia clarified.
He nodded. “Yes, but Thad doesn’t show up on the Elite Globe, which might mean others don’t either. This is the only one I’ve been able to locate. His name is Gordon Burgress.”