Quiet held up a hand and showed all of his stubby fingers. “Find those five things in the Castle and Lunis will get his place.”
Sophia was about to ask him to repeat this list that she didn’t catch, but the groundskeeper spun and strode in the opposite direction. His movements seemed to say, “This conversation is over.”
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Looking for something in the mysterious Castle when Sophia didn’t know what it was sounded impossible. On the bright side, she knew she was looking for five objects, but where to start and how to tell if it was the right thing, whatever it was, was more than perplexing.
Sophia wanted Lunis to have his place, but she didn’t know if blindly hunting around was a good use of her time. However, she reasoned that she had at least a few more hours of healing time in the Castle to spare so she set off for the large stone building.
Lunis sprang off the ground of the Expanse with ease, his leg not bothering him at all. He soared through the air, headed in her direction, and making quick progress. Mahkah had said that the blue dragon’s good attitude had played a factor in him healing quickly. Sophia tried to remind herself of that as she focused on her healing. The long claw marks down her back from Coal would heal all the way, but injuries from dragons could still be tricky.
“Do you need a lift?” Lunis landed with ease beside her.
Sophia chuckled. “Yeah, that would probably be smart since I have to be on my feet a lot once I get to the Castle.”
As she climbed onto her dragon’s back, she explained what she’d learned from Quiet.
“I’d help you search if I could,” Lunis replied as he flew to the Castle, making the commute in seconds rather than the many minutes it would have taken Sophia.
“I know you would.” Sophia slid down when they were back onto the ground. “But I’m sure that I’ll figure it out. There have to be some sort of clues in the Castle to lead the way.”
“Five things, right?” Lunis asked.
“Yeah, that’s the only part Quiet said that I made out.”
“I wonder what the significance of five is,” Lunis mused and shook out his wings before folding them into his body.
“Why does there have to be any significance to it?” Sophia asked.
He lowered his chin and gave her a pursed expression. “It’s Quiet. He doesn’t do anything that doesn’t have a purpose or some relation to symbolism.”
“Oh, well, that’s true.” Sophia thought for a moment. “Five…hmmmm…I don’t know.”
“Didn’t you say at one point that there were five stories to the Castle?”
Sophia glanced at the massive structure beside them. It always looked different depending on the weather or season. The light reflecting off the Expanse sometimes made the Castle appear to come alive. Visible from the outside were four stories, but Sophia knew from a few wild searches around the Castle that there was a hidden top floor.
“Yeah, apparently, but I’ve only found the fifth one once,” Sophia replied.
“Well, what if you have to find one of the objects from each floor?”
Sophia deflated a little. “That’s a possibility. But then there’s a lot of ground to cover.”
Lunis indicated the windows that looked into the sitting room off the entryway where a figure appeared to be dusting the high ceilings while on stilts. “Maybe you should enlist the person who spends the most time at the Castle.”
Sophia brightened when she caught sight of Trin using her leg extension cyborg technology to get to all the hard to reach and high places. “Great idea. I wanted to talk to her about something else too.”
“Well, there you go.” Lunis looked Sophia over. “You’re feeling better, aren’t you.”
It was more of a statement than a question. She nodded and headed up the stairs to the Castle, taking them one at a time but moving faster than she had the day before. “I’m almost back to normal, and soon I’ll be leaving the Gullington.”
“Cool,” Lunis stated. “Wish I could go with you. The dragonettes are teething and going through growth spurts, meaning they keep chewing on everything and tripping over their tails. It would be funny to watch if they didn’t keep rolling right in front of me and nearly tripping me.”
Sophia laughed. “Well, we’ll get you your place, then you can have somewhere to retreat to, away from them.”
“Thanks for doing this for me,” Lunis said modestly. “It might save my sanity.”
“For you,” Sophia winked at him over her shoulder as she headed into the Castle, “I’d do almost anything.”
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Sometimes Trin reminded Sophia of the cartoon figure, Inspector Gadget. She didn’t know if the cyborg would be entertained by that notion or offended. Trin often was very sensitive about the fact that she’d forever be more machine than human, which was understandable since it was done to her against her will.
When Trin had her legs extended, making her twenty or thirty feet tall, she especially made Sophia think of the robotic inspector who had flexible arms and tons of gadgets ready to spring out of his hat.
Like Evan, Sophia found Trin’s many capacities to be fascinating. By looking at someone, she could read their temperature, detect lies, or magnify their appearance. The cyborg also had multiple weapons at her disposal and super strength and speed. Although Sophia knew how being and looking normal was so crucial to the magician.
Lying in his usual place in the sitting room was NO10JO, who was often found close by Trin when Evan was out of the Castle.
Sophia sensed that Trin didn’t like the dog that much, mostly because he was so similar to her, having been made into half a machine. Also like her, NO10JO couldn’t be changed back into a pure dog. The other cyborgs that Olento Research had turned against their will had been “fixed,” but Trin and NO10JO were the exceptions. Ironically, they’d both found their home at the Gullington, away from judging eyes.
“Hey Trin,” Sophia began, her chin in the air as she looked straight up at the cyborg who was dusting the rafters, although she wasn’t sure why. Ainsley had once mentioned that cleaning the Castle was more about psychological maintenance than anything, offering positive feedback and thoughtful observations. But even back in the day, Sophia had seen the shapeshifting elf manually cleaning. It must have been about balance or something. Whatever it was, it remained a mystery to Sophia.
Thankfully, Trin always wore her black leather pants and top, so Sophia wasn’t looking up her dress. When Ainsley had been the housekeeper for the Castle, she always wore the same brown burlap dress. Once she remembered who she was, Ainsley went back to wearing elegant gowns, and now Sophia couldn’t imagine her in anything else. But if she’d been Trin using her extender legs, Sophia would have been looking up her dress. She giggled at the thought.
“I have a question for you,” Sophia continued when Trin glanced down at her.
The hydraulics in the cyborg’s legs hissed as she lowered herself. A moment later, she was back to her usual height.
“Hey, there.” Trin smiled at her, half her mouth metal and the other half flesh. “What can I do for you?”