“Oh, look, the thief has to face her punishment now.” He shook his head.
Her run, the pain of the stitches in her back opening up, all her errands, plus the mental weight of all the things she would’ve done right then if she had the headspace had depleted Sophia. Normally, Sophia would have disabled the guy. Put him in restraints. Made him pay. Instead, she felt weakened by her circumstances. By her disadvantages. By everything.
She froze.
“You stole everything from me.” The guy’s angry look made her heart hurt.
“I didn’t—”
“You shut your mouth,” he interrupted. “It was your kind. You know it. You all ride your dragons and think you own this world. Think you own us. And if we fight, then we have to answer to your dragons.”
“No, they’re supposed to be extensions of us—”
“Weapons,” the guy interjected and held up a menacing hand.
She heard running feet. The mob had found her. First the angriest, then the rest. They’d tie her up and take retribution for what the Rogue Riders had done. The sad part was, there was no way out for her. Lunis was busy since she’d sent him off to look at paint samples, hoping that he’d get excited about a new apartment in the city, knowing she was trying to surprise him with a place at the Gullington. Any other help was too far away.
Sophia was depleted. She was weak. More than that, she was tired of stupid people like the Rogue Riders, and they were going to win. They would take her down indirectly. There was nothing she could do about it, and that’s what would kill her. Defeat itself would be her undoing, and that was the worst part of all.
“You used your dragons to intimidate us,” the guy continued, “We couldn’t fight back when you took everything from us. Because of that, I have nothing.”
“It wasn’t me!” Sophia yelled with her hands high in the air in surrender.
“Like you, I’ll shoot first and ask questions later—”
A clear and loud pop rang through the air, and the guy facing Sophia fell and landed on his face. On the other side of him, like an angel cast in a beacon of light was Lee from the Crying Cat Bakery. She held a gun of sorts, except that it looked much different than any firearm that Sophia had ever seen. It was larger and bulkier, like something that a Ghostbuster would sport.
The assassin baker lifted the weapon slightly as she spied the guy on the ground and smiled.
Her eyes connected with Sophia’s. “Don’t worry. It’s a tranquilizer gun. I know you don’t like to kill.”
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Lee kicked the body as the sounds of approaching running footsteps came closer. “You’d better get out of here.”
Sophia’s heart was still racing. She was ready to be taken out by the magician, defeated by a fellow magician, and totally demoralized by her kind—the dragonriders. But then Lee had saved her.
“You…” she said in awe of the baker assassin.
“I don’t like most,” Lee began. “But come after my friends, and I’ll come after you.” She shouldered the weapon that Sophia had never seen before. “I know you’re good, Soph. I’ve known it from the beginning. Why do you think I work with you when I’d rather shoot most?”
“Not sure how to respond to that.”
“The world has it wrong about you, apparently, but only you can set it straight.” She turned and looked over her shoulder. “Only you can tell them like it is, and something tells me the time isn’t right.”
Sophia nodded. “If I talk now, I’ll sound like I’m one of them, trying to spout my agenda.”
Lee nodded and turned while shifting the large gun to hold it ready as if she were about to blast whoever came around the corner and send them into a nice nap like Jerk MacFace lying on the pavement. “Yeah, you can’t. Instead, you have to do what you do and play the long game. Take down the bad guys and hold up their heads to prove they weren’t you in the end.”
Sophia grimaced. “Yeah, no thanks.”
“Or however you choose to do it. But do it, Sophia Beaufont, because one thing is clear to me—”
Sophia heard the sound of running feet approaching faster. She opened a portal and paused. “What’s that?”
“The world will crumble if you fail.” Lee held the gun ready as a mob of angry magicians, gnomes, and giants rounded the corner. “So go and do what you do best and save that world you love so well. Don’t worry. I won’t hurt them.”
“Thanks, Lee.” Sophia stepped through the portal, grateful she had such good friends, even if they were deranged.
Chapter Eighty-Nine
The air in the House of Fourteen wasn’t much different than what Sophia had felt on Roya Lane. She didn’t feel welcome there as she stepped into the Chamber of the Tree and felt the judgmental stares from the Council. She was used to defending her position in the Dragon Elite, but usually because she was in a higher position of authority that the House had resisted. Now, they were mad at her for different reasons.
“Do you want to explain yourself?” Lorenzo Rosario challenged as Sophia entered the Chamber and strode to the front.
She wanted to ask if there’d be refreshments since she was a little thirsty after her run through Roya Lane but decided that would only invite more rude stares. Instead, Sophia lifted her chin and glared at the high bench of Council members.
Some were good: Hester DeVries, Raina Ludwig, and Sophia’s brother, Clark Beaufont. Then there was Lorenzo Rosario, Bianca Mantovani, and Marty Martinez, who undoubtedly cast their votes for selfish reasons. Finally, because nothing could be easy, Haro Takahashi was the swing vote. He was a toss-up, and Sophia still didn’t know how he went. Sometimes it seemed like he voted for the Council's good and sometimes it seemed like he was influenced.
Right then, it appeared that almost everyone on the Council had it out for Sophia, her brother included.
“I don’t have anything to explain,” Sophia began. “As of recently, I’ve been defending the mortal world by clearing it of devilish creatures unleashed by Nevin Goosemen. Then straight afterward, I’ve been tied up with helping the elves get their homelands back, which I’m still working on.”
Sophia heard Liv stir behind her and could have sworn that the movement echoed of the advice, “Hold down the snark, would you?”
Coming from Liv, that spoke volumes.
However, Sophia reasoned that she spoke the truth.
“Dragon Elite Beaufont,” Hester DeVries began, always a kind and reasonable voice, “we’ve been inundated with cases of dragonriders who have robbed magicians, stolen property, vandalized, threatened personal harm for noncompliance, and burned down homes. We sent our Warriors out to protect these magicians, and they took harm in the process.” The councilor pointed at a Warrior who Sophia recognized as Trudy DeVries, Hester’s sister, a kind woman who was also a seer although few knew that about her.
On the tall Warrior’s face was a long burn mark that was badly blistered. Although Hester was a healer and probably had helped, Sophia knew that a dragon’s fire was harder for most to heal, even those with magic, which made matters worse for the healer.