Page 12 of The Timeless Vigilante

“You’re wondering why they look so young for their age,” Mahkah offered, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Gen nodded.

“Mahkah Tomahawk, here, is pretty old too. He’s pushing up to four hundred,” Ainsley said proudly.

Gen couldn’t believe that, looking at the man’s smooth skin and dark hair, devoid of a single gray. “Wow, give me all your secrets.”

“You don’t need them,” Mahkah stated. “It’s mostly the chi of the dragon that keeps riders so young. We are offered a lifespan as long as our dragon’s, which can be thousands of years.”

“The thing about dragonriders and their steeds is they usually die young from battles,” Ainsley offered, a morbid tone in her voice suddenly. “Quiet and I, although not riders, enjoy the chi of the dragon since it lives and breathes in the Gullington. But also, just having magic keeps most young.”

Mahkah nodded. “Magicians have double the lifespan of mortals. Elves and fairies live much longer than them due to their relaxed manners. But I realize that although you’re new to this world, you aren’t new to the world of magic. You were a Founder of the House of Fourteen, meaning you understood the magical world better than most.”

“Well, my father and I understood it well enough to know that it needed laws,” Gen stated. “He was a visionary and saw that problems were brewing between the magical races. The gnomes and giants were fighting for land and resources. The elves were warring with the fairies for wellsprings. The magicians were stuck in the middle and so, we created the governing body that would be strict yet fair known as the House of Fourteen.”

Ainsley nodded. “And it is still going strong, bossing everyone about. It has the structure you created with seven councilors and seven warriors from seven magical families, but now there are also the Mortal Seven to keep things balanced. Great vision you and William had. You did good, Ms. Genevieve Beaufont.”

“Just Gen,” she said with a smile. “My sister apparently was Genevieve.”

Ainsley frowned. “How very confusing for you this must all be. We might have been trapped in the Castle for two centuries but we knew the world for hundreds of years before and then eased back into the modern ages when Sophia unlocked us from our cage. You, on the other hand, have been dropped on this strange playing board with the first egg, a brilliant reputation, a family legacy to uphold and well, a dragon who is making my husband’s chest tighten with tension.”

Gen leaned forward, hoping to pry some answers from the elf. “Yes, he mentioned that he knew what my dragon was, like he was something different. I know he was the first egg ever spawned and will be the last to ever hatch, but I don’t get how he’s special otherwise.”

Ainsley cut her eyes to Mahkah, a silent message between them seeming to transpire. “And I’m not at liberty to say.”

“Right,” Gen groaned, sitting back in her seat again.

“You’ll know when the time is right,” Mahkah stated softly. “We know because Lunis told us, but you must find out because of your connection when you meet your dragon. It will be more impactful that way. And still, there’s so much we don’t know, like your mission and role with the Dragon Elite. That is something only you two can choose.”

“That sounds overwhelming,” Gen said, feeling a brand new kind of stress.

“All things happen over time,” Ainsley advised in a kind voice. “And therefore, you get a chance to figure things out and adapt and grow. You don’t have to eat the dinosaur in one bite.”

Quiet grumbled, looking especially grumpy.

Ainsley smiled at him. “S. Beaufont is coming just now. Then we can eat. You know it’s not polite to start without everyone here.”

Gen turned to find Sophia striding over and although she was grateful to see her familiar face, it was covered in a very stressed expression.

CHAPTER TEN

NOT HER PROBLEM

Dining Hall, The Castle, The Gullington, Scotland, United Kingdom

Sophia strode over through the open double doors. She appeared extremely stressed, but that was probably because of Hiker’s bad mood that she had to endure. “Is this all of the people who live in the Castle?” Gen asked, motioning to the four of them.

Ainsley shook her head. “No, no. As you’ve learned, all our dragon’s eggs have hatched. Before Sophia, there were a thousand dragon eggs, spawned when the first male rider was born. Then S. Beaufont spawned the other thousand. Your dragon appears to have been the first and completely spawned on his own.”

Mahkah nodded in agreement to this. “Over the centuries, most of the first thousand riders and dragons died.”

“That’s because they were all men who fought too much and drank like fish,” Ainsley teased, winking at Gen.

“True,” Mahkah stated. “Then about forty or fifty years ago, the new eggs spawned. Half of the last batch of a thousand became Dragon Elite. The other half became Rogue Riders. It depended on whether they were deemed angel or demon dragonriders. Anyway, as is with dragons and riders, many have died out, but our numbers are fairly strong on both sides with roughly eight hundred active still. They’ve all been assigned various roles in the world and therefore many are away on missions. They only return to their homes when they need rest or new orders.”

“That must be why Hiker was so cross about me showing up and putting a wrench in his organization,” Gen related. “He said that he’d figured out the ranks and assignments and now I was going to cause him a headache.”

“Hiker was looking for a reason to complain,” Ainsley offered. “He keeps asking for a vacation, but we all know that man doesn’t really want one. He wants a problem so then he can gripe about it. He’s probably secretly being giddy in his office that you showed up, requiring him to have to rethink the structure of the Dragon Elite.”

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