“What’s going on?” Simber growled as he and Florence arrived.

Aaron explained everything as quickly as he could, while Drock muttered and grumbled at the shoreline.

“A day and a half?” Florence said, incredulous. “There’s no way we’ll be ready.”

“You have to let me go,” Thisbe pleaded again. “It’s the only way to save Artimé.”

“Absolutely not!” said Simber. “Stop that kind of talk. Let’s all take a few minutes to think this thrrrough.”

Drock, Aaron, Thisbe, Simber, and Florence all went silent as they tried to collect their thoughts and figure out a plan. But Thisbe already knew what had to happen, and she wasn’t deterred. She was way more familiar with the Revinir’s tactics than any of them. And once the dragon-woman decided she wanted something, she wouldn’t stop until she had it.

Before the group could discuss anything, the Revinir’s roar pierced into Thisbe’s ears again, knocking her flat and blinding her with the same old images for several minutes. By the time her senses returned and she opened her eyes, she found that Sky had joined them and was sitting near Thisbe’s head waiting for her to wake up. A few others had gathered as well and were talking gravely through the options.

“Aaron, please listen to me,” Thisbe said, though her voice and her whole body was still weak from the Revinir’s call. “I told you what needs to happen. I can solve this and make it all go away.”

“Thisbe, I told you already. The answer is no,” said Aaron sharply. “That’s not how Artimé does things.”

“He’s right,” said Florence. “And who really believes that the Revinir will go away peacefully once she has you? I don’t trust her for a minute to just leave quietly. She’s greedy, and she has a lot of anger toward all of us after what we did to her years ago.”

Florence had a point.

Thisbe lay quietly, eyes closed, gathering her strength and hoping the dragon-woman wouldn’t roar again. The way the roar permeated right into Thisbe’s mind was frightening. That the Revinir had such control of the deadly dragons and black-eyed children was shocking. Everything was so mental with her—and the people of Artimé had no way to fight something like that.