“Great,” said Florence. “Thisbe and Drock, you two see what you can come up with while the rest of us speed up the work on Alex’s old obliterate spells. I cringe to imagine what would happen if anyone makes a mistake with one of them, but that’s the only thing we have going for us in this short amount of time. I think our backs are against the wall. I wish there was a way to hold them off—even a week would give me enough time to properly put together the obliterate spell. Then at least we wouldn’t be caught flat-footed.”

“Do what you can,” said Aaron. “Even if you can only put together one component before they get here, it’ll be much better than none. I’ll go alert the blackboards and get the word out about the threat.” He seemed to deflate a bit as he imagined the reaction to the news. “This isn’t going to be easy.”

Sky gave him a sympathetic smile. “It never was for Alex, either. But at least he didn’t have the gang of dissenters to deal with. He’d be so furious about that.”

“Yes, he would be,” said Aaron, catching Sky’s eye with a hint of a smile. “I’m afraid to see what they’ll do when they hear this. I guess we’ll soon find out.” His smile faded and was replaced by a look of determination as he strode toward the mansion.

Thisbe turned to the dragon. A desperate feeling rose in her throat. “Where do we start, Drock?” she asked.

“I don’t quite know,” said Drock. “Perhaps pooling information based on our experiences will help us gain more understanding of the way she works. Then we can try to figure out how to stop her.”

“Can I help?” Sky asked them. “I’m not much use in the component-building department. But I grew up with her—she was Queen Eagala back then. She was my leader on Warbler until Crow and I escaped.”

“Oh, yes, that’s a great idea,” said Thisbe. “You probably have a lot of insight about the way she was when she had Warbler under her thumb.” But would it help them actually accomplish anything in time? Thisbe doubted it.

Knowing the Revinir was less than a day-and-a-half’s distance away was overwhelming, and it made Thisbe want to give up—there was no chance that they’d figure out a solution to this plan in so little time. But it was their only hope. The three sat together on the lawn and talked about their experiences with the Revinir, hoping for a breakthrough.