“That was part of her controlling process,” said Sky, touching the scars at her throat. “The orange eyes were like a brand—like what she did to the back of your neck, Thisbe. It’s her symbol that she owns you. She came looking for Crow and me back in those early days too, after we escaped and landed here, because she said we belonged to her.” Sky paused thoughtfully. “The thornaments came about after she realized that her silence spell over the island didn’t stop humans from being able to speak. She wanted to control us and keep us from communicating.”

Drock looked up. “That was part of the reason for the muzzles on my siblings and me. Mostly to stop us from breathing fire or attacking her with our teeth, of course. But she didn’t like us communicating.”

“And now she controls minds in order to stop ordinary communication between slaves,” said Thisbe. She turned to Drock. “Tell us more. How did she manage to capture you in the first place?”

Drock frowned. He didn’t like to talk about it. But after a moment he gave in and shared about his time in captivity and how the Revinir had first captured the dragons. “We’d just arrived across the gorge, and we were hungry and innocent and looking for water so we could fish. We knew that was supposed to be our land, and I suppose we expected the people there to be good. We should have noticed there were no other dragons around—we thought we just hadn’t gone far enough yet to find them. We shouldn’t have trusted the first person we happened upon. But she gave us food, and we told her our story. Then she . . .” Drock cringed, then continued. “She told us there was special lodging in the castle for guest dragons. She went to arrange it.”

“Oh, Drock,” said Thisbe, pivoting between incredulousness and pity as the story unfolded.

“I know. We were naive. But her offer of special lodging in the castle—it sounded like a dream come true. After ten years of running and hiding from the pirates and giant eels in this world, we wanted desperately to believe that the land of the dragons was everything our mother remembered it to be. Finally we felt we were being treated properly! That’s what we thought, anyway. We didn’t know the dragons had all been driven out by the current rulers.” He grimaced, and a line of smoke rose from his nostrils. “We found out later that the Revinir had negotiated with the king to take us captive. And that together they would use us as their slaves.”

“That’s the saddest story I’ve ever heard,” said Sky. “I can understand how you were taken in because of your expectations.”