Thisbe and Drock joined the group on the shore of the giant crab island. A bit later, Ibrahim and Clementi learned of the gathering and came with Scarlet in her skiff. Back in Artimé, Florence got Seth and Carina and a few others working on the obliterate spell. Once the chaos was somewhat controlled, she walked along the sea bottom to Karkinos to help the ones there.

After a couple of anxious hours, they still had no quick solutions other than the obliterate spell. Every now and then Aaron rose to look anxiously toward Artimé. “The crowd along the shore seems bigger.”

They could faintly hear the chanting from the dissenters.

Simber paced the shore. “Theirrr numberrrs have been incrrreasing everrry hourrr,” he growled.

“I don’t care,” said Aaron recklessly. “Let them shout until their voices are gone. We’ve got more important things to worry about right now.” He scratched his head and turned to gaze at the group with him. “We might want to hide Thisbe.”

“What about Drock?” said Thisbe. “He’s in just as much danger.”

“He can defend himself,” said Aaron.

“So can I,” Thisbe argued.

Simber, who had stationed himself on the edge of the crab island to watch Artimé, shook his head. “We shouldn’t have left.”

Florence looked up sharply. “What? Why not?”

“They’ll say they’ve drrriven us off.”

“That’s ridiculous,” said Thisbe. “They haven’t done any such thing.”

“Well,” said Fifer, going to stand next to Simber, “they sort of did, I guess. Look at us.”

Sky nodded. “It does seem that way,” she said. “Does it matter?”

“Of courrrse it does,” said Simber. “They werrre trrrying to drrrive the Stowes away, and they’ve succeeded.”

“Not technically,” said Thisbe. “We’re just at our friends’ island.” But no one seemed to think that mattered.

Florence got up too and joined Aaron, Simber, and Fifer, looking out at Artimé. “Hmm,” she said, growing increasingly troubled. “You may be right, Sim. I wish I’d thought of that before suggesting we come here.”

Aaron frowned, and his face retained a troubled expression. “I’m honestly not sure what to do. Should we go back and try to deal with this? We need our people prepared for this attack. But if I get caught up in the shouting match, we waste even more planning time.” He hung his head, exasperated. “I wish they would just try to understand that and give us some time to take care of this immediate problem before it’s too late for everyone. It’s so frustrating!”

“How many of them are there, Simber?” Fifer asked.

“Overrr a hundrrred now, and grrrowing. This is a rrreal issue, Aarrron.”

Thisbe looked up but remained with the other young mages and Drock to try to come up with a new spell that would stop the Revinir.