Thisbe stopped abruptly, realizing that this plan might actually work and feeling her heart lift. “Yes,” she said more confidently now. “That’s exactly what we’ll do. We’ll play along. I doubt she wants to fight our people for the sake of fighting—not yet anyway. I’m confident she doesn’t have full control over the land of the dragons and what lies beyond it yet. She won’t tackle our world until she’s sure she can beat all of us.”

Aaron listened. After a minute he nodded slowly. “As much as I want to protect you, I think you’re right—my presence would cause suspicion since she knows I haven’t taken any dragon-bone broth. Your plan to infiltrate and pretend to be under her spell is a good one. While you’re gone, we’ll continue working on more complex spells to help you—and I’ll talk to Sky like you asked. Just . . . just stay safe. Stay alive.” Aaron looked carefully into Thisbe’s eyes to read her expression.

Thisbe smiled. The plan felt good to her. And it was nice to have Aaron trust her. After all, Thisbe was the resident expert on the Revinir. “Thanks, Aaron. This is the right plan. I can feel it. I love you. And tell . . . the others . . . tell Fifer . . . that I love them all too. I’ll be okay if I just play along. And just come when I call. Hopefully by that time Florence will have the new seek spell and the obliterate components finished. And with any luck you’ll come up with some other solutions by then. Not just to help me with the Revinir, but also to fix things here with this mess.”

Aaron nodded solemnly. “Don’t worry about this—it’ll all clear up in a day or two. We’ll be ready and waiting for your seek spell.” He bent down and kissed Thisbe’s forehead, then embraced her. “Are your pockets loaded with components?” he asked.

Thisbe nodded and squeezed his arm. “Oh! I almost forgot,” she said, then quickly unbuttoned the vest and stuffed all of the components into her pants pockets. “I don’t want the Revinir to see that I have one of these—she’d recognize it and might search me for components.” She handed the vest to Aaron. “Take care of it for me.” She smiled reassuringly, then turned and ran lightly through the sand to Drock. She climbed up his tail and took her place in the hollow between his shoulder blades. As they moved away from the island, Thisbe began to tell the dragon about her plan. Knowing Drock’s rebellious nature, she only hoped he’d go along with it.

Chaos Rules