Under the moonlight, Maiven lit a lantern and turned to her books, while Thisbe went with the others to the tail end of Gorgrun and taught them how to throw a glass spell. After much effort, Rohan, Prindi, Asha, and Reza all managed to do that as well. While Rohan worked with the remaining ones on the glass spell, Thisbe moved on to teach invisible hooks. Though they didn’t need light for this spell, since it was invisible, it was nevertheless a hard one to demonstrate, for they were in constant motion and there was no solid wall at which to throw the hooks—only Gorgrun’s cloudlike body. After casting, they’d have to get down on their knees and slide their hands from side to side, looking for the hook. And though the old dragon didn’t seem to mind being struck with spells, they were still difficult to find after a successful throw.

Next Thisbe pulled her precious components from her pockets. She only had a few left. But knowing she’d be able to stock up again once she reached Artimé, she quickly went through the specifications for each spell, including the verbal component for each—being careful, of course, not to teach any lethal iterations of the spells. She demonstrated scatterclips, using Rohan as a fake enemy and sending him flying past Maiven and sticking into the back of Gorgrun’s neck. Rohan went so deep into the pillowy softness that he almost disappeared, and for a moment in the darkness Thisbe worried that he’d flown completely off the dragon’s back. But she didn’t hear a splash, and he soon shouted for help, so Thisbe quickly located him and showed the others how to release a spell. Rohan emerged from the ethereal dragon skin and began to breathe more easily.

With their first full day of slower-than-usual travel behind them, Maiven studied late into the night by candlelight. Thisbe’s worries quickly resurfaced. She found herself dwelling on Fifer, hoping she was okay, and wondering what she might say to her when they met again. Was Fifer as angry with Thisbe as Thisbe had been with her? Should she wait for Fifer to apologize for being weird and awful? Because Fifer was the one who’d basically caused all the problems between them—at least that was how Thisbe felt. Relationships were hard, even with identical twins. Thisbe stared at the sky, trying to sort her jumbled thoughts and ease her mind.

The other black-eyed teenagers went to sleep, knowing that the next day they needed to train even more. Soon they would arrive in a strange land and might need their hastily learned skills to break up a civil war.

Civil War

The sun rose in Artimé, revealing that Frieda Stubbs and her supporters had clearly lost their minds. They were slowly but surely destroying the mansion and the property surrounding it, and terrorizing the Artiméans who didn’t join them in their way of thinking.