“That’s incredible news about the queen,” said Astrid, though she sounded a little like she didn’t believe it. “If true, perhaps something good will come of it.” She stopped abruptly and turned to look at Dev. “How many of you are there? Enough for an army? And how many dragons in Grimere at present, not counting the ghost variety?”

Dev wasn’t sure. “Seven or eight children, I think, plus Maiven. And Thisbe and Fifer. And, um… there’s one good dragon we can count on.” He frowned. “Probably.”

Astrid turned her head and blew a breath of fire, clearing the fog from the courtyard. “That’s not many,” she said.

“It’s a very small army,” agreed Dev, almost apologetically. “Though—” His face clouded. “The others have left. It’s only me still here in the land of the dragons. So I guess that would be one dragon… and one human.” He dropped his chin. “That’s not really any, when you come to think of it.”

Astrid didn’t answer right away. Instead she started walking again, circling the center tower and looking around. The courtyard appeared to have been an open-air living and dining space with a fireplace and a clay kitchen that had been stripped of everything valuable. The ceiling of the courtyard was the base of the second floor, stretching to all four corner turrets around the center one. There were more floors above it, but they were in terrible shape. Some had collapsed, but the second floor seemed to be holding up all right, other than bowing a bit.

Dev noticed that each tower was its own enormous, tall home with a separate doorless entrance. While Astrid took a break to think some more, Dev looked inside each of them. The metal-and-stone staircases in three of the towers seemed to be the most solid and unharmed parts of the property. But the two towers with bulbs that had split were unclimbable due to the large pieces of debris that had fallen inward and blocked the way.

Dev and Astrid met back in the center of the courtyard and went up to the large tower. The huge, arched doorway had been stripped of its door, and the space was open for anyone to enter. When Astrid ducked her head inside, a family of foxes with young kits skittered out from under the staircase and ran toward the overgrown bushes to the south.

Astrid backed out of the doorway so Dev could see inside. The stone spiral staircase was built off to one side. “I believe Ashguard lived in this one,” Astrid said. Then suddenly she poked her snout through a second-floor window to look down at Dev. “It’s not nothing.”

“What isn’t, please?” asked Dev, poised on the first step.

“One dragon and one human. It’s not nothing. It’s something.”

“Oh.” Dev felt his face grow hot. “Well, yes, I suppose so.” He didn’t elaborate on the fact that there was literally nothing he and Drock could do to stop the Revinir. “Thank you,” he added, then chided himself for thanking the dragon for calling him “not nothing.” He knew he was something. It was just hard to remember that sometimes.