Maiven hesitated. “It was once part of Grimere. But the meteor that struck and created the crater lake divided the land, making it difficult to get to. One of the ruling black-eyed families lived in the palace—Ashguard Suresh and his kin. My family, the Taveer line, lived in the castle.” She paused. “To answer your question, the land of Ashguard’s palace doesn’t have a name any longer, as the family was all but destroyed and it’s a wasteland now. There may be one or two descendants among this group. I’m not sure if they even know themselves which family they came from. And it doesn’t matter. We are all one family now.”

Florence nodded. “I see.” After a moment she took hold of the box of provisions and pried the lid open. “It seems hollow of me to offer, since I am likely of no use to you in your situation. But if there’s any way we can help you, please let me know.”

“Thank you, Florence. I will.” Maiven began to hand out refreshments. “In fact,” she said, looking over her shoulder, “I’ll say it now. We will be needing your help.”

“Fair enough,” said Florence. “If we survive this, you shall have it.”

Maiven nodded regally, and the deal was done.

Florence called Thisbe, Fifer, and Simber to join her and Maiven. When they had assembled, the warrior trainer laid out her plan for attack. The five of them conversed in serious tones, working out the kinks and adding a few extra flourishes to Florence’s ideas. Even Thisbe and Fifer put aside their differences for the moment to discuss strategy. They ran through all sorts of scenarios, trying to find their flaws so they could fix them. By nightfall they felt they had a solid plan in place.

As the stars popped out in the sky, Florence brought everyone together, including the ghost dragons, for a final training session. Afterward she assigned duties to each of them and talked through what to do. Then she closed the session. “You all need sleep,” she said. “We’ll carry out our plans first thing in the morning. We can’t afford to wait any longer.”

Rohan and Maiven double-checked with the other children from Grimere to make sure they fully understood Florence’s instructions. Before turning in for the evening, Rohan found Thisbe reading one of the books she’d fetched earlier. He sat down next to her.

“Here,” said Thisbe, handing a second book to him. “We’re trying to figure out how to fix the tube system. We’re scouring all the books we can for clues. Would you mind looking through this one to see if there’s anything about tubes?”

“I’m not sure I know what I’m looking for,” said Rohan, whose only experience with a human-size transportation tube was the elevator in the catacombs, and that was hardly the same thing. “But it’s easy enough for me to skim and look for the word.”

“That’ll do perfectly,” said Thisbe. She smiled anxiously at him and linked her fingers in his. “We’re so grateful to you and the others for helping Artimé. You have no idea how distressful this situation is in our peaceful land. We’ve never seen anything like it.”