The rest of the group circled overhead. Simber and the dragons each belted out a mighty roar, giving fair warning of their presence to the dissenters in Artimé, and even waking up several of them who’d fallen asleep at their windows after guarding them all night. They stumbled into action and began firing components haphazardly into the air, missing wildly due to the distance of the attackers and the awkward angles at which they were throwing, upward and through the window frames.

Florence, taking point and calling the plays, kept one hand in the air for everyone to see. She made a motion prompting everyone to circle again, trying to coax the enemy out. When a few brave dissenters began climbing through the windows to get a better angle for attack, Florence dropped her arm and shouted, “Dragons, go! Carefully, please! Everyone else, use your rides as your shields and defend as necessary.”

On Florence’s command, the dragons split up and dropped to opposite sides of the mansion’s vast roof. While digging their claws under the eaves and making a tremendous scraping sound that reverberated through the mansion, the dragons roared again, sending dissenters running in fear, in and out through the windows, unsure of where they would be safer. Thisbe and the other fighters on the backs of the fliers took careful aim whenever they saw opportunities to knock out dissenters without killing them. A few dropped. But not nearly enough.

Florence called out again to the dragons gripping the roof, and Gorgrun and Quince strained and pulled upward, sending showers of sparks and sprays of fire down on the mansion. With several earsplitting cracks, the entire roof broke off and wobbled in the dragons’ grip, nearly plunging off one side to the ground. But Gorgrun adjusted and caught the corner with his tail just in time.

A moment later the dragons coordinated their moves and lifted the roof higher into the air, taking the ceiling and remaining chandelier chains and other fixtures with it. They carefully flew it to the ground nearby as people’s voices inside the mansion exploded in fear and horror and protest. The ghost dragons returned to the space above the mansion with their fighters. Florence and the other riders leaned over and looked down inside the exposed second floor, where all of the living quarters were, and the breezy, huge entry area of the mansion, which had no upper level above it. Frantic dissenters were scrambling and running like ants whose farm had been uncovered. But there were few places to hide.

“This is shocking to watch,” Thisbe said. She cringed as she pelted the people below. She’d known the mansion as her home for as long as she could remember. Now the dragons were taking it apart like it was some sort of construction game.

“Stay focused,” said Sky, acting as a lookout. “Hold on to hope that we can restore it.”

Florence watched the dissenters flood into the classrooms on the first floor, which offered them the most protection under the circumstances. “Just like we planned,” she called to Quince. “This is our cue. Do you remember what to do? Take us right down into the middle of that big entryway.”