Quince had a look of glee on his face as he prefaced his landing with a burst of sparks to push the remaining dissenters out of the way. Florence winced, hoping he hadn’t set the whole mansion on fire, but all seemed okay. He centered himself over the space, then held his wings up and fluttered them to lower himself down. As he landed inside the once-beautiful structure, one foot hit the bottom part of the staircase and crushed a couple of the steps into powder.

Thisbe cringed, but she didn’t stop taking shots whenever she could safely do so, all the while staying low on the dragon’s back and dodging fire from the dissenters.

People in the upper-level residence hallways who’d been suddenly uncovered turned and ran into their rooms, locking themselves in. But of course they had no ceiling or roof overhead in there, either. They dove into tubes and closets and under their beds, but most were still visible to the fighters from Grimere above them.

Gorgrun hovered in place, positioning his black-eyed passengers to give them every advantage to take out the dissenters with their newly learned magic and dragon fire. All of them began shooting fiery blasts at the dissenters. Sometimes they started small blazes that would drive the people out of their hiding spots. Then they’d hit the dissenters with fire-step and minor explosion spells they’d learned from Florence. Once they cleared a section of rooms, Gorgrun would circle around and hover again over a different part. The black-eyed children would repeat the task, taking aim in every nook and cranny, spraying fire down every hallway from back to front, forcing the people to the balcony and down the stairs, leaving scorch marks everywhere but keeping the place from totally going up in flames.

Simber, dwarfed and almost nimble compared to the dragons, swooped down on the main floor with his magic- and sword-wielding riders and skillfully flew through the mansion’s hallways, which by design were just wide enough for him. This was his territory, and he knew the main floor better than anyone in Artimé. Plus, his ability to see, hear, and smell was so far above the rest of theirs that everyone had full faith he would leave no stone unturned, no dissenter hidden. But where was Frieda? He hadn’t spotted her yet.

The great cheetah twisted and turned through the halls, the vast kitchen, the classrooms, and the dining room, plowing down anyone in his way. On his back, Thisbe and Rohan pelted everybody they could reach with components and tried to keep themselves protected from getting struck by return components. Sky, leaning off to one side, took deep swipes and jabs with her sword at anyone trying to get past them. When Rohan got hit by scatterclips, he went soaring and slammed into the chef’s giant pantry doors, sticking there. Simber quickly zoomed around, and they picked him up. Sky grabbed a few knives from the butcher block while they were stopped, and then they were off to gather up the hiding dissenters once more.