“Anything else you can detect?” asked Florence, feeling relieved that the dragons weren’t as enormous as Gorgrun and Quince. Though they were still dragons. But Florence was betting on the fact that these were no different from the ones that flew aimlessly through the skies under the Revinir’s mind control and would be somewhat oblivious to things. And even though they’d attacked Fifer’s birds, perhaps they’d just seen them as food rather than intruders. Neither Astrid nor Florence looked like food.

“They seem docile,” said Astrid. “But that could change.”

Florence quickly sent a message to alert Fifer that they were approaching. Minutes later she received a response to drop the supplies through a hole in the roof if possible—that way the dragons wouldn’t torch them.

There was still something fishy about the way Fifer was behaving. Perhaps it was just communicating through messages that was hard to get used to. Not being able to hear Fifer’s voice or detect her tone made it difficult to tell how she was handling things. Her letters seemed quick and formal, and she didn’t give Florence a lot of detail. She also seemed very matter-of-fact in this odd situation, which is partly what made Florence suspicious that perhaps Fifer was being forced to write like that. She couldn’t tell what was up, and it was driving her crazy.

Where are you in the palace? Florence wrote back, and watched where the component went.

At the top of the center tower, inside the bulb, came the response. Her description of the building location matched what Florence could see. So at least that made sense.

Florence studied the broken-down palace as they drew close. It looked abandoned and unsafe. Sure enough, there were two holes in the roof, close together. Maybe there was a way to get a peek inside. “Okay, Astrid,” said Florence. “Stay nice and high as we fly over the property. I don’t think the dragons will do anything since you’re a dragon too, but we want to be very careful.”

Astrid agreed and stayed aloft. Florence could see the red dragons on the ground standing up and craning their necks to see what was flying into the airspace above the palace. They began moving but stayed primarily in their corners. Florence looked down at the roof. It was too far below them to guarantee an accurate drop of the components into one of the holes—they looked like dots from this height. Astrid sailed across the property toward the orchard. One of the red dragons took flight, then circled and settled again.

Astrid soared over the abandoned village and turned around. “Now what?” she asked.

“Let’s return. A little lower.”