“The red dragons attacked us,” Astrid recalled. “Florence slayed two of them. But the other two fought and dragged her off my back, and she fell a long distance to the ground. She broke into a thousand pieces. Maybe a million. She’s dead.”

Simber gasped. Aaron, Maiven, Rohan, and the rest stared in disbelief. Florence dead? It couldn’t be possible! But imagining the warrior trainer falling from a great height was stomach-churning. Everyone began talking at once.

“She’s not dead,” said Aaron firmly, above the noise. “I know how to fix her.”

“You’rrre not going therrre,” said Simber. “It isn’t safe.”

“Fifer can fix her, then. Why hasn’t she contacted us? Didn’t Florence drop the supplies?” He pulled out a send component and started writing.

“She dropped them as the dragons attacked,” Astrid recalled. “I don’t think they hit their target, though.”

“I’m sending instructions now,” said Aaron. “Good grief—I hope Fifer knows about the time we brought you back from a pile of sand, Sim.”

“She knows,” said Seth. “We’ve read all the books. She’ll think of it.” He was still horrified at the image of Florence breaking into a million pieces. How would Fifer put her back together? It would take forever! He hoped Astrid was exaggerating or remembering it wrong.

Meanwhile Rohan was getting anxious. Surely they weren’t going to wait for Florence any longer in order to do a stealthy castle flyby. They needed to go now so they could travel both ways under the cover of darkness.

Once Aaron sent his message to Fifer and things settled down, Rohan spoke to Maiven. “I’d like to take a ghost dragon to the castle. Will you let me? Please, Grandmum… we have to do something.”

Maiven nodded. “Oh yes, we do,” she said. She didn’t like waiting any more than anyone else. She called to Quince, who was camped nearby, and asked if he felt up to a nighttime mission. The ghost dragon was eager to help.

Rohan ran to grab his rucksack and canteen. But before he returned to the dragon, he stopped to rummage through a small suitcase that the black-eyed children kept their extra things in and pulled out a few supplies. Then he went to Quince and climbed aboard.

Maiven followed, grasping the dragon’s bony wings and climbing up after him.

“What are you doing?” Rohan asked.

The queen looked up. “It’s my castle,” she said. “I’m going with you.” She turned to Simber and Aaron. “We’ll be back by daylight. Hopefully with answers.”

Sticks and Stones