And Dev was making things happen. He’d whittled two long spears so far and was working on a third. “If a well-placed magical arrow can kill a dragon,” he told Fifer, “maybe a long spear can come in handy. That’s what they used in that book you found. And if you somehow put some magic into it, it could be almost as powerful as Florence’s arrows.”

Fifer had ideas as well. She knew that the front dragon would go to the river in the middle of the night to eat and drink, and that would put her near the back dragon for a short time. She couldn’t tell how close the two got to each other without going outside and following them, which could trigger an attack—she wanted to be very careful not to assume anything after the catastrophes with Dev and Florence and the birds. But if she could get them close enough to each other, would she be able to get both dragons with one obliterate component?

The last thing Fifer wanted was to lose out on a chance to help Thisbe. So she and Dev needed to make a move on the red dragons to give themselves every opportunity to help when the time came. Maybe tonight would bring their dragon-slaying moment.

When Dev finished the long swords, he brought them to Fifer. Fifer stared at the sharp points, concentrating, trying her best to figure out how to instill magic in them. It wasn’t the last time that the young head mage would be trying out magic she’d never done before.

Making a Deal

The thing the Revinir wanted most was to have the people and dragons of Grimere obey her without being under any sort of mind control. And if she became the true dragon ruler, in harmony with the black-eyed humans, all of that would fall into place. She just wanted to be an adored leader. Like Marcus had been. Even Justine, early in her reign. Marcus hadn’t had to force his people to love him. They still loved him long after he was gone. And he’d done some pretty rotten things before he turned it all around.

Back when she’d been Queen Eagala of Warbler, the Revinir had few adoring fans, if any. She’d forced everyone there to obey her by keeping them silent with the golden thorn necklaces. And she’d put her orange-eye brand on them so they’d be easily identifiable in case any of them escaped, because they definitely wanted to. The dragon-woman realized that nothing much had changed since then except the methods the Revinir was using to keep her people, and now her dragons, in line. It was all force and had been since day one. It was enough to make a dragon-woman weary.