Meeting of the Minds

A week passed in the palace surrounded by red dragons, and every day Fifer had to fight Thisbe to not call on Florence to come for them. To convince her to hold off from communicating at all for now. “We only have a few send components,” Fifer argued. “We have to save them for when we really need them. But right now, Florence is probably training everybody and making our army stronger, and you and I are living a pretty good life here with Dev while the Revinir thinks we’re suffering. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“I get that,” said Thisbe impatiently, “but if we call Florence now, she can send someone for us and we’ll all be in Artimé training together.”

“Ah, but then the Revinir will find out, and she’ll be even angrier. And you’re assuming our people can fight off four dragons. I feel confident they will attack if we attempt to leave, and even if we succeed in escaping, they’ll follow us if we don’t slay them! We can’t have our people fighting those dragons when they’re not the ones who matter. There’s only one dragon who matters, and we need to save our fighters for her. I really wish you’d listen to my idea.”

By now, Dev had heard bits and pieces of Fifer’s backward-sounding plan to join the Revinir’s side, and he’d agreed strongly with Thisbe. But he hadn’t heard Fifer explain it directly. “All right,” he said from across the room. “I’ll take the bait. What is your plan exactly, Fifer?”

Thisbe rolled her eyes and turned away, but didn’t try to stop Fifer from answering.

Fifer fidgeted with her robe, not expecting the abrupt question and not wanting to mess up the answer again. But she’d been mulling things over for a long time, and she was ready.

“Okay,” she said. “Here is where we stand. From our best deductions, based on what all three of us know, the Revinir came here some time ago to scout out the area and discovered that it was remote and deserted—that was when Dev hid in the river.”

Dev nodded. “Agreed.”

Thisbe didn’t indicate she was listening.

Fifer continued. “She probably scouted out other areas too, and decided that since Thisbe was so good at escaping the castle, she needed a new place to keep her from which she couldn’t escape. So she chose this palace—she could easily station dragons around here to keep her locked in the area, but she wouldn’t starve to death, and she could find shelter from the weather. She doesn’t want Thisbe dead, but she wants to break her. She believes that because Thisbe’s level of evilness is greater than her level of goodness, she’s the easiest nut to crack of all the black-eyed rulers. And rightly or wrongly, she concludes that because of this, Thisbe will be the one most likely to join her. In her mind, they will successfully create the bond between dragon and black-eyed ruler that is necessary to take over authentic leadership of Grimere and the land of the dragons.”

Dev frowned. “What is necessary to do that? I’ve never known the rules.”

“Maiven Taveer said that the dragons must be of sound mind, which they are not, and they must vote for a leader, which they have not done. And the black-eyed people appoint a ruler, which they have done—it’s Queen Maiven Taveer, not Thisbe. We don’t think the Revinir knows these rules, because she believes she can just assume the position of head dragon. And she doesn’t know that Maiven is alive, much less that she’s the reigning queen of Grimere.”

“Okay,” said Dev, trying to keep up.

Fifer continued. “But she does seem to know that the ruling dragon and the black-eyed ruler must also officially choose each other to be partners in order to restore the leadership of the land. Without that agreement, the rightful rulership cannot be restored, and the ghost dragons won’t be able to pass on to their next life.”

“And you think the answer to this is for Thisbe to pretend she’s ready to make that commitment to the Revinir?” asked Dev. “So it gives Thisbe the power and the title of ruler alongside a tyrant—which would make Thisbe look like a terrible person.”

“Exactly!” said Thisbe, turning sharply. “And even if I wanted to do that, which I don’t, the bigger problem is that the black-eyed people choose their ruler, and so do the dragons. We’ve already got our ruler in Maiven—”

“Whom the Revinir doesn’t know exists,” Fifer reminded her.

“—and,” Thisbe went on, “the dragons, in their right minds, would never choose the Revinir to lead them!”

“That’s exactly my point,” said Fifer. “They’re not in their right minds. So the rulership won’t actually transfer, and all will be fine. But the Revinir knows nothing of this! Think of it from her perspective. She believes she has everything she needs except the black-eyed ruler to give her the blessing of the partnership. She’s so close to it that she’s practically drooling.”

“So…,” said Dev, thinking hard. “But wait. If Thisbe isn’t the proper leader, because Maiven is, then the partnership won’t go through.”

“That is what I’ve been trying to say,” said Fifer, and she began ticking things off on her fingers: “The dragons aren’t in their right minds to choose a leader. Even if they were, they wouldn’t choose her. The Revinir doesn’t know about Maiven being the chosen pick for the black-eyed rulers. So she won’t know that this plan will fail in a variety of ways.”

Thisbe looked highly skeptical. “Then what good is it to do it?”

Fifer pressed her lips together, trying to stay calm and choose her words properly. “Look at where we are. We’re stuck, far away from her. The Revinir has one hundred percent control of us from afar, and we have no way of stopping her—and let’s be honest. We know that killing her is the only way to break the spell. But if she comes to check on us, or if you tell one of the dragons to take you to her, you can say you’re feeling desperate and starting to change your mind. You tell her you want to consider entering into that agreement with her… with a few conditions, just so it’s not suspicious. Then you take up residence in the castle alongside her, and she puts trust in you, and you have chances to be alone with her.” Fifer gave her a hard look.

Thisbe stared at the fireplace for a long time. “And if I’m alone with her,” she said slowly, “I can use the obliterate spell to destroy her without hurting anyone else.”

Fifer held her breath. After a moment, she let it out. “Yes,” she said softly.

“That’s a lot of ifs. And it’s a huge risk, when she could freak out and kill me at any time. What happens when we get to the point of agreement and the partnership doesn’t take effect because Maiven is still alive? She’ll know something’s up.”

“You can say you didn’t know the rules either.”

“She’ll never believe me,” Thisbe muttered.

“You’ve lied to her successfully before,” Dev said quietly. “I think you’re the only one who can do it. For some reason she can’t read you like she can read the others. She told me that when I was in the tower. It seemed like she begrudgingly admired that in you.”

Fifer nodded. “She said as much when she abducted us.”

Thisbe closed her eyes and sighed. “It’s dangerous.”

“Well,” said Fifer, “we’ll have a backup plan then. Yes—so maybe we will alert Florence and ask everybody to come, or at least a few of them at first. But,” said Fifer, growing serious, “we can’t tell any of them that you are faking this partnership. The Revinir could use dragon-bone broth and get the truth out of any of them. And she’ll need to see that our people are truly upset about this venture between you two—that’s exactly the kind of proof we’ll want to convince her that you’ve really changed your mind. She’s going to want to crow about this, not keep it secret. She’ll want all of the seven islands to know that one of their beloved mages has joined her in ruling the land of the dragons.”

Thisbe shook her head. “I don’t know about this.”

Fifer leaned in. “Remember what she said when she abducted us? She wants all of our people to come to her so she can fight them at home. I’m saying we give her exactly that and beat her at her own game. She’ll never know what hit her.”

The three were silent as their thoughts whirred crazily.

“It’s not a bad plan,” Dev admitted.

Fifer shot him a grateful look. Then she turned back to Thisbe and reiterated, “We have to convince everyone that you’ve entered this agreement willingly because you are more evil than good. So that if they ever get captured, they won’t give it away.”

“Even Rohan?” Thisbe whispered. Something wretched pounded behind her eyes.

The fire crackled sharply, and sparks shimmered and settled.

“All of the humans, for sure,” said Fifer. “Since they are all vulnerable to the broth. It’ll take some work to convince them. But I have ideas for how to do that, too.”

Dev glanced at Fifer with renewed respect, but he could see why Thisbe would be so against this plan. It seemed difficult, yet what a gloriously smart way to beat the Revinir.

Agitated, Thisbe got up and limped over to the fireplace. “How do you get Florence and everybody here?”

“Sometime after you’re gone,” said Fifer, “I’ll call them in with a send component. I can feed them the lies.”

“So now you’re not going with me?” asked Thisbe. “I have to do this alone?” New fears struck her—fears she’d been able to tamp down until now. One in particular left her incredibly unsettled. She didn’t want to entertain it and tried to smother it.

Fifer frowned, thinking hard. “I want to go,” she admitted. “But it’ll be more realistic without me—she’s not going to believe that I’ve changed my mind. In fact…” She squeezed her eyes shut and imagined how things would play out. “In fact,” she said again. “Yes. It’s better this way. We’ll have you sneak off. I’ll send for Florence, and I’ll be devastated and furious that you are doing this. I’ll say that I tried to talk you out of it, but you were embracing your evil side. Everyone will believe it if I’m the one to say you betrayed us. Because they think I never lie.”

“I know that’s not true,” Thisbe retorted.

“Yes, but they don’t.” Fifer smiled sweetly, then got up and went to Thisbe and placed her hand on her sister’s arm. “Just think about it,” Fifer said. “I know it’s a lot to process.”

Thisbe shook her head slowly. “I don’t know,” she muttered. She looked at Fifer, and something electric passed between them again, restoring their connection that had been lost during their massive argument. It gave Thisbe a moment of relief from her fears.

Fifer felt it and sucked in a breath—it seemed like a good sign that this was the right thing to do. Thisbe might not be sure yet. But Fifer was. And they had a lot of work to do before they could put this plan in motion.