Once King Ghidorah received the order, she stopped circling, banked, and descended over the courtyard. Rather than folding her wings, she spread them slightly in midair, catching a great gust blowing in from the sea.
The air caught beneath her wings abruptly stalled, stirring dust in the corners of the courtyard. Then her hind claws touched down, their hard tips striking the ground with a dull thud.
Some of the less firmly packed ground in the riding yard sank beneath her weight once more. Dust was squeezed from the cracks and spread outward along the ground.
The other three dragons slowed in turn, no longer circling behind King Ghidorah, and descended toward separate patches of open ground farther inside the courtyard.
Acmot took a different approach, landing directly on the platform beside the old stables. A sweep of the dragon's tail caught a row of empty stone troughs, wrenching several out of place and sending them tumbling into the air.
Viserion and Vermithor approached side by side and settled beside King Ghidorah, steadying themselves one after the other. As they landed, their wings folded inward on either side, their membranes creaking tautly in the wind.
The dragons soon quieted, lying motionless in the courtyard. The bustle gradually faded into silence, leaving only the moan of the wind through the stables as it brushed past the stone pillars and empty troughs.
Once all four dragons had settled, they occupied more than half the courtyard. Their long, thick tails, half-folded wings, and enormous bodies divided the ground into scattered patches, leaving only a narrow passage down the middle, running from one end of the courtyard to the stone steps outside.
Before long, Alliser rode over from the terrace in the castle. Hoofbeats sounded along the narrow road outside the gates, slowing only