I guess Sile and Philippa share the control of the dragon. Philippa says at one point that if she dies, Saskia will remain a spellbound monster forever and will just destroy everything.
So I guess when Philippa and Sile both die, Saskia just goes off the deep end, the unfortunate victim of lesbomancy that she is. Insane dragon ahoy! I felt rather bad putting her out of her misery (she appeared to have regained her wits in the end), but then again, I owed her a good ol' stab after she almost ate me in the prologue.