Caldor was surprised he had been dragged back to Redreach, but he supposed he should have expected that. Augerill had said that they would meet one more time, but Cal hadn't truly thought he had been serious about that at the time, given how much Augerill hated being around people like him. Caldor would have gone back to the city either way, of course, seeing as he had nowhere else to go, but he hadn't thought Zaria would bring him back. Making him walk back seemed much more like the lord's style, though Caldor supposed he was glad for that. That fort had been fairly far away. He could do without the shackles, though.

He winced as the metal of his bindings cut into his wrists when Zaria pushed him from behind to go faster. Caldor wasn't sure where exactly he was being led, and he wasn't bothering to keep track. There were too many guards in Augerill's palace to even hope to escape, so whatever the lord wanted to do with him now, there would be no avoiding it.

The fact that Augerill might still execute him was definitely on his mind, but Caldor was doing his best to ignore it whenever the thought came up. All it did was make him even more nervous, so he hadn't given it much thought on purpose. Augerill had to know that Caldor would simply go back to the thieves' guild, though, didn't he?

Unless they really were dead, which—

No. No, they weren't. Augerill was lying. Him finding their hideout and killing them all out of the blue was impossible.

Cal blinked as Zaria stopped pushing him forward, only to realize that he was now standing in front of a door, which had two guards in front of it. They had reached the end of the long corridor they had been walking through, it seemed.

At the sight of them, the guard on Caldor's right knocked on the door without saying anything. And before Caldor had enough time to steel himself for Augerill's...everything, the lord was throwing the door open with a pleased smile on his face. But as ever, it was a bit too sharp to look in any way friendly.

"So, you didn't die," he commented with delight and waved him in. Caldor glared at him, unwilling to comply, but unfortunately, he didn't get any choice in the matter as Zaria quickly pushed him forward into the room. Cal stumbled, barely managing to catch himself before scowling over his shoulder at her. Zaria's face was just as stern and steely as ever.

Caldor threw a quick look at his new surroundings, noting the many bookcases all around the relatively small room, as well as the crimson curtains, definitely hiding a large window on the right. It made the room seem dark and uninviting, as it was only lit by a couple of gold candelabras, which were situated on the table in the middle.

Every item in this room looked more expensive than anything Cal had ever stolen. Aside from the dragon's book, perhaps.

"I am honestly surprised to see you," Augerill said as he sat down at the desk, rubbing his bearded chin as he frowned in thought. "Perhaps that dragon is less of a threat than I thought."

Caldor clenched his jaw, forcing himself not to say anything. He didn't like anyone underestimating his abilities, but there was no space for defending his pride here. Especially since outright defending his skill in stealing things wasn't likely to help his case.

Zaria came over to the table then, throwing the book unceremoniously on it, which produced a loud crash as it hit. Augerill didn't seem to care about that at all, however, and instead, he simply pulled the book closer, studying it.

"Mm, perfect," he said without even bothering to open it. It made Caldor truly wonder what the book's purpose was if the lord could know it contained whatever information he needed without even paging through it.

Augerill chuckled, then, seemingly for no reason, running his hand over the book as he looked up at Cal. "I'm almost tempted to reward you for bringing me this, but I think we both can agree that freedom is freedom enough."

Some of the incredible tension Caldor had been feeling since he'd been captured finally drained out of him, but he forced himself to stay suspicious and guarded, and he would stay that way until he was somewhere safe. He was still half-expecting Zaria to literally stab him in the back.

"You have until sundown to leave Redreach," Augerill continued, his smile gone completely now. His tone and eyes were cold, but Cal could see hate burning in them as the lord looked directly in Caldor's eyes.

Caldor shouldn't have been surprised by that, but somehow he was. He supposed he had been too preoccupied thinking he was going to be killed to give this much thought. Still, he had been a wanted man for most of his life. This changed little.

"I don't want any of your filth in my city," Augerill replied, smiling. But there was no happiness in the expression, not even the sadistic kind. "And seeing as you are all that's left of it, I will graciously allow you to live out the rest of your worthless existence somewhere away from here." Then he leaned in as much as he could without getting up. "Far away from here."

"They're not dead!" Caldor snapped at him, to which Augerill just shook his head.

"See for yourself, then. But make sure you leave by evening. And don't think you can hide somewhere close to Redreach, either. If any of my guards or soldiers see you after today, they will kill you."

With that said Augerill turned his full attention to the book, clearly uninterested in continuing the conversation. And while Caldor wanted to argue with him, he knew that it would definitely be better if he just left. Besides, he had better things to worry about.

He needed to get to the guild hideout. Immediately. He just needed to make sure he wasn't followed there. Cal wouldn't even be surprised if this whole thing had been a ruse so that he would unwittingly betray the location of their base, but he would have to hope it wasn't.

He held back a groan as Zaria roughly unlocked his shackles, finally freeing his hands after hours. Gods, his wrists and arms hurt. He would have to give them a rest for at least a day after this.

"I believe that's all we have to discuss," Augerill continued without looking up from the now open book as Caldor rubbed his sore wrists. Even in the relative darkness of the room, he could see dark bruises on them. "Now get out of my sight and out of my city, Hawthorne."

Caldor didn't need to be told twice. He was leaving the room before anyone said anything else, and since no one was trying to stop him, he continued walking, even as he quickly began to realize he didn't actually know how to get out of here.

Fortunately—or perhaps, unfortunately—Zaria had caught up with him quickly, and with a very unfriendly tone, she started telling him whether to go left or right at every turn he came across. Caldor wanted to snap at her that he didn't need directions, but he very well knew that he did, so he forced himself to stay silent until he was outside.

Once he saw the city sprawling beneath the hill Augerill's palace was built on, Caldor found himself running down the cobbled street almost by instinct, taking familiar turns on his way to the entrance to his guild's hideout. He just needed to see his friends immediately, even though he believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Augerill had been lying. He had to be lying.

Throwing a glance over his shoulder, he couldn't see any guards following him, but he still made sure to zigzag between houses, choosing dark, narrow alleys as much as possible, trying to throw off whoever might be after him. He knew how to lose people pursuing him after all these years, which made it all the more odd that the guards had managed to get the drop on him the way they had yesterday.

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Thinking about that just made him run faster. He could barely focus enough not to run into someone walking down the street. Caldor would have used the roofs just to be safe, the amount of the houses and their closeness to each other making it a very viable way of traveling around Redreach, but that would require stopping and looking for a way to get up there, and Cal just couldn't do that right now. He felt like if he spent even an extra minute getting to the hideout, something awful would happen.

As he finally spotted the familiar, downtrodden house in the distance, Caldor finally slowed down, looking around. The surrounding streets were empty, safe for one or two people walking and minding their own business, not even noticing him. He looked up at the red, pointy roofs next, scanning his eyes over all of the ones he could see, but there was no one there either.

Still feeling a little paranoid Cal proceeded to walk over to the house and around it, where the basement entrance was.

Caldor crouched down, so he could unlock the old, wooden trapdoor, but then he froze as dread made his stomach twist. There was no padlock on it. He'd used this trapdoor practically every day for a decade and it had never been left unlocked for long.

Feeling fear and worry squeezing his heart, Cal shook his head and lifted the trapdoor, grimacing at the loud creaking the rusty hinges produced. This didn't have to mean anything at all, and he was wrong to immediately start worrying. It was entirely possible someone had just come back, and no one currently on the surface had gotten around to lock it again.

He didn't dare question why the padlock was missing, though.

Jumping down into the basement, Cal pulled the trapdoor closed behind him, casting the room into almost complete darkness. But that was no problem, as Caldor knew very well where to go. He continued, walking towards the fake, half stone, half wooden wall directly ahead. He grabbed the torch holder that was installed into it to get a better grip and pushed at the wall to make it move forward.

But before he was even finished, he froze, the unmistakable smell of smoke hitting his nose. Feeling his worry spike again, he quickly pushed the wall aside enough to get through and rushed into the dark corridor that led to the base.

The farther he got, the more potent the smell of smoke got until it started to make his lungs burn. But Caldor didn't stop—didn't even think about it—until he reached the large, space of several connected cellars he knew so well.

And once he did, he couldn't believe his eyes. From where he was standing, at the end of the corridor, all he could see was hazy fire and smoke. It covered up almost everything, allowing Cal to only see silhouettes of the rough, stone walls, and the uneven stone ground.

He coughed into his hand as smoke continued forcing itself into his lungs. His eyes stung too, almost too much to see through the tears gathering in them, and he felt like he couldn't breathe, though he wasn't sure it was because of the smoke. But he didn't care about any of that.

Despite knowing it was foolish, he ran into the base, desperate to find anyone or any sign that his friends were still alive.

His lungs burned more and more intensely as he breathed in more of the smoke, the only thing he could hear being the sound of fire slowly devouring whatever was left as he looked around frantically, trying to spot any sign of life at all.

Coughing again and again, Caldor finally tried calling out to anyone else here, but it was fruitless. There was no one. No one alive, anyway.

He almost fell to his knees then, a crushing wave of despair and sorrow hitting him. But some kind of primal instinct to get to safety overcame him instead, forcing him to run away as fast as he could, stumbling as he continued choking on the smoke. His chest hurt with every cough, but not coughing only made it worse, and so he didn't fight it as he stumbled back into the corridor and towards the exit.

He only stopped once he reached the trapdoor in the basement and pushed it open, breathing in as much fresh air as he could, even as his lungs burned almost too much to bear. Being hit with another coughing fit, Cal breathed in and out again and again until he didn't feel like he was choking anymore.

He leaned against the frame of the trapdoor, resting his forehead on it and trying to calm down as once again his eyes continued to sting. Except now it wasn't from the smoke.

Augerill hadn't been lying, it seemed. Not about finding their base at least. If anyone had survived that, then they were surely hiding, and Caldor doubted he would be able to find them. There were a couple of hiding places the guild had around the city, but if Augerill knew about their main hideout, then using those was incredibly risky.

No, this wasn't evidence of anything. Their base might have been gone, but that didn't mean they were all dead. Caldor refused to accept that the closest thing he had to a family was just gone like that. Not all of them, at least—Kyra, Aelin, anyone. A few of them must have survived because if not....

Cal swallowed thickly, blinking his tears away. He wanted to go search for someone, maybe one of the few contacts he trusted to ask about what exactly had happened, but he knew he couldn't. Augerill might have given him until this evening to leave, but Cal was sure that if he used that time to go looking for his fellow thieves around the city, he would be arrested or killed anyway. Not to mention that whoever he would manage to find would face the same fate.

He was sure he could stay in the city and avoid the guards, especially if he kept his cape's hood over his head, but.... Caldor had to leave. At least until things calmed down a little. He just couldn't be here knowing what had happened. He had no idea where he was going to go, or what he was supposed to do now, but he was good at improvising. He would figure something out. He had to.

As he climbed back out and looked around, he felt like he wasn't even looking at the same city anymore. Not after he'd seen what had happened below it. People continued walking around and life went on, and yet Cal suddenly saw none of it in the same way anymore. He almost felt angry with everyone else for not caring, no matter how ridiculous it was to expect otherwise. They likely didn't even know, and if they had known, they would hardly mourn a group of criminals.

Caldor shook his head, pushing all of his thoughts away. He needed to leave immediately. Even beyond the fact that he had been exiled, he just.... He needed to get away.

He barely took in his surroundings as he began marching towards the city gate. He had no money, no food, and no horse, but at the moment he didn't care. He just needed to put Redreach behind him, both literally and figuratively.

Caldor only paused for a second once he approached the gate, and both of the guards standing there glared at him. He glared back, walking through and ignoring them as best he could because he was afraid of what he might do otherwise. And getting in a fight with the guards would not only end well for him.

Cal kept his head down as he continued walking up the road, suddenly feeling entirely out of his element. He didn't even have a knife on him to defend himself if someone or something decided to attack him. But it was safe to assume his things had been destroyed in the fire, so he would have to do with only the clothes on his back. There was no way he would be able to go back to the guild's hideout again, anyway.

And so he continued walking up the road, hoping he would reach a village before sundown, preferably one that didn't have guards in it. He didn't want to steal from the commonfolk, but he would if he needed to. Not that he was planning on it. No, Cal was hoping that he would be able to do something for them in exchange for food. He didn't have much experience with any kind of manual labor, but how hard could it be? Surely he'd manage.

He was so lost in thought he barely paid attention to where he was going, or how much time had passed. And yet he wasn't truly managing to put any full thoughts together. He just felt far too numb, inside and out. He could tell his legs were aching badly from exhaustion, but he could barely feel them as he continued following the road for what must have been several hours now.

Seeing a hill up above, Caldor decided to go on top of it, hoping that it would help him find some kind of destination before the sun went down. Despite the trees below partly blocking his view, he managed to spot a village in the distance.

It was just a few houses and a field, but that should be enough to hopefully avoid wolves. He was much farther from Redreach than he'd thought as he looked back, trying to spot the city somewhere in the distance. He could only see the top of its walls over the forest that stretched over most of the land behind him.

Caldor hung his head, sighing. Thinking about Redreach immediately made him want to go back. To go and.... He wasn't even sure what. He was overwhelmed with anger, sorrow, despair.... And now that he'd stopped, he couldn't seem to make himself move.

He stood there for a moment, his eyes closed as he breathed in and out in an effort to get his emotions under control. He felt like if he didn't, he would pick a fight with someone, and he knew that was about the last thing he needed right now.

But before he could calm his mind enough to continue his journey to nowhere in particular, he frowned as he heard a strange sound. Almost like the beating of a bird's wings, except very different.

His head immediately snapped up towards the sound as it got louder, only to realize with horror what he was seeing. The shadow of massive, leathery wings fell over him and before Cal could even think about running and trying to save himself, he was being snatched up by huge, golden claws.

As he was roughly dragged up into the air, Caldor screamed as panic completely overwhelmed him in every way, kicking his feet in every direction in a desperate attempt at getting away. It was hopeless, and Cal knew it was hopeless, but he continued struggling against the claws holding him, anyway. At least until the dragon spoke.

Cal had no idea what he'd said, the language alien and unfamiliar, but immediately he felt his mind slipping away from him. And a second later, he finally lost consciousness, with one last thought forming in his mind just before he did.

So this was how he was going to die.