It had taken them almost three days to find the place Idri had been taken. Three damned days. Having lived his entire life in Redreach, Caldor wasn't a tracker, but even taking that into account, he couldn't help but feel like a failure that it had taken so long to figure out where Augerill's servant was heading. They could have gotten to the castle a day earlier, likely during the day, which might have given them some time to plan their next move.

Cal knew himself enough to know that he probably wouldn't have been able to wait around to save Idri anyway, but that was beside the point. They still could have gotten here much earlier.

He glared at the castle on the hill in the distance, setting his jaw. At least that was the word Kyra was using to describe it—Caldor thought calling the structure a castle was generous, to say the least. It was just a dark gray, boxy thing, barely two stories high, with a much taller tower in the middle of it.

That meant there would be fewer convenient places to enter without being seen, but at the same time, it should make searching for Idri inside easier. And if Cal was to be honest with himself, he didn't particularly care about being stealthy either. He just wanted to go in and save his dragon, any kind of planning be damned, even though that would be a stupid way to go about it.

"We can't go in there."

Caldor blinked, the words registering in his brain only a second after Kyra had spoken them. He looked over at her, frowning in confusion as she continued watching the castle on the horizon.

"What?" he whispered back, completely dumbfounded. He could see one guard in front of the castle, but they could knock him out without much trouble, he was sure. "Why not?"

"Why not?" she repeated, finally looking at him. There was disbelief in her eyes as if Caldor had said the most outlandish thing possible. "Because we'll get killed. That's why."

Cal scowled, looking back at the castle. That castle he'd broken into to get Idri's spellbook had been much bigger than this. But then again, he'd had Idri's help with that. Being able to fly and smell guards before seeing them were abilities Cal wouldn't mind having.

He wondered what became of the spellbook. Idri wasn't going to be happy if it was still in the room at that inn, but Caldor doubted it. Augerill's people had no doubt taken it when they'd captured Idri.

"We've gotten into more secure places before," Cal said, shrugging at Kyra, who shook her head in return.

"Yes, but those were heists that were planned weeks or even months ahead of time. We know nothing about this castle. We don't know where Idriseth will be, we don't know how many people could be inside, we don't even know what the place looks like on the inside."

Caldor was about to argue back, but Kyra grabbed his shoulder and leaned in, staring him right in the eyes. "Listen to me, Cal. If we do this, we won't succeed. Is that dragon really worth being executed over?"

"Yes." Cal froze up when he realized what he'd just said. He did mean that, didn't he? Maybe to some extent, he did understand why Kyra was so suspicious of his and Idri's relationship. But Cal knew that his feelings were genuine, no matter how surprisingly strong they were.

"I have to do this, Ky. If I don't, I'll never forgive myself. Idri is in there because of me," Caldor said, staring back just as intensely as Kyra was until she looked away, pulling away from him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "But I won't help you with a suicide mission."

Even though he'd expected her to say something like this, her words still punched the air out of Cal's lungs. How was he supposed to save Idri without her help? He swallowed, feeling himself growing desperate.

"I can't do this alone."

Kyra met his gaze once more, her eyes hard and resolute. "Exactly. This is the only way I can stop you from getting yourself killed." Then her expression softened and she sighed. "You're all I have left, Cal. I can't lose you, too."

Caldor lowered his gaze, unable to look her in the eye anymore. Unlike her previous suspicions about dragons, this he couldn't argue with. The fact that they'd found each other was nothing short of a miracle, a miracle that he certainly shouldn't be throwing away, but at the same time, he couldn't leave Idri behind, especially after figuring out where he was being held. They were so close.

"Then I'm sorry, too. Because I can't lose Idri."

Kyra said nothing, staring down at her shoes with a mask of neutrality on her face. But unfortunately, Caldor could see how upset she was anyway, through the clenched fists at her sides, the rigid way she was holding herself, and flashes of sorrow and anger that showed in her eyes. And while he hated being the cause of that, it did nothing to change his mind.

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He had to try to save Idri, even if it ended up costing him his life. There was just nothing else he could do that would feel right to him, and there was no way he could walk away from this. Even if Kyra didn't help him, he would be damned if he didn't at least try.

He was walking before he could fully think about how insane what he was about to do was, desperately ignoring Kyra's pleas to stop and go back. He wanted to tell her goodbye, in case this did end as terribly as she was predicting, but he had to keep walking. He was afraid that if he stopped, he wouldn't get enough confidence back to do this, or that Kyra would manage to convince him to leave Idri here.

He didn't even dare to look back at her as he kept going, walking carefully but quickly along the dirt road leading up to the castle, using all the trees and bushes in his way to hide his approach in case someone was watching. It was dark, but the clouds passing overhead sometimes moved apart enough to let moonlight shine, which would let anyone watching the road see Cal.

Even though he knew he should be staying as stealthy as possible, he couldn't help but go as fast as possible. He realized that doing that wasn't likely to help him succeed, but he couldn't force himself to slow down until he was almost at the castle wall.

He could see the guard from where he was standing now, behind a tree growing right next to the castle. Cal would have to knock him out before the guard noticed him, or this entire thing would end before it even started.

But knock him out with what? He hadn't had anything on him that could be used in this situation since Augerill's people had put him in prison. Damn, it hadn't even occurred to him to get a knife or dagger this entire time. He'd gotten so used to Idri being inhumanly strong and basically invincible that he hadn't even thought to get anything to defend himself with.

For a moment he hesitated, finally able to push away his desperation to save Idri for long enough to think clearly, at least more so than before. If he wanted to do this and not utterly fail, he would have to be smart about this. Which meant taking his time, as much as he hated the idea of it. He would just have to remind himself that saving Idri a little more slowly was preferable to never saving him due to getting captured or killed.

Nodding to himself, he quickly looked around. He could take the guard's sword afterward, but right now he needed something hard to knock him out with. His gaze quickly settled on a medium-sized rock close to the tree, and after making sure no one could see him, he crept towards it, picking the rock up and leaning against the cold stone of the castle wall with his back.

The guard was some twenty feet away from him. If Cal made a single noise, he might give himself away. Thankfully, he knew very well how to stay silent.

His heart hammering in his chest, Caldor crouched down, taking one careful step after another until he was within reach of the guard, his back facing Cal. Knowing that hesitating for even a second might ruin his chance, Cal leaped forward, striking the guard in the back of the head hard enough to make him unconscious but not enough to kill him.

As the guard began to fall forward, Caldor caught him, wincing at the noise his armor was making as he quickly dragged him off to the side. It would have been much worse if he had just let the guard fall on his own, of course, but in the stillness of the night, it was still loud enough to alert anyone close enough.

Caldor left the unconscious guard on the ground and retreated farther, squeezing himself against the wall again as he waited for someone else to show up to investigate. But when nothing happened after a few seconds, and everything was silent, Caldor left his hiding place, heading towards the entrance and grabbing the guard's sword as he went.

It was only a matter of time before someone discovered the unconscious guard, seeing as even if Cal had bothered properly hiding him, someone would notice that he was gone eventually. It was now or never.

Reaching the large, wooden door leading into the castle, Cal grabbed the handle, relieved when he pulled, and the door opened. It was then that he realized he still had no lockpicks on him, which he would need, but he would have to figure that out on the way. He would just have to keep an eye out for something thin and strong to use instead.

He took a glance at the large, round room behind the door. Aside from two benches and some torches and weapons hanging from the walls above them, the place was empty. Three corridors were leading out from it, but at least there was no one to be seen anywhere.

He could hear someone talking, though. The voice was faint and distant, impossible to understand, but close enough that Cal would have to be careful. And speaking of being careful, he needed to move before someone came here and discovered him. There was nowhere to hide here.

But would he follow the voice and assume that was where Idri was as well, or would he get as far away as possible from whoever was talking?

Almost immediately, he decided when he heard a short, muffled cry coming from the same direction as the voice. A cry that sounded like Idri's.

Caldor was moving before he could even properly think it through, his teeth gritted in the same righteous anger he'd felt when he'd found out Augerill had murdered most of his guild. He could barely keep himself from running down the corridor as more pained noises followed.

But what little self-control he had left was annihilated when he reached a corner and, leaning against the wall, peeked around it. He almost gasped at the sight of Idri, his chest cut up and bleeding, gagged, and hanging limply from shackles above his head in a barred cell.

Cal almost called Idri's name, overcome with the need to run over to him and save him, but what stopped him was the other two people in the room. A woman, probably the one who had dragged Idri here in the first place, and Augerill himself.

Not even the bloodied knife in the woman's hand made Caldor as furious as Augerill's presence. The unfeeling, calculating way he was watching Idri's pain and misery made him see red.

Caldor had never killed anyone. He had never wanted to. And yet he'd never wanted to do anything more than to kill Augerill right here and now. He raised the sword he was holding, reading himself to rush at Idri's captors. It was time to put an end to this once and for all.

But before he could take even a single step, someone grabbed him from behind, the cold edge of a sword pressing against the skin of his throat.

And then the person behind him spoke in a very familiar, irritated voice. "Oh. It's you again."