When Caldor came to, he was overcome with an unbearable scratching in his throat. All he could do for a moment was to cough, unable to even think as he attempted to get rid of the awful feeling clawing at him. Only once it seemed like he was about to cough up a lung did everything come flooding back to him.

As soon as it did, he was scrambling to get up, but firm hands stopped him, pulling him back down to the ground. Cal blinked, taking in the line of trees he was sitting in front of, and the small campfire happily dancing by his feet.

And Kyra, sitting right next to him and avoiding his gaze.

"How could you do that?!" he practically yelled at her, feeling panic seizing his heart. He needed to go find Idri. Immediately. The only thing that he could use to reassure himself that there was still time to save him and fix this was that Augerill wouldn't kill the dragon. The lord needed something from him, whatever it was, and as long as Idri didn't give it to him, he would stay alive.

Augerill would hurt him, but Caldor was determined to catch up before that happened.

"They would have killed you," Kyra defended herself, huffing. "Or at the very least arrest us, so they could execute us later."

Caldor shook his head, getting up. This time, Kyra didn't stop him. "So you gave them Idri instead?"

"Dragons are evil. I told you." Caldor wanted to get angry with her, he wanted to yell at her for doing this, but the pitying look she was giving him was making it impossible to say anything. "I know you don't want to see it, but it's good that he's not with us anymore. He would end up hurting you, at the very least."

"You don't know Idri," Caldor replied coldly, feeling his anger starting to build again. He could see why Kyra had done this. It would have made sense to him too if their roles had been reversed, but gods above, he was finding it incredibly difficult to not be furious with her.

"You've known him for two weeks!" Kyra snapped back, but then she immediately deflated and hugged her knees to her chest. That was enough to completely make Cal forget what he'd wanted to yell back at her.

"I'm going after him. Where did they take him?"

Kyra finally rose to her feet as well, gawking at him in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

Caldor narrowed his eyes at her. "You would do the same for Aelin."

"Yeah, because it's Aelin," Kyra argued, her voice growing ever so slightly desperate. "Idriseth isn't your Aelin, Cal."

He hated hearing her talking like this because some minuscule part of him agreed with every word she said. The part of him that, when it came down to it, didn't trust anyone or anything due to spending his entire life in the proximity of thieves and criminals. But he pushed all of this aside because Cal knew these fears were completely unfounded. Idri hadn't been lying, and their relationship wasn't just some sadistic ploy on his part. Of that Caldor was certain.

"Did those books of yours mention mating scars?"

Kyra's expression immediately changed into one of confusion. But Cal could tell by the way her eyes narrowed that she knew what he was talking about.

He didn't wait for her to say anything before pulling his tunic aside enough for his scar to be visible, prompting Kyra to stare at it with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open just a bit. Caldor hadn't wanted to show it to anyone after the incident at Zarleth's place, but this was the only thing he could think of that might convince her. Assuming that those books had described mating scars like Idri had explained them.

"He...gave you that?"

Caldor covered his scar up again, giving a firm nod. It felt strange to show it to anyone other than Idri, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel like he was showing off a badge of honor. That someone as wonderful as Idri had chosen him to be with.

Just thinking about that made Cal's urge to run after whoever had taken Idri become even more unbearable, but he had to stay rational. If he let his fear and worry guide him, he would most definitely end up captured as well. Or dead.

"But dragons mate for life," Kyra said slowly, clearly still trying to process this information. Not that Cal could blame her. It was a lot to take in. And judging by the fact that it was still dark, it hadn't been very long since she'd found out Idri was a dragon in the first place.

"It's sacred to them. They would never give a mark like that to someone just to mess with them."

"Now you believe me?"

Kyra looked away, running a hand through her hair. "I...I'm not sure what to think, to be honest."

"That's fine. Just help me save him."

Kyra still seemed hesitant, shooting Cal a worried look. Thankfully, Caldor still had one more piece of information to convince her.

"Idri can find Aelin."

Her eyes widened once more, freezing. "W-what?"

Caldor nodded, sighing to himself. If he had just told Kyra all of this before, they wouldn't be in this mess. But no, he'd just had to be a coward and had kept putting it off. "He knows some tracking spell. I think we could use it to find everyone who's still alive."

Kyra closed her eyes, breathing in deeply. "Please, tell me that's not a lie just to convince me."

Cal couldn't help but feel a little offended that she thought he'd try to manipulate her like this, but he kept it to himself. "It's the truth."

Kyra's shoulders sank as she muttered something under her breath. Then she spoke again, more loudly. "Dammit. You could have told me that earlier."

Yeah, he really should have. He should have told her everything even before they'd reached the town. If Kyra had known Idri might be able to find Aelin, she would have wanted to find her as soon as possible, and they might have not even gotten to that damned town, to begin with. And Idri wouldn't be in trouble.

But there was nothing to be done about all that now.

"If it turns out the dragon was lying about being able to find Aelin, will you believe me that he's not to be trusted?"

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Caldor couldn't help but roll his eyes, then. But he nodded, not saying any of the things he was thinking. "He wasn't lying. Now come on, we're wasting time. How long was I out for?"

Kyra didn't look very happy about where this was going, but she didn't try to argue with him further. Under normal circumstances, Caldor would have felt guilty for treating her this way by now since she was just trying to protect him, but right now he was too preoccupied worrying about Idri to have time for it.

"Not long. They might have taken Idriseth to the local dungeon, but I can't say for sure. I just went with the guards when they dragged you out of town. I was worried they might change their minds and arrest us anyway if I did anything."

Kyra had no doubt also not seen why she should risk making their situation worse for a dragon who she thought was dangerous. But Caldor wouldn't say that. Nor would he point out his annoyance at Kyra suddenly using Idri's full name. Sure, she hadn't known it until now, but she was clearly doing it on purpose.

"Then come on, we need to check if Idri's still here."

He was about to get going and try to figure out which way the town was, but Kyra grabbed his arm. "We can't just march back in there. They will kill us."

"Then we use the rooftops," Caldor replied, making a move to pull his cloak over his head only to realize he didn't have it. He'd given it to Idri. Dammit. It wasn't that he absolutely couldn't sneak around without it at night, but it did help him blend into the shadows and make sure no one could recognize him.

"I'll handle this," Kyra said, nodding at Caldor and pulling on her hood and mask. Cal was about to argue, but she spoke before he could say something. "It will be less risky if only one of us goes. Besides, I'm better at climbing."

Cal scowled, annoyed that she was right. He was feeling an almost unbearable urge to do something to help Idri, which made it hard to think purely rationally, but he would have to force himself to. They couldn't afford to make even a single mistake.

He nodded, and as Kyra set off, Cal followed behind her, quickly gaining speed until they were both sprinting through the night. His throat was still very sore, but he could barely feel it with all the worry swirling around inside of him.

He hoped those bastards hadn't hurt Idri. Was it naive to hope that Idri had managed to utilize his dragon strength and gotten away? There was a very slim chance of that, as there would have no doubt been many guards sent to apprehend him, but Caldor could at least hope.

Though if Idri had managed to escape, he would have already found Caldor, wouldn't he?

Caldor shook his head, trying to get these unhelpful thoughts out of his head as they approached the town wall. They were quite far away from the gate, which was definitely for the best, but there could still theoretically be a guard walking around, so they had to be careful.

The wall in general was too tall to climb, even with Caldor to help get Kyra up there, but she seemed undeterred by this, walking silently along the stone wall and running her eyes over it. Cal just kept watch in case a guard came their way and let Kyra look for an entry point.

It didn't take her long to find one, though to Caldor it still looked impossible to climb over. A few rocks making up the wall here looked like they could be held onto, though, which was better than the rest of the wall they'd seen so far.

But to reach them, Cal would have to give Kyra a boost. They didn't even have to discuss it—he was putting his hands together and into position as Kyra backed away at the same time, getting ready to run at him. As her boot made contact with his hands, he steeled himself, keeping his arms steady as she sprung off him and towards the wall. She caught herself on the edge of it with one hand and, using the uneven rocks as a place to rest her feet, she pulled herself up the rest of the way.

All of this took barely a few seconds, and before Cal knew it Kyra was standing on top of the wall. With one last nod, she darted off, quickly but silently moving along the fortification and disappearing from sight.

Which meant all Caldor could do now was stand around and wait. And he knew already he wouldn't be able to handle that. He did try to fight the urge to do something, but his mounting worry about Idri and his anger over what he might be going through was making it incredibly difficult.

He was pacing almost immediately, running his hand through his hair as he tried to think of anything useful and not stupid he could do, but his pacing quickly turned into a slow walk, and, so entrenched in his thoughts, he only realized how far he'd gone once the town gate was in sight.

Freezing, he quickly squeezed himself against the wall, immediately intent on carefully backing off as soon as he was sure it was safe to do so. But then he heard voices coming from up ahead. He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting with himself not to let his curiosity win and eavesdrop. But that fight was lost the moment he heard the word dragon being said.

Unable to resist anymore, Caldor crept along the wall, his back against it as he got closer to the gate. It quickly became clear that it was the guards standing in front of it talking, and it was the same guards they'd come across when first coming here.

Caldor gritted his teeth, this time furious with himself. One of the guards had almost recognized Idri, and Cal hadn't immediately insisted they leave. Just because he'd been hungry and tired. Gods, he was an idiot.

"I knew I recognized him," the male guard said in a very irritated voice. "I knew it!"

"And yet you said nothing," the other guard replied, sounding somewhat exasperated as if she'd had to listen to him rant about it many times already.

"He didn't have horns or wings. How was I supposed to know they can change how they look?" The guard scoffed, possibly shaking his head, but it was quite difficult to tell in the dark. Caldor hoped that meant they wouldn't see him as he took a step closer to properly hear the conversation. "And now our damned captain is going to get all of the credit for the dragon's capture."

"Keep your voice down," the female guard grumbled, still sounding tired. "Besides, I don't think Augerill will care. That lackey of his is going to get the credit because she will be the one to bring the dragon to him."

What lackey? Had there been the lord's agent in the town? Caldor's stomach turned as he grew even more anxious. He hadn't noticed anyone suspicious, but then he'd barely been paying attention to anyone other than Idri and Kyra. Which was itself another problem on its own, but Cal couldn't do anything to change that now.

"Yeah, but the reward money would have been nice," the first guard complained. "Still, at least it's gone. The idea of having a dragon here, looking like us? It's horrible to think about."

Cal felt his heart skip a beat. Oh no, Idri was gone already? He hadn't thought to consider that. He just hadn't been certain if he would be put in the dungeons, not immediately transported to Augerill. This was really bad.

Though at the same time, if they could find whoever was currently dragging Idri to Augerill, he and Kyra could ambush them and free the dragon on the way. They just had to find and catch up with Augerill's agent first.

He stuck around for a few more minutes, hoping that one of the guards might at least hint at where Idri was being brought, but the conversation topic had changed after this, and they didn't seem to want to come back to it.

Dammit. Caldor couldn't just assume Idri was being taken to Redreach when Augerill had gods knew how many castles all over the region. Cal was glad he'd overheard this much, but this really wasn't helping.

He slowly moved away, careful not to let anyone notice him as he began to sneak towards the place Kyra had climbed over the wall. He didn't reach it, though, as he paused, feeling like someone was watching him.

He looked around, not able to spot anyone until he thought to look up at the wall. And unsurprisingly, Kyra was standing there, about to jump down.

Caldor moved out of the way to give her space. "Apparently someone working for Augerill took over and dragged Idri out of town."

Kyra nodded, a grim look in her eyes. Because her eyes were the only part of her face Cal could see right now, it looked somehow even more dire than it would usually. "They're heading south, following the road."

Caldor's eyes widened, a feeling of relief washing over him at the fact that they now at least had a direction to go in, but that lasted only a second as he immediately grew suspicious as to how Kyra could have possibly found that out.

"I beat up a guard," she explained, likely leaving it rather vague on purpose, but Caldor didn't need to hear more to form an opinion on it.

"You shouldn't have done that. It's too risky," he berated her automatically before sighing and rubbing his eyes. He couldn't even force himself to mean it. "Sorry. Thank you for finding that out."

Kyra's gaze softened. "Don't mention it. We do need to get going if we want to catch up, though."

Even if Idri's life wasn't on the line, Caldor would agree with that. Attacking a guard, even assuming that Kyra had knocked said guard out after the interrogation, would no doubt make the other guards search the whole town for the culprit. And given what had happened earlier, if Cal or Kyra were seen by anyone, they would be the obvious suspects.

"Let's go get Idri back."