After at least two days of travel with no food and little water, Idriseth was too tired to fight back when he was dragged out of the carriage he'd been chained to and pulled by the chain binding his hands somewhere else.

He'd been blindfolded and gagged this entire time, and clearly, his kidnapper was not interested in changing that. Idriseth wasn't even sure which way they'd gone, nor was he confident enough about the passage of time to accurately estimate how far they'd gotten from the town where Idriseth had been captured.

Someone had knocked him out, and he'd had no idea how long it had taken him to wake up again, so he had no way of knowing anything. And that was incredibly frustrating. As if a dragon being held prisoner by a human like this wasn't enough.

The situation was incredibly humiliating, to say the least, and Idriseth's only comfort was that at least none of his kind would see him in this position. And that his mate was safe. At least, Idriseth hoped he was. The woman currently dragging him somewhere had implied something to that effect when she'd told him Caldor had betrayed him to save himself.

She might have been trying to hurt Idriseth, but if that was the case, all she had done was make the dragon a bit less worried about his mate. He knew Caldor wouldn't betray him. And even if he had, if he'd done it to save himself, Idriseth would agree that it had been the right thing to do. Above all, he wanted his mate to be safe.

Though knowing Caldor, he was no doubt already putting together some foolish plan to rescue him. As heartwarming as that idea was, Idriseth prayed to his ancestors that Caldor wouldn't do that.

He gritted his teeth as his boot caught on something, almost making him trip. He pulled on the chains angrily, hoping to get his anger across. Even though it hurt his wrists and did very little in the grand scheme of things, it was at least something. Being kept silent and blind was giving Idriseth very little opportunity to let out some of his anger about this indignity.

If only he could get the necklace off. Then he might be able to break the chains, but hadn't managed it so far.

The sound of his footsteps turned much louder and echoey as his boots made contact with what he assumed was stone. Unfortunately, being led into a building was not surprising at all, and there was nothing he could do to get any more information about the place beyond that at the moment.

He did his best to both figuratively and literally drag his feet, but the woman was surprisingly strong now that his own strength had been dulled considerably. Whatever he attempted, she just dragged him along, forcing him to follow her.

The walk ended quickly, however, as suddenly she came to a halt and let go of the chain. Before Idriseth could even think to strike, though, she was grabbing his wrists instead and pulling his arms up, only to snap shackles on. It was done so quickly it took Idriseth a second to process it, as blind as he was at the moment.

He bit into the piece of cloth silencing him and clenched his fists as the woman removed the chain from around his wrists. It was nice to get that off him, as the chain had torn up his skin enough already, but with the shackles instead, it was somehow even more infuriating to have some of his bindings undone.

Idriseth flinched as a similar pair of shackles clamped themselves onto his ankles, binding his legs together, before he felt fingers touch his face and pull the blindfold off. He blinked furiously as it left his eyes. It almost hurt to look after so long in the dark, but he didn't waste any time, already glaring at the woman before he could even properly focus on her.

As his vision cleared, he threw a few glances at his surroundings, quickly noting that he seemed to be in a cell similar to the ones at his fort, with cobblestone walls, and a few torches on them. The main difference though was the rusted metal bars separating each cell, letting him see into the other three next to him. Thankfully, they were empty. He didn't need more humans to see him like this.

Idriseth turned his attention back to the woman, glaring at her even harder as he studied her.

She was long-haired, brown-eyed, and fairly tall, but overall she looked like a perfectly unassuming human, aside from maybe the dark cloak she was wearing, her head covered by a hood, much like Kyra's. Though, strangely, she didn't look very pleased or amused by Idriseth's predicament. She did seem to be in a good mood, judging by the smile on her face, but there was none of the malice in her eyes Idriseth had been expecting to see.

If anything, that made Idriseth angrier. How dare she smile like that after kidnapping someone like him?

"Sorry about that," she said, gesturing with the blindfold. "Hate to cover up such pretty eyes, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Idriseth scowled so much it almost hurt. If she thought he would become more understanding simply because it made sense not to let him see where they had gone or which way the exit to this place was, she was sorely mistaken.

And false flattery was also not going to get her far.

"I already sent word to Lord Augerill. He'll be with us soon."

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Wonderful. Even though Idriseth had known that the lord was the reason for his capture, the confirmation that he would have to deal with the man was not putting him into high spirits. Augerill would no doubt want Idriseth to teach him to use magic, which was not possible.

And if he was anything like his mother, Idriseth doubted Augerill understood the concept of being denied anything, for any reason. Augerill would likely have Idriseth tortured and possibly killed, but there was at least one good thing about the situation—even if Idriseth gave in and wanted to help Augerill, there was no possible way of doing so, short of using magic for the lord. And if Idriseth was given the opportunity to use magic, he would immediately turn it against Augerill.

That thought at least gave Idriseth some peace of mind.

"What will it take to convince you to help Lord Augerill, I wonder," the woman in the meantime continued, taking off her cloak and turning away to walk over to a table against the opposite wall. Idriseth had completely missed it when he'd looked around earlier, it seemed.

Seeing the daggers and knives of all shapes and sizes that were laid out on it made his heart skip a beat, but he kept his face perfectly neutral. He had been humiliated enough. He wouldn't show more weakness.

As she turned around, he held his breath, preparing himself for whatever instrument she had chosen, but to his surprise, she wasn't holding anything. Instead, she folded her arms over her chest and leaned her back against the table.

"I don't want to hurt you, you know," she said, making Idriseth snort. How could he have possibly gotten the impression that she might hurt him? He really wanted to mock what she'd said, but seeing as he was gagged, he would have to suffer in silence.

"I wish we could talk," the woman said, clearly noticing the way Idriseth was biting into the piece of fabric. "But I am concerned you'll use magic against me the moment I let you speak."

Idriseth narrowed his eyes at her. She clearly had little understanding of how magic worked if she thought he would be able to simply attack her by saying an incantation, but the fact that she'd thought of it as a possibility meant that she wasn't stupid. That was unfortunate.

"So for now, I'll talk and you'll listen." Idriseth clenched his fists as anger over being ordered around like that flared up inside of him. "Lord Augerill wants to learn to use magic, and he wants your help to do so."

Idriseth stared at her blankly. Why was she even explaining this? Of course Augerill wanted that. Why else would Idriseth still be alive? This one-sided conversation was already almost too much for him to bear.

"So, if you do that once he gets here, you can leave as soon as it's done," she finished with her explanation, a small, genuine smile on her face that made Idriseth's glare deepen further. "You just want to go home, don't you? I'm sure my lord will agree to let you if you help him."

The Augerills had always been untrustworthy, so that was unlikely, and yet Idriseth couldn't help but lower his gaze. He did want to go home and not worry about the world for a while, but when he thought about his home, all he could think about was Caldor, not the fort.

And it made his heart ache. How was it that in a situation like this, he was more preoccupied with how much he missed his mate rather than worrying about his predicament?

"What do you say, Idriseth?"

He wasn't even sure why, but her calling him by his name almost felt akin to an insult at this point. Still, he ignored that, and after deciding that this woman seemed more rational than Augerill would likely be, he nodded, hoping she would remove the gag, so he could explain the situation to her.

"Oh, good, that's great." The woman brushed her hair behind her ears. "I'd hate to torture a dragon."

Idriseth had no idea what the reasoning behind that was, but he also didn't care. As best he could, he tried to talk through the gag. Even though what left his lips was completely incomprehensible, the woman seemed to understand what he was trying to get across as she walked closer to him.

"Well, I guess we do have to do this eventually," she muttered to herself, still very hesitant as she carefully loosened the knot at the back of his head and pulled the gag out.

Idriseth grimaced, moving his jaw and trying to ignore how dry his lips were after being forced to wear the gag for so long.

"Listen to me," he said, leaning in as close as his shackles allowed him, staring right into the woman's eyes. "I cannot teach Augerill to use magic. He is a human, and humans cannot wield magic. There is nothing I can do about that."

He'd expected the woman to not believe him, possibly to get upset, but instead, she just smiled, looking very amused.

"Yeah, we know. But Lord Augerill isn't human. He's a half-dragon."

Idriseth felt his blood run cold as his eyes widened in disbelief. No, that couldn't be true. It simply couldn't be. There was no such thing because humans and dragons were not compatible that way. If they had been, though, Idriseth supposed it wouldn't have been that out of character for Lady Augerill.

It was still impossible, however.

"Half-dragons do not exist," he replied once he got over his shock enough to keep his voice steady and neutral.

The woman shrugged, looking as if she almost agreed with his assessment. Or with his attitude towards the new information, at least. Once again Idriseth had to push down his irritation. He would have found it much easier to handle this if she were mocking him instead of being sympathetic.

"They might not, aside from Lord Augerill. But he is one, and he needs your help with magic."

Idriseth knew this was impossible. He'd never heard or read about a half-dragon existing. And yet, if Augerill was one, that meant that in theory, he could use magic, at least to some extent. Dragon blood might allow him to do that, which meant that for everyone's sake, Idriseth hoped that Augerill was either lying about what he was, or that he wouldn't be able to ever use magic, even with Idriseth's help.

"He will need to find someone else to help him."

The woman frowned, looking disappointed. "Changed your mind?"

Idriseth set his jaw and narrowed his eyes. It had been easy to lie about helping him when he'd known there was no way for Augerill to use magic. But since there was a chance that wasn't the case, the dragon couldn't pretend anymore.

"You'll have until Lord Augerill arrives to think this over. I really would hate to have to hurt you."

And with that she stuffed the gag back in his mouth before he could react, turning around and walking out of Idriseth's cell.

As she disappeared into the corridor leading out of the small room, the dragon bit into the gag, yanking on the shackles binding him. He had to leave this place, but he couldn't see how he would be able to escape. He didn't know how to pick a lock, nor did he have the tools to do so, and with the enchanted necklace hanging from his neck, he was weak and vulnerable.

He did know one thing, though. He was not goingto help Augerill with anything, let alone teaching him to use magic. No matterwhat Augerill or the woman would do to him.