Now that Caldor and Idriseth are together, everything seems to be going right for once. Cal is still bitter and angry after what happened to his guildmates, but he tries to put it all aside, move on, and focus on the new life path that's in front of...
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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?"
