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Eragon was scrambling up the side of a steep mountain, slipping and occasionally falling and sliding down, but he kept going anyway. Behind him, dwarves were also climbing, armed with bows and knives. Finally, Eragon reached the top. Looking the hole into Farthen Dûr, he saw huge masses of dwarves, every one of them bound by ropes of thorns. Silently, he dropped down into the mountain...

Eragon woke from the dream with a strong-willed determination to rescue the dwarves within the mountain.

"I have an idea." Eragon had entered Nasuada's tent with a proposal.

"And?"

"I will lead a party of dwarves into Farthen Dûr to rescue the prisoners by night."

Nasuada stared at him. "No." She said firmly. "I can't risk you being captured. And if you fail, every single dwarf in the mountain dies."

"I know. But I am confident in my abilities. I have seen the defenses within Farthen Dûr in my dreams; and they can be easily taken out by a stealthy group of soldiers

'Tell me what you plan to do, Eragon, and I will-"

"I will take a band of dwarven archers to the top of the mountain. They will kill any defenders. I will then lift the captives out by ladder. Simple, but it should work."

"Are you sure you know the Imperial defenses perfectly?"

"No, but I'll bring along a group of archers, who I'm sure can overcome any number of Imperials. I did have a dream where I saw the inside of the mountain and saw the defenses, and these dreams are usually accurate."

"And what if the Imperials discover that there prisoners have been taken back?"

"They will attack. Hmmm. Retreat your troops tonight as we rescue these prisoners. I will follow."

"You want us to pull back with no idea if you succeed or not?"

Making his plan up as he went, Eragon said, "Arya can stay with you and communicate with me."

He expected her to object, so he was surprised to hear Nasuada say, "Yes, fine, that'll work."

"Good. Now, just out of curiosity, why did you agree to that?"

"Well, to tell the truth, I don't have a better idea, but also because if you're going to be my successor I have to start respecting your ideas."

Eragon smiled and began making preparations.

He knew he would have to take Orik and every other dwarf with any archery skills, and had forced Roran to come after the latter had extracted a promise from his cousin that they would go to Helgrind for Katrina right after. He also knew he had to take Saphira, who would fly dwarf prisoners out of Tronjheim while the rest of the prisoners would take the ladder the rescuers would bring.

The Varden spent the rest of the day secretly getting ready to move, packing up supplies but taking down only a few tents here and there.

From the mountain, it looked like business as usual, as there were cookpots with hot soup boiling away, Varden soldiers laughing – and the ever present horrors from inside.

As Eragon treated his sword with his whetstone, he realized that he had not even noticed the last few dwarves being tortured. The thought that he had been completely unconcerned while dwarves, real living things, were in pain and dying, was hard for him to bear.

In a perverted way, he was almost glad to hear a dwarf man screaming in pain as he was run through. A moment later he almost threw up at the thought that he enjoyed it.

"Are you ready?"

Nasuada, Arya, Orik, Roran, Saphira, and many dwarves all asked him this. Eragon wasn't, but he answered with a yes.

To occupy his thoughts from the dread at the back of his head, he worked on the ladder. He knew he would have to make it in collapsible parts because it would be too big to hold in one piece. However, a couple of dwarves with carpentry skills were able to handle most of the work, so Eragon had to stare at the mountain he was about to raid for most of the time.

Finally, the night came.

Slowly but surely, the Varden began to move, something that went relatively unnoticed by the Imperials.

Eragon and his rescue party gathered themselves at the base of the mountain. Eragon quickly outlined what the plan was – they would run up the side of the mountain, the archers would kill any guards stationed near the prisoners, then the ladder would be set up and Saphira would fly prisoners out. Once all of the prisoners were moved, everyone would leave, hopefully before the soldiers within would notice a thing. If the operation went perfectly, there would be no fighting at all.

The plan started off fine. The ascent up the mountain was accomplished easily, and the prisoners were all right where they were expected to be, at the top room of the mountain. There were only 12 guards around the dwarves, and the room had only one entry point, a single door that could easily be guarded.

Eragon ordered two archers each to aim at each guard, and the rest to aim at the door just in case. Then he cast a silencing magic on the door to block out any sounds the rescuers made.

It was set up perfectly. Wasting no time, Eragon raised his hand.

He brought it down, at the same time mouthing the word 'fire!'

24 bows fired, and 12 men fell with two arrows each inside of them. Only one archer missed his shot, his arrow hitting the door.

Several dwarves screamed, and many looked up to see there kin above them.

"Go!" Eragon yelled in the silentest way possible.

Within seconds, the ladder was set up, and multiple dozens of dwarves had reluctantly boarded Saphira.

With agonizing slowness, the prisoners were lifted out of their prison. Many bowed to kiss Eragon's feet as they left, but he took no notice, staring at the door with a sword drawn.

When about two-thirds of the thousand-plus dwarves had been rescued, Eragon felt a sort of disturbance in the field of lives he could detect. It was nothing, really, but Eragon was sure that it meant that they had been noticed.

"Hurry it up a little," he said, moving closer to the door and preparing to kill anything that came threw it.

However, several minutes passed and nothing happened. Still not totally secure, he told everyone who had a bow to position themselves around the hole in the top of the mountain and aim after giving them the order to leave behind anyone that could not make it by themselves, including him.

There were only a few dwarves left, no more than 50, when something happened.

There was an explosion that tore through the silent night as the door blew up.