“The hole’s not big enough. The smaller lads could crawl through, but the bigger men won’t make it. Nor will Markon, with his broken leg.”
“So let’s get the young lads out first, then deal with widening the hole.”
“There’s only two of them-”
“So get those two out!”
“What about the rest of-”
“I’m not suggesting we just give up on the rest. But we can get two of them out right now. So what the fuck are we waiting for?”
The debate continued a moment or two longer, before Koradan stepped in. Lynette was a little surprised to see him getting involved, given that he wasn’t human and none of these men were his friends or family. But then again, he was accustomed to making tough decisions and leading men through battle. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see him taking charge now.
“Get the two young men out,” he said sternly, matching Mitch’s glare when he scowled at him. “You’re betting future gains against a good position you’ve already got now. That sort of thing never ends well.”
“And who the fuck asked you?” Raul snapped.
“I believe that was all of your women,” Koradan said, unfazed by the challenge. “They asked us to clear the road and free the men in the mine. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”
“All right, boys, that’s enough,” Best interrupted. Though he was no longer working in the mine, he was still one of the most experienced men around. “We’re going to get those two lads out, then we’ll keep working on making the hole bigger. One thing at a time. Rodgard, pull Alti up out of there and we’ll send a harness down. Everybody else out of the way. Let’s do this slow and smooth.”
Lynette breathed a small sigh of relief, grateful that someone capable was taking command. She understood the need for caution, but at some point, they were going to have to take a bit of a leap of faith and get things moving.
A harness was sent down, then after a bit of a shouted discussion, Mitch hooked himself up and headed down the shaft again to have a chat with the men at the bottom. Minutes ticked by, then Mitch came back up again. Some hasty work was carried out while the men attached a second pulley to the tripod set over the shaft. Apparently, the young men couldn’t wriggle through the gap by themselves and needed help to twist and turn. So a second man on a rope would have to go down to guide them out. Koradan took his place on the second rope, then Mitch was sent down again.
The waiting was agonising. Lynette had restocked her medicine bag and had everything she might need set out and ready to treat the men as soon as they came up. But every single step along the way seemed to involve a prolonged discussion, looking at the possibilities from multiple angles, with someone always willing to argue against the prevailing opinion and slow things down again. The constant tension between the need for safety and the need to damn well get the men out of there was wearing on her.
Finally, though, low mumbling from inside the shaft became louder and clearer. “Up a little. Stop. Okay, rope one up… up… stop. Twist your leg around. Don’t worry, I’ve got you. You’re nearly clear. Rope one up a bit. Slowly, slowly… and he’s clear! Haul away!”
Rodgard reeled in his rope in slow, steady pulls, while Koradan waited a moment or two then began pulling Mitch up. Having two men in the shaft at once was a tight fit, so they had to be careful not to crush them on the way out. Lynette pressed her way forward, gently urging a couple of other people out of the way, preparing to receive the first young man. According to the other trapped men, the young ones weren’t injured, but were terrified with the events of the last few days. They were likely to need a good long debrief with some of the more experienced miners, and even then, they’d carry the trauma with them for years to come.
Lynette saw a head of brown hair approaching the top of the shaft. “He’s nearly up!” Best called. “Alex, lad, give me your hand. We’ll pull you over to the side.”
Alex – a young man of only nineteen – was facing the wall of the canyon as he came up, but at Best’s instructions, he kicked his leg against the side of the shaft a few times, to spin himself around and reach out…
Alex’s eyes opened wide as he caught sight of the two salases manning the ropes. A bloodcurdling scream pierced the air, and he flailed on the end of his rope, trying desperately to get away from them. Dangling the way he was, he only managed to make himself swing about in the air, and a second scream made Lynette’s ears ring.
“It’s all right!” Best yelled, grabbing onto the boy and hauling him over to the side of the shaft. “Put your legs down. Stand up, lad. They’re not going to hurt you. Look at me. Look at me!” He grabbed Alex’s face and turned him to face him. “They are helping us. They’re peaceful, they’re not dangerous, and they’re helping us get you all out of the mine. Okay? You’re okay?”
Alex nodded, his eyes darting over to Koradan and Rodgard again, before he decided to focus on Best.
“Come over here. We should have told you about them beforehand,” Best said. “We’ll just go and have a sit down and talk about things, okay? Oh, and they have some dragons with them, but they’re perfectly tame. They’re not dangerous at all. Okay? The dragons are over by the passage to the road.”
Face pale, Alex glanced in that direction, looking terrified all over again as he spotted the vreki. But he followed Best when the older man took his hand and went with him to a quieter area to sit down and talk. Lynette decided to give them a moment to let Alex calm down before she started poking and prodding him.
“So someone forgot to tell the men down there that we’re here?” Rodgard asked, looking at Mitch with a peeved expression as the man climbed out of the shaft.
“You’d better get back down there and explain to the rest of them what just happened,” Alti said. “Hearing him scream like that, they’re going to be thinking the worst.”
“Fuck, sorry,” Mitch muttered, looking sheepish as he glanced at the two salases still controlling the ropes. “Too much on my mind, too many details to keep track of. That was entirely my fault. Drop me back down and I’ll let the others know.” He was promptly lowered down the shaft again.
The second man came out with far less drama, simply giving the salases a wary glance before being led away by Mitch, and then it was back to the interminable wait, as the miners resumed chipping away at pieces of rock and hauling buckets of gravel out of the shaft.
Two more hours passed, culminating in the removal of a rock the size of a large cooking pot, and then Joen, the latest worker to have been down the shaft, pulled himself out the top, covered in dust.
“Mitch, take a look at that,” he said, groaning in weariness. He rolled his shoulder and stretched out his arms. “Pretty sure we can get them out now.”
Lynette wandered over to the shaft again, having treated the two young men for dehydration and minor cuts and bruises, before sending them both back down the mountain with their families.
