Once the next boy was out and heading over, Nikias turned to Gavril and they both said, “Thirty-nine.”
And they were back to waiting again.
It was enough to drive any man mad. Staring at a narrow black hole, unable to enter, just waiting for the woman he loved to return.
Hadn’t he learned his lesson last time? Had he really made the same mistake?
Why had he thought letting her go was better than ensuring her safety above all else?
A thud sounded nearby.
Nikias’ breath caught as Gavril shifted closer to the hole. The faint sound of voices could be heard.
Gavril called out, “You’re almost there! Just a little farther and you’re done!”
There was a flurry of back and forth but Nikias couldn’t make out the words or voices until, “Alright—Gavril?”
It was Marcella.
The weight came tumbling off his back and he could finally take a clear breath, but then he spotted the novices off to the side and it all came crashing back.
If Marcella and Aimilia were back that meant whoever they had with them was it. It meant not all fifty had made it.
Nikias turned back as Gavril huffed, straining to keep pulling up. Nikias bent down and held his arm out into the hole. A hand reached up, tapping his weakly before wrapping around it and he started pulling. Marcella was much heavier than he’d anticipated. But then he saw she had an unconscious girl strapped to her back. That would do it.
Nikias and Gavril hauled them up. Marcella and the girl barely fit through the hole, breaking part of it and widening it as they came through. They got them up and onto solid ground, Marcella desperately pale and sweating and shaking. How far had she carried the dead weight of that girl? Nikias made quick work of pulling the girl off Marcella’s back as Gavril crashed to his knees and pulled her into arms.
Nikias passed the girl off to one of the healers, while Marcella curled into Gavril, clutching at his chiton. Now there was only one rope left. He called out, “Aimilia, how many are with you?”
“Aimilia—” Marcella took a shuddering breath. “She’s not with us. There are four more novices below.”
He couldn’t have heard that right. No. This was a nightmare. Some kind of trick. Aimilia couldn’t still be down there.
“Where is she?”
Gavril pulled Marcella even closer. “Nikias?—”
“Whereis she?”
“She’s still down there. Trying to find the rest of the novices.” Marcella gestured toward the girl who was being attended by the healers. “One of us had to carry her back. The novices couldn’t.”
“Nikias, come on. You can ask her everything in a minute, but we have to pull these novices up?—”
“Why couldn’t Aimilia carry her back?”
Marcella sighed, tapping her shoulder. “Chimera got her. She would not turn back until they were all found. I could not stop her.”
What did that mean? How could Marcella have left her down there when Aimilia wasn’t strong enough to carry one measly novice?
“Nikias, pull them up!” Gavril snapped.
Nikias wasn’t done by a long shot, but Gavril had something of a point. Nikias started pulling the next one up as Gavril broke the harness and cast another vitae rope to drop below as Nikias finished pulling up his novice.
This one had a twisted ankle and Nikias helped her hobble over to the healers as Gavril pulled up the next one and Marcella lay in the dirt, catching her breath.
This one had a huge bloody stain on her chiton, but the wound itself wasn’t gushing anymore. He was starting to see what Marcella meant when she’d said they hadn’t been able to carry the other novice.
Once the last two were up, Nikias’ gaze zeroed in on Marcella. “Explain. Now.”
