34. Chapter 33
34
Chapter 33
Dacias
Save him. Do something. Not him. Take me. Not him.
Dacias thrashed at the stones, plunging his hands through seams and yanking them away. The weeping wounds on his hands and arms were nothing compared to the agony burning his heart to ash.
Not his brother. Not the man who had stepped up to be the father he needed. Not the man who supported him without question. Not Klorin. Not Klorin.
Souzie’s cry came from anguish so deep that it ripped at her voice, the emotion causing multiple tones as if her voice had fragmented, like her shattered heart.
Their blood stained the rocks as they continued to pull each boulder away, but what would they find? Dacias knew if he found the crushed body of his brother, he’d never recover, yet he needed to see him. He needed to touch him. Even if it was for the last time, he had to rest his hand on his big brother’s broken body and thank him for being the man Dacias could only hope to become someday. He couldn’t see through the tears anymore, but his body moved instinctually, gripping the rocks and boulders and tossing them away like they weighed nothing.
Another tremor began. The ground rumbled beneath them. Dacias hadn’t even noticed until Souzie tugged at this arm.
“We need to get away from here!”
She dragged Dacias away from the chasm filled with debris. The force of the quake intensified, and the rupture in the ground expanded. As the crack widened, the pile of rubble began to fall. Dacias looked on in horror as the ground separated, the volcano furthest from them inching away. It was as if the Mother Planet had heard Dacias cursing her and decided to match his rage as punishment.
Souzie backed away, but Dacias stayed put. The ground had opened. That meant Klorin’s body had fallen to the pits of the planet’s core. His sight turned the color of blood, and he screamed again. He didn’t even get to see Klorin’s body one last time.
Dacias ran to the opening. Souzie shouted curses behind him, but he ignored her. He would dive into the planet’s core, dammit, and drag his brother’s body out and give him the proper burial he deserved. He would say the last rites of the dead and give him an honorable Rugirean burial because that’s what his brother deserved.
The split in the ground widened, and Dacias nearly tumbled over the edge in his haste to approach. What was he even doing? He’d lost his mind, pickled by grief. He was behaving like a lunatic, but he couldn’t stop. The veins in his neck nearly ruptured as he screamed for his brother’s body to return to him. He looked down and gasped.
“FUCKING HELP ME!”
Klorin clung desperately to a jagged outcrop of rock jutting from the chasm’s side, his hands bleeding as he struggled to maintain his grip. Dust covered him, and blood dripped from his head, arms, and legs. The ground beneath him trembled, slowly opening wider with each passing moment, threatening to send him plummeting into the abyss. Dacias stood frozen, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. This couldn’t be real.
“HELP ME, DAX!”
Dacias fell to the ground, holding his hand out to Klorin. “Grab my hand!”
Klorin went to reach for it. His face twisted in pain. He was hurt; Dacias could see it. He needed to climb down .
“I’m coming down!”
Klorin hissed. “No! The rock isn’t sturdy. You could fall.”
“I’m not listening to you anymore! I’m coming down,” Dacias screamed.
Souzie gripped Dacias’s shoulder and pulled him back. “If the rocks are loose, you’ll both fall. Hold my legs, and don’t drop me!”
The ground trembled again, the force pushing the ground further apart.
“Let’s go!” Souzie screamed.
Dacias gripped her ankles and lowered her down. He dug his heels into the ground, trying to brace himself.
“LOWER!” Souzie screamed.
Dacias bent forward, slowly descending her. Suddenly, her weight increased, and he gripped tighter, bracing his feet against the rubble.
“PULL UP, DACIAS!” Souzie yelled.
Dacias kicked at the ground, pushing himself backward. Digging in his heels, he moved one heel back to bury it in the dirt, then the other, and pressed against the ground with both legs again. The ground shook with fury. He feared the sides of the split would crumble and send them plummeting. He moved quickly. Push. Push, Dacias.
Finally, Klorin breached the surface and scrambled up, wincing in pain.
Dacias immediately picked Klorin up, cradled him in his arms, and ran to safety with Souzie beside him. The split opened further, and the edge they had just hung over crumbled like sand and fell away.
The three of them gasped for breath as the trembling subsided. They looked at each other. At once, they all began crying and held each other, falling to the ground as they kissed each other’s necks and cheeks.
Souzie took Klorin’s head between her hands and placed a hard, wet kiss on his lips. “You have some fucking, nerve. Don’t you ever scare me like that again!”
Klorin shook his head. “Duly noted, Souzie.”
Dacias crawled over to his brother and pulled him closer for an embrace. He wept, the tears dampening Klorin’s shoulder. “I thought I lost you. I thought I lost you…”
He spoke the words over and over again. Klorin held him tightly. “ I’m here, Dax.”
Dacias felt Klorin’s heartbeat against his, and the tears spilled out even harder. The weight of it all came crashing down, and he couldn’t catch his breath.
Klorin and Souzie embraced him, each shushing in his ear and kissing his cheeks. The embrace and affection eased his panic, and he resumed breathing normally. Klorin’s here. Souzie is here. We’ll get Julen out. We’re fine. Just breathe. You can do this. You’re not alone. We can do this.
Dacias inched away from them. He looked at the sky and took a deep breath. They had to move. Who knew what kind of quake would follow?
“How bad?” Dacias asked Klorin.
“It’s honestly a miracle. I think my arm is fractured, but that’s it,” Klorin responded.
“Can you shift?” Souzie asked as she looked at his arm and caressed his back.
“Yeah, but I’ll be injured in animal form too. I’m not sure how nimble I’ll be as a cougar, but I can avoid the injured limb. I’ll still be able to move and even run, but climbing won’t be possible. I need my full front half to do that.”
Dacias took another breath. Fuck, this is insane. He silently apologized to the Mother Planet. I guess I was being an ass, huh? Thank you.
Dacias got to his feet, followed by Souzie, and they helped Klorin up together.
They walked to the edge that peered over the slope leading to… Vinculux . Dacias’s blood went cold. Souzie cried out—a gasp at the vision of horror below.
A bleak structure carved out of a massive crag loomed before them. Thick at the base, the crag slanted to form a towering spire that reached the sky, its stone stained black with soot from the mines. It reminded Dacias of the ancient burial monuments that peppered the Rugirean coast. That’s what this place looked like—an enormous tomb. A wall encircled the perimeter, where hunched prisoners trudged about, carrying mining tools.
Guardians wielded clubs at slow-moving prisoners who shuffled in and out of the mine’s entrance, their arms stained with mineral residue.
A larger opening in the crag served as a repository for wooden carts that carried prisoners’ motionless bodies. At first, Dacias mistook them for corpses, but he soon realized they were unconscious as the dead were dragged to the base of the enclosing wall, lifted onto a platform, and then dumped over the massive barrier. A pile of bodies lay at the base of the wall on the opposite side.
Chained at the ankle, prisoners marched out of the crag, passing the bodies of their brethren piled high on splintering carts.
Dacias heard Souzie mumbling something that sounded like a prayer. Klorin approached her, placing his hand on the small of her back, and she shuddered at the touch, turning to him with eyes blazing.
“Fuck me,” Dacias whispered.
“It’s so awful. I can’t—I think—” Souzie ran from them and became sick. Klorin followed and rubbed her back.
Dacias swallowed the lump in his throat. Julen is in there. He closed his eyes and willed his mind to turn his terror into determination. He said he would die trying to get Julen out, and he meant it. He had to make peace with that very real possibility. Klorin was right. This is a person’s last stop in life. This vile monstrosity. A monument to the cruelty of man. This would most likely be Dacias’s end, but he embraced it.
I’d rather die trying than live without you.