Chapter 11 #2
The girl’s cries had stopped. Did she have enough air down there? When I had been in that trunk for hours, the air slowly betrayed me over time, becoming less and less breathable until I thought I was going to pass out.
No one had come to rescue me then.
I could still feel the way I’d trembled inside that trunk, waiting for the help that never came. My voice scraped the inside of my throat as I turned to the people clustered around the pipe. “Get the rope,” I told them.
The mother’s hands were clasped in prayer and she rocked back and forth, tears streaming from her eyes as one of the Nightsworn appraised me. “I think the boy will fit. He’s just skinny enough.”
Lochlan looked at me. “Are you absolutely sure?”
No, I wasn’t sure, but I nodded anyway. I wouldn’t let another child sit in the dark and believe she’d been abandoned, even if it meant reliving my most terrifying memory and facing my worst fear.
I might be alone in the world, but this girl still had a family, and she deserved to be reunited with them.
I tucked my shirt into my breeches and cinched my belt extra tight as Lochlan approached with rope, but I insisted on tying everything myself. I had no intention of learning how good anyone else’s knot-tying abilities were when it was my own safety on the line.
“You’ll have to go headfirst,” Lochlan warned me. “You won’t have room to turn around, so go down, grab the girl, and don’t let go of her, no matter what.”
I stepped toward the edge. I had to go now, before my courage failed me. “Lower me down.”
Cold air wafted up from the pipe’s depths, damp and metallic.
I was lowered slowly, inch by inch, the rough stone brushing against my back, shoulders, and knees.
The space narrowed quickly. Blood rushed to my head as my arms, stretched out in front of me, groped blindly through the darkness.
The rough walls scraped against my shoulders and pebbles dislodged from the wall, plummeting down to splash through the grate into the aqueduct below, where the rushing, roaring water flowing through the pipes sounded ten times louder as they echoed up to me.
“Faster!” I shouted. I was going to pass out from being upside down for so long if they didn’t hurry.
They increased the speed. Some sort of bulge in the piping squeezed me and, just like the platforms and chairs they’d tried to lower before, I got stuck. My breath caught.
Oh, shoals.
I didn’t have enough room.
I wouldn’t have enough air.
The walls were closing in, just like before. My pulse roared in my ears, even louder than the aqueduct’s contents below, and panic flooded my senses.
I couldn’t get out.
Everything was too close.
It was too tight; I was going to suffocate.
This was how I would die. I pressed against the sides of the pipe with my hands, wishing desperately that I could push them out and make more room. There wasn’t enough air.
My chest heaved, and the rope around my ribs cut tighter with every shallow breath.
I can’t do this. I’m never going to get out.
I wanted to scream and beg them to pull me back up. I wanted to claw my way up to fresh air and never leave it again. But through the panic, I heard that thin, trembling voice.
“Help me…”
I couldn’t leave her. I shut my eyes as blood throbbed in my head. I had to do this. I had to. As frightened as I was, that little girl had to be even more terrified.
“I’m coming,” I croaked. I squirmed and wiggled until I managed to extract myself from the tight spot where the pipe was bent inward. After that, the rest of the way down to the little girl felt slightly more open, but no more comfortable.
“Mama?” The tiny voice chirped right by my ear.
“I’m taking you to her. Come on,” I said, feeling around for her hands. “Hold on tight, okay? We’ll help you get back to your mama.”
Small hands found my own, and I clamped down hard.
“Ow,” she protested.
“Pull!” I shouted up to the men.
The little girl gave a cry of fright from the sudden shout.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” I reassured her. My head was pounding and it felt like my eyeballs were being pushed forward in their sockets. Acrobats were out of their minds. I never wanted to be upside down again. “See? We’re going up.”
The ropes dug into my waist as we were heaved upward. Halfway there, the bent pipe pressed against me again. I held the little girl as far away from it as possible; only I was big enough to get stuck.
“Pull hard!” I yelled.
The men gave a mighty tug. As I surged upward, something sharp on the underside of the bent pipe dug into my side. Immediately, blood began trickling up my body toward my chin where I hung upside down.
I shouted in pain, then clenched my jaws together so hard that it hurt. I redoubled my grip on the little girl. “Don’t worry,” I told her through gritted teeth. “You’ll be fine.”
Light was filtering into the tunnel, spilling onto the girl’s face, which was tear-streaked and young enough that she still had some baby fat.
Hands grabbed at my feet, hoisting me up the final distance, and finally, finally, I was out.
The crowd swarmed forward to get the girl and return her to her mother.
I hastily tugged on my tunic to be sure it fully covered the tight strips of cloth binding my chest. The fabric had torn and blood was staining through, but I quickly donned my jacket again and it went undetected.
Hands rained down on my back as I hastily untied the rope and tried to smile. My side felt like it had been split wide open. I needed to examine it privately, and soon.
“You’re a hero, lad.”
“Well done!”
“You saved her!”
Melody’s mother came and thanked me profusely then gave a big hug that pressed on my side and nearly made me black out from the pain.
The praise continued, but I simply wanted to get away.
If anyone found out I was injured, they would insist on looking or taking me to a doctor and my identity would be compromised.
“Really, anyone would have,” I mumbled over and over, trying to fight my way through the applauding crowd.
I felt like a fraud every time someone praised my courage.
I hadn’t been courageous. I’d been terrified but would rather die than admit it.
It was much better to be thought of as some hero.
If my side hadn’t been killing me, I would very much like to have stayed and get names so I could call in favors later.
“Gil, are you all right?” Lochlan had appeared by my side.
I nodded shortly and forced a tight smile. “Just ready to go back. Being upside down that long gave me a jolly good headache.”
He chuckled. “I would imagine so. Make way!” he called, raising his voice to the crowd. “Make way for the hero who saved Melody!”
The crowd parted. Someone had even retrieved our handcart loaded with our booth’s goods for us. We gave a final wave in farewell and headed back.
Silently blood dripped down my side, hidden beneath my jacket, and I snuck my fingers over to press against the wound. When Lochlan wasn’t looking, I withdrew my hand to look and found my palm covered in blood.