Chapter 94
Turner tightened the rope around his waist one final time.
A veteran rescue miner crouched beside him, testing every knot with practiced hands. Once.
Twice.
Then a third time.
Only after he was satisfied did he step back, "You're secure, Captain."
Turner accepted the lantern from a nearby knight.
Its flame flickered in the mountain wind.
He looked down into the narrow shaft. Nothing but darkness.
The opening seemed to swallow the light before it had fallen even a few feet.
He took a slow breath, "Lower me carefully."
Six soldiers wrapped the thick rope around their forearms and took their positions.
Brian stepped between them, inspecting every grip himself.
"No sudden movements," he ordered.
"If the rope shifts unexpectedly, don't panic. Hold your footing first."
He looked each soldier in the eye, "If anything happens..."
His voice hardened, "...you do not let go."
The men nodded grimly, "Yes, My Lord."
A few paces away, Aurora stood perfectly still.
Her hands were clasped so tightly that her nails dug into her own skin.
She couldn't stop shaking. Every instinct she possessed screamed at her to stop this.
To drag Turner away.
To order someone else.
Anyone else.
Instead...
She remained rooted where she stood.
Turner looked back. Their eyes met. For a long moment, neither spoke.
Finally, Aurora managed the faintest smile.
It broke his heart.
"...Please come back."
It wasn't a command.
It wasn't even a request.
It was a prayer.
Turner answered with the smallest nod.
Then...
He stepped into the void.
The soldiers slowly fed the rope through the pulley.
Foot by foot...
Turner disappeared beneath the earth.
The lantern became a distant golden star.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Forty.
Soon the only sign he still existed was that tiny trembling light beneath the mountain.
His voice drifted upward, "Steady..."
"We've got you, Captain!"
The rope continued to slide.
Aurora never blinked. She couldn't. If she looked away...
Even for a second...
Something inside her whispered she would never see him again.
Then—
A sound.
Low.
Deep.
Almost too faint to hear.
Brian's head snapped toward the mountainside.
"...Stop."
Every soldier froze.
The mountain answered with another groan.
Longer this time. Rock dust drifted lazily from the cliff above.
Owen's face changed instantly, "No..."
Brian looked upward. His voice cut through the silence, "Nobody move."
Another rumble.
Closer.
The earth vibrated beneath their boots.
Lucian felt it.
Everyone did.
A single pebble bounced across the ground.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Brian's expression darkened, "...Hold the rope."
The mountain roared.
CRACK!
A massive slab of stone sheared away from the cliff.
"DOWN!"
The explosion of rock shook the entire rescue site.
Dust swallowed everything.
Men shouted.
Horses screamed.
The soldiers holding the rope staggered as something beneath them yanked with terrifying force.
The line snapped taut.
"Captain!"
"Hold it!"
Six men threw their weight backward.
The rope cut into flesh. Leather gloves split apart.
Boots carved deep trenches into the earth.
For one desperate moment...They held.
Then the pulley screamed. A sharp metallic shriek echoed across the valley.
The wooden support post splintered.
Brian lunged. He caught the rope with both hands. The force nearly tore him off his feet. Another knight grabbed behind him.
Then another.
Isaac.
Alistair.
Even Lucian seized the rope.
"Pull!"
No one needed the order.
Every man strained until veins bulged in their necks. The rope burned through gloves.
Skin tore open. Blood stained the coarse fibres.
"Don't let go!"
Owen's voice thundered across the mountain, "Don't you dare let go!"
The weight below pulled harder.
Brian wrapped the rope around his forearm.
The force dragged him several feet through loose stone.
His arm screamed in protest.
Still...He refused to release it.
Then...A sound unlike the others.
Not rock.
Not timber.
A dull, sickening snap.
Brian's blood ran cold, "No..."
The tension vanished.
Instantly.
Violently.
The rope lashed upward like a striking serpent.
Its frayed end whipped through their hands.
Several men fell backward.
The remaining length coiled uselessly across the ground.
Silence.
Complete.
Horrifying.
The lantern was gone.
Turner's voice was gone.
Only distant rocks continued to tumble somewhere beneath the mountain.
Aurora stared at the empty shaft.
"No..."
The word barely left her lips. She took one step forward.
Then another.
Emily caught her arm, "My Lady—"
Aurora pulled free without realizing it, "No..."
She reached the edge of the shaft and stared into the darkness as though willing it to give him back.
"He can't..."
Her voice broke, "He can't..."
The strength left her legs.
She sank to her knees.
A sob tore from somewhere deep inside her chest.
Not graceful.
Not restrained.
Broken.
"TURNER!" , Her cry echoed down the shaft...
Only to be swallowed by silence.
No answer came back.
Behind her...
Lucian stood motionless.
He had seen Aurora face assassins without trembling. He had watched her walk into plague wards. He had seen her comfort grieving mothers while hiding her own exhaustion.
He had never...
Ever...
Seen her unravel like this.
His chest tightened. Whatever lived between Aurora and Turner... It had become something precious. Something neither of them had spoken aloud.
And in that terrible moment...
Lucian wasn't certain which frightened him more—
That Turner might be dead...
Or that Aurora might never be the same if he was.
Around them...
No one spoke.
The miners.
The soldiers.
The grieving families.
Every eye remained fixed on the black mouth of the mountain.
The rescue had not merely lost its captain.
It had lost the man every one of them believed would bring the others home.
And for the first time since the collapse...
Hope itself seemed to disappear into the darkness beneath the mountain.
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