Chapter 19
NIKIAS
Nikias pulled novice after novice out of the hole, each one affirming it had been Commander Aimilia who had sent them.
As soon as Nikias hauled them out of the hole, he passed them to Academy teachers that had finally joined them and to the healers on standby.
A few academics with knowledge in repairs had arrived, but the majority of the commanders Nikias had were forced to keep their shields up or cast new ones as more and more of the stadium wanted to break apart and fall and they couldn’t afford for anything to hit the ground and cause more collapse.
Nikias wouldn’t let anything cause the already collapsing tunnels to cave in further.
He counted over the novices again.
“It’s still thirty-seven.”
Gavril’s voice next to him disrupted Nikias’ count.
When Nikias looked over at him, Gavril sighed, eyeing the identical rope he had connected to Marcella. “I keep counting too.”
Nikias looked over his shoulder at the families that could be seen outside the stadium, the Runai guards holding them back and everyone else who wanted to gawk now that they were no longer in immediate danger.
He lowered his voice so the novices who were around didn’t hear him.
“It might not be many more. There might not be fifty to find.”
Gavril shook his head, but also kept his voice low. “The part of me that wants my wife out of danger the quickest would almost hope the same. But for the sake of the families out there waiting, I pray that it’s not.”
Nikias said, “I’m being realistic. While this mess is deep, the novices cannot have ended up much farther than the stadium’s circumference. It is sizable, but I’m sure Aimilia and Marcella will soon have covered all of it.”
“Then let’s hope for a miracle.”
Nikias held his tongue.
As much as he might be tempted, he was determined to remain calm and composed and not lose his head, especially at Gavril who was just as worried as he was. If not more.
Nikias spotted a boy off to the side being healed from one of the chimeras nearly taking off his arm.
He was firing every single chimera handler that had been there that day.
He was also going to punish whoever had been the one to suggest chimeras be used in an entrance exam in the first place.
Then he was going to ban chimeras from the entrance exams forever. Then—
“Hello?”
Nikias abandoned his scheming as Gavril called back, “Yes! This way! It’s Prince Gavril. I’m here with my brother. We’re going to pull you out.”
After Gavril had arrived, Nikias had quickly seen how much better they responded to him and not Nikias.
Which made sense, given Gavril had taken to his role at the Academy quickly and the students almost as quickly.
It was for the best since Nikias didn’t have an ounce of skill in such areas as being warm and reassuring or comforting.
He especially didn’t have the patience for such things at a moment like this.
Quick, effective, and cold but alive worked for him.
When the tug came on his rope though, he started pulling.
He’d been feeling the strain in his shoulders and back for a while now, growing with each novice that emerged, but he ignored and kept pulling until the first boy emerged.
Nikias reached down into the hole, sinking his hand into his chiton and yanking him up the rest of the way and onto semi-solid ground.
With the emergency repairs underway, Nikias had several of the commanders holding up shields under the rubble surrounding the immediate area of the hole to stabilize it as more weight came on top of it from under it.
Gavril started pulling the next one up while Nikias directed the boy over to his teachers and the healers along with the rest of the novices.
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—”
“Where is 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.”
Marcella sat up with Gavril’s assistance, her arms hanging at her side as if all rigidity in them were gone forever.
“A chimera bit her shoulder. We stopped the bleeding. But she could not carry anyone with that wound. Especially not with the burn on her hand and arm. She is alright. I would not have left her otherwise.”
He shouldn’t have let her go in in the first place.
This was a mistake.
He had to fix this. He couldn’t—
Gavril grabbed his shoulder, nails sinking in and then he jerked Nikias back, stopping him from trying to get through the narrow hole. It was wider now. If Marcella had been able to slip through with a girl on her back, maybe he could—
“Aimilia is a capable commander.” Gavril shoved himself between Nikias and the hole, using all of his weight to press down on Nikias and keep him in place. “Do not insult her by going in after her. She knows what she can handle.”
Nikias didn’t care if she was insulted. All that mattered was that she was safe.
He shoved at Gavril’s hands. “She is also human with a desperation to prove herself no matter what it costs her. She is injured and alone—”
Gavril smacked Nikias’ hands away. “And she’s not Faustina.”
Gavril was lucky Nikias didn’t throw him into the hole.
Before Nikias could try, a new voice called out, “Hello?”
And they had another novice to pull up, thankfully confirming that at least Aimilia hadn’t died immediately after Marcella had left her. Once the boy had been pulled up, Marcella had shifted forward, staring at the hole with a hazy exhaustion in her eyes. “I’ll—I’ll go back in—”
Gavril immediately grabbed her and pulled her back as Nikias shook his head. Gavril said, “No, you will not. You’re in no state to go back down there. We just… have to wait a little longer.”
“How long?” Marcella rasped, reaching up to rub at the dirt staining her cheeks.
“Fifteen minutes,” Nikias said, looking over the forty-five novices. “If she’s not back within fifteen minutes, I’m making this hole bigger and going in after her myself.”
It was the longest fifteen minutes of his life.
But with each novice that arrived, confirming Aimilia’s survival, Nikias managed to stay put. But as the minutes stretched on and on, with only Aimilia and one novice left, he was ready to call it and go in after her when—
“Nikias?”
“Aimilia?” Nikias scrambled to the edge of the hole, unable to see her at the bottom but he could her hear heavy breathing and the shallow breathing of another person.
“You know, if the two of us had been in the same class, I would have placed first.”
Nikias closed his eyes and bowed his head, letting his hair fall into his face so no one could see the water welling up in his eyes. “You know today is the only day I would ever let you make that statement unchallenged.”
“Then it’s my lucky day. I’ve got a girl here, broken leg. Seems like it’s catching. She’s coming up first.”
Gavril started pulling on his rope as Nikias shifted back, but stayed ready to reach down and help pull her up the rest of the way. Once she was up, Nikias passed her over to the healer waiting.
A small weak tug came on his rope. Aimilia’s voice was faint and weak as she called up, “Alright, that’s all of them.”
Nikias didn’t need to be told twice. He started pulling her up, the ache in his arms long since forgotten at the sound of her voice.
Soon enough she was faintly visible in the darkness, the vitae lighting up her face, and then Gavril was at the edge of the hole, arm stretched out.
Aimilia reached up, but the second Gavril caught her hand a cry came out.
“Aimilia—”
“I’m fine, just get me out of here!”
Gavril pulled again and Aimilia scrambled out of the hole, hitting the ground on her knees. Gavril knelt beside her, one arm at her back to keep her from falling backwards.
Nikias dropped the rope as he looked her over, assessing the damage.
Her peplos had been shredded to pieces at her knees, a few rips going up higher and the white stained brown and black.
The top was no longer clasped at both shoulders but was halfway between a bandage and a covering.
The top left where it was wrapped around her shoulder was stained a dark red and was dripping again.
Her right side was exposed except for the strophion that covered her chest, and there was a litany of scrapes and bruises across the skin that could be seen beneath the dirt and blood that stained her skin.
Her right forearm and half her hand were a vivid red that almost matched her head as it blistered badly, shaking even now.
Sweat still gathered and poured down her face as she huffed for each and every breath, chest heaving.
Her hair was a mess, half falling out of her ornate updo of braids and sticking to her skin.
She was stunning.
She was alive. She was safe.
Nikias’ knees slammed into the dirt and she looked up at him, lips parting, but he could not hold himself back now. He slid his arm around her waist, pulling her in while his other hand held the back of her head as he turned his face into her neck, on her good side, and clutched her to him.
He didn’t care that everyone was watching. He didn’t care this would be all they would talk about for the next month. He didn’t even care that he only had about half a minute before she pushed him away and said something to rip him in half again.
All he cared about was the fact that she was safe and in his arms.
But Aimilia didn’t push him away. She didn’t even try. Although that probably had to do with her injuries that he was taking care to avoid as he breathed in the rancid sweat and overwhelming smell of the earth.
Instead, she just said, “Careful, Nikias, they’re all going to think you actually care about me.”
“Let them,” he whispered.
Aimilia stiffened in his arms, and her breathing against him stuttered. “And what if I start to think that?”
“Good.”
Aimilia jerked back and Nikias was forced to look up. She was being pulled out of his arms by Gavril as he said, “Come on, you need a healer or you’re going to pass out from blood loss.”
Gavril shot Nikias a glare as he hurried her away, which Nikias returned as Aimilia shook her head and let Gavril escort her away.
Nikias stayed where he was, watching as the healers helped her find a place to sit as they began unwrapping her shoulder and Gavril knelt beside them, turned away but sitting in a way to block Aimilia from sight.
Most of her anyway. Her head came to rest on Gavril’s shoulder while the healers worked.
A soft, gentle hand on his shoulder turned his gaze toward Marcella, who knelt beside him. She gave him a smile and said, “I am rooting for you.”
She couldn’t have said that. He was hallucinating. Or she was butchering their language again. But…
He whispered, “You are?”
“Gavril… will get there eventually. Give him time. She is good for you, and I think you her.” Marcella looked at the hole again, then at all fifty novices. “She is… a force.”
Nikias’ lips twitched up as it all washed over him again. “That she is.”
He ran a hand through his hair as Marcella whispered, “And Gavril is right about one thing. She is not your Faustina.”
He ran a hand through his hair, taking another look at the top of Aimilia’s head, eyes closed as she started to doze on Gavril’s shoulder while the healers worked. He whispered, “I know.”
Aimilia wasn’t Faustina. That was the only hope he had.