“Get me out of here!” Henry coughs, his eye disappearing from the small peephole between the stones for a moment.
“I’m going to do my best.” I step back, not wanting to add pressure to the rocks that cover almost all of Henry. Kneeling, I analyze how the boulders lay atop him. “Henry, are you in any significant amount of pain anywhere?”
“My left foot,” Henry says. “I’m pretty sure it’s twisted up.”
“Okay.” Hearing Astralux’s voice echo through the rocks, I go over to where the rope tied around my waist trails back through the boulders to the entrance of this caved in mine. “Found Henry!” I shout.
There’s distant cheering. I listen intently and hear what I think might be Ward Thorn shouting. “Status,” I realize he’s asking. “Alive!” I shout back.
“You hear someone?” Henry asks. “I can’t hear anything. ‘Course, I can’t see hardly anything either. Thought I saw light earlier though.”
I blink, forgetting that with the dragon bonding, my eyesight is better. “Astralux, breathe!” I shout.
There’s a long pause. Just as I think to ask again, the rocks that block our way back to the entrance glow, and a few misty strands of white light filter into the larger opening that Henry and I are in.
“Wow!” Henry’s one eye glistens. “It’s beautiful.”
“Very beautiful,” I say. Kneeling again, I start to pick up a rock, watching. Nothing else shifts, and I toss this aside. I slowly pick up another and, when it looks good, throw it away.
“This is going to take too long!” Henry says.
“Easy there,” I say. “Tell me about yourself. Have you lived in Adytol long?”
“My whole life. I was born and raised here. My wife’s from Adytol too.” Henry’s one eye squints a little at me. “But what about you? I don’t recognize you. Then again, Adytol’s getting pretty big, seems I meet someone new every couple of weeks or so.”
“I actually just came to Adytol,” I say. “My name’s Estelle.”
“Wait. You’re the new Ward Estelle, bonded to Astralux!” Henry’s single eye glistens. “Oh, praise Ariadna.”
Once again, I don’t understand the citizens’ adoration for Wards. And I’m not even sure I can officially call myself a “Ward.” For now, however, I just want to stay at the task on hand. I shift another couple of rocks away before I spot a pebble shift.
“We’ve never had a Ward that bonded outside the bonding ceremony, except for Ward Veremund of course,” Henry says. My hope that talking would distract Henry from his dilemma has worked well—his voice has taken a cheery tone now. “And weren’t you the one that defeated the Vladykar dragon Velenosever?”
“With the aid of other Wards. Certainly not by myself.” I pause as I pick up the next stone, seeing the rocks around it shift a little. They settle and I’m able to remove the stone and toss it aside. “I wouldn’t have survived without the others.”
“Aw, you Wards are always so modest,” Henry says.
I smile a little as I work. “I actually know very little about the Wards. Everyone in Adytol seems to think fondly of them.”
“Well yeah! The Wards have protected us and kept us free from the Vladykars for many, many years. Beyond my lifetime for sure.”
Both Henry and I stiffen as a couple of stones shift to one side. On the plus side, I’ve cleared out enough that Henry is able to poke his head and one of his arms up above the rocks.
“Oy, look at you go!” Henry chuckles. “Always wanted to be a Ward. Wanted to be strong and fast, and to ride a dragon into glory! Ah, but then I found out about the cost of being a Ward. And that was when I realized I wanted to keep admiring the Wards, not be one.”
“What cost?” I ask.
“The Wards fight tirelessly against evil,” Henry says. “Every hour of every day, they’re on guard, ready to defend us. And sometimes other countries, at least in the years before my time, so some folks ‘round here say.” Henry shifts himself up as I get more rocks off his shoulders. “And when something goes wrong, it’s usually a Ward that’s lost something or someone. You Wards risk a lot for us, including your own lives.”
I pause, watching Henry. And then I look down at the rope tied around my waist.
Perhaps I’m already more of a Ward than I realize.
Hearing shouting again, I turn, tilting my head to hear better. Ward Thorn is asking me about “status.” “Clearing rocks!” I shout back.
“And doing a mighty good job of it, Ward Estelle,” Henry says. Now that he’s loose enough to move, he frowns at the boulders behind me. “But how are we going to get out? Or I guess, how am I going to get out? I suppose you found a way.”
“I did. We’ll figure something out.” I don’t bother telling Henry that since he’s more than twice my width and a good bit taller than me, our exit might take some doing. I just want to get him loose first.
As I began moving the rocks aside past Henry’s shoulder, the rocks start to shift. I use my shoulder to push back against them, and Henry is able to pull one leg loose carefully. But his other leg, the one he said might be twisted, looks like it’s caught under a boulder piled on by other rocks.
“No good,” Henry gasps. “I, I’m not sure what to do.”
“Can you lean your back against these rocks?” I ask. Henry takes my spot, a few stones falling loose around him, and I carefully step around to look at the rocks on his leg. I put my hands under the lowest boulder, digging into the stones. I feel a cut on my hand and flinch, knowing Astralux probably felt that. “You’re going to have to keep holding those rocks back and pull your leg out. Can you do that?”
Henry gives me a shaky grin. “I guess I better. Ready.”
“Alright.” I strain upwards with all of my might. At first, nothing happens—I feel like I’m trying to lift a thousand kilograms. And then a pebble falls. Then another. Rocks groan. And it starts to shift upward.
“Oh, oh that’s so much better,” Henry gasps. “Still not loose though.”
I give a shout and push up as hard as I can. Closing my eyes, I strain, throwing all of my strength granted from the dragon bonding into it.
“There!” Henry pulls his leg to himself, muttering in pain. “I’m free now.”
Gasping, I slowly lower the boulder, not wanting to cause another landslide of rocks by the jolt down. Stones tumble down around us, but it otherwise holds. “Alright, now carefully climb up on top of that wall you’re holding onto. Just remember it’s going to shift.”
“Right.” Henry eases the wall down, pushing the stones beneath him. I do the same, and together we’re able to lower the stones beneath us. “Oh, thank Ariadna!” Henry massages his leg just above his ankle. It looks terrible, smattered in blood and bent at the wrong angle. Henry shudders. “It’s awful to look at, ain’t it?”
“Hey, you’ll have some good stories to tell your wife and friends.” Tearing strips of cloth from my pant legs, I carefully wrap this around his ankle to help stabilize his foot. “Have any children?”
“Three, and my wife’s pregnant with our fourth.” Henry gives a wistful sigh. “I can’t wait to see them.”
I smile, glad to hear Henry’s view has become more hopeful. Taking a breath, I stoop and put my arm under Henry. He’s not as heavy as I expect, and I’m able to help him onto his feet. He teeters as the rocks shift under our feet, but I’m able to keep both of us upright. Leaning one hand on a rock, I guide Henry to the first tight area that I had squeezed through, the rope around my waist leading through the hole.
“Oh, I’ll never make it through that!” Henry exclaims.
“Sure you will,” I say. “Just relax. I’ll hold the rock up from behind and you’ll go through.” I untie the rope about my waist and hand it to Henry. “Don’t tie this around you, but we’re going to follow it back through. Got it?”
“Okay. If you say so.” Henry takes a breath and starts to crawl forward. Putting my hands underneath the top boulder, I lift. Henry’s able to wriggle through the opening, even with his injured foot, and I hear an “Oomph” on the other side. “Made it!” Henry says.
“One down,” I say.
The going is slow, especially as the rocks become smaller and more cumbersome to try and move aside without letting them topple over us. I estimate that hours have passed when I start to see what must be torchlight flickering from between the rocks ahead.
“I can’t do this,” Henry gasps. He’s trying to squeeze through an opening that had been difficult for me. Even with all my efforts to lift the rocks, Henry doesn’t have much clearance. Worse yet, he’s wearing down between pain, exhaustion, and the little bit of blood he’s losing along the way. “Thank you, Ward Estelle, but I can’t go on.”
“Henry, you’re doing fantastic,” I say between gritted teeth, trying to keep my voice light. “Look how far we’ve come already! You still got that rope in your hands?”
“Yeah,” Henry says.
“I want you to hold onto it tight and give it three quick firm tugs.”
“Okay.” There’s a pause. And then Henry slides forward. “Oh! Someone’s pulling on it!”
“Just crawl with it, and don’t be afraid to give it a tug when you want it to stop,” I say. “Now go!”
With the aid of the others holding the rope, and my foot helping to push him from behind, Henry’s able to make it through. Heaving a sigh of relief, I crawl after him, Henry following the rope to the next hole. This one is large enough that Henry’s able to make it through with just the rope pulling him along.
“Wow!” Henry says. “Too bad we didn’t do this earlier!”
“Well, too early and the rope might have cut on the stones,” I say. “You can see that I had to weave my way through here.”
“You’re a real hero, Ward Estelle.” Henry gives me a smile after he makes it through another tight squeeze of boulders. “Thank you.”
I pat Henry’s shoulder. “We aren’t out just yet, but we’ll get there.” I stop, hearing a deep rumble from behind.
“You can be sure, we’ll give you a right gift after this,” Henry says. “You can be sure the missus and I will—”
Seeing a rock fall from the rubble towering all around us, I dive for Henry, throwing my arms over him. A boulder hits my shoulder, hard enough that it knocks the breath out of me. The space around us tightens and I fight against the shifting stone with my entire body, trying to keep the rocks off of Henry and myself.
“Estelle!” Astralux’s voice filters through. There’s panic in her voice. “Hang on! Vite’s stabilizing it from this side!”
I frown, confused. And then I stare as small vines curl all around the stones. “Wow!”
“Absolutely phenomenal!” Henry exclaims. “Dragons are amazing creatures, aren’t they?”
“They sure are.” The vines don’t relieve any pressure, but I’m able to push a rock back to enable Henry to squeeze through.
“I see light up ahead!” Henry says. “But it looks like fire.”
“I think that’s torchlight,” I say. “It might be night.”
“Has it been that long?” Henry struggles to get his injured leg through and starts to sink. “Ariadna, I can’t…I can’t—”
“—Yes, you can!” I lift Henry by one arm, holding back the rocks with my other arm, and I drag Henry to the next tight squeeze. Beyond, I can see the others—they’ve made careful progress deeper into the mine. “This is it, Henry.”
“Estelle!” Astralux says. “You’re almost through!”
“Henry?!” a woman’s voice calls through.
Henry lifts his head. “That’s the missus!”
“For your family.” I put my hands under the next boulder, lifting. “Go!”
With his last bit of strength, and the help of the rope pulling him along, Henry wriggles through the hole. Cheers erupt on the other side, and I smile as I carefully lower the boulder.
There’s a crack above my head, and I look up in time to see that the boulder I’d been holding up had been balancing another rock—and when I’d set it back down, it had fallen off-balance. It tumbles down into another boulder, and starts a landslide.
“Astralux, help!” I shout. I dive for the opening.
Astralux’s nose presses through the rock opening so hard I feel pain on and around my lips. But I’m able to grab the nub on the tip of her nose, and with a yank she pulls me out just as the rocks collapse all around us.
I cling with shaking arms to Astralux as she lifts her head up and turns her neck away, keeping me above the rocks, using her shoulder to stop the boulders from coming closer. Kalteratem lifts his silver-gray scaled head and exhales, breathing ice all over the rocks, freezing them into place. I stare at it, panting, and then I turn and look up at Astralux’s face, her dark blue eyes glistening by torchlights all round, and a faint glow of white light that I recognize as Astralux’s breath. Astralux slowly lowers me to the ground. I take a gulp of air, standing on trembling legs. And then I throw my arms around her muzzle, one of her legs and a wing coming around to hung me, as people applaud and whistle all around us.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“No.” Astralux nuzzles the top of my head. “Thank you.”
Tamara Rivers 
Leave a comment