I Knew You Would Come
No sooner had the princess finished speaking than a thin, deflating laugh hissed from the Crown Prince's lips.
"Is that so. Bringing that wench's corpse to the Empress wouldn't be half bad either."
The mere thought of the scene seemed to amuse him further; his laughter deepened. With one hand he seized Sir Siarkan's shoulder and whispered darkly.
"Fine. If you're so set on it, I won't stop you. Go on then — comb the mountains all night looking for that girl."
The Crown Prince clapped his shoulder hard, then turned and walked off toward the far side of the disordered camp. Following after her brother, the princess tossed a neat parting word to her fiancé.
"Well then — I'll leave that child to you."
The moment the two royals departed, they set out north at once.
Edric gripped a torch in one hand and cut through the forest, where darkness had settled thick and sticky. He fretted that the wyvern's trail might have vanished in the brief time they'd spent arguing.
"Careful. Keep that up and you'll go tumbling into the ravine yourself."
Sir Theoric Hart, the senior knight keeping close at his side, whispered with concern.
Edric only nodded once in reply and raised the torch to light the uneven dirt path. Between the straight ranks of conifers, jagged rocks and a steep slope came into view.
"Here."
When he pointed to the steep descent, his superior — who had been following in silence — drew near like a shadow.
Edric stepped aside so the man could survey what lay below. After studying the gorge by torchlight for a moment, Barcas drew a chain with a grappling hook from a pouch at his belt.
Securing it firmly in a cleft of rock, Barcas cast himself down the near-vertical slope. Edric stood holding the torch, lighting the way below, and only after confirming that Barcas had landed safely did he follow him down the rock face.
Fortunately the ravine was not especially deep. Picking his way carefully down the slope, stepping on jutting rocks, Edric raised the torch high to signal the knights still above. One by one, the waiting knights began climbing down the rock face after them.
After watching them for a moment, Edric turned and surveyed the surroundings.
The impact of the wyvern's crash seemed to have dealt a widespread blow to the cliff face; rocks and heaps of earth lay scattered everywhere. Searching through all this debris would take considerable time.
Edric swept the pitch-black darkness with an anxious gaze, then vaulted over a large boulder. After moving some distance along the uneven ground, he spotted a dark mass rising beside a pile of collapsed rock.
He brought the light close for a better look.
...Looks like we've found it.
The wyvern's corpse lay sprawled among the rubble, one wing blackened and shriveled as if seared by flame magic.
Edric searched the area thoroughly, half-fearing the princess might be trapped somewhere beneath the beast's body — then he stopped short at the sight of a dark figure standing upright a short distance away.
When he brought the torch nearer, he saw Barcas standing beside a great boulder. Edric sprinted toward him.
"Commander! Have you found something—?"
The urgent cry died as Edric spotted the pale, limp form before the man and jerked to a halt.
The torch, lowered weakly, cast a faint light over the woman's bloodless face and tangled hair. Staring down at her in a daze, Edric saw the rocks of every size covering the lower half of her body and let out a heavy sigh.
He had known the chances of her being alive were slim. He had steeled himself, to a degree, for a sight like this. Even so, confirming with his own eyes the woman's ruined body made his blood run cold.
Hesitating, he approached her on unsteady legs.
Her upper body was relatively intact, but her legs were all but crushed.
Examining the left leg, twisted at an unnatural angle beneath a large boulder, Edric shoved a sizable chunk of stone aside. The rocks piled next to it came cascading down.
His face darkening with dismay, Edric jerked his head up to call for help — and froze at the sight of a face as expressionless as a mask.
Barcas stood with his torso upright, quietly observing the woman. There was not a shred of emotion in those arid eyes, and a chill ran down Edric's spine.
He knew this man and the Second Princess were all but mortal enemies. Still — they had known each other since childhood. How he could remain so composed at the sight of her in this state was beyond Edric's comprehension.
Edric cried out as if in protest.
"What are you doing?! Help me, quickly!"
But Barcas did not so much as flinch.
Glaring at him with a face flushed with anger, Edric rose to clear the rocks alone if he had to. He was shoving with both hands at the stone crushing her legs when a sound came from below — like a small animal panting for breath.
Edric snapped his head down.
In the firelight, the pale face twitched, ever so slightly. For an instant his legs nearly gave out beneath him.
A fierce wave of relief crashed over him, and he shouted.
"She's alive! She's still breathing!"
As if in answer, her thin eyelids fluttered, and unfocused eyes appeared. Even at a glance, she seemed barely conscious.
Edric straightened in a rush. She needed healing magic — the sooner the better.
He reached for the torch he'd set on the ground, meaning to summon the knights still searching elsewhere. In that moment, a faint smile rose across the woman's paper-white face.
Without meaning to, Edric stopped dead. From lips cracked and beaded with blood, a sound escaped — so indistinct it was nearly impossible to make out.
"Barcas..."
His eyes went wide at the name that spilled out like a plea — and the man who had stood frozen as a statue bent over her. As if recognizing that still face, the woman's pupils stirred faintly. It was the look of someone who had glimpsed a thread of salvation from the abyss.
"I... I knew. That you'd come to save me... I knew."
Her eyes curved into a thin smile, and tears, pushed past the thin lids, soaked her bloodless cheeks.
Firelight flickered across the cool face of the man looking quietly down at her. It glittered even in those empty eyes, devoid of any spark of life. And yet the man still seemed submerged somewhere deep and dark.
For reasons he couldn't name, Edric had been holding his breath. Almost without thinking, he caught the man's shoulder.
"A-Are you all right?"
Barcas lifted his head and looked at him. A faint crease formed between his handsome brows — the expression of a man who could not understand why such a question had been asked. Edric himself did not know why he had asked it.
Why had this man seemed as though he were not all right?
He was staring at that calm face — no different from usual — with confused eyes when hurried footsteps sounded from somewhere nearby.
Only then did Edric snap back to himself. He hastily raised the torch high. Several knights, recognizing his signal, came running.