A Most Dangerous Weapon

Chapter 59: Our Final Secrets

Every passing second felt like a full hour.

Between tossing rocks and brushing away dirt, we had to halt our progression every so often to eliminate the Romallian soldiers that approached. I wasn't wrong in thinking that their various search parties had heard the landslide in the distance. Unlike during our palanquin kidnapping escapade, I no longer had the patience or a logical frame of mind to spare their lives. These troops saw our faces, counted our numbers, and were probably suspicious of our reasons for digging through the rubble. If any of them got away and returned to the Commander, he would send an army after us. We'd all be dead and they'd steal back Diana, that is if she was still breathing in there. Our only choice was to kill anyone who came looking.

But in reality, I think I just wanted to continue to take out my aggression on someone. I wasn't ready to kill my brother yet, but my manic mind still wanted to show my brother what I'm capable of doing to those who cross me.

My friends seemed a little more reluctant to kill. Not because they weren't used to shedding blood, but because they noticed how each life seemed to fuel my maddening resolve. But they didn't dare to disobey my orders, not unless they wished to be lying on the ground next to my brother.

"Grab that one, up there!" I directed, pointing at a very large boulder that was weighing down atop of the smaller stones. "Once we move it, we should be able to continue with this area for our tunnel."

Arrian and Arlo carefully climbed up the rubble to reach the boulder. Once they were certain that it was safe and that they had a good stance, they each lifted an end before launching it down to the ground with a heavy grunt. While they were up there they tossed a handful of other lose stones away to prevent them from falling on us later.

We had a tunnel going about a couple meters deep already. It was slow work because at first, our tunnels just kept collapsing. Things got a bit better once Theo and Kilgorian fetched our horses and brought them into the clearing, providing us with cups, bowls and buckets from our satchels to use for digging. We had to get creative by using thick branches to prop up the makeshift ceiling of our tunnel every two feet, and even then we had to adjust our direction based on the strength and weakness of the surrounding stones within the tunnel. It became a sort of serpent like design, swerving carefully as we dug inward. The space also had to be small. That, along with the constant use of branches blocking the way, made it clear that someone with a tiny frame would have to shimmy through the tunnel. Camilla and I were the only options, and we knew that Camilla would certainly refuse. It didn't matter though because I had every intention of being the person to climb into danger from the start.

What worried me was how I was supposed to get both Diana and Rowan back out. Diana was certainly small enough, but that would mean nothing if she was impedingly injured or unconscious. The same went for Rowan, only he had the added difficulty of being slightly larger than us girls. He was smaller than our gladiators, but he still had the broad shoulders of a man.

"Let's make it a little wider along the sides! Rowan needs the space!"

Theo began to remove some of the looser stones at the mouth of our tunnel. Once he could no longer reach anything worth grabbing within, he bent down to attempt to crawl into the hole. Kilgorian immediately grabbed him by the waist and yanked him back to safety.

"You're too big to get through there. I'm closer to Rowan's size, so I'll climb through." Kilgorian looks from Theo to the chilling tunnel, and then back to the man. He says in a reassuring tone, "I'll be fine."

I wasn't in the mood for their subtle, cute moments. I sighed heavily with annoyance as I pushed them both out of the way. Before anyone could stop me, I dove into the tunnel and began to shimmy through on my belly.