Chapter Eighteen

Admittedly, in Vincent's head the rescue should've gone a lot simpler than it actually had. The idea was sound. In Vincent's head it was perfect, in fact.

He would gracefully descend down the hole, looking like a slightly dusty dashing hero. He'd land gently on the floor, and by some miracle, Orion would sense his presence and wake up instantly, flying into his arms where they would share a passionate embrace before the men would haul them up again.

The reality was very different. For one thing, it wasn't easy for Vincent to get his bulk through the narrow hole, so descending gracefully wasn't an option. He glared at Morgan when the man had the cheek to suggest that he allow one of the workers to go down instead.

"I can do it. My husband needs me." Vincent decided he would just have to ignore the dust and mud that clung to his clothes. He was sure Orion wouldn't mind once he was saved.

But then the descent didn't go smoothly either. For some reason Vincent imagined it would be a gentle lowering of his royal person to a soft landing below. But that required a cooperative horse and calm men, who were anything but calm. Vincent was jerked and jolted as he dangled high above the cave floor. Why hadn't I factored in how high up I'd be hanging. Never having been anywhere where his adaptation to heights had been tested, Vincent felt decidedly queasy as he was being jerked around on the end of a rope.

And that was without the dust. Dust had never entered Vincent's mind when it came to how he pictured the rescue would go, although in hindsight, it should've done. The mountain had moved, rocks had fallen, there was going to be dust. It swirled around Vincent's face as the rope jerked him about yet again, causing him to cough and splutter.

"Your highness are you all right?" Morgan sounded concerned. "Pull him up, pull him up."

"Let me down, let me down," Vincent managed to call out, but of course the men had already started to pull him up which was a huge jerk on his spine, and then they let him down again, and Vincent clung to the rope, sure he was going to fall to his certain death. "Carefully," he yelled at the ceiling.

All of this meant that by the time Vincent's boots finally hit the ground, he was ready for his hero act to be over. Turns out, it had only just begun. For one thing, Vincent had to catch his breath and rub the bruises he was sure were forming around his middle where the rope was tied.

Then there was the little matter of Orion, who did not miraculously recover from his mere presence and indeed didn't seem capable of getting up at all. He wasn't even conscious. Scrabbling over the fallen debris to where he'd seen his husband's leg, Vincent's stomach churned as he realized an entire rock shelf had fallen on his husband's back and Orion's face was smushed into the dust.

Crouching down, Vincent would love to say he'd simply gripped the shelf in both hands and casually tossed it aside. But the truth of it was the shelf was heavy and Vincent struggled to get enough of a grip on it to move it.

"Your highness." Morgan was yelling at him again. "What's the hold up? Do you need assistance? Is the consort still breathing?"

I probably should've checked that first. Vincent wasn't sure how he'd be able to tell. It wasn't like he could put his face next to his husband's and feel the breath, and nor could he see if Orion's chest was rising because of that damn rock. Finally he remembered seeing someone putting their hand on the side of a person's neck, to feel their pulse. Vincent wasn't sure what a pulse felt like either, but he felt a flutter under his fingers when he touched Orion's neck and the skin was warm.

"He's breathing." And that's when the impact of his words hit Vincent like a punch to the gut. "He's alive," and he felt as if that had to be said because in that moment, Vincent realized Orion could just as well have died from the impact of that rock slab. "I just have to get him free," he added, hearing the cheers of the men on the ground above him.

Nothing worth having is ever easy. Vincent remembered his late father saying something like that years before. But as his life had always been easy, the words hadn't made sense. Grunting under the weight of the slab, making sure he wasn't leveraging the rock onto yet another part of Orion's body, Vincent strained every muscle he had, moving the rock inch by inch, holding it off Orion's body as best he could. When he finally got it so that it was tipping on one end, Vincent threw the full force of his weight behind forcing it the other way. It toppled with a crash, causing even more dust, but at least Orion's body was no longer covered with it.

"It really would help if you woke up right now," Vincent muttered under his breath. He couldn't see any blood. There didn't seem to be any bones visibly broken. Orion had dirt on his face and a bruise over his eye, and as Vincent ran his hands over Orion's head he could feel an egg shaped lump. The most sensible decision would be to order some planks sent down, make up a form of stretcher and have Orion lifted out that way.

But that wasn't possible. Any stretcher wide enough to fit Orion comfortably wasn't going to fit through the hole. Vincent had to do some serious scrunching to get himself through the hole in the first place.

"Morgan," he called up to the ceiling. "Have you got any healing crystals on standby?"

There was a moment's hesitation and then Morgan called back, "We should have enough to stabilize your husband once he's free from the cave, your highness. Is he badly hurt?"

"I have no idea, but staying down here is not an option." Glancing over to where the rocks had covered the doorway to the cave, Vincent discounted that as an option, too. The rocks were likely several feet deep and moving them by hand so Orion could be carried out on a stretcher would take far too long. "I'm bringing him up. Stand by."

That wasn't easy either. Orion was lying on his front which meant he had to be rolled before Vincent could support his head and neck, as well as his lower half. Vincent did his best, but he was sure they would both be wearing new bruises before the mission ended. Once he had Orion securely in his arms, Vincent staggered back to where he was directly under the hole in the ceiling. "Pull us up and do it carefully."

Vincent's heart lurched as his body was jolted off the ground once more, but as they slowly ascended, Vincent did something he'd never done before. He prayed to any deity that would listen for Orion to be all right.