Go!

Aurora struggled to peer into the darkness. Had Reyan's cry been a scream of pain or fear or anger?

Or something else entirely...

"Stop!" Aurora pressed her good foot against the wall and yanked on the rope to signal those above her.

But no sooner had she given the order than a voice below her screamed a countermand. "Don't stop! Go! Go now!"

Like a streak of lightning, the fairy shot up from the darkness with Aurora's bag in hand. His face was deathly pale. Aurora wondered if he was exhausted or scared, but she did not have a chance to ask.

"What is wrong with you, woman? Don't you dare stop! Go!" There was an urgency in his voice unlike anything Aurora had heard before.

Reyan flew to the top of the ledge and released the bag. Then he joined the others in pulling on the rope. He shouted something to the group.

Although Aurora could not hear what it was, the rope started moving at double speed, making it hard for the Empress to keep clear of the wall. She didn't complain though. She had no right to do so when they were trying to get her to safety.

Through the next few minutes those on the top of the ledge pulled with all their might. The wall moved quickly past Aurora . But was it fast enough?

The Empress could feel an almost imperceptible rustling below her.

"Please be the rocks settling. Please be the rocks," she whispered over and over.

If she thought about it too much, Aurora would give into the rising panic in her soul. The Empress was utterly exposed, and if anything came out of the darkness for her, she had no defense.

After what felt like an eternity, the fiery-haired woman finally came even with the side of the cliff. Devrim grabbed her and pulled her up into his arms.

"My love!" He held her so tight that she thought for a moment she might have made it to the surface only to suffocate.

"Please!" She gasped.

Devrim quickly released her. She instinctively stepped back onto her injured leg and screamed. Unable to hold her weight, the leg crumpled, taking the rest of Aurora's body with it.

'Here we go again!' Aurora anticipated another dizzying fall into the nightmarish void.

But it did not come.

Sweeping his wife up into his arms, Devrim pulled the woman close to his chest and wrapped a blanket around her legs to preserve her modesty.

"Oh no you don't!" He smiled gently at her. But as he saw the pain-filled tears forming in Aurora's eyes, his smile faded. Looking down, he saw blood already beginning to seep through the cloth. "It's bad, isn't it?"

The Empress did not immediately answer his question. She looked around, another worry overtaking even the pain.

"Alvar! He was behind me on the landing!" Aurora had realized this before but only now did she have the presence to ask the question aloud.

The riderless horse had stampeded past her as things went crumbling to the ground, but Alvar had been noticeably absent from the chaos. Aurora feared the worst.

"I'm here, Your Majesty!" Alvar pushed through the crowd. His golden skin was very pale, but he was very much alive.

"The fool used the end of his wind magic to leap the falling debris and scale the wall. Nearly passed out in the process!" Brinn hurried behind the he-elf and placed one of his arms over her shoulder. "He needs to rest."

"There is no time to rest!" Alvar insisted, "We need to go."

All around them the horses were saddled and loaded with supplies. Most of the soldiers were anxiously awaiting orders to mount.

"Aurora is hurt," Devrim said.

"Explains why you are bride-carrying her. I just assumed you didn't want to lose her again," Brinn furrowed her brow when she got a good look at the Empress's face. "It's bad isn't it?" She echoed Devrim's question with a furrowed brow.

The elf allowed her eyes to trace down the Empress's body to the bloodied blanket. It was no wonder the Empress looked ready to faint!

"Can we deal with it on the road?" Reyan snapped. "We need to move."

"What is your rush? Are you worried about another earthquake?" Devrim gritted his teeth trying to be patient. Both the fairy and Alvar were acting particularly cagey.

"You saw it didn't you. There's something down there. I am not crazy. That is why you screamed." Fighting back the pain, the Empress voiced her thoughts.

"Wait, you were the one who screamed?" Devrim had heard the yell and saw how quickly the fairy had shot up from the deep, but he had no idea that it was Reyan that screamed. The Emperor had assumed that the noise of his wife had reverberated to make the low rumble.

Now he knew better.

"Focus!" Reyan ignored the question. "There is something down there none of us want to meet."

"It's true," Alvar confirmed. "It was wrapped around the final pillar. That's what brought it down so suddenly."

The elf also suspected the monster was the source of the gale that had tried to blow them off their perch. A meal flying into its massive maw would have been far easier than trying to chase it down.

Alvar gulped. "I had hoped it had died in the fall."

"But somehow it survived, and it is coming!" Reyan wanted to grab the Emperor by the tunic and drag him to his horse.

Devrim looked at the woman in his arms. She looked almost as pale as Reyan but for a very different reason.

"I'll make it at least a little while. The thing…it looked at me. If it still lives, we are not safe here." Aurora put on a brave face.

Really, she would like nothing more than to collapse into a puddle of tears, but that would only make things more complicated.

"I will ride with the Emperor," she announced loudly. "Move out!"

Devrim opened his mouth to argue when the ground rumbled beneath his feet. He immediately skirted back from the edge as the stones closest to him cleaved away and fell.

Monster or not, the ground was unstable. His mouth pressed into a thin line.

"You heard Her Majesty, let's go!"

It took barely a moment for the group to be thundering away from the ominous gorge. With the Empress still in his arms, Devrim guided his horse toward the head of the pack.

It was not the most comfortable position for either of them, but the grey-eyed man wanted to keep eyes on his wife for any change in her condition.

Aurora stayed cradled in the man's arms as the horse moved into a gallop. The pain of the jostling was beyond intense, but the Empress also felt a profound relief. Every step away from the thing lurking in the darkness was a victory. It was one more step to safety.

Finally the canyon disappeared from view completely.

"We are safe," Devrim cooed to his wife.

But she was unconvinced. "We must keep going."

"No." Devrim reined in his horse. "We need to rest."

"I...I..." Aurora shivered.

"Brinn!" The Emperor signaled the elf, who was at his side in a moment. "Help me get her down."

It ended up being Alvar who accepted the precious package while Brinn spread out a blanket on which she would be placed.

"I'm cold," Aurora finally managed. Her teeth chattered. Another blanket was brought to cover up her body from the elements.

Devrim dismounted and came to her side. "Drink some water, my love."

Taking a waterskin from a servant, he held up the container to her lips. She sipped and then smacked her dry mouth. Her head dropped back to the blanket below her.

Devrim brushed her hair from her face. "She's feverish," he told the others.

"She was putting on a brave front for us. Look." Brinn was already unwrapping the woman's legs to look at the wound. The top blanket was adjusted to cover her top half revealing the state of the lower cloth.

It was completely soaked with blood. Brinn looked at Devrim's tunic. His right arm was also covered in the red liquid, but he didn't seem to notice. All he cared for was Aurora's well being.

Moving to her feet, both Brinn and Devrim unwrapped the bloodied blanket. Whatever he had been expecting, this was worse.

Aurora's leg was not just scraped up. It was broken. Though broken did not seem a strong enough word. The bone was pushed at an odd angle jutting out of what black and blue skin remained.

"I'm sorry," Aurora said when she saw their faces.

"Unless you meant to fall, this isn't your fault," Devrim answered. She had wanted to put others' safety ahead of herself. While a little insane at times, she only ever wanted what was best for everyone. "We need a physician. Do we still have a healer among our group?" Devrim called to Nurlan.

The general began to search through the ranks of his soldiers.

"Too bad we left Phileas at home." Brinn furrowed her brow. "Guess it is time for the next best thing." She looked apologetically at Aurora. "Hold still!"