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He eased himself fully over the lip and began to abseil in a rough way down the rope, twisting as he descended. The shaft was about six feet wide, and extremely symmetrical, clearly manmade. About ten feet down he began to see the outlines of the blockage and Nikolas, who was indeed hanging from something sticking out the side of one wall. He was braced too, using his bergen to squeeze tight against the opposite side.
Ben got down as close as he could and holding onto the rope with one hand and his feet alone, used the other hand to thread the loose end around Nikolas’s torso and tie it off.
His plan was to climb back out himself and then pull Nikolas up. No need to risk their combined weight on the feeble structure he’d made up top.
“Stay put. Don’t move a muscle.”
Nikolas lifted his gaze from the darkness beneath him, which he’d been studying with a concentration Ben couldn’t fault him for, and gave the smallest of nods in agreement.
It was too much.
The root pulled out, the blockage crumbled away, and Nikolas was swinging below Ben on the rope.
“Shed the fucking pack. We’re too heavy.”
Nikolas obeyed very swiftly.
Ben did not hear it hit the bottom of the shaft.
He felt a stab of real fear now. What had seemed little more than a ridiculous blip in an otherwise very shitty day had now become a lot more serious. He tried to brace against the sides, saw Nikolas was attempting to do the same.
There was a crack from above and a jolt.
“Climb!”
It wasn’t as easy to do as to say, however. It was a thin rope, and, running with water, the sides of the shaft would not allow any purchase.
There was a second jolt and creaking sound from above.
“Ben.”
Ben stared despairingly up at the light. A few more feet!
“Ben!”
He looked down. “Shut up and climb!”
“Cut me loose, Ben, or we will both fall. I cannot. My knife was in my pack.Cut me loose!”
Once again the rope jerked. There was a snap, and Ben felt small splinters speckle his face.
“Ben! If you love me, if you know I love you, which I do, thencut me loose! I am dead weight. You have to let me go!”
Ben could feel the wood at the end of its ability to hold them. His hands were slipping on the wet rope.
He looked down despairingly and Nikolas repeated softly, “It’s time,Min Skat. Save yourself. Let me go.”
* * *
Chapter 61
Four Months Before April
Aleksey had not known what life with Ben Rider would entail when he had taken the courage to love someone.
He could not have predicted the whirlwind which they had ridden together for the last nine years, but he had known somewhere deep down that love as great as theirs could not be permitted in this world. Conflagrations destroy everything in their path, and the universe has a way of righting itself. Perhaps Ben, with his constant reiteration of experiencing the perfection of the moment, had known this too.
It felt entirely fitting, therefore, when Ben obeyed him and pulled out his knife.
