Chapter 64: THE SIX

DIANA’S POV

The knocking came in groups of six.

Diana learned that from the first morning dispatch: six strikes, a pause, then six again.

The lower rescue team believed the sound came from beyond the maintenance gallery.

Nobody at the Citadel called that proof of six survivors.

Diana had learned too much for that.

It was proof someone was alive enough to strike stone.

That was enough to keep every person near the report board awake.

Joren’s mother had not slept at all.

Neither had Diana, though Alma had forced her into a chair for several hours and threatened to involve Mistress Hale if she refused.

The first Rellan message after sunrise reported that the air line had been extended, the shifted support wall braced, and the rescue team was advancing. Direct contact had not yet been established.

Raigoro’s medical note appeared at the bottom.

CONSCIOUS. STABLE. ORDERED TO REMAIN ABOVE MIDDLE LEVEL.

Diana read that line twice.

Apparently the mine engineers had discovered authority.

Good.

The next priority dispatch did not reach Blackharrow until late afternoon.

It had left Rellan hours earlier, when direct contact with the lower crew was finally established.

Daric opened it in front of the waiting families.

"Contact established."

Nobody moved.

He continued.

"Six voices confirmed."

Joren’s mother made a sound Diana would remember for a long time.

Daric read the names. All six matched Diana’s maintenance roster, including Joren Vale and Supervisor Kollen.

Six had entered. All six were alive.

The corridor erupted.

One family cried.

Another man sat hard against the nearest bench and covered his face.

A child who did not understand why his aunt was sobbing began crying too.

Joren’s mother reached Diana first.

"They found him."

Diana nodded.

The woman’s hands caught both of hers.

"They found him."

Yes.

Diana understood.

She squeezed back.

Daric continued.

"Extraction has begun. One serious leg injury is reported. Two show signs of poor air exposure. Another has a head wound. The passage remains unstable."

Joren’s mother looked at him.

"Which one is the leg?"

"The packet does not identify them individually yet."

She nodded and remained beside the board.

Diana returned to the administrative room.

The main trapped-worker count still read thirty-seven.

She took the board down.

A clerk looked confused.

"Your Grace?"

Diana wrote:

UPDATE STATUS. NOT COUNT.

Thirty-seven had been trapped.

The number should not shrink merely because someone had been located behind rock.

The clerk understood.

The new board listed:

37 TRAPPED AT TIME OF COLLAPSE.

Below it:

MAIN GALLERY: RESCUE ONGOING.

LOWER MAINTENANCE CREW: 6 FOUND ALIVE. EXTRACTION IN PROGRESS.

The words SIX FOUND ALIVE drew more eyes than anything else on the board.

A relief clerk reached for the chalk.

"Do I move them into survivors?"

Diana shook her head.

FOUND was not the same as out.

She wrote:

KEEP EXTRACTION IN PROGRESS.

The clerk corrected the wording.

Joren’s mother read it twice.

"So they still have to get them through?"

"Yes," Daric said.

The woman nodded and stayed beneath the board.

Diana stayed too.

FOUND could become SURVIVED very quickly in a frightened person’s mind. Diana was not letting the board make that promise before the miners were actually out.

The relief did not belong to everyone in the corridor.

A man whose brother remained in the deepest main gallery waited until the maintenance families had stepped away from Daric.

"What about ours?"

Daric checked the same packet.

"No new contact beyond the last confirmed report."

The man looked toward the people crying over the six names, then immediately looked ashamed of having looked.

Diana understood why he had looked.

The six families had received hope. His brother was still below the mountain, and knowing he should be glad for them did not make waiting easier.

She wrote:

MAIN GALLERY STATUS UNCHANGED.

The clerk added it beneath the maintenance update.

No one should have to wonder whether six people being found meant the others had been forgotten.

The clerk added the main-gallery status directly beneath the maintenance update. Anyone who came to the board could see both without asking Daric which rescue still continued.

No second priority case followed.

By evening, everyone in the corridor had learned what that meant.

Nothing had happened severe enough to trigger another emergency rider.

It did not mean the rescue was finished.

The next scheduled packet would still take hours to reach Blackharrow after someone at Rellan wrote it.

Joren’s mother remained beneath the board.

SIX FOUND ALIVE. EXTRACTION IN PROGRESS.

She had read the line often enough that Diana suspected she no longer saw the letters individually.

Alma returned from the administrative room carrying the maintenance-family sheet.

Daric held out his hand.

"Anything changed?"

"No new family contacts. These three remain here. Two are receiving reports through Rellan. The sixth still has none registered."

Daric glanced over the page.

"Spellings?"

"Checked against the lower gate record."

He handed it directly to the relief clerk.

"Use Alma’s copy."

Alma looked at him.

Daric was already reading the next report.

Diana noticed anyway.

Later, Joren’s mother asked Daric, "Do you think they’ll all get out?"

Daric did not give her the easier answer.

"I know they were alive when the field team reached them. I know extraction was underway when the packet left. Anything after that would be guessing."

The woman swallowed.

"All right."

Alma looked at Daric again.

This time, the suspicion was still there, but it no longer occupied all of Alma’s attention.

The next confirmed Rellan case arrived the following morning.

Daric broke the seal.

Diana watched his face.

"All six are out."

"Five stable enough for transport after treatment," Daric continued. "One serious leg injury. No deaths among the maintenance crew."

Joren’s mother stood very still.

"Joren?"

Daric checked the attached medical list.

"Poor air exposure and a broken wrist. Stable."

She started laughing, then crying, possibly both.

Alma’s eyes were wet.

Daric noticed Alma’s wet eyes and returned to the packet without commenting.

The larger rescue was not finished. Workers remained trapped beyond another obstruction in the deepest main gallery, several people had already died, Raigoro was injured, and the mine was still dangerous. Finding six men alive did not erase the rest.

Diana returned to the table where the shift ledger, meal allocation, lamp issue, and maintenance schedule still lay. Six people had nearly vanished because no single office had held the whole truth.

Daric read the remaining lines of the same late packet.

"The deepest rescue route is open. Remaining workers are being brought toward the surface."

He paused.

"His Grace will return with the recovery convoy once the last trapped worker is accounted for."

Diana’s chalk stopped.

Raigoro was coming home.