Page 57 of Dark Witch: Twin Destinies

Jasmine leaned in, her eyes widening as she took in the crystal-clear image on the screen.

The drone's camera was unlike anything she had ever seen, the high-resolution feed cutting through the darkness as if it were broad daylight. She watched in rapt attention as the rocky walls of the chasm scrolled by, the drone descending deeper and deeper into the earth.

And then, there it was.

At first, it was little more than a shadowy shape, half-buried beneath a layer of dirt and debris. But as the drone drew closer, the image sharpened, resolving into the unmistakable form of a sleek metallic pod.

Jasmine sucked in a sharp breath, her heart hammering against her ribs as she stared at the screen. The craft was covered in grime and battered by the ravages of time, but there was no mistaking the smooth, rounded contours that could only have been manmade, or rather god-made.

A rush of elation surged through her, tempered only by the realization of the daunting task of reaching the pod.

The chasm's walls were almost sheer, and the depth was dizzying.

43

ARU

Aru squinted at the drone footage, assessing the depth of the chasm with practiced ease. "I'd say it's about twenty-five meters down to the pod," he said, glancing over at Dagor and Negal. "Am I right?"

"Let's check." Dagor switched to a different screen that showed the stats the drone supplied. "Almost. It's nearly twenty-eight meters from the top of the cavern to the top of the drone."

"Do we have enough rope to rappel down there?" Aru asked.

Dagor nodded, already rummaging through their packs for the coils of sturdy climbing rope. "We should have plenty. I asked for their longest lengths, which are supposed to be thirty meters long."

Aru smiled. "Aren't we lucky? What would we have done if the pod was deeper than that?"

Dagor didn't look concerned. "We have four ropes, each thirty meters long, so we could tie them together. Luckily, we don't have to."

"Luckily." Aru motioned to a couple of sturdy boulders at the chasm's edge. "Secure the ropes to those. Dagor and I are going down."

As Dagor and Negal removed the ropes from the backpacks, Jasmine put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "I wondered what you had in those packs that weighed so much. You didn't tell me that you packed climbing equipment."

"We knew we were looking for a hole in the ground," Dagor said. "We didn't expect it to be easy to reach."

"Right." She sat on the ground and watched them secure the tough, fibrous lines engineered for rappelling to a couple of boulders.

As they worked, Aru returned to the scanner in his hand and aimed it again at the chasm, hoping to pick up some hint of an energy signature from the pod.

When he got the same results, he had to resign himself to the sad fact that they would not find any survivors. If the stasis pods were still functioning, they would have emitted an energy signature that he would have been able to pick up on his device, especially from this close.

Jasmine walked over to stand next to him. "Did you get anything on that thingy?"

He shook his head.

"Does it mean that they are all dead?"

He hated to quash her hopes. "Maybe the scanner is malfunctioning, or the energy release is so minimal that I need to get even closer to detect it."

She nodded. "I believe that the prince is alive. The goddess wouldn't have guided me to him only so he could get a proper funeral. But I also feel we are running out of time."

"I hope you are right." Aru crouched next to his large backpack and pulled out a smaller pack, much more suitable for the mission ahead.

Aru placed his water canteen, a couple of energy bars, and several tools he might need to open the pod into the pack.

"Alright," he said, shouldering his pack. "Let's do this."

Aru donned his headband, which bore a mounted flashlight, his gloves, and the harness, checking each buckle and strap carefully. Next to him, Dagor did the same.

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