Sometime near dawn, the storm finally begins to subside and quiet down. Jiron comes awake and sees James sitting there, head drooped down to his chest, asleep. Startled, he gets up and begins to go over and wake him up when he realizes the dome hadn't collapsed with him falling asleep. It was covered completely with sand, light from the morning sun dimly filtering through.
Calming down, he sits back down and allows James time to sleep, knowing he has to be extremely tired after all he's done the last couple of days. He only has to wait a short time before James awakens. He begins to panic when he realizes that he fell asleep. "Relax," Jiron tells him reassuringly, "you're spell didn't fail."
"Yes, it did," he corrects him. "I no longer feel any drain used to maintain it."
Gesturing to the dome around them, he asks, "Then how?"
Going over to the side of the dome, James examines it and says, "The storm has packed sand and dirt around us so tightly, that it held together when the dome failed."
"You mean we're buried under the sand?" Jiron asks incredulously.
"It would seem that way," replies James.
"Incredible!" Jiron exclaims as he moves over to the dirt packed in around them. He touches the side and a small portion of the dirt comes loose. Then suddenly more begins to cascade down until the integrity of the entire dome fails and collapses down upon them, burying them in a foot of dirt and sand.
The horses panic as the dirt hits them and James cries out but quickly realizes that there's really not that much dirt covering them.
When the dust clears, they see the morning sun just cresting the horizon. Looking around, James doesn't find any sign of the man who had crashed into the side of the dome the night before, nor anyone else for that matter. From horizon to horizon, the land is barren, most of the plants are gone as well as a few of the trees. Of the trees that do remain, most are bent and broken.
Getting the horses out of the dirt and sand, they take stock of the situation. "I doubt if we'll need to worry about encountering anyone for a while," Jiron announces.
"Let's hope not," James agrees. "I'm getting worn out and need to lay off the magic for a day or two if possible."
Jiron pats him on the back and smiles, "If we encounter anyone, we'll ask them if we can fight tomorrow so you can rest, okay?"
"Very funny," replies James as he gives him an annoyed look before breaking into a smile himself.
"We better get going," Jiron says as he climbs into the saddle. "Even though the enemy we encountered yesterday may be scattered to the winds, there still could be others on their way, hunting for us."
Mounting, James says, "I agree."
"Should we go south for awhile?" suggests Jiron.
"Probably," he agrees. "I'll try to find him tomorrow, let's just put some distance behind us for now." With that, he kicks his horse into a gallop and they head off toward the south.
Chapter Twenty Four.
As they follow the road leading down into the pit, they pass several wagons on their way back up. Miko and the others have to press close to the inner wall in order for the wagons to be able to make it by. He looks into the wagons as they pass and sees they're filled with rocks. Once the wagons have passed, they resume their march down into the pit.
When they've descended to the point where they pass the point of direct sunlight, a sound of hammering comes to them from the depths. They continue down and begin passing by the mouths of other passages branching off into the rock from the road. At the third such branching Miko looks down and sees a group of slaves using pickaxes and hammers as they pound away at the rock.
It's a mine!
The slaves then pick up and carry the rocks they remove from the wall over to a wagon standing nearby. Is this my fate? Am I to spend the rest of my life underground? Worse fates than this has coursed through his mind at various times since the fall of the City of Light.
They pass by many other branching passages as they continue to make their way down, most have groups of slaves working at removing the rock from the walls as had the earlier one. When they finally reach the bottom, they enter a long, wide tunnel leading off into the distance.
This tunnel looks more a continuation of the road than another offshoot, it's wider than the others have been and has many tunnels branching off like veins from an artery. Spaced periodically along the tunnel are lanterns hanging from pegs in the wall to light the way. Empty wagons are spaced throughout the tunnel waiting to take the place of ones currently being filled. The horses of the empty wagon are removed and then hitched to the full one which is taken out of the pit.
They don't progress far down before a man comes over and they're brought to a halt. He begins talking to them while others divide them up into different groups. To Miko's relief, Black Tooth is taken away by one of the guards and led back up to the top. Five others are grouped with Miko and once the man stops talking, are led deeper into the mine.
"What are they mining?" he asks the guard in charge of them after passing a group of men working on the beginnings of another passage.
The guard replies, "Iron ore, as you soon will be as well."
"You speak my language!" he exclaims.
"Of course," the guard says. "There are many here from the north."
As they continue deeper into the mines, the tunnel they're in begins to narrow. The frequency of other branching tunnels diminishes the further they go. The guard begins talking again, alternating between the empire's language and the north's. "This is where you will spend the rest of your days. We have only three rules here but they are enforced strictly. First of all, if you try to escape, we will kill you."
"Second, you will work hard when and where we tell you. If you fail to, you shall be punished," he says. Pausing momentarily in his speech, he has them move over to the side of the tunnel as several slaves carry others past them. The ones being carried are bloody and a few are even unconscious, maybe even dead. Miko asks, "What happened to them?"
The guard looks at him and says, "Cave-in. It happens sometimes, that's why we need new slaves occasionally."
Once they're past, the guard gets them moving again and they walk in silence until Miko asks, "What's the third rule?"
"Don't hurt or hinder other slaves," he explains.
"That's nice of you," Miko replies.
The guard pauses and turns to look at Miko. "Nice?" he asks with a short laugh. "Hardly. Slaves are expensive and we have a quota of iron ore to mine each day. We'll not have anyone messing with our schedule. Understand?"
Miko nods his head and continues to follow with his group further into the tunnel. It's grown very dark now, with only occasional patches of light from a lone lantern illuminating slaves hard at work to mine the ore from the walls.
They come to a branching tunnel and the guard moves into it. He leads them down the tunnel until they reach a gang of slaves hard at work, chipping the ore from the walls.
One slave, who's carrying a whip, comes over to them. "This is Essin," their guard tells them. "He will be your overseer and you will do as he tells you."
"New bunch, eh?" Essin asks the guard as they near.
"Just arrived today," the guard replies.
"Good," Essin tells him, "we've been falling behind in our quota and old Vorn has been complaining."
"Not your fault though," the guard says, "since that cave-in took out half your group."
Essin nods and says, "I know, but try telling that to him."
The guard laughs as he turns and returns back the way they came.
Turning to the new arrivals, Essin announces, "My name is Essin and welcome to the Mines of Sorna. Whether you live or die will be determined by me, understand?"
Six heads nod agreement.
"Alright," he says as he hands each of them a pickaxe or a hammer, Miko gets a pickaxe. "Here we dig out the iron ore that the empire needs. We have a certain quota that must be achieved each day." He glances around at the new arrivals and says, "We will meet it or you'll wish to whatever gods you worship we had."
One by one he takes the new arrivals and assigns them to work beside a slave who has been there for a while. "Each of you are to work alongside your partner, learn from them and any questions you have be sure to ask them," he explains as he's matching them up.
Miko is partnered with a man of about twenty with sandy hair. "Name's Nate," the man says to Miko as he extends his hand.
Taking the offered hand, he returns with, "Miko."
"Here, let me show you what to do," he says. "You take your pick and swing it at the wall as hard as you can," he says as he demonstrates by striking the wall. "You want to strike near the veins of iron that run through the stone." He shows Miko what the veins look like and watches as he takes a swing at one. "Sometimes it takes several hits before it will come loose. If the first hit doesn't work, then strike in the same place again until some comes away."
Miko raises the pickaxe and swings with all his might. The jolt of the pick hitting the stone causes his hands to sting. "Not bad," Nate tells him. "You don't want to stop though, try to find a rhythm and keep swinging. We have a lot to do before the day is over," he explains as he takes up his own pickaxe and resumes chipping chunks from the wall.
Miko takes up the pickaxe again and strikes the wall, this time a sizeable chunk comes loose and falls to the ground. He looks to Nate who smiles and nods his head in approval. They continue chipping away until they have a sizeable pile at their feet. Then Nate has him pick up the chunks and carry them over to the waiting wagon where he drops them in.
They continue like that for a while, chip away the stone before carrying it over to the wagon. Miko's arms begin to tire and his hands become sore, as blisters start to form.
Nate notices that he's slowing down and says, "Keep up." He nods over to where Essin is watching another pair, "You don't want Essin to think you're slacking."
Doing the best he can, Miko continues to chip away with the pickaxe despite the sores on his hands. After a little while longer, his back and arms begin to ache and hurt.
Essin hollers, "Rest break!"
All the slaves give out a sigh of relief, especially the new arrivals, as they rest their pickaxes on the ground. They go over to where Essin is standing with another slave who is holding a bucket of water and a sack containing stale bread. The slave goes around the group, giving each a piece of bread and drink of water that he draws from the bucket with a ladle.
"We get three such breaks every day," Nate informs him. "They're not doing it to be nice, but so we can have the strength to continue removing the ore all day."
"Oh," says Miko as he takes his piece of bread and drinks from the ladle.
It seems like he just received his bread when Essin announces, "Back to work!"
With a groan, the new slaves return to the wall with their partners and resume the arduous work of removing the iron ore.
Shortly after the break, Miko turns as he hears Essin's whip strike out and hit someone. "Who gave you permission to stop working?" he shouts at one of the new arrivals.
"But my hands are sore and bleeding," the man wails as he holds his hands out, showing Essin.
"I don't care if they fall off!" he shouts, knocking the hands away. "Grab your pickaxe and continue working!"
When the man hesitates, Essin lashes him twice more. The man grabs his pickaxe and starts chipping at the wall again.
"See," Nate tells him, "you don't want to be slacking. He got off easy because he's new. If he's caught again, he'll be put to much worse jobs."
"Worse?" ask Miko after striking the wall again.
"There're always worse jobs," he explains. "Don't ever forget that. Certain sections of the mine cave-in more often than others, the trouble makers and slackers are the ones who get to work those areas. You understand?"
Miko just nods his head as he continues to wield his pickaxe. As bad as this is, he definitely doesn't want to go where it's 'worse'.
After a couple more hours of mining, the sores on his hand begin to rub raw and every strike now causes him pain. His shoulders and back feel like they're on fire, their strength beginning to fail.
Nate sees how he's struggling to continue and says, "I'll do this and you take the rocks over to the wagon, okay?"
Too tired for words, Miko just nods in relief and begins to carry the rocks over to the wagon.
When their group has filled its second wagon since Miko's arrival, Essin announces it's time to head up to the surface. "Take your picks with you," he tells the new arrivals.
Grabbing his, Miko rests it on a shoulder and follows Nate as they begin to leave the mines for the night. "When they first started mining here," Nate tells him, "they used to have the slaves remain within the mines all the time. But many kept getting sick and dying so they started bringing them out every night and the sickness began to go away."
"Quiet back there!" Essin hollers back to them.
Whispering, Nate continues, "Remember worse? The ones at the very furthest end aren't allowed out at night. They stay down here a week at a time as punishment, few make it more than a month."
A shudder runs through Miko when he thinks about having to stay in the mines for days at a time, never seeing the outside or having fresh, clean air to breathe.
They make their way back toward the winding road that leads to the surface. Other slave groups join them as they make their way up and out of the mine. Able to breathe fresh air again, Miko begins to feel a little better and some of his strength returns. Essin leads them over to a large, single story building with many doors spaced along the outside. Coming to one, he opens it up and leads them inside. "This is where you will be spending every night," he tells them as the new arrivals drop to the floors, one even passing out. "No one is permitted outside during the night."
Once they're all in, he says, "In a little bit, someone will bring you food and water." He glances around at the exhausted new arrivals and then to the one who has passed out, "Use this time to rest. I expect you hard at work in the morning."
Just before he leaves, he says, "Share the food evenly, those who don't will go without food for a day." He glares around at everyone before leaving the room and shutting the door.
When the door closes, the new arrivals begin to quietly complain and bemoan their situation. "Shut up!" one of the old timers says.
"You'll get use to it after a while," another adds.
"Yeah," a third says, "the first couple days are the worst, but your hands will toughen up."
Miko looks at his hands in the dim light coming through the cracks in the walls and the one lone window. Open, oozing sores cover his hands, each one adding its voice to the throbbing pain.
When the food arrives, the old timers make it a point to share evenly with the newcomers. In fact, Nate actually gives Miko some of his portion, saying, "You can have some of mine, it looks like you need it." The old timers know that a poorly fed worker only hurts the group, and it's the group that counts down here. Everyone looks out for each other, those who don't, tend not to make it long.
"Thank you," he says gratefully as he takes the offered portion. The bread and meat they're given isn't the freshest he's ever had, but after all the exertion in the mines, it tasted wonderful. Not nearly enough to fill him completely, but enough to quiet the grumbling in his stomach.
After he's done eating, he goes over to a corner where he quickly falls asleep.
It seemed like he no sooner fell asleep before Essin is there waking them up. After a quick meal, they're again marched back down into the mines. His arms and back are stiff and aching, it's all he can do just to carry that heavy pickaxe as he descends into the mines. They arrive back at the same spot they worked the day before and commence to mine the ore.
After the first couple of swings, his arms begin complaining and by the first break, his back and arms are again on fire. His hands are slippery from the oozing sores that the swinging of the pickaxe has reopened from the day before. Nate does his best to help him along, he's thankful that his partner is so nice and helpful. As Nate chips away at the wall, he carries the rocks over to the waiting wagon and deposits them inside.
When Essin calls for the first break, Miko is dazed and exhausted even though his day isn't even half over. When the slave comes over to give him his bread and water, he at first doesn't realize it, but then his eyes focus on who the slave is. Black Tooth!
When he reaches for his bread, Black Tooth gives him a dark look and drops it to the ground before he can take hold of it. When he gives him the ladle, he finds that it's only half full of water.
Black Tooth gives him an evil grin as he takes the ladle back. Nate, standing beside him doesn't fail to notice what is going on. After Black Tooth is gone and the break is over, they return to mining the ore.
"You know him?" he asks, referring to Black Tooth.