Brian Pratt - Fires of prophesy

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.

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.