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