Mother Lode

by E. Rose Sabin

  The sun had barely cleared the nearby hills, but already the nighttime chill was gone and the still, dry air would soon absorb the sun’s heat. The girls walked up a stony path winding into the hills. Several stumbled and righted themselves by grabbing on to the person in front of them. The thin, frail-looking girl in front of Bryte wavered. Her knees buckled. Bryte caught her before she fell and helped her recover her balance. Seeing how unsteady the girl was, Bryte kept her hand cupped around the girl’s elbow, supporting her enough to allow the girl to keep moving forward, though her shoulders sagged, her head drooped, and Bryte feared that she would fall before they reached the mine.

  Somehow, the girl made it without falling, thanks to Bryte’s help. Their path had taken them up a steep path, where Bryte used both hands to support the girl and still managed to keep her own balance. The path led them around a pile of rocks that hid the mine entrance, a dark hole into which they filed.

  Passing from bright sunlight into sudden darkness, Bryte stumbled along blindly until the guards lit lanterns that hung from poles driven into the cave floor at sufficiently close intervals to provide good illumination. Bryte looked around at their workplace.

  The girls arranged themselves along one side of a long metal trough supported by sawhorses. She didn’t see any of the boys, but from farther back in the cave came a ringing sound that she figured had to be made by pickaxes striking stone.

  The girl Bryte had been helping leaned heavily on the side of the trough. “Thanks for helping me along,” she whispered to Bryte.

  “Glad to,” Bryte whispered back. “I’m Bryte. What’s your name?”

  “Nia,” the girl answered.

  The crack of the female guard’s whip halted that brief conversation. “No talking.” The woman called out. “The flow will begin soon. Pick up your sieves.”

  Nia nudged Bryte and pointed to what appeared to be a wooden box lying at her feet next to a small pail. She noted then that each girl had a similar box and pail. When Nia picked up her box, Bryte followed Nia’s example and picked up the one by her feet. The “box” proved to be four wooden sides with metal screening firmly nailed across the top. Or rather, the bottom. Observing what the other girls did, Bryte quickly turned her box—sieve, the guard had called it—so the screen formed its bottom, leaving the top open. Its purpose became apparent when three boys emerged from the darkness beyond, lugging pails that looked heavy. Bryte soon discovered that the pails, larger ones than those at the girls’ feet, each held a load of stones. She watched Nia lower her sieve so that one of the boys could tip his pail into it and fill it with rocks. Bryte did the same when the boy came to her. Soon the boys’ pails were empty and rocks filled the girls’ sieves. These boys were not the youngest of the group but were in the middle of the age range. Two of them were so nearly identical in appearance that Bryte guessed they were twins. She wondered whether any of the other children might be siblings.

  As the boys distributed the rocks, water had flowed into the trough, filling it. Again Bryte watched Nia and also turned to see what the girls to her right were doing. Each girl plunged her sieve into the water and swished it around, washing dirt from the rocks before drawing it out and resting it on the ledge.

  The guard with the whip came up behind Bryte, startling her by calling, “New girl, do you know what to look for?”

  “No, ma’am. I’ve just been trying to do what I see the others doing.”

  “That’s good,” the woman said. “You’ve cleaned the rocks so’s you can pick out any that hold gems. Now you need to look for any color that stands out from the rock. It won’t be shiny. Gems are dull and hard to spot when they’re embedded in stone. They aren’t easy to see even after the dirt has been washed off. Look sharp and take out any rock that has a bit of color or something sticking out of it in an odd way. That means it might hold a gem. Drop it into the pail that’s down there.” She indicated the pail on the ground next to Bryte, a pail like those children play with in sandboxes although not brightly colored as a child’s toy might be. “When you’ve checked every rock and put the likely ones into your pail, you exchange the rocks left in your sieve, the ones you found no gems in, with Nia so she can find any you missed and you can find any she missed. By the time you’ve checked each other’s, the boys should have a new batch of stones ready for you, but if they don’t, you’ll pass both yours and Nia’s on to Oni, standing next to you, and she will put her left-over rocks into your sieve, mixed with those from Gretta, next to her. So on, down the line. Every stone will be checked twice and some three or four times before you’re brought another bunch of stones. Depends on how hard the boys are working. When the boys bring a fresh batch, you dump your rejects onto the floor for the two littlest girls to sweep up and put into a bin.”

  Bryte picked up one of the rocks. A glossy spot darker than the surrounding stone caught her eye. She pointed at the rock. “Is that a gem?”

  The woman took it from her hand and held it close to the nearest lantern. In that light Bryte saw a red glint to the glossy area. “That’s a garnet, a good first spotting,” the woman told her. “Opals and garnets are the gems you are most likely to find, although occasionally you might spot a sapphire or an aquamarine. Maybe even a flambyan, though that’s not likely, rare as they are. Now get busy, and work fast. The line’s already been held up while I explained all this.” She glared at Bryte as though she blamed her for the delay and stalked off.

  Bryte picked up a rock, turned it this way and that, saw no hint of color anywhere on it, and put it down on the ledge to be put in Nia’s sieve when she’d checked all those in her box.

  On the second rock she examined a spot of pale yellow that seemed to emerge a bit from the rock. Unsure whether this was what she was to look for, she turned to Nia. “Look at this, Nia. Could this be a gem?”

  Nia looked at the indicated spot. “Yes, put that in your pail. It could be a topaz. Anything that stands out a bit like that, no matter what the color is, you put in the pail.”

  “No talking!” The sharp command accompanied the crack of her whip, no mere warning this time. The whip left a stinging cut on Nia’s arm. “You do your own work and let her do hers,” the woman told Nia.

  To Bryte she said, “I gave you all the information you need. I expect you to follow instructions and not distract the other girls. You bother one of them again and the whip will fall on you. Understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Bryte spoke meekly though she seethed inwardly. “I didn’t mean to get Nia in trouble.”

  It hurt Bryte deeply not to be able to so much as offer Nia an apology. Even if she had had anything to clean the cut and stanch the bleeding, she would not dare offer it. Feeling helpless, she bent to her task, but not before noting a tear fall from Nia’s eye as she bent over her box of rocks.

  Bryte squinted at the irregularly shaped rocks in her sieve. The light provided by the lanterns, while bright, cast a glare on the work space, making it harder to spot the bits of color in the stones. The bit of sunlight that peeked timidly through the cave opening provided little illumination, only the faint and false promise of freedom beyond the cave.

  Looking closely, she spotted a bit of orange on one of the rocks and dropped it into her pail. Bryte wished her eyesight were as keen as her hearing. She pored over the remaining rocks, but found only one other that sported a sizeable raised lump of a dark red hue. She added that to her pail and put the remainder of the rocks back into her sieve, ready to exchange the sieve with Nia.

  When Nia passed her sieve to Bryte and took Bryte’s, she glanced into Nia’s pail and saw only a single rock in it. She noted how heavily Nia leaned on the ledge and how her hands shook as she placed Bryte’s sieve in front of her. Bryte had to bite her tongue to keep from saying anything or offering any help. Instead, she bent to her task of looking through the rocks that had already been checked by Nia. She soon found three rocks she thought held gems. After checking to be sure the guards were not watching her, sh
e dropped two of those into Nia’s pail and one into her own.

  Moments later one of the twins came with a pail of rocks, ready to refill her and Nia’s sieves. Bryte was ready for them, but if she had missed any gems in her first bunch, she was certain Nia had not found them. All those rocks she’d passed to Nia were now dumped on the ground. She and Nia began to examine their new batches.

  Nia’s pail remained emptier than Bryte’s. Bryte had little time to look to see how she was doing, but after one quick glance, she saw that the girl was leaning heavily on the side of the water trough to support herself and not even trying to pull rocks from her sieve.

  “What’s wrong?” she whispered even while thinking what a stupid question that was. The girl’s weakness was obvious. She was near fainting, and they hadn’t made it much more than halfway through their day. Bryte doubted that Nia would last through the time remaining.

  Nia whispered back, “I haven’t eaten much. I’ve been giving most of my food to my little sister. Cara’s only six and small for her age. This is so hard for her. She’s terribly scared.”

  Six years old! The child would be one of the two little ones charged with sweeping up the dirt and rejected rocks along the line. Bryte craned her neck, trying to spot the little girl. A lash struck her back, cutting through her lightweight shirt and into her flesh. She screamed.

  Another crack of the whip and Nia collapsed, her head striking her pail and knocking it over.

  The woman loomed over Nia. “Get up, you worthless girl,” she ordered, kicking Nia hard in the side. When Nia didn’t respond, she raised her whip. “Maybe this will get you on your feet.”

  “Stop!” Bryte shouted. “You’ll kill her.”

  “Get back to work before I kill both of you!” The whip came down hard on Bryte’s shoulders.

  Again the woman raised her whip and flicked it toward Nia, but Bryte moved quickly and again took the blow intended for the fallen girl. “She’s ill,” Bryte said. “Punish me if you have to, but don’t use the whip on her again. Let me help her up.”

  “We don’t coddle people here,” the woman responded, scowling. “You don’t have time to look after anybody but yourself, missy. Best you learn that now. Look at the other girls. They’re all tendin’ to their own business, and you’d best do the same.”

  The pistol-bearing guard stalked toward them. “This girl givin’ you trouble, Emmy? I got the cure right here.” The woman brandished her gun. “Looks like she tolerates the whip, but she won’t tolerate this, I warrant.”

  “She’s new, Zilla. Cut her some slack. She’ll learn soon enough. Get back to your post and let me tend to mine.”

  Zilla put her hands on her hips and glared at Emmy. “Just ’cause you’re married to Vee Cooper, you think you can throw your weight around. Look, you’re slowin’ down the whole line. I’ll see that Mother Cooper hears of this. She won’t treat you special even if you are her daughter-in-law.”

  Bryte listened with interest to this exchange. Now she not only knew the names of two of the female guards, but she knew there was bad blood between them. So Emmy was Cooper’s wife. That was worth knowing.

  Zilla, having said her piece, walked back to her post at the far end of the sluiceway. Bryte felt relief at her departure. She hadn’t liked being threatened with a pistol.

  Once again Bryte felt the cut of the lash, deeper this time. “Get back to work,” Emmy Cooper ordered. “I want to see that pail filled.”

  By this time Nia had regained consciousness and was struggling to her feet. Bryte reached down and gave her a hand up despite the pain that movement brought to her cut and bleeding back. Gasping, Nia clutched the side of the trough for support for a moment, then dug one hand into her sieve and pulled out a handful of rocks.

  This brought Bryte back to a focus on her own work. Keeping a wary eye on Nia, she too drew out a handful of rocks and checked them one by one. And so the afternoon proceeded.

  A rock plunked into Nia’s pail. Bryte saw nothing to indicate the presence of gems in the first stones she checked. She continued to turn them about until one of the guards whose name she’d yet to hear said, “Hurry up there. If you don’t find anything, exchange rocks with Oni this time.” The woman must have seen how slowly Nia was working.

  Bryte had only two more rocks to check. The sound of other rocks falling into pails made her nervous. She examined the rock she held but again saw nothing. She picked up the last one and saw a faint bit of white as she rubbed mud from a rock. She dropped the rock into her pail. Nia had not finished checking hers, so Bryte exchanged with Oni.

  As they made the exchange, Oni whispered, “Watch out for that guard. Her name’s Mora Todd, but we call her The Toad, cause Todd sounds like toad and she sorta looks like one. She’s not supposed to change the way we switch sieves like that. She wants to get Nia in trouble just to make Emmy Cooper look bad.” She might have said more, but Zilla stalked up behind them, so Oni bent to her task, and Bryte busied herself with the rocks she’d gotten from Oni. When she dared risk a look at the Todd woman, she had to look away quickly to suppress a grin. The woman’s flat, broad face and wide mouth did indeed give her a resemblance to a toad.

  Oni had clearly checked more thoroughly than Nia. Bryte found only one rock that might possibly bear a gem. Though she was doubtful about it, she dropped it into her pail. When one of the boys came out with a pail of rocks, he refilled her sieve and Oni’s but not Nia’s.The day dragged by. Bryte had fewer rocks in her pail than she would have, had she not been surreptitiously dropping one into Nia’s pail for every two she put into hers. After what Oni had told her, she felt protective of the older girl and hoped to shield her from the guards’ wrath. If they called her to account for the paucity of stones in her pail, Bryte could claim that being new, she was still learning to recognize gem-bearing rocks. That might gain her a lighter punishment than Nia would suffer; even if not, she was healthier and stronger than Nia and could better bear whatever punishment they meted out.

  In truth, she did have difficulty spotting rocks that held gems. Some of them she only guessed at. The only one she felt certain about held a crystalline protuberance that glowed a bright red. She dropped it into her pail, but put the next two into Nia’s.

  Nia’s slow pace made it necessary on two or three other occasions for Bryte to exchange rocks with Oni instead of Nia. On one such occasion Bryte took the opportunity to ask Oni the name of the one female guard whose name she still didn’t know. Like Emmy Cooper, that guard wielded a whip, and though she didn’t use it as often as Emmy used hers, when she did strike a girl with it, her victim’s screams reverberated throughout the cavern, suggesting to Bryte that she put more force into it than Emmy did.

  After giving a careful glance at the woman in question, Oni replied in a low whisper, “That’s Berta Leed. We call her ‘Bad Berta.’ Watch out for her.”

  From time to time clean water flowed into the trough, the metal piece at the trough’s end would be removed, the muddy water would be flushed out, and the metal piece replaced, allowing the trough to fill with clean water. If only they could be given some of that water to drink—but that did not happen.

  Bryte’s hands soon became flecked with blood from cuts earned by grabbing sharp rocks and wrinkled from being so often plunged into the cold water. The other girls’ hands looked no better than hers, and many looked much worse.

  Somehow, Nia kept going. Bryte admired her tenacity, knowing the tremendous effort of will it had to have taken her to keep to her task. Bryte did take note that although Nia went through the motions of pawing through the sluice and examining handfuls of rocks, few gem-bearing rocks were being dropped into her pail by her. Most of the rocks in Nia’s pail were those Bryte dropped there, hoping that Nia was too concentrated on staying conscious and giving the impression of working to notice.

  At long last the flow of sluice stopped, and Emmy came down the line of girls while Zilla started from the other end, both pushing flat-wheeled
carts on which they placed the girls’ pails. Emmy shook her head when she picked up Nia’s and Bryte’s pails and looked at the quantity of stones inside. “Pitiful,” she muttered, but continued on.

  When all the pails were gathered, a call came from Emmy Cooper, now in the front of the line, ordering the girls to line up for inspection. While Zilla stood at the other end, just past Nia, glaring and hurrying the girls along, Berta Leed and Mora Todd joined Emmy.

  As the line of girls moved forward, Zilla turned and hurried off into the back of the cave where the boys worked.

  “This is terrible,” Nia whispered then, shuddering. “It terrifies poor Cara.”

  “Why, what do they do?”

  “To make certain none of us smuggles a gemstone out of here they make us strip off all our clothes, and they examine them to make sure we haven’t hidden a gemstone in them anywhere. But the worst part is that they check our bodies and, well, all our body openings, even the most private and personal.”

  “That’s terrible,” Bryte said, shuddering. “How do they do that?”

  “With their fingers and with a thin hose-like thing that really hurts when they poke it up your—” A scream echoed through the cave, followed by another and another.

  “That’s Cara,” Nia moaned, her eyes filling with tears.

  At another loud scream and the crack of Berta Leed’s whip Nia wailed, “She’ll kill her.”

  This had to stop! Bryte’s fury brought forth a blinding burst of light that spread around her as though she were a blazing torch. “I’ll get out us of here,” she told Nia.

  “We can’t escape.” Nia’s voice was weak, but she did open her eyes—and quickly closed them again. “Is that you glowing like that? How?”