Chapter 38
Hammer Haven
The next morning the Helsop men awoke before dawn, cold and damp from their night in the cave. They huddled around a single candle, savoring its small warmth.
"We will need to observe their daily routine, then find a way to get a message to the Hammer Haven men," Dagon began.
As the first glimmer of light seeped into their cave, Olaf's eyes widened in surprise.
"This is not a cave," he said, "look at these walls." He ran his hand down the chipped surface of the cavern wall. "This is a mine shaft. And this..." he patted the red ore that lined the shaft. "This is iron ore."
Maki the Scout took the candle and started back along the tunnel wall. "Here is a shaft going off to the right," he called. "It looks newer than the main shaft. And here is another going straight into the hillside."
The men followed Maki who held the candle up to light their way in the dark shaft. They could see the fresh cuts into the iron ore veins.
"See how far this tunnel goes," Dagon said. "We may be trapped here if the Vagans come to mine the ore today."
Dagon walked back to the mine entrance as the first rays of sunlight found the mouth of the cave. He looked down the hill to the forge area. The Vagan guards were leading a line of shackled prisoners up the hill. Dagon knew they were on their way to this shaft to begin mining the iron ore they needed to produce weapons in their forges.
Dagon hurried back to his men. "We have no choice now but to stay. The miners are already on their way. If we guess correctly we can hide in the shaft they will be working today and give them a message in person."
Maki pointed behind them. "This is the shaft that has the most recent work. The cuts are fresh. My best guess would put them there to continue working that vein."
"Make sure we leave nothing behind to give ourselves away," Dagon said. "Take the candle and check the area where we slept. And stay quiet. They will be here any minute."
The men stepped back into the side shaft's dark interior, hardly daring to breathe, waiting, as they heard the clanking of the prisoners' shackles and the grumbling of the guards drawing ever closer.
The shackled prisoners waited outside as the guards entered and set torches into holes chiseled into the walls.
"Get to it, you lot," a Vagan guard shouted as he left the mine shaft.
Another guard handed out picks, shovels, baskets and chisels to the Hammer Haven men as they entered the mine, one by one, in a long line. The first man in line took a torch from the wall and headed back into the gloom of the mine shaft with the other chained men clanking their way close behind. He entered the side shaft and stumbled to a stop when he saw Dagon standing before him with his finger to his lips.
"Who are you?" the man whispered.
"We have come to help," Dagon whispered back.
"Get started in there," a guard shouted. "The iron's not going ta mine itself."
The sound of a few picks and chisels echoed out from the shaft.
"If I have to bring you back out to get you working, you'll not like the consequences," another guard yelled.
The Hammer Haven men all began to pick and hammer furiously.
"What do they threaten you with?" Dagon asked the first man.
"They will whip our families," the man said, as he swung his pick. "Who are you?" the man asked a second time.
"We are your cousins. An old man named Leif found our settlement and asked us to help you," Dagon replied.
Leif is alive?"
"He is. He came the length of Cold Lake to find our settlement."
The man's eyes lit up with hope. "How many are you that came to help?"
"We are six men."
The man's eyes glazed over. "With six only it is not possible. You should get out and return to your village before the Vagans find you."
"You are quick to lose hope," Dagon said.
"Our families are still alive. They are being kept at the castle. If we overpower the guards and try to escape they will kill our families."
"This much we know."
"Then you also know, even if you free us from our shackles we are too few to overpower the Vagans and save our families."
"We have a way to put the Vagans to sleep and free your families."
The man's eyes betrayed a cautious hope. "If we killed them all, more would come. King Endor's army is gone. We are tool makers, not soldiers."
"The Vagans have boats. We will take you back to our village far to the west on the Vagan boats."
The man stilled his pick. "You would do that for us? How are you our cousins?"
"My father's father bore my name. He left with some others when King Endor took over Hammer Haven. At least that is the story Leif told us."
"I have heard that some part of our village left long ago and died in the attempt," the man said.
"They did not die—at least not all. But I must warn you—our village was very poor until recently, and even now we are not what you would call prosperous."
The man looked down at his shackles. "Any place without shackles seems too great a dream to aspire to."
"Who is your headman?"
"His name is Steig. He works in the forge. I am Otto."
"One of our six is called Otto. Perhaps you really are cousins." Dagon was quiet for a moment while he thought. "We must scout out the Vagan boats and devise a plan before we convey a message to your headman, Steig. Do you come here every day?"
"Usually. Unless we have a surplus of iron ore. Then we are assigned other tasks. We never know in advance."
"Tell Steig what I have told you. Tell him I will give messages here to the first man in line. We will take as long as we need to agree on a plan before we act."
Dagon stepped back out of the torchlight to tell his men of his conversation with Otto.
"They are very worried about their families," Dagon explained to his men. "They will be reluctant to try anything that puts their families in danger. If we try to fight the Vagans, even with the help of the freed Hammer Haven men—there will be casualties. They will never agree to that. I told Otto we will try to put the Vagans to sleep. If this works we should be able to get their families out of the castle without loss of life. I know they will go along with such a plan."
Dagon looked at his men but could not see their faces in the dark of the mine shaft.
"Do the Vagans never leave the castle?" Deimos asked.
"That is something I will ask Otto. Yet if they do leave, they would likely leave by boat and we need their boats if we are to escape with so many. We must strike quickly if we learn that any are planning a voyage."
"Is the river navigable at its mouth?" Maki asked.
"It is, according to Leif, though he doubts the Vagans venture out onto Cold Lake. They take what others have and there are no settlements on Cold Lake to conquer."
The men were quiet while they thought of various ways to slip the sleeping potion Electra had given them into the Vagans' food or drink.
"Where are the keys kept that will unlock the prisoners' shackles?" Tandor asked.
"Another good question," Dagon said. "I will take all our questions back to Otto before they leave the mine."
When Dagon returned to ask more questions of Otto he could feel the eyes of the Hammer Haven men on him. News had traveled quickly along the line of chained men. By the time the Hammer Haven men left the mine at day's end, they had hope for the first time in many weeks.
Princess Electra Book 4 School of Medicine Page 40