Smoke from the fires hung in the air. The discarded sandstone overburden, often in pieces as large as a man’s head, lay scattered thickly on the ground near the base of the cliff. In several places this had been piled into large mounds.
The extracted shale-ore was moved a few hundred paces to two sites where it was broken up by the larger and stronger slaves using stone-headed sledgehammers. The broken ore was then put into large baskets which were passed to the waiting line of older men, women and boys to carry back to the village. Two lines of slaves carrying baskets to and from the village ran like two lines of ants through the rocky wilderness, carrying ore in one direction and charcoal and water in the other. Little of the water was provided to the slaves, as the ore extraction using fire and water was more important and the ore was more valuable.
Pamose and Umtau were directed to one of the groups smashing the ore-laden rocks with sledgehammers, with about a dozen men in that group. Nikolas and Edfu were sent to the cliff-face at a section of softer rock. They were provided with a basalt hammer weighing about four pounds and a large copper chisel. They joined a large gang with a whip-wielding overseer. Edfu told Nikolas that they were expected to fulfil a quota of twenty baskets of ore each per day and if they failed they wouldn’t receive food that night.
Nikolas found the first several hours not too bad as they were working in the shade cast by the cliff and the rising sun. Soon his right hand started to blister from the constant use of the heavy hammer and his hands were scratched and bleeding from handling the rock to place in the baskets.
Near midday the work became an almost unendurable hell as the sun reached its zenith and beat down unmercifully on the workers.
Edfu never seemed to run out of breath for his complaints and after a short while Nikolas simply ignored the man
There was a short break every two hours for a rest and drink of water; a small amount of stale bread was provided at midday.
Unaccustomed to heavy manual labour Nikolas’ efforts began to flag by early afternoon. Edfu cursed him constantly as the penalty for failure to meet the quota was imposed on both the shackled workers.
The overseer wielded his whip regularly, lashing Nikolas to greater efforts.
“Come on, you god-cursed son of a pig!” whined Edfu, “Get your stupid arse moving and get to work! If you don’t, neither of us will get supper tonight!” The overseer didn’t bother verbally demanding greater effort; he just let the lash of his long and thick leather whip speak for him.
At dusk the slaves were rounded up and with each carrying a basket of ore were marched back to the village. Nikolas staggered along under the burden, his right leg being dragged by the rope attached to Edfu as the other strode ahead.
That night Nikolas and Edfu received no food, as Nikolas hadn’t reached his quota. Edfu volubly cursed Nikolas. “You miserable offal! I’ll cut your fucking throat if you don’t do better tomorrow. I’m not going to starve to death because of a weak arsehole like you! You just watch out!”
Darkness had fallen and Nikolas wanted to speak with Pamose, who was sitting on a small rock about fifty paces away, fettered to a huge Nubian. As Nikolas was shackled to Edfu at the ankle this required his co-operation, which was obtained only after a threat of violence when the intitial request was met with an abusive reply.
Nikolas squatted next to Pamose. “A hard first day!” he commented. How are you faring?”
Pamose sighed. “Well enough. Umtau is my partner and has enough strength to meet our double-quota himself! I thought I was fit, but perhaps this work requires different muscles.” He looked at his hands. “I’ve got a few new blisters but my sword-practice has kept my hands hard. An extra waterskin a day would be nice - and seeing a rescue force come over the hill would be even better!”
Nikolas clasped him on the shoulder. “At least you’ve got a good partner, not like the piece of shit I’ve been lumbered with!” Edfu scowled and spat close to Nikolas’ sandaled foot.
‘All in all, not the most pleasant of days, or the most pleasant of company,’ mused Nikolas after they had taken a sleeping space and he then collapsed in an exhausted heap and fell instantly asleep.
T T T T
The next day was worse. Nikolas’ hands were bloody from burst blisters and cuts even before he started work; his whole body ached and his belly growled. That evening he had little recollection of the day as he slumped to the ground. No food again as he hadn’t made his quota; again Edfu cursed and made threats. As Edfu moved to put the threats into action, Nikolas’ mind cleared and with the energy given by a surge of adrenalin he moved quickly and instinctively, using the wrestling holds and unarmed combat techniques learned from the soldiers in his father’s barracks. In moments Nikolas had thrown Edfu to the ground and lay atop him, right forearm pressed hard under Edfu’s chin and choking him. “Listen, dung-beetle! I can take you anytime! Instead of whining and stopping to watch me after you’ve made your quota, how about you help me out until I get the hang of what we’re doing? You think you’re a big man, hey? I’ll break your fucking neck if you try that again!” Thoroughly cowed, Edfu lay supine and whimpered in fear.
After cuffing him hard across the ear Nikolas released him.
Two days later Nikolas was working on the cliff-face, hammering with the stone hammer and bronze chisel, picking up the pieces of stone in his torn and bloody hands before depositing them in the wickerwork basket. There was a sudden rumble and several screams.
Part of the cliff-face had collapsed, burying several workers under a pile of rubble. Nikolas stood quickly and turned to hurry the fifty paces or so towards the disaster site when he was suddenly pulled up short by the leash on his leg. Edfu had not followed. “Come on, you fucking shit! Let’s go help them!” shouted Nikolas. “It may be our turn tomorrow and we’ll need their help!”
With a curse Edfu joined him, the two moving with difficulty due to their conjoined status. With other nearby workers they began to use their hands to pull the rubble away. Quickly legs or arms were visible and the bodies were cleared. Five men had been caught in the collapse. Three were already dead, their bodies crushed by the falling rock. One was still breathing, but his chest appeared to have been stoved in. The last appeared to have just a broken left arm, the end of the compound fracture piercing the skin and the bone showing white amongst the red blood. Nikolas called for water to wash the wound. Since the man was still unconscious he immediately reduced the broken bone into place before demanding splints of wood and bindings of cloth to immobilize the limb.
“I think not!” Nikolas heard and looked up to see Rewer standing over him, silhouetted against the bright sky behind. “How long will the arm take to heal, slave?” demanded the overseer.
Given who he was talking to, Nikolas cut his usual estimation in half to make the injured slave more valuable. “Probably four weeks, perhaps a little longer,” he replied. “I’m certain he’ll regain full use of the arm.”
Rewer smiled evilly. “Cut the slave’s throat,” he instructed a nearby guard. “I’m not going to pay for a man to eat for four weeks, probably six, without doing any work. This slave appears to know healing. When he’s finished here for the day bring him to my hut for me to allocate different duties.”
Moments later the slave lay dead in a pool of blood that had gushed from his slashed throat and the workers were chivvied back to work by the guards cracking their whips and lashing the slowest-moving slaves.
That evening Nikolas and Edfu were dragged to sit outside the hut occupied by Rewer. The sun was going down and the heat was leaving the air, which would soon be chilly as the night drew the heat out of the desert. Just as they had no clothing to protect them from the sun, the slaves also had no blankets to keep them warm at night and what fuel there was in the village was not wasted on fires to keep the guards, villagers or slaves comfortable.
Nikolas was surprised when a young woman from the village, wearing a filthy shift of coarse linen, her hair dirty and m
atted and her skin begrimed, handed them each a piece of unleavened bread, a dried fish and a beaker of water.
With food in his belly for the first time in several days Nikolas then sat and dozed in the gathering dark until he received a sharp elbow in the ribs from Edfu. Looking up he saw Rewer emerge from the hut with another man, who was elderly and gaunt. There were several moments of confusion as Nikolas tried to stand to show respect, at the same time that Edfu threw himself face down on the sand, doing the same. After a brief pause Nikolas joined Edfu in the dirt.
Rewer fixed Nikolas with a quizzical look and said, “So, slave, you seem to know something of healing; enough at least to set a broken arm. Not that such a skill is much use to me, as you saw today. I measure the value of my slaves by what they have done today, not their future potential. But the village doesn’t have a healer and Ako here says that you may be useful. You may also be able to help with minor injuries amongst the workers and help keep them being productive, which may be helpful. So, you’re off the mine-working parties for the time being. I expect that when you’re not working as a healer, you’ll be in the carrying line to and from the mine. You’ll still work dawn to dusk, but at easier duties. I’ll leave Ako here to discuss the villager’s needs with you.” Rewer turned abruptly and walked back into the hut. Even before Ako could speak there was a dull slap of fist on flesh and a cry of pain from inside, followed by several moans.
“My wife,” said Ako with a haunted look on his face, as he beckoned the serving-wench back to provide another cup of water.
“Much younger than me. This is my daughter Ebio. She keeps herself in filth to make her less desirable to Rewer and his men.”
“Why don’t you send word to Pharaoh or the Vizier?” asked Nikolas as he gratefully sipped the cup of water. “You’re all freemen and freewomen. You have rights before the law, which slaves don’t have.”
Ako snorted. Nikolas was not sure if that was with derision or amusement. “Yes. And we’ll all be dead before the messenger gets to Thebes, if he even gets past the Oasis,” he replied.
Nikolas looked behind him to make sure there were no guards within hearing. “I fully understand. We can’t do anything to dispute Rewer’s grasp,” he said, looking hard at Ako and glancing warningly towards Edfu. Ako raised one eyebrow and then gave a slight nod of understanding. “Now, I’m sure that your villagers, who number about a hundred or so and who Rewer requires to provide services, have many illnesses that will take up most of our time. Edfu here will help me – or we’ll both be back being pack-animals and digging. Edfu, I’m sure you’d like to spend some hours a day sitting in a hut grinding herbs where you’re out of the sun, instead of wielding a hammer on the cliff-face? Good, I thought you’d see sense. I can spin it out so we spend all day doing virtually nothing, which I’m sure you’ll appreciate. Ako here will make sure we have adequate food in return for the assistance we provide. That assistance will include keeping your mouth firmly shut about any village matters.” Ako gave a nod of agreement and smile. Nikolas continued, “And if you don’t, if Ako doesn’t kill you, I will!” Ako gave a broader smile, still saying nothing. Edfu scowled and gave a nod of agreement.
Nikolas and Edfu still slept in the open with the other slaves at night. There were no funerary or burial arrangements for dead slaves and the guards had instructed several slaves to dump the bodies of the five dead workers a few hundred paces to the north of the village. There was no risk that this practice would cause disease; that night shortly after nightfall the blood-chilling laughter-like calls of a pack of spotted hyena could be heard and in the light of the part-moon a dozen or so large shapes seen moving where the bodies had been dumped. The sound of powerful jaws crushing bones and the occasional snarl and yelp as a dominant animal asserted its authority could be heard for several hours. After the hyenas had eventually departed smaller shapes could be seen moving and the bark of desert foxes heard as these smaller hunters scavenged what small morsels the hyenas had left behind. Edfu mentioned to Nikolas that this manner of disposal of bodies was done deliberately to encourage one or more packs of hyenas to inhabit the area and make any attempted escape by slaves even more risky.
T T T T
Their work in the village was much easier than at the mine-face and Nikolas blessed the gods for their intervention. He showed Edfu how to grind medicinal herbs and saw a large number of villagers for treatment of various ailments, the most frequent of which were infected and inflamed eyes resulting from the depredations of the ubiquitous flies. Dealing with patients with a fellow-slave fettered on a short piece of rope was proving difficult, and Edfu showed no gratitude to Nikolas for the change in circumstances, trying to skive off doing even the small amount of worked asked by Nikolas.
“Grind the herbs the way I’ve shown you. It’s not difficult! If you don’t get it right this time I’m going to tell Rewer to send you back to the mine-face!”
Ebio spent most of each day in the hut with Nikolas and Edu, the young girl being shown how to prepare herbal remedies and hiding from the view of Rewer and his men. When the villagers attended for treatment Nikolas showed her how to use the medicines provided and she assisted when the slaves came to the hut for treatment after darkness had fallen. In return she and her father made sure that Nikolas received part of the food supplies provided for the village, which allowed Nikolas and Edfu to eat a better diet, and for Nikolas to provide Pamose and the others in his own party with bread and dried fish to supplement their meagre slave-rations.
Nikolas raised a hand to touch Ebio on the cheek. She was working bent over a bundle of herbs, with tears streaming down her face and cutting a path through the dirt on her cheeks. “Rewer came to your hut this afternoon,” he noted. Ebio nodded. “Did he have his way with you?”
“With both me and my mother. Me first, in front of her and my father,” she sobbed.
“His time will come soon. You and your family will have their revenge,” he promised quietly.
Ebio raised her face, misery and fear written plain. “We try to keep out of his way and to make ourselves unattractive by wearing rags and not bathing. But what can we do? He’s Pharaoh’s representative here.”
“Better times will come soon,” insisted Nikolas, determined to make his statement fact as he wiped the tears from the girl’s cheeks. “Come, I’ll teach you to make more of the decoction of eye drops from garlic oil and hemp, and then we’ll repeat the treatment of the villagers and slaves with eye disease caused by these damned flies!”
Three days later, as he lay sleeping huddled on the ground in the grey light of dawn, still shackled to Edfu, Nikolas saw Rewer walking through the camp. The supervisor glanced at Nikolas and said to the underling accompanying him, “We’re having a visit from the Royal Inspector of Mines next week. Those men we bought a few days ago are to have their tongues cut out tomorrow so they can’t make any complaint.”
This galvanized Nikolas to action. He’d only just begun to recover from the physical abuses he had suffered, the additional food provided to him by Ako and Ebio as a reward for his services was putting flesh back on his bones and strength in his muscles.
Nikolas provided as much of this sustenance as possible to Pamose to share with the other members of the party, despite the objections of Edfu who wanted to retain the food either for his own use or to trade for favours. While he’d started to think of escape he’d not yet evolved any plans. But he found the prospect of having his tongue cut out focused the mind.
Being shackled to Edfu, who Nikolas was certain would inform on him in return for even a scrap of bread, made planning difficult.
Nikolas had to speak to Pamose. As they were still shackled, Nikolas told Edfu to come with him; Edfu initially refused until Nikolas beat him several times about the head. Nikolas approached Pamose and Umtau, who were moving towards the breakfast food line. Nikolas couldn’t speak openly because of Edfu’s presence, but whispered in Pamose’s ear. “Tonight,” he said and gestured wit
h his thumb to the north. Pamose looked at Edfu. Nikolas shook his head. Nikolas would have to leave things to Pamose.
T T T T
That night Nikolas was lying in his sleeping-place on the sand when shortly after dark there was movement nearby. Pamose had unshackled himself from Umtau and crept towards Nikolas. He had a stone hammer in his hand and smashed it down on Edfu’s head as he slept. The head split with a crunching, squishing sound. Nikolas struggled to rise, his still injured hands having difficulty in untying the rope that attached him to Edfu’s corpse. Pamose instead used a sharp piece of flint to cut through the tough rope.
Pamose led Nikolas to a small group at the edge of the camp.
Umtau and three of their initial companions, Idu, Hanuka and Ipuy, sat on their haunches, with two ‘partners’. One of their companions had died that day in a rock fall at the mine, and one partner had been deemed unreliable and had joined Edfu in the Afterlife.
The four trained soldiers made short work of the two guards watching over the camp, taking the weapons from the corpses. The others stole some food and water skins from the kitchen. They headed north, walking quickly to put distance between themselves and the village before the escape was noticed.
“The next guard change is due in two hours. That’s when the hornets’ nest will be disturbed and we’ll be found gone,” commented Pamose. Looking at the shambling steps of the exhausted slaves he continued, “We won’t have enough of a start on them to keep ahead, so we’ll need to go into hiding in about three hours’ time. That’ll be around dawn. Otherwise they’ll catch up with us and this will all be for nothing. Indeed, less than nothing as they’ll kill us where we stand without bothering to take us back.”
Murder in the Palace: A Nikolas of Kydonia Mystery Page 18