The sweltering heat, the stench, and the roar from the ground...

There was almost no light underground, and occasionally there were one or two candle-sized dots of light, and it took a long time for vision to recover, and everyone here was able to discern the direction by a little light. It is said that people who have been underground for a long time will have many hallucinations, such as a person who felt that he was floating in the zhongyāng of the universe, surrounded by the void, and the foreman slapped him before he honestly went to clean up the ore; There was also a man who, one night, went berserk and crawled to the deepest part of the earth, where there was a crack that led to the deepest part of the earth". Some say that there lived a huge reptile, slippery, bleeding pus and blood, and loved to eat the living, and some said that there lived a dragon inside, whose skin was like armor, and smoked and steamed, but no matter what, the man never returned; In the past two days, the widest news spread underground is the disappearance of three mine supervisors.

Yesterday afternoon, even the people of the White Dove Chamber came down to inspect and whipped all the slaves they met on the way, but even so, they did not find a single hair of those men. It was suspected that the men must have found some kind of crack exit and walked out of the mine.

"It can't be," said an old-looking negro man, "that the mine extends more than forty miles to the east, more than forty miles to the south, and more than forty miles in every direction, but I tell you, there is not a single crack that leads to the surface, and there is only one exit to the surface, which is the gate of the mine, and no one can escape." ”

The miners dug out numerous empty troughs in the stone walls, laid wooden planks on them, and piled garbage on them, and then slept on them. Those who are more lucky will get the burlap bag discarded by the guys of the White Pigeon Chamber of Commerce, this kind of thing is extremely sought-after, and it is the happiest thing to have such a cloth bag as a blanket for sleeping. Whatever it is. Even if it's a plank. Separate yourself from the stones, too. Within a few days, a person who sleeps bareback on a stone will have a strange sore on his back, these sores are very itchy, and after scratching, clear water will flow, and the health of the person who has this sore will continue to deteriorate unless he rests for a few days. Until the man died.

But the miners can't get a break, we're just slaves.

In the morning, the men in the mine would use a few pockets to throw down a lot of bread scraps, rotten leaves, and some rather suspicious-looking meat. The taste of these meats struck me a little familiar, but I had never eaten them before. There's even a broth. It is distributed once a week, and it is also the kind of meat that is used in it. The only thing that surprised me was that every other day, the people in this mine would make all the miners drink a jar of salty drink that tasted like sweat.

"It's salted water." Abi told me.

"It can't be," I said, "salt is a very expensive thing, and Creel doesn't produce salt." Can a slave drink this? ”

"Believe it or not." Abiy said, "People who don't eat won't die in a few days." But in this place, if you don't drink this, soon you will be weak and unable to hold a hoe. Salt is expensive, but it's even more expensive to buy a new slave, my friend. ”

It wasn't often that I could see Abiy, who was walking among the herds of slaves.

I saw the so-called Valans, but they turned out to be a bunch of fake Wikibian deserters. They fled all the way to Creel, looted an estate, and prepared to wait until after the Northern War to return to their allegiance to the victors. Soon after, the plague of Creel came, and many village names took refuge in fear of their strength. The fellows then dreamed that the Creelian nobles of this place were coming. Due to their lack of manpower, they decided to go to Eureka City to recruit some men, but they were unlucky enough to encounter a slave hunter and were thrown into the mines.

At that time, the Valan soldiers were pouring into the south in droves, and these guys said that they were Valans when they saw the opportunity, and hoped that the mines would release them, but the people of the White Pigeon Trading House clearly knew what the soldiers of each force were like, and they found out the details of these guys after a little interrogation, so they ignored them anymore.

When the Vecchian deserters saw me, they boasted about their status among the Valans.

"My name is Paul," said a middle-aged man, "and the Creelians call me Varsha, do you know what it means?" ”

"The Varans don't say that." I say.

The middle-aged man said disdainfully, "Ivan, tell him." ”

"Varsha, it means the king of the Valans!" Ivan said, "Because the Varan are the elected kings, and our Lord Paul was once one of the electors, they are called Varsha." ”

"The Varans have no electors."

"This boy doesn't know anything, tell him, Ivan, how that despicable Giovanni took my throne."

"It was a bleak day, my Paul, and I don't want to recall that tragedy, but when you mention it, I'll have to tell you about it," said Ivan, "and it was Election Day, and Giovanni's electoral flag was hung with only six shields, which means that only six Valan nobles supported him. Giovanni's prostitutes, chickens, pimps, aphrodisiacs, fortune tellers, and Giovanni himself. And under the electoral flag of our Lord Paul, there are sixty shields, the king, the undoubted king. ”

"Varan" ''When did Varan have this kind of election law.''' These guys seem to be the chosen kings of the Valans by hearsay, and in ancient times, the Valans did have many tribes gathered together, and became kings by competing in martial arts or showing off their wealth, and by fighting or buying other people's shields through gold coins, as long as the person who got the most shields in the end could get the throne. But I don't know if it was thousands of years ago, the Valans have long lost their thrones, and there is not even a single Duli principality left, where is there such an election?

"Great testimony of the gods," said Paul, with a sigh, "when the shield was finally counted, Giovanni's prostitute boy disguised himself as my son, and shot an arrow at Giovanni's chest with a crossbow arrow. Hell, you know? The nobles accused me of being dishonored, so they snatched the shield that had been promised to me and gave it to Giovanni. Giovanni, the bastard, was shot in the chest. The next day, he 'struggled' to swagger through the market. Let those nobles forgive me gdong. Can an arrow in the chest heal so quickly?! Also, the archery shooter is obviously not what I instructed! In the end, you see, I lost Wang Wei and was banished by my people to Creel, where I became a miner. ”

The Wikibians squinted their eyes and pretended to remember the twists and turns of the road, and then squinted at me together. See if I'm being bluffed.

"You idiots," I said, "Valan has no king, the only prince, and a landless mercenary leader. Giovanni''''"

"No land?" Paul said, "Your message is out of date. The other day. Giovanni suddenly went north to attack Varankov, who is now his. ”

"Who did you listen to?"

"People from the White Dove Chamber of Commerce." "A few of us have to bet on the ore to go up the mine every day, and I have the opportunity to find something to eat." One day, the corner of the kitchen collapsed, and the housekeeper told me to go down the well a day later and let me mend the wall there. I can only do it, as a king. This is, of course, a disgrace. But I have to learn to be patient, don't I? At the moment when I mend the wall. A man from a white pigeon firm came in with a woman and such a fellow, and no one saw me, and I hid in the attic, and I saw it really, and ahem, you know, when a man is done, he can easily say something great, so that a woman can worship him. So the guy told me how Giovanni got to Varankov. ”

"Giovanni was prepared," I said, "and everybody knows that." ”

"The lowest part of Varankov's tower is also twelve feet, and now that there is a war, the strings of the defenders are tight, and six hundred people can block five thousand people outside the city, why did Giovanni get Valankov so easily? In fact, it is the internal response of the people of the White Pigeon Trading Company. ”

"What?" I was shocked, "That's what that guy said?" ”

Paul said, "Actually, I didn't hear too clearly, probably because Gil felt that Kalinin was not very obedient, so he was ready to change a partner or something, Gil has money, and whoever he supports can rise." Also, Giovanni inexplicably came to Creel to stir up the situation, which was also a cover-up, but he was actually in contact with the White Pigeon Chamber of Commerce here. ”

It's a bit ridiculous, but it's not impossible.

"What," Paul said to me, pinching the beard above his chin, "are you ready to join us?" After the restoration of the country, I will make you a boyar. In this mine, you can also be taken care of, and the broth and that meat, you don't eat it, it's not a good thing. But bread can be filled, which is much better than others. If it weren't for the fact that I see you as a Wikibian, I wouldn't have given you this treatment. ”

I'm still thinking about Giovanni and ignoring them.

I had seen the strength of the White Pigeon Firms in Beihai, and I had no idea that they would be able to control an industry so far away from Nord, which is almost like the pioneers in the legend. What exactly is Jill going to do? They did not occupy a single piece of land, nor did they organize an army, but they even brought in a group of exiles themselves as their protectors, the guy named Andrei, who was almost everywhere in the riverlands. If everyone can find a group of merchants to sponsor them, then it is estimated that few landless nobles will think about restoring the land or something.

"Boy," said Paul, "what about you?" ”

"Listen," I said, standing up and preparing to return to my shack, "I am an attendant of the Valan nobles, I have attended every pre-war meeting, and I know how Giovanni got the position of captain of the Valan mercenaries. I know a lot more things than the average Valan, not to mention a few of you Wikibians. Where do you have an accent? Little East Lake City, Big East Lake City? That's the place anyway. Kalinin was ready to take your lair, but you ran here, you are deserters, right? ”

The Wikibians looked at each other.

I continued, "You don't know what these black slaves are going to do, do you? ”

Ivan snorted and said, "Don't know anything, you fuck off, bastard"

Paul didn't reply, and after a while he said, "Go first, boy." We'll see you again. ”

I crawled out of their hut with my cat, and the roof of the mine was dripping with water, making the sweltering heat even worse.

As I passed a curtain, a black slave glanced at me at the end of the tunnel, then disappeared and headed for the tunnel to the left.

Is this a hint that I am following the past? I thought for a moment, tucked a piece of iron that I had hidden into the waistband of my pants, and followed him. Inside the tunnel lay a few motionless people, these people emitted a stench, and it was not known whether they were dead or dying. A black man was stripped naked, and his skin shone with a little oil. As I passed, an old man in a cloak pulled his cloak and looked at me with empty sockets that he had no eyes, and he was said to be from Rhodok, who had been sold by slave traders in Swadia many years ago. A child and a group of rats fight over half a bowl of bread crumbs soaked in mud with a few slices of radishes on top of them.

My mind was thinking about the kind of meat that the Wikibians were talking about, and I didn't know what they were talking about. Until I suddenly walked into a large site, which was a miners' lounge, which was later abandoned by the Ziyou miners, and was converted into a place for ore accumulation, with the grooves on the ground that used to hold the foot of the bed and the legs of the stool.

A group of black people stood in a circle, and when I came over, these people made a way for me.

Abi stood in the middle of the crowd, holding a dagger, and he looked at me.

"Ah, my friend," he said to me, "my friend. ”

The people around me were staring at me, as eerie as soldiers before the city was breached. I continued to walk over to see what he was going to do.

Abi continued after I walked in front of me, "We're friends, aren't we? ”

"Naturally." This is not the time to provoke him.

"Well," said Abi, "prove it." ”

The blacks around gathered around, "Prove." ”

Abi said in almost ritualistic language, "Friend, friend of blood." ”

"Friend," said the surrounding black slave in one tone, "friend of blood." ”

Behind Abiy, a man with a black cloth hood was pushed out, and they neatly tied him to a post, and the last man tore the man's chest with a white dove embroidered on it.

"Every day, thirty pounds of meat, a bag of salt," said Abi, "that devil of Jill, instructed him to scratch his teeth, saying, "We hundreds, eat so much meat and so much salt every day." Otherwise, it will be unhealthy. But has anyone ever told you that the mines never buy meat from outside? Has anyone told you that all this salt is mixed with sand? ”

The blacks looked coldly at the hooded man.

"They let us eat ourselves." "Slaves, oasis people, herders, Wikians, Varans, all food," Abi said. We will not escape the torture if we die, they will shave the flesh of the dead, they will suck the bones of the dead, and then we will be thankful. Enemies, enemies of blood! ”

"Enemy!" The blacks said, "Enemy of blood!" ”

A black man pulled the hood off the man's head: it was a white-skinned, blue-eyed northerner.

In a supplicative tone, he said in Nordic dialect, "mercy." Realizing that no one around him understood his words, he cried again in Creelian, "Mercy! Please. ”

"Mercy to you!" Abi said, "The mercy of blood! ”

"Mercy!" The blacks gritted their teeth, "The mercy of blood." ”

Then Abi put the dagger in my hand.

"Stab him in the chest," said Abi, "my brother." ”