Chapter Four

Dain watched as men hammered at the door to the brimstone store, the sledgehammers clanging loudly against the metal, unable to break through. The thick iron was holding strong, and as Favian Slynn had made off with the only key they knew of, it seemed as if they would need to knock down the entire building if they wanted to get in, a process which could seriously anger the King, and make moving it all the more tough. Besides, how could they hide it all effectively? It would be incredibly difficult to do so stealthily, as if the amount inside matched the size of the building then it would require a lot of wagons, and they would be seen travelling along any normal road. With the men they had it would just take too long.

“Stop!” cried Dain, causing the men to look back in confusion.

“What are you doing?” asked Parry irritably, nearby. “We need this stuff, it’s our bargaining chip.”

“Well I’m not saying we should give it up,” he replied. “But look, they’ve hardly made a dent, and there’s little point anyway, by the time we get in and transport it Slynn will have reached help and sent men after us, we can’t be subtle about it. The King’s army could roll right over us if that was what they wanted anyway, and it’s not as if we plan to use any of it. We might as well just stand our ground and guard the building. Slynn’s key isn’t any use unless we’re gone, and we don’t have the manpower to break the building down and move it all in time.”

“Alright,” Parry conceded. “But what you’re saying does rely on some goodwill on the King’s part, and I don’t trust these rich bastards. Going on strike is one thing, but blocking access to these stores is criminal, and they might feel justified in forcing us away.”

“Perhaps,” said Dain, “and I’m not saying we should die for it, but King Berin has never shown any lust for violence, and he does need to be careful. Killing us isn’t what he or Slynn will want. We make Slynn money, and it will cost him to train up new men. I guarantee you that before any violence we will be heard and spoken to by a messenger. Until then, we hold our position. Our main concern is being able to feed ourselves if this situation lasts.”

Parry nodded.

“Most of us have some money saved, and a lot of us have families who will support us,” said Parry. “We’ll get by.”

At Parry’s words, Dain’s mind flashed to home, and then to Gelen, and he felt a spasm of emotion cross his face. Once the chaos after the whipping had settled down, they had organized themselves, letting the guards go, those who couldn’t walk unaided being helped by those in better shape. They had agreed that Slynn couldn’t possibly organize a response in less than a day at this distance from Rivergate, so they sent men to every brimstone mine in the region to tell them what was happening, and to ask them to come here to listen, and hopefully join their strike. After that, they had let people return home, leaving some volunteers behind in case Slynn returned, those leaving promising to return the following days so they could sort out their planned course of action. Dain had taken the opportunity to return home with Heymon’s body. His wife had wailed at first when she saw him, but by the time they had buried him she had subsided into silent grief, hardly saying a word. What had killed him inside was having to explain to Heymon’s younger brothers that he wouldn’t be coming back ever again. Dain would give anything, even his own life, to reverse what had happened. Sons should never die before their fathers, such a thing was a tragedy, especially when it happened so pointlessly. If Heymon had died standing up to Slynn, at least there would have been purpose behind it, but from some falling rocks? He needed to put it out of his mind and move on. As irrelevant as these things seemed in comparison, all the people here had listened to him petitioning them to join him and protest. He needed to keep a clear head and make sure that he didn’t let them down.

“With any luck the King will just realise the importance of maintaining order and keeping production of their special weapon ongoing and just force Slynn to reverse the decision,” said Dain, sighing.

“Judging from the size of these stores though, they may not be in any hurry,” said Parry. “There hasn’t been war since Berin was crowned, they must have barrels and barrels of the stuff.”

“That’s not really the point though,” said Dain. “It’s about appearances. They need to appear strong to their enemies and part of that is being able to produce more if they need it. Besides, it’s for the entire royal fleet as well as the army, and you do hear talk of pirates every now and again.”

Parry nodded, pulling a face.

“It’s a tricky one. We’d better bloody hope that the rest of the miners join us, because on our own...”

“They’ve agreed to meet and listen,” said Dain. “Besides, why should their reaction be any different from ours?”

Parry shrugged.

“Not all of them are Slynn’s mines, they might need convincing. Someone will need to rally them,” he looked at Dain. “I think it did make a difference when you spoke to our lot after work, you know. It’s probably best with just one person rather than having everyone speak over each other, I think it gets the message out clearer.”

“So who’s going to speak to everyone this time?” asked Dain, almost afraid to ask.

Parry rolled his eyes, gesturing around them.

“Do you see anybody stepping up?” he asked.

“You want me to do it then?” asked Dain. “Why?”

“People listen to you, Dain,” said Merek, butting in. “You were the one who rallied everyone before, and you stood up to Slynn. You understand that there’s more to this whole thing than just arguing about pay, and even though I haven’t been at this mine long, I can see people respect you. You’re the face of this for us now.

Parry grunted.

“Well I wouldn’t have said it quite like that, but you get the point. I’ll speak to the other men, but I doubt they’ll disagree. Don’t let this get to your head and think you can order us about though,” he warned.

Dain was a little stunned by Merek’s words, especially since they came from somebody he hardly knew.

“Thank you,” he said. “I guess I’d better think about what I’m going to say to them.”

“What you said to us worked fine,” said Parry. “Don’t worry about it. Worst case scenario, they hate you and decide not to join us, leaving us struggling to feed ourselves for the rest of our lives.”

Parry clapped him on the shoulder, smiling, but Dain sighed, unable to laugh when what his friend said was so true. And it wouldn’t only affect them either, it could end up affecting the whole area. With such a large part of the village so much poorer, the local merchants and tradesmen would lose customers and their losses would filter through to the whole community, with Slynn hoarding the money all away.

“You know, we might be able to get the other families to help us as well,” remarked Dain, to those around him. If these changes stay in place then the whole region will become poorer, and even those with no miners in the family will be affected. Obviously a lot of families will have their own concerns, but some of the more well off men, the merchants, and tradesmen, could see helping us an investment in the future, and we can promise to pay them back for any food they provide for us.”

“You want to beg for charity?” asked Parry doubtfully.

“If we need it,” Dain shrugged. “If the King decides to wait us out in the hopes that we’ll give in then we might need outside help to keep going.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he replied. “But you have other things to worry about now. Men from the other mines are arriving.”

  Parry was right. Groups of people were gathering around men from their own mine and talking to them about what had been happening, curious about how they had ended up camped outside such a valuable store of brimstone. Dain thought over what he would say as more men arrived, their numbers ballooning outwards so it was impossible to count them. What could he say that would get through to them? He needed to stir up emotion in them; logic on its own wouldn’t work on everyone. What would they care most about? Themselves, and their families, of course. Their reputation as well, most miners were proud of their status and freedom, compared to the serfs who had little choice in working their lord’s fields, and only barely supporting their own subsistence. The day-to-day running of the mines was managed almost solely by the miners themselves. Slynn’s only real role was to pay for the investment in tools and to buy the brimstone they dug up and sell it on afterwards, leaving them to distribute the money. There was often bad feeling towards people like Slynn, and a feeling that the money they made was far in excess of what they contributed.

Dain kept thinking, and paced around, nodding to people he knew as he passed them, and exchanging the odd word. A few from other mines wanted to know what they were here for, and Dain told them that when everyone was here he would speak to them all about what had happened and what they wanted. Eventually the arrival of people slowed, and judging by the numbers everyone who they expected was here. There were hundreds and hundreds of people now, almost certainly over a thousand with his mine’s lot, and perhaps close to two thousand. It was hard to say with so many, and hard to see where the mass of people stretched to.

“You alright?” asked Parry.

Dain nodded, taking a deep breath, and looking around to assess his audience, stepped up to speak.

***

“You did good, Dain,” said Parry, coming to him once the rest of the men had finished their back-slapping and handshaking. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“Well that’s why you weren’t up there yourself,” laughed Dain, relieved and pleased with how it had gone. He had won over all of Slynn’s miners who were suffering the pay cut, and a few others seemed willing to throw their lot in with them as well, workers in other mines who had felt displeased with their conditions for a while but had felt unable to act on their own. They were clearly hoping that if the King intervened to order Slynn’s changes reversed then he might ask for their demands to be met as well. Obviously not everybody had been convinced. In some of the mines conditions and wages weren’t bad enough for people to want to risk joining a protest like theirs, despite Dain’s warning that if Slynn’s cuts went ahead then they would spread to their mines as well. Perhaps they just needed time. If the King didn’t send soldiers after them people might be more willing to join them. The problem was the self-fulfilling aspect. People wouldn’t join if they thought soldiers would attack, but more men joining was the biggest deterrent to them attacking.

Regardless, today could be counted as a victory for Dain and his men. Their numbers had grown massively before the King could even respond to what Slynn would no doubt tell him, which meant the response may not take their size into account. They could grow even more the next day as word spread through the locals of what was happening. The biggest problem now would be keeping their group together. Right now the miners seemed in a good mood, all talking to each other and exchanging stories, but things could change when food ran short and the King retaliated. Dain’s thoughts were interrupted as Merek called him over.

“There’s a man here, he wants to speak to you,” said Merek. “He says it should be away from all of the others.”

“Just me?” asked Dain, curious.

Merek shrugged.

“He didn’t ask for anyone else but he didn’t say not to bring anybody either. He had two men of his own with him though, armed, but he was all cloaked.”

It must be one of the King’s men sent to negotiate, that was the most logical explanation, although wanting to speak privately was a little strange. Seeing Dain speaking he must have assumed Dain was the leader of the group. Perhaps he was just worried about being attacked by an angry

“I’ll get Parry as well,” said Dain. “This might be important, and that way the numbers will be even.”

Merek agreed, and a few minutes later the three of them were being led by Merek into a shadowy part of the woods, the only sound being of twigs cracking underfoot as the noise of other miners faded.

“This doesn’t seem right, what if they mean to kill us?” asked Parry.

“Only one way to find out,” shrugged Dain, taking a large step to avoid a tree root.

They walked forwards, past a large oak tree, and suddenly there was the man Merek had spoken of. He wore large brown robes with a hood that in the shadow of the forest left a large part of his face dark. The two men with him were armed similarly to those who had guarded the gates to the brimstone store, with spear and shield.

“I saw you talk just now, it was very impressive,” said the man, with no greeting. “I can see how you became their leader.”

Parry bristled a little next to him, and Dain spoke.

“I’m not their leader, we have none, I just spoke to them,” he explained modestly, pleased by the compliment but not wanting to seem arrogant.

“Well perhaps you should be,” replied the man, his moving mouth one of the only visible parts of him. “Men rally more easily when there is someone to rally behind.”

“What do you want?” asked Dain shortly, glancing at the man’s dusty cloak. Perhaps the man who wore it was just trying to disguise himself but he was not dressed as he had imagined a messenger of the King would. The man spread his hands placatingly.

“Just to help you,” he said, a smile in his voice. “Isn’t that what you want?”

“How would you help us?” asked Parry suspiciously. “And what do you get out of it?”

The man reached inside his clothes and withdrew a small leather pouch, throwing it gently to Merek, who caught it reflexively. He pulled it open, and gold glinted inside. Dain had never even owned any gold. Few people did, and this was a tremendous amount of money to just be given away as casually as the cloaked man had just done.

“If this lasts you may find it useful to have some financial support,” he said. “I don’t want anything in return, except the guarantee that it will be used to help your cause and not wasted. Provided this is agreeable to you, I will provide more as the dispute goes on. It won’t solve all your problems, but it should help a great deal.”

Dain was immediately suspicious. The man wasn’t showing his face, and wanted to give money for nothing in return. This was no simple act of charity, this struck him as political. There was a hidden goal here, apparently making it worthwhile for somebody to try to pay to keep their strike and hold of the brimstone stores going. Dain turned to the others either side of him and spoke in a low voice so the other man couldn’t hear.

“I’m not sure about this, it doesn’t feel right,” he admitted. “He might wait for us to take his money and start making demands, or he could be an enemy of the King.”

Parry shrugged.

“Money is money, if you don’t want to use it for the lot of us just split it between us three and forget about him,” said Parry. “What can he do that the King can’t?”

Dain shot him an angry look.

“We’re not using the money just for ourselves, it’s either for all of us or none of us.”

“Well we’re in no position to turn down offers of help, no matter where they come from. We don’t have to spend it right away, but if we become desperate it could be useful,” said Merek. “He’s not asking for anything in return and if he does we can just say no to it. Use the money.”

Dain sighed, and turned back to the man.

“Alright we’ll take your money, but if you want to keep dealing with us you need to show your face, I don’t trust a man who keeps himself hidden,” he said, eyeing the figure.

The man paused, and then in one smooth movement, removed his hood. Dain didn’t know what he had expected but the result was nothing to marvel at. The man was utterly unremarkable, with grey eyes, plain features, and no hair at all, facial or otherwise.

“I look forward to dealing with you in the future,” he said, smiling slightly. “Think on what I’ve said. Men need a leader.”

And with that he and his guards turned to depart, leaving Dain deep in thought.

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Next Chapter: Chapter Four