Forever Fog - Tears of Stone

Fia prayed for death several times during the first few hours in that stinking hut. The miners of Croom were a feral breed and she felt the weight of many. At one stage, a woman entered the hut and Fia cried out for mercy. The woman looked at her as if she were less than human.

In the days that followed, she learned that the men, although hard and savage, were not the ones to fear, it was the spite of the women that held most danger. The huge, hairy, chieftain, took more than his fair share of turns on her, satisfying himself until her body was raw. Vaddon, they called him and eventually it was he who dragged her, half naked, across the rubble of the valley floor.

The same crone that had turned a deaf ear to her pleas for mercy, crouched near a cooking fire which belched smoke around a blackened pot. As Fia neared, the woman’s eyes narrowed with unbridled hate. Fia could only wonder what she'd ever done to rouse such ill-will. She quickened her pace but the woman was far quicker. Her arm shot forward, as fast as a viper-strike, threading her stirring stick between Fia's bare ankles. She went crashing on the razor-sharp rubble. The skin of her knees, and hands, opened in bloody ribbons, staining the grey stone red. The woman became a whirlwind of fury, beating her on the head and back. Fia was amazed a woman could be so vile and skilled in curse words. She scrambled to her feet and dashed away from the mad old wench. Vaddon followed along, laughing with abandon.

"Get moving, you pox ridden whore," screamed the hag, landing a stinging blow on Fia's ear. She covered her head with bleeding hands, fending off further blows.

"Careful woman! You'll have her dead before she’s drawn one creel of ore from the ground," laughed Vaddon. His warning only added to the ferocity of the woman's arm.

Fia was driven towards the head of the valley where a gate of stout oak barred the mine entrance. It was only when she got closer that she could see eyes floating in the darkness beyond. A guard lay beside the gate, curled in his cloak. Vaddon kicked the man awake and Fia thought of fleeing, but her limbs were leaden with shock and abuse. The woman grabbed a fist of her hair, it was as if she could read her thoughts. The gate opened and Fia was shoved into the huddled mass of slaves. Vaddon was still roaring with laughter as he walked away, the furious woman trailing in his wake, giving his heedless back dogs abuse.

In the darkness, figures moved. Soon she began to pick out bodies, so covered in grime, they became one with the darkness. As her eyes adjusted, she picked out women and men, clothed in rags or completely naked. They were incredibly thin, flesh stuck on bone. They were broken people, only a heartbeat away from death. This is what lay ahead of her, a life of never-ending toil until blessed darkness would finally take her. Fia felt her way deeper into the mine, running her shaking hands over the weeping walls of rock. When far from the others, she made a pillow of her arms and cried herself to sleep on a bed of stone.

As the days passed, she toiled from dawn till dusk. She was only dragged out of the mine for the amusement of the chieftain. He would slosh freezing water over her to dislodge the crusted muck from her skin, then ravish her. The old crone; who must have been Vaddon's wife, was forced to watch. He added insult to injury by telling his wife to return Fia to the mine, after he was sated. The sight of the jealous wife whipping a naked consort across the village was a huge amusement to the rest of the villagers.

Morning is as dark as night in the mine. The sound of the gate being dragged open signalled a new day. The slaves would charge toward the opening, the stronger throwing the weaker behind them. A bucket of watery slop, dumped into a trough, was their only delight. The retched spectres squabbled over the scraps and Fia vowed never to sink so low. When the miners appeared, they dispensed metal-tipped digging tools, and lit the way into the mine with burning torches.

All day she worked, digging ore and dragging it to the mouth of the mine. The air was a mixture of smoke and human stink. The miners themselves rarely ventured deep underground. They only time she saw Vaddon inside was when a cave-in buried several slaves. The Chief and his miners rushed to the landslide, digging with vigour. They worked until they'd retrieved the tools, leaving the slave’s buried where they fell.

Overtime, she saw how one slave bullied his way to the food before anyone else. Food was life, and life was all she longed for. She decided that the only way to survive this test was to become more savage than the rest. That night, she fashioned a sliver of flint until it was razor sharp. The next morning, she positioned herself near her target and waited. When the food arrived, the man sent her reeling to the ground, such was his rush to feed. Faster than a blinking eye, she drove her flinty weapon into the man's spine. He spasmed, the small incision all but invisible. The rest of the slaves backed away from his trashing body, while Fia chanted a complicated curse. The gathered slaves were mesmerized by the power of this new woman. She knelt at the food container and ate her fill, while the dying man pawed at the ground. When she'd finished eating, she moved away, let the rest of the slaves fall on the food.

That night, after the miners had locked them in, Fia gathered the slaves around her. She told them she was a powerful witch, sold into slavery by an evil druid. She promised them she would set them all free, when her powers were fully recovered. From that day on, the slaves had a new high priestess. Fia took to sleeping deep in the mine, away from the stinking mass cowering close to the entrance. She would make her way to the gate shortly before dawn each day. Now, there was order to the eating. The slaves waited until she had her fill before gorging themselves on what remained.

She still worked and did her best to stay out of Vaddon way, which was not always easy. Then one day, while loading ore into her creel, a piece of rock fell from her hand. When she picked it up, she saw a glimmer of yellow inside the stone. She worked the crack open and gloried at the thick vein of gold she found. She placed the rock on top of the creel and moved towards the mouth of the mine. In a quiet spot, she hid the rock in a crevice. She knew that this gold could be a key to her freedom.

She played out scenarios in her mind but no matter how she looked at things, she could only see the miners taking the gold for themselves. That night, she slept across her hiding place, making sure no one stumbled on her treasure. She was woken by something. She lay still and listened. There was a faint sound coming from somewhere close by. She pressed her hand against the wall and felt a vibration. For a long time she listened in the dark, and searched her brain for a meaning. What it most reminded her of was the sound of a fast running stream, far away in the distance. The water might be inches away, or feet, but the tremble of the rock hinted at the power of the flow. With her bare hands she began loosening rock. All night she worked and she was exhausted by dawn. Exhausted but excited.  

The next day, Vaddon appeared and she knew it was time to act. She dug out her hidden treasure and ran as fast as she could toward the entrance, dropping to her knees before him.

"Look, look," she cried, holding up her treasure for inspection.

All the miners were drawn to commotion. She made sure they got a good look at the gold before the chieftain took it from her outstretched hands.

"See what I have found," she said, and watched yellow fever take hold of the men who surrounded her.

"Where did you get this?" Vaddon demanded.

"The mine. Did I do well?" she simpered.

"Yes, very," he said, panting harder than he ever had when laying on top of her.

"Good enough to set me free?" He sneered and shoved her aside, striding towards the mine. It only took seconds for the news of gold to spread among the miners. She watched as they crowded into the shaft, going to the very deepest part, where the vein was sure to lie. Fia followed the last man into the mine and for once, there was none left to guard the gate. She could run, try to escape, but she had a different plan.

She stood beside the trickle of water and waited for the last person to rush into the dark. As soon as they were out of sight, she attacked the wall with her digging tool. In seconds, she had weakened the wall enough to allow a fine spray of water explode from the rock. She could hear the earth groan, as the pressure built. Chunks of stone began to fly off, each adding to the cascade. She struck the wall one more time and heard a crack. She backed away toward the mouth of the mine. The stone had held for a million years, but wouldn’t hold a second longer. The wall exploded inward, disintegrated by the weight of an underground river. Fia was nearly swept away with it, but she managed to jam her digging spike into a crevice, anchoring her in place. Boulders as big as a man rolled down into the mine, pushed along by the torrent of water, seeking the lowest point. Fia pulled herself from the water and ran toward the gate. Once there, she wedged it closed. She was alone, not even one remained outside to halt her escape. But Fia was tired of running.

The water soon rose up the mine and flooded out the gate. It wasn’t only water that came. Bodies piled up against the barrier, some miners, some slaves. She waited, armed with her digging spike, in case any made it out alive. None did. Before night fell, she scrubbed herself in the gushing water. When she was done, her body was as pale as the morning mist and her long hair black with moisture. She waked away naked, a woman reborn.

She passed a handful of women but none dared approach. To them, she was a deathly figure emerging from the dark. None recognised her as the helpless slave they knew. None but Vaddon's wife. The old crone let loose a manic howl, but Fia didn't flinch. The woman rushed at her and Fia put all her hatred behind her lunge. When the digging stick skewered the old witch, the rest of the women simply ran away.

Fia searched the huts for clothes. What she found was rough and tattered, but in Vaddon’s hut she happened upon a heavy wool cloak. She took anything of value, then mounted one of the miner’s ponies. From the bushes, the village women watched as she rode away. They would say a demon had come from the depths of the mine, woken by the digging. It had killed all the men, then ridden away, its grotesque body hidden by a magical cloak. Not happy with that, they added that the creature had been carrying the still-beating heart of Vaddon, eating it like an apple.