Legacy of the Golden Wielder

Chapter 9

Good morning, everyone!!!!

"Are you, are you coming to the tree? " Katniss Everdeen

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Chapter 9

 

Aadi opened his groggy eyes. Immediately, he closed them. He hadn’t expected the morning sun to be so bright, or to be coming down on him so severely. Slowly, he opened them again and glanced around. As he had expected, he was lying in a deep ditch barely large enough to contain him. A pool of dried blood painted the rock under him.

“I’ll toss you a rope,” said a slow and steady voice.

He looked up and he saw the dark outline of an unusually long man. A second later a thin rope was tossed down at him.

“Use it to get out.”

Aadi tried to get up, but a piercing pain that began from his back and stretched to his neck forced him back, face down, into the dusty rock. He tasted earth as he spit the pebbles and dirt from his mouth.

“You best be speeding yourself up, boy. Warden Padstow does not like to be kept waiting.”

Aadi gritted his teeth at the thought of that man. He forced himself to his feet. He gripped the rough rope and struggled up. Every inch was a monumental struggle; the fact that heavy chains bound him added strain to his burden. But he couldn’t quit. That would be admitting defeat.

When he finally reached the top of the rope and pulled himself out of the ditch, his entire body was trembling and sweating uncontrollably.

“Stand upright,” said the mustached man in the most bored voice Aadi had ever heard. “I’m going to patch you up and then it’s down to the mines with you.”

Sure enough, after the man had wrapped some cloth around the cuts, he called a guard to lead him to work. At first, Aadi was surprised they would make him work. He was injured, after all. How much help would he actually be? But after a quick thought he realized it made sense. The warden wanted to break his spirit. This was the perfect opportunity to do so.

The guard led him into the underground hole. It was wide, with more than enough length for them to walk side by side. The deeper they went, the hotter and muskier the air became.

“Hurry up!” called the guard when Aadi had slowed down. Despite his brave front, the pain in his back was killing him.

He picked up his pace. They reached a fork in the road. Without thinking about it, the guard took the center path.

Aadi wiped his sweaty forehead. As if the natural heat wasn’t enough, torches had been placed on the cavern walls every few feet. He made out the faint sounds of tools hitting rock. With every step he took, the sounds grew louder, which could only mean that they were getting closer to the rest of the prisoners. Sure enough, after a few more minutes, they came upon a dead end. About a dozen men worked, tirelessly bringing their pickaxes down on the rocky walls.

“I was beginning to wonder whether this dreamer would ever show.” Warden Padstow, who up until now had been sitting on a rock chewing on melon nuts, stood. He circled Aadi and grinned. “With your high spirits, I’m sure you’ll have no problem getting to work.”

Without saying a word, Aadi trudged over to the stack of pickaxes and picked one up. “Where do I begin?”

The warden’s grin dissolved, replaced by a wave of anger. “You think you’re so smug, don’t you?”