Taitenschild

9-2 || Those Who Live Below (Part II)

The helot settlement was so barren that Eliah could see where the stone of the Mountain met flat, grassy ground and dropped off into empty air. A few meagre mud huts and dilapidated linen tents clung to an opening at the mountain's base, leaving a wide breadth between them and the edge. She stared at the drop, her stomach rolling with vertigo. She had known that the helots lived below, but hadn't expected it to be at the very ends of their Realm.

Balint caught the worry in her stare. 'You won't fall off,' he said. 'The edge doesn't crumble this far in.'

'Yet,' added Sune, a bitter undertone in his voice, as he led them to the tents.

Eliah baulked. 'Crumble?' she repeated, voice cracking.

'The edge cracks and breaks off every few suns,' answered Sune. 'Most of the settlement has had to move into the Mountain itself. But the dust in there chokes the lungs, so Rhea and the others that are sickly like her will live outside as long as they can.'

'Can't they just move further up the mountain? There are other helot settlements they can join, aren't there?'

Sune shook his head. 'Helot settlements are divided by their work. The Farmhands and Weaveschildren live in settlements a bit higher up where the soil is more fertile, and the Leatherhands and Runnerschildren above them, but they're about as welcoming to the Mountainschildren as warriors are to menials.

'The Smithhands treat them a little more favourably, but they live up at the peak, close to the Arena. If the settlement were to move from here, they'd have to dig new tunnels. Find new veins of ore. That could take months, if not years, and the Mountainselder is not willing to risk the wrath of the Tyrants upon themselves and the Smithhands if the supply of ore, tools and weapons runs dry.'

Eliah bit her lip, suddenly feeling sheepish. 'I... didn't know.'

'You wouldn't,' said Sune with a shrug. He glanced over his shoulder to flash her a thin smile as he entered the cave. 'I wouldn't either if the helots didn't tend to forget that I'm there. They're not exactly keen to talk to warriors. Also watch your head as you come in, Balint. Entrance is a bit low, but the cave gets taller.'

The bigger boy frowned, but followed instructions and shielded his head as he ducked into the cave, with Eliah following behind. Both winced, lightspots dancing behind their eyes as they followed Sune into the darkness.

'It's a bit narrow at the start,' Sune warned, belatedly.

'And dark,' commented Balint.

'It'll get brighter as we get further in. Just keep a hand on the wall and keep walking forward.'

Sure enough, twenty or so paces in, the tunnel grew taller and wider, eventually opening up into a cavern as large as the arena pit and five times as tall. Blue veins of aeonite forked through the ceiling like lightning, branches streaking into tunnels that led deeper into the Mountain as if to point the way to the mines. The veins pulsed steadily, showering the disorderly lines of stick and stone huts below with clouds of twinkling aeonite dust each time it glowed and faded.

Eliah frowned at the clouds, watching them drift, and remembered what had happened with the aeonite statue back at the Temple. She crept closer to Balint. 'Try not to wander off and nearly die this time, Balint,' she whispered.

Balint coughed awkwardly and cleared his throat. 'I will be fine.'

'Mm-hmm...'

Sune gestured for them to hold position as a tiny old man, hunched shorter than even Eliah, with a dirty white beard tottered towards them and waved his walking stick. A doe-eyed girl with pallid skin and a cloth tied over her mouth and nose followed in his shadow.