The Prince of Exiles (The Exile Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

mountains, and each appeared to be productive. When the Kindred had found out this piece of information they had been ecstatic, knowing that they had effectively doubled their own mine stores and significantly cut into the Empire’s supply. They’d been very eager to bring such information to Autmaran.
     
    But what Raven was remembering now were the members of the Commons, the lowest citizens of the Empire, that had been found chained inside the mines in small holding pens. When they’d found them, there had been barely any left alive; when the Kindred had invaded, the Governor of Roarke who ruled in Ramael’s absence had called the mine overseers back, and they had left the workers chained and locked away. That had been over a month ago now, and a bare handful – a dozen out of hundreds – had been liberated and taken to the Kindred camp outside Roarke. Others had been found so near to death, bellies swollen and muscles stripped away to nothing, that the only solution had been to kill them in order to end their agony. Leah had come to Raven then and asked for a favor. She’d asked if he would do the killing just once, to one man, and in doing so use the Raven Talisman to harvest that man’s memories.
     
    He had done it. He wished he hadn’t.
     
    He’d bent down over the emaciated body, and looked into the sunken, dying eyes of the Baseborn man, and seen a plea there for death. It was a look that made him want to cry and run, to scream just to reassure himself that he, unlike the flickering light of this man’s soul, was strong and vital.
     
    The dagger, one that Leah had given him long ago, had slipped too easily into the man’s chest – there had been no muscle left on his body to stop the blade or turn it aside, only a paper-thin covering of skin. The man had let out a sigh of relief, as if his pain had been taken from him, and then his life had faded. Then, through the Raven Talisman he wore etched into the skin of his shoulders and back, Raven had absorbed the man’s life, his strength, and his memories. The strength had been almost nothing, the bare twinge of a whispered breath, but the memories had been hot and painful.
     
    The conversation continued on around him as he thought of this, Leah and Davydd prompting the others for more details, trying to dredge up any last, heretofore unremembered bits of information. He tried to engage himself, but found he couldn’t.
     
    He’d always known that the Empire condoned slavery. Geofred had long ago explained to him that the slave system was a way in which common criminals could be turned from outlaws, thieves, and murders, into productive members of society. But Geofred had never explained what it had actually meant to be a slave, particularly one that was sent to work in the mines. He had never talked about the endless, dark abyss of the cave that became their life; a dark so all-encompassing that the man’s memories of a mother and father had begun to whither and die, leaving barely more than vague impressions of scents and sounds by the time the end had come. Geofred had never told him of the terrible food, half the time stale and rotten, which was fed the slaves by masters who beat and whipped them for sport. And worst of all, Geofred had never told him of the way the miners had been treated when spoken to – not as men, but as animals. They were referred to as one would refer to cattle, both men and women considered nothing more than a kind of rough stock that would soon die and need to be replaced.
     
    “That should be it,” Davydd said loudly. Raven looked to see the Eshendai shoot one last glance around at the gathered troop. “Anything else? Speak now or never speak. Any lingering doubts? Autmaran the Ambushman will want to know all the details.”
     
    Autmaran the Ambushman? An apt nickname. That man is deadly when it comes to traps and ambuscades.
     
    Leah shot a quick glance at Raven and raised an eyebrow, clearly applying the question