Page 20 of The Broken Prince

“I don’t see anything else either.”

“Let’s go.” Ian removed the piece of wood we’d used to block the hole and crawled out onto the grass.

I followed him.

The guard closest to us was headed the other way, so we moved to the first hut, a building so low that no one could stand upright inside it. It was more of an outdoor house for a dog than accommodations for a human.

It also didn’t have a door, so we were able to poke our heads inside.

Everyone was side by side on the floor, sleeping shoulder to shoulder, in the same clothes they wore when they worked all day, caked in dried mud that had been there for who knew how long.

“You talk to them,” I whispered. “I’ll keep guard.”

“You’re better with words.”

“But you’re better with people. I usually scare them.” I remained at the entrance, keeping an eye on the guard that was far in the distance.

Ian crawled inside and shook one man by the leg.

He woke up with a jerk and opened his mouth to scream.

“Shh!” Ian stifled the sound with his palm and forced him to quiet. “Make a sound, and I’ll slit your throat.”

I rolled my eyes because that was not the way to go about it.

Ian gently pulled his hand away.

The others were awake, backs against the wall, trying to get away from Ian as much as possible.

“I just have a few questions,” he said. “Can you help me?”

“Help you?” the man whispered. “If the man catches me speaking to you, he’ll kill me and everyone else—”

“Then tell me what I want to know quickly, and I’ll disappear.”

The man remained quiet, his eyes fearful.

Ian reached into his pocket and withdrew some dried meat. “This is yours if you talk.”

The man’s eyes darted down, and he must have been starving if a couple pieces of meat were that appetizing.

“What is this place?” Ian asked. “And be quick about it.”

“A labor camp,” he whispered.

“What are you digging for in the pits?”

“Crystals.”

“Why?”

He shook his head. “We don’t know why. We don’t get to ask why.”

“What are you from?”

“Palladium. It was our kingdom for generations…until it was destroyed in the great battle. All free men have since been enslaved. Some of us are in labor camps. Some of us serve the new lord. And others have gone rogue.”

“Who is the new lord?”

---