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The mines were manned by an odd mixture of convicts, a few of them exiled nobles, and free Afar and Aksumites of a handful of tribes They camped at the well nearest the salt flats, a journey of soh the day’s heat so the ca the ed on foot across the desert to the crusted lake where they cut and lifted the salt and shaped it with small hatchets into amole bars Then they walked back to the camp The camels were loaded with salt on the return trip; they could not carry enough water to sustain thethe day Tele water skins fro water omen’s work, so no one ever wanted this job; at theas someone loaded and led him, it was a task Telemakos could do without the use of his hands He served the free workmen who could pour the water for the these men proved better luck than he had ever hoped for, for there was enough foreign traffic each day that even the Afar salt cutters spoke Ethiopic as often as they spoke their own language, and they talked unguardedly with one another as if Teleether the crirees of half the prisoners, and which of the foremen were not to be trusted and why, and the schedule of expected traders over the next threeof infor life of discomfort and exhaustion His narrow ankles would not be held in a grown h a single large shackle while he slept; then, hours before sunrise, Telemakos was led on the trek over the barren miles to the salt, and back in the infernal heat of early afternoon The ring of gold seared his throat like a branding iron His bare scalp grew sun-scorched, as did his nose and the back of his neck and the tops of his ears; when the sunburn blistered and peeled, the raw skin beneath burned over again The cuts and open blisters of his first unshod march would not heal, but they were caked with salt now and did not fester

Telemakos hardened to the daily journey He did not doubt that if he failed to keep up he would be abandoned by the roadside, bound and blind and without water in the hellish desert sun; and maybe the Afar tribesmen would trouble to build a cairn over his desiccated body if they discovered him later His deep horror of this dooently than the whip that sometimes cut across the backs of his bare knees, and Telemakos kept pace with the miners

All in darkness In darkness he was led to the mines, in darkness led over the salt burdened ater he was never allowed to share, in darkness he was fed, in darkness led to the sleeping place He hated the blindfold oatskin straps that sawed at his shoulders, or the stale injera that was all they ever gave hi the soles of his cracked feet, or the heat, or the constant thirst

They never gave hiiven only threeout for the salt flats, one on arrival, and one before the return trek--until he felt sure he would die within the ue; his lips were so dry they split and bled If he wept there were no tears When the empty jar was taken from his lips he yearned after it, as if the very scent of the warm, brackish water that had filled it could refresh him

Telemakos and the one who held the jar for him were able to coordinate their ht tap on the back of his head that told hi, and then the hand on his head held him steady, and the ried fro the wretched hours of blind labor, and lastly before he was pushed back down a bodies when the hours of labor were over One blistering ht Tele the priceless gift waiting against his chin; then he turned his head a fraction, and with his broken lips gently kissed the hand that held the bottle

"Eh, you are welcome, boy," said a harsh voice, and another said, "He can’t hear you"

"I forget souide "He’s finer e"

How in the world can he tell that? Teleo where they push me and eat what they put in front ofit apart withchieftain," said the other

This worried Telemakos He did not want anyone to notice him He tried to seem more cowed

It should have been easy There was scarcely a shred left of his shaain to rate Teleined he could hate a lifeless piece of cloth as much as he now hated that shamma Because of the blindfold Telemakos was kept bound; and that meant he could never sleep cos when they chafed his shoulders

Nor could he stop them when they slipped

Teleoatskin, and that was a day’s water for four er forward under this aeight, so to make better use of him his overseers usually loaded him with several partly emptied skins that could be evenly distributed over his shoulders These they tied together into a makeshift harness, which one day ca to be led out onto the salt

He could not reach the slipping water bags, nor even see where they were falling, but instinctively Tele the a down around theround, and Telemakos’s sore feet were soothed with an unexpected wash of ater even as he heard the salt blocks shattering

He stood frozen while the a blocks grazed his wrist bone hard enough to draw blood

People surrounded hi out

"The belt’s slipped--"

"That is an hour’s work smashed to ruin!"

"There’s salt everywhere, man, who needs salt? The water wasted!"

Someone hit Telemakos across the mouth