The moonlight is swallowed by the floodlights that line a worn path down the center of the mine entrance. Behind the floodlights is a chain-link fence with barbed wire running along the top. My lips part as the light reveals the full extent of the mountain.
A monstrous valley of coal stands before me, the ground littered with discarded pieces of metal, ore carts, and broken bits of machinery. The mine entrance is a yawning black maw, a dark wound carved into the side of the mountain.
“Zeke?” I whisper, my voice thick with confusion and fear. “What is this place?”
“You asked what sin my kingdom was ruled by. Here’s your answer,” he gestures toward the mine shafts. My heart thumps wildly in my chest as I strain to understand. Suddenly, hollering erupts once again, followed by cries.
“They’re coming!”
I whip my head around, my breath hitching as figures begin to emerge from the darkness of the mine. The moans, cries, and whimpers of the people echo throughout the mine, sounding more like wounded animals than men, women, and children.
I gasp as recognition hits. It’s them. The people Regan condemned to die. The surrounding air is thick with despair. My skin tightens and crawls at the ghostly touch of what I witnessed back at Regan’s broken kingdom.
The dark figures emerge from the mouth of the mine like candle flames in the night. I see their faces, their eyes wide with horror and desperation as they take in the trucks.
“You asked what my sin was. It’s gluttony. I have the most overpopulated kingdom,” Zeke declares. His words hang heavy in the night air, but there’s more. A glimmer of something, something akin to redemption, but why does he sound so sad about it?
“You’ve been saving them?” I gasp, my eyes wide as I take in the sight of the newly freed people.
“Depends on how you see it,” he replies. “My kingdom is the most luxurious, but we are so overpopulated, the poverty rate is also high. There aren’t enough jobs or resources. Lyon’s kingdom can’t house this many people, and I can’t take them to my father’s kingdom.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“Because if Regan knew his condemned lived, I worry he would find other ways to punish them.”
I stare around in shock, then at the trucks. “You’ve been shipping them out, but how?”
“The drones don’t enter the mines to check. They just force them in. I have someone on the inside to oversee the mine drops. We placed netting at the bottom of the old tunnels. Every month, my men are waiting at the bottom to lead them here.”
“But you said it yourself, he went out of routine,” I point out. Zeke nods.
“I know. That is where I went before I came back to get you. My men weren’t prepared, so I met them here myself. They’ve been waiting for the trucks to arrive.”
“So they walked the entire mountain to get to the other side?”
“When you go straight through, it isn’t that far. The roads here go around the mountain, not through it. The tunnels are too narrow for cargo or transport, but they’re perfect for smuggling people out. My trucks had just made a drop to Lyon’s kingdom to trade resources. It’s why it took so long to get them here.” I watch, amazed, as shocked people are loaded into the trucks. All these faces I thought I condemned by leaving them behind. Yet all along, they were never in danger.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I needed you angry, Regan would expect that. He doesn’t know,” Zeke tells me. I nod, seeing his point, and even though I lived with the guilt of not breaking those fences all night, I am glad to know they’re all alive.
“So, where is your kingdom?” I ask, wondering how much further it is. Zeke grips my shoulder, spinning me in the other direction. He points ahead, and when I lift my gaze, all I see are lights down in the valley below.
Peering up at him, I smile, relieved he isn’t like Regan. “Don’t smile yet. You haven’t seen the place.”
“I don’t think it matters, Zeke. Look at all the people you’ve saved.”
“But did I save them or condemn them, Zirah? I don’t think you’re understanding. I may not be killing people, but I’m also not saving them either. I don’t have the resources to house this many people, but I can’t leave them to die either.”
“Gluttony, you can’t stop saving them. You can’t turn your back on them,” I answer. Zeke nods. “We are restricted to our kingdoms, and once these people are here, they have no place to go. There are no spare homes, no jobs. They’re alive, but they aren’t living,” he tells me.
“Surely there has to be places they can go?”
Zeke shakes his head. “Where? Bloodtaric? They would become blood bags until they die. Lyon’s kingdom can’t house them either, and condemning his people to live in poverty by spreading their resources thinly to feed and house newcomers wasn’t a sacrifice he was willing to make. As much as he’s turned his curse around to try to repent for his sins, he’s still afflicted with greed on a soul-deep level. Don’t get me wrong, Lyon’s people are happy, but they die of things they shouldn’t, fevers and diseases that I have vaccines for. I am struggling to supply them to my people and my father’s kingdom. Lyon has a hard time parting with his kingdom’s monetary resources to aid in creating more medical supplies.”
“Regan runs the High Kingdom differently than his own though,” I point out, thinking about how often he’d mentioned running both kingdoms for years.
“He does, but you’ve seen firsthand how much my father enjoys setting out intricate rules and laws to abide by. Regan has been running the day-to-day in the High Kingdom, but he’s been following our father’s rules to prove he is a worthy replacement. If I had taken Regan’s prisoners to the High Kingdom, I would have led them right to slaughter all over again.”
