Tomas Reed reached into the brass-bound satchel and withdrew the second sheepskin volume. THE TRANSFER & Servant contract ROLLS OF THE GRAY PIT DISTRICT (YEARS 028–039). Here lay the gearwork that had turned eighty murders into three ages of slavery.
Tomas opened the volume to the index. He turned to the letter V. “Jem,” he said quietly.
Fourteen-year-old Jem Vance stood up from the timber bench. He wiped his nose on the sleeve of his dust-stiffened smock. He walked slowly to the table, his eyes wide as he looked at the open ledger.
Tomas pointed his pen at a line inscribed in dark brown ink: VANCE, JONATHAN (MASTER CUTTER, DECEASED IN Unpaid debts). Beneath the grandfather’s name ran three indented sub-entries in smaller script: Debtor balance passed to son, Peter Vance (Splitter, Level Two), Year 028: 840 scrip bits. Peter Vance deceased of grinder’s rot, Year 034: Leftover balance plus accrued interest passed to grandson, Jem Vance (Pewee Splitter, Age 9): 420 scrip bits.
Jem stared at his own name written in the company book. “I... I’ve worked fifty hours a week since I was nine years old,” the boy whispered, his voice trembling. “Overseer Krend told me my grandfather stole forty silver crowns’ worth of blasting powder before the cave-in. He said if I ran away, the district court guards would hunt me with hounds and sell my mother to the lowland workhouses.”
