30

Three months later, Eskkar and Trella rode into the mining village of Nuzi just after midday. Trella had never visited the place before, but Eskkar had stopped by twice since the digging began, both times when he traveled north to visit the horse camps. His descriptions of those brief stopovers hadn’t satisfied her curiosity, and while Orodes’s reports of steady progress had proved satisfactory, Trella decided she wanted to see Nuzi for herself.

Orodes had started sending gold back to Trella almost from the start. Within ten days of his return to the mine, the first sacks of gold dust had reached Akkad. Nuggets, sifted out of the stream or dug from the hills and borders of the flowing water, soon followed. Since those first deliveries, a heavily guarded boat arrived every five days, bringing gold and silver to Trella’s coffers.

To safeguard the precious metals, Trella ordered a small house with thick walls and a solid-beamed roof built within the Compound. The new chamber also provided a place for the two goldsmiths to work. Under close supervision, they hammered and worked the gold, silver and copper extracted from the mine into coins. At Orodes’s recommendation, each coin was carefully trimmed and worked into a round shape that carried the mark of Akkad on one side, and the Hawk emblem on the other.

Almost as soon as the coins appeared in the marketplace, they set the standard for quality that other merchants and traders were forced to match. “Good as Eskkar’s gold” became the new criterion for value throughout Akkad and the countryside.

Despite Trella’s best efforts to keep Nuzi a secret, word of the king’s gold mine quickly spread. Gold seemed to loosen the tongue of everyone who came into contact with it. Every laborer, soldier and miner working at the site whispered news of the gold and silver deposits. Within months the hills and valleys surrounding the village held dozens of groups of ore hunters, all searching for another cache of gold. But Orodes had spoken the truth about the find. Whatever precious metals existed nearby remained locked deep within the earth, inaccessible to even the most determined seeker.

Tooraj, with the help of a handful of Hawk Clan soldiers, established a tight ring of security around the mine and surrounding valley. Gangs of laborers dug away at the hills, shearing them into vertical cliffs that only a mountain goat could have scaled. Soldiers guarded the single entrance to Nuzi day and night, and every person leaving the site – man, woman, or child – was stripped naked and searched. Some desperate laborers swallowed nuggets to conceal them, but that trick carried its own risks. In the first month, two men died clutching their bellies within days of leaving Nuzi.

Orodes issued a decree that anyone caught attempting to smuggle any precious metal out of the site would labor alongside the slaves for six months. Since a good number of the slaves and thieves forced to work at the mine died within that length of time, not many were willing to risk their lives for the handful of gold they might purloin. Nevertheless, Trella felt certain that small quantities of gold and silver still found their way out of the valley. But as long as Orodes kept such pilfering small and inconsequential, Trella didn’t concern herself about the loss.

As Eskkar’s little caravan approached Nuzi, Trella saw the smoke from the smelting fires rising over the hills. Well before they reached the entrance, the acrid fumes from the open furnaces assailed her senses. The smell alone would have told anyone within a mile that gold, silver, and the other noble metals were being ripped from the earth and burned out of the rocks and minerals that held them.

“About time they saw us coming,” Eskkar said. “The lazy fools wouldn’t have had time to close the gate before we cut them down.”

The group had drawn within a hundred paces of the stout gates fastened to tall beams buried into the hillside before any of the sentries noticed the fifteen heavily armed riders approaching.

“I think they’re more concerned about anyone trying to ride out, not in, husband.”

Trella’s effort failed to soothe Eskkar’s annoyance.

“Four men,” he muttered. “At least one of them should have been keeping an eye on the trail.”

The chagrined sentries scrambled about belatedly. The half-hearted challenge died as they recognized Akkad’s king. Trella heard the muffled chuckles of the Hawk Clan guards riding behind them. Like most fighting men, they enjoyed the spectacle of some other soldier receiving a tongue-lashing for failing to do his duty. They knew the king would point out this dereliction to Tooraj, who in turn would no doubt make the guards’ lives miserable for a few days.

Eskkar gave the merest nod to acknowledge the salutes as they paced the horses through the gate and into the valley. Once inside, Trella wrinkled her nose at the powerful odors of burning wood and molten metal.

Inside the valley, more than seventy people labored. A mix of men, women and children were occupied digging, carrying wood or tending the half-dozen smelting fires. Others worked building mud bricks, using the water from the stream and straw that had been carried in by mule. Carpenters hammered bronze nails into wood, raising structures that enabled the slaves to move the heavy sacks of ores. Work also progressed on new flues and sluices to separate the ores. Stacks of lumber, ordered in prodigious quantities by Orodes, were scattered about. A shaduf, worked by three sturdy women, handled the heaviest loads, its long arm lifting and moving the weight with relative ease.

All this activity fascinated Trella. She turned toward Eskkar, but saw his eyes taking in the guards riding patrol on the hilltops overlooking the valley. Those crests held three watch stations, small shaded towers where a guard could see down into the valley and also anyone trying to gain access to the site from the surrounding hillsides. With so much wealth being taken from the earth, every possible security measure needed to be taken to prevent thefts. The noble metals required too much sweat and labor to wring them from the earth, and were guarded accordingly.

Eskkar helped Trella down from her horse as Orodes approached, wiping his hands on a filthy apron that stretched below his knees. To Trella’s eyes, the mine master seemed older, more mature, and filled with confidence. Orodes had responded well to the responsibility she’d given him. According to Tooraj, everyone respected his skills. Perhaps the time had come to find him a wife, to help him settle down and keep him from falling back into his bad habits.

“Lord Eskkar . . . Lady Trella, welcome to Nuzi. I didn’t know you were coming.”

“We didn’t want to upset your labors.” Trella spoke quickly, to forestall any biting remark from her husband about a surprise inspection. “We’re eager to see what you’ve accomplished.”

“I’ll spend some time with Tooraj,” Eskkar said, as the leader of Nuzi’s soldiers walked toward them, moving as fast as he could without breaking into a run. “I’ve seen the mine before.”

Her husband might be interested in all the gold and silver the mine could produce, but he cared little for how they were obtained. Trella suspected there might be another reason for his lack of interest. Eskkar had told her much about his past, but some parts of his earlier life remained a mystery. He seemed to know more about mining than he cared to admit.

“Then Orodes can show me around the valley.”

The smile Orodes gave her announced that he would like nothing better than to have her undivided attention.

“Let me show you where it all began, Lady Trella,” he said.

Orodes led her to the far end of the valley, where the stream flowed from the cliff face. Stones set in hardened mud now arched the water that spilled into the pool, creating a small waterfall. “This is where I found the first nuggets. Now all our drinking water comes from this place.” More stones set in the pool provided easy access to the falling water. “Once the water leaves this pool, it’s directed into the various sluices to separate the ores. After that, it’s unfit to drink. Even the animals need to be kept away.”

Trella studied the water, watching how the original course of the stream had been divided and diverted into three separate sluices. Orodes certainly knew his craft, she decided. Those water channels maintained an even flow to each trough, and with scarcely any leakage. When she lifted her eyes, she found him staring intently at her.

She recognized the look. Another man smitten by her position. Yes, Trella decided, Orodes definitely needed a wife.

Orodes realized he was staring and dropped his eyes for a moment. “Are you ready for the next step in the process?”

“Yes. And I want you to explain everything to me. Everything.”

They walked and spoke until darkness fell. Orodes explained how the raw ores were washed, inspected, and separated again and again, until each particular pile contained a high content of specific minerals. Then the materials were crushed into smaller chunks, sifted again in running water, then heated in a furnace, sometimes with charcoal or other materials, some of which were delivered daily to Nuzi. When various impurities were burned off, the resulting raw metals were examined again. Some samples were reheated and reprocessed, others bagged into sacks for storage or transport. She recognized the green of copper ore – malachite Orodes called it – and the reddish tint that signified lead.

“With most of the surface gold already gone,” Orodes went on, “we’ll have to extract it in smaller quantities from the other processes that yield copper, tin and iron. Once everything is ground down to a fine powder, we can wash it again to extract the gold dust, though, as I expected, silver will soon be Nuzi’s most valuable product. Already I need more toolmakers to fashion hammers and other implements. We’re breaking tools almost every day, chiseling our way into the rocks and floor of the valley.”

Trella paused and watched laborers hammering a bronze chisel into the rock face until it cracked, then levering the small opening until the rocks broke away. Fire, too, could be used to heat the stones. When they grew hot, a bucket of water tossed against the heated surface would split even the hardest rock.

“How many men will you need to bring Nuzi to full production?”

“Not counting the farmers and soldiers, just those working in this valley, at least a hundred slaves and as many craftsmen. With that many laborers, and the new process I’ve established to sift and sieve the ores, I think we’ll be able to extract as much of the noble metals as feasible. Of course, I’ll need a steady supply of firewood. With that I can make my own charcoal.”

She’d already considered that request. Soon as many boats as departed from Nuzi would be arriving laden down with all the dozens of specialized tools and goods that Orodes needed to operate the mine efficiently. Trella realized it would be up to her to establish and maintain such a flow of materials, some from as far away as the northern forests. And it would take a good portion of the wealth extracted just to keep the flow of the precious metal coming.

Again and again Trella asked Orodes to go into more detail. At last Trella felt she understood every facet of how the mine worked. If another goldsmith were needed, she would know how to question him.

“Orodes, you’ve done well,” she said, after he had finished his tour of the site. “When you first started, you asked for a share of the mine’s profits. After what I’ve seen today, I believe you’ve earned it. From now on, one part in fifty of every shipment will be yours.”

“My thanks to you, Lady Trella, for having faith in me. It is more than sufficient.”

By the time Nuzi ceased operating, Orodes would probably be the richest man in Akkad.

As the setting sun signaled the end of the day’s labors, Eskkar arrived, walking with Tooraj. Her husband would have spent the afternoon discussing ways to stop thieves and raiders, ensure the soldiers stayed honest and alert, and keep the ever-growing number of slaves under control. Tooraj’s labors would be almost as difficult as Orodes. Tooraj would also need to be properly paid. She would see to that as well. He, too, could probably use a wife.

“Have you finished your inspection, husband?”

Eskkar couldn’t keep the smile off his face, as happy for the good news Tooraj had given him as for avoiding a long session with Orodes. What Trella found fascinating would have bored her husband to death. Besides, Eskkar knew he could trust her to keep Orodes in check.

“Yes. Tooraj has everything under control.”

“As does Orodes. He has built a very productive site, as I’m sure Tooraj has already informed you. The silver from Nuzi will flow to Akkad, and it will be enough to meet our needs for some time.” She placed her hand on Eskkar’s arm. “Now I think it is time for supper.”

The three men standing facing her all looked guilty. None of them had given a single thought to a proper evening meal. Oh, well, that would be one more task she would have to perform.