Free Prisoner of Conscience by Susan R. Matthews Page A

shockrods until he stopped responding to the stimulus, bleeding at the mouth. And nose. And ears.
    Then they were all run back into the cell.
    There were fewer of them.
    Would that mean more would be fed next time?
    Or would the Pyana take away the food as their numbers dwindled, in order to maintain their suffering?
    Darmon sought Farnim in the dark, whispering his name.
    There was no answer.
    Things couldn’t go on this way, Darmon promised himself, fiercely. The Bench would demand an accounting. Surely.
    He could not silence the dread in his heart.
    And what about his family?
    His son?
    The survivors had all dispersed under assumed names, knowing the Bench was eager for blood and would destroy all of the fighting men that they could find. It was all the more important that his child escape. They had lost this war, here and now. There would be other wars. The Bench’s cause was unjust. It would not prevail.
    The verdict of history was on their side, but history would be silent unless the weaves survived to bring their story to the world. He had been the war-leader. His name was a rallying cry and a watchword to his people. To destroy the Darmon would be to destroy a piece of the Nurail identity forever.
    Where was his son?
    He had to survive this prison, if he could.
    It was his duty to live and cry the crimes of the Pyana to the Bench.

    ###

    It was a long time before anyone came for them again. They heard movement in the corridors as the other rooms full of Nurail were moved in and out for whatever reason; but once it was quiet it stayed quiet. It seemed to be forever.
    It was only a matter of hours, Darmon knew that by the fact that he was hungry and not thirsty.
    They took them to the feeding room again, and everybody ran to the tables as quickly as they could. Darmon held back until he could see that there were to be enough portions before he found a place, but his restraint was rewarded, because the place he found was by an empty place and he could share the extra ration with the others if they all ate quickly enough. There was only barely enough time to eat, and they were gathered up into a herd again, but not back to the cell this time — no, up the stairs, prodded by shockrods as they went. Up to the surface.
    It was morning, but which morning? How long had they been here?
    Morning, and the fog lay heavy in the courtyard. They were formed up into a company, four rows, with eight people in each, staring at the wall of a building in the courtyard. They could smell food. There were people all around, rows of people dimly glimpsed passing between buildings, shouts and curses and cries of pain and rage.
    Things quieted down.
    The sun cleared the wall of the Domitt Prison and burned off the fog.
    They were in a great open central courtyard with the prison all around. One great building faced to the gate, three stories tall; and two other buildings faced each other from opposite sides of the courtyard, at right angles to the gate. They had their backs to the corner where the furnace’s stacks were. Far above it all at the opposite wall Darmon could just barely see what seemed to be a roof-house of some sort, perched atop a flattened place on the roof of the Domitt Prison, six levels high.
    The day grew warmer, and the light and the warmth of the sun was welcome to Darmon after so long a period in the dark.
    They stood there.
    One of them fainted as they stood, and the Pyana guard dragged him out of formation and hit him with an oiled whip until he revived and struggled to his place.
    It started to get hot.
    A transport came around the comer of the building, headed for them, passing them. Darmon was on the end of the formation; he could see into the back of the transport as it slowed toward the back wall. There were limp bodies there. The transport went around behind them, and Darmon knew as certainly as though he had been told that they were taking the bodies to be burned. Nurail bodies. He prayed that they were