Forged in Darkness

Sixteen-year-old Cedric Driscoll has spent three years swinging a pickaxe in the Deepshaft mines, where the only law is quota and the only mercy is survival. Enslaved by an empire that views him as property, Cedric endures the darkness by clinging to the one thing the overseers cannot take: his humanity.

When he gives away his hard-won ore to save ten-year-old Millie, a frail, coughing girl who won’t last another winter underground, Cedric becomes the target of Overseer Yannock’s brutal example. Bound to a post before two hundred watching slaves, he accepts forty lashes rather than let a child suffer in his place.

Available on: