Swiney

Swiney is the leader of the miners of the New Camp at the Free Mine and, by his own estimate, the best miner the colony has ever seen. He hands every new miner their protective gear and a pickaxe, briefs them on the rules - three portions of rice a day, all ore to the great pile, 50 chunks a month for the ones who actually worked - and has little patience for the greenhorns who do not already know which stones to swing at. He answers to Okyl who made him the miners' spokesman, and keeps his men working with the promise that the pile will one day be large enough for the Water Mages to break the Barrier. He dies in the cauldron with the rest when Gomez's guards storm the mine.