is that I could never
keep my mouth shut. I was attendant at one of the revivatoria, and I got
drunk enough to let out some information about one of the important
revival cases. So here I am."

"Umm." Hanson worked silently for a minute, wondering how far
coincidence could go. It could go a long ways here, he decided. "You
wouldn't have been sentenced to twenty lifetimes here by the Sather
Karf, would you?"

The slave stared at him in surprise. "You guessed it. I've died only
fourteen times so far, so I've got six more lives to go. But--hey, you
can't be! They were counting on you to be the one who really fixed
things. Don't tell me my talking out of turn did this to you."

Hanson reassured him on that. He recognized the man now for another
reason. "Aren't you the one I saw dead on his back right next to me this
morning?"

"Probably. Name's Barg." He stood up to take a careful look at the net
of cording around the stone. "Looks sound enough. Yeah, I died this
morning, which is why I'm fairly fresh now. Those overseers won't feed
us because it takes time and wastes food; they let us die and then have
us dragged back for more work. It's a lot easier on the ones they
dragged back already dead; dying doesn't matter so much without a soul."

"Some of them seem to be Indians," Hanson noted. He hadn't paid too
much attention, but the slaves seemed to be from every possible
background.

Barg nodded. "Aztecs from a place called Tenochtitlan. Twenty thousand
of them got sacrificed in a bunch for some reason or other. Poor devils.
They think this is some kind of heaven. They tell me this is easy work
compared to the type they had to undergo. The Satheri like to get big
bunches through in one conjuration, like the haul they made from the
victims of somebody named Tamerlane." He tested a rope, then dropped to
a sitting position on the edge of the block. "I'll let you stay up to
call signals from here. Only watch it. That overseer has his eyes on
you. Make sure the ropes stay tight while we see if the thing can be
moved."

He started to slip over the side, hanging by his fingertips. Something
caught, and he swore. With one hand, he managed to free his breechclout
and drag out the thin volume that was lodged between his groin and the
block. "Here, hold this for me until we meet tonight. You've got more
room to hide it in your cloth than I have." He tossed it over quickly,
then dropped from sight to land on the ground below.