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The next second, he stood manacled in a long meant to get away from here at the first chance
line of men loaded with heavy stones. Over their and he was somehow sure he could.
backs fell the cutting lashes of a whip. Far ahead It was made easier by the boundless strength
was a partially finished pyramid. Dave was of his new body. He showed no signs of
obviously one of the building slaves. buckling under physical work that would have
killed him on his own world.
Not all the slaves got up. Two beside him
didn't move at all. Sleeping through that brutal
awakening seemed impossible. When Hanson
VI looked closer, he saw that they weren't asleep;
they were dead.
Sunrise glared harshly over the desert. It was The overseer raged back along the line and
already hot enough to send heat waves dancing saw them. He must be one of those conjured into
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existence here from the real Egypt of the past. a whip like everyone else who seemed to have
He might have no soul, but a lifetime of being an any authority at all, but he wasn't using it. He
overseer had given him habits that replaced the was standing hawklike on a slight rise in the
need for what had been a pretty slim soul to sandy earth, motionless and silent. Beside him
begin with. was a shorter figure: a pudgy man with a thin
"Quitters!" he yelled. "Lazy, worthless, work- mustache, on whom the Egyptian headdress
dodging goldbrick artists!" He knelt in fury, looked strangely out of place. It could only be
thumbing back the eyelids of the corpses. There Ser Perth!
was little need for the test. They were too limp, Hanson's staring came to an end as the lash cut
too waxen to be pretending. down across his shoulders, biting through to the
The overseer cut them out of the chain and shoulder-bone. He stumbled forward, heedless of
kicked at Hanson. "Move along!" he bellowed. the overseers' shouting voices. Someday, if he
"Menes himself is here, and he's not as gentle as had the chance, he'd flay his own overseer, but
I am." that could wait. Even the agony of the cut
Hanson joined the long line, wondering what couldn't take his mind from Ser Perth's presence.
they were going to do about breakfast. How the Had Bork slipped up did the Satheri know that
devil did they expect the slaves to put in sixteen Hanson was still alive, and had they sent Ser
hours of work without some kind of food? There Perth here to locate him? It seemed unlikely,
had been nothing the night before but a skin of however. The man was paying no attention to
water. There was not even that much this the lines of slaves. It would be hard to spot one
morning. No wonder the two beside him had among three million, anyhow. More likely,
died from overwork, beatings and plain Hanson decided, Ser Perth was supervising the
starvation. supervisors, making an inspection tour of all
Menes was there, all right. Hanson saw him this.
from the distance, a skinny giant of a man in Of all what? Apparently then this must be
breechclout, cape and golden headdress. He bore another of their frenzied efforts to find a way to
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put back the sky. He'd heard that they had called He frowned cruelly. "Yeah, you're the same one!
up the pyramid builder, but hadn't fully realized Didn't I take the hide off your back twice
it would lead to this type of activity. already? And now you stand there without a scar
He looked around him appraisingly. The long or a drop of blood!"
lines of slaves that had been carrying rock and Hanson grunted feebly. He didn't want
rubble the day before now were being formed attention called to himself while Ser Perth was
into hauling teams. Long ropes were looped around. "I I heal quickly." It was no more than
around enormous slabs of quarried rock. Rollers the truth. Either the body they'd given him or the
underneath them and slaves tugging and pushing conjuring during the right split second had
at them were the only means of moving them. enabled him to heal almost before a blow was
The huge stones slid remorselessly forward onto struck.
the prepared beds of rubble. Casting back in his "Magic!" The overseer scowled and gave
memory, Hanson could not recall seeing the rock Hanson a shove that sent him sprawling.
slabs the night before. They had appeared as if "Blithering magic again! Magic stones that melt
by magic when you get them in place magic slaves that
Obviously, they had really been conjured up the whip won't touch! And they expect us to do a
by magic. But if the rocks could be conjured, job of work such as not even Thoth could dream
what was the need of all the slaves and the up! They won't take honest work. No, they have
sadistic overseers? Why not simply magic the to come snooping and conjuring and interfering.
entire construction, whatever it was to be? Wheels on rollers! Tools of steel and the gods
The whip hit him again, and the raging voice know what instead of honest stone. Magic to lift
of the overseer ranted in his ears. "Get on, you things instead of honest ropes that shrink and
blundering slacker. Menes himself is looking at wood that swells. Magic that fails, and rush,
you. Ho there what the devil?" rush, rush until I'm half ready to be tortured for
The overseer's hand spun Hanson around. The falling behind, and you! You would, would
man's eyes, large and opaque, stared at Hanson. you!" His voice trailed off into a fresh roar of
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rage as he caught sight of other slaves taking drug. Judging by the avid way the other slaves
advantage of his attention to Hanson to relax. He were gulping it down, each one of them had
raced off, brandishing the whip. been exposed to it before. Hanson cautiously
Hanson tried to make himself inconspicuous made the pretense of swallowing his before he
after that. The wounds would heal, and the allowed it to slip through his fingers to mingle
beatings could never kill him; but there had been with the sand. Drug addiction was obviously a
no provision in his new body for the suppression convenient way to make the slaves forget their
of pain. He hungered, thirsted and suffered like aches and fears, to keep them everlasting
anyone else. Maybe he was learning to take it, anxious to please whatever was necessary to
here, but not to like it. make sure the precious, deadly ration never
At the expense of a hundred slaves and stopped.
considerable deterioration of the whips, one There was still no sign of food. The pause in
block of stone was in place before the sun was the labor was only for the length of time it took
high overhead in the coppery, mottled sky. Then the drug-bearing slaves to complete their task.
there was the blessing of a moment's pause. Men Ten minutes, or fifteen at the outside; then the
were coming down the long lines, handing overseers were back with the orders and the
something to the slaves. Food, Hanson lashes.
anticipated. The slaves regrouped on new jobs, and
He was wrong. When the slave with the Hanson found himself in a bunch of a dozen or
wicker basket came closer he could see that the so. They were lashing the hauling ropes around a
contents were not food but some powdery stuff twelve-foot block of stone; the rollers were
that was dipped out with carved spoons into the already in place, with the crudely plaited ropes
eager hands of the slaves. Hanson smelled his dangling loosely. Hanson found himself being
portion dubiously. It was cloying, sickly sweet. lifted by a couple of the other slaves to the
Hashish! Or opium, heroin, hemp Hanson shoulders of a third. His clawing hands caught
was no expert. But it was certainly some kind of the top of the block and the slaves below heaved
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him upward. He scrambled to the top and caught forth in front of a car. They had sought through
the ropes that were flung up to him. other worlds and ages for anyone with a
From his vantage point he saw what he had reputation as a builder, engineer or construction
not seen before the amazing size of the genius, without screening the probability of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]