while, it is a problem that cannotbe lightly dismissed."
"You see?"
Ijale nodded. "If he is wrong, and I am wrong--then you must be theonly one who is right." She nodded in satisfaction at the thought.
"Very nice of you to say so," Jason smiled. "And true, too. I lay noclaims to infallibility but I am sure that I can see the differencebetween abstractions and facts a lot better than either of you, and Iam certainly more adroit at handling them. The Jason dinAlt fan clubmeeting is now adjourned." He reached his hand over his shoulder andpatted himself on the back.
"Monster of arrogance," Mikah bellowed.
"Oh, shut up."
"Pride goeth before a fall! You are a maledicent and idolatrousantipietist...."
"Very good."
"... And I grieve that I could have considered aiding you for even asecond, or of standing by while you sin, and fear for the weakness ofmy own soul that I have not been able to resist temptation as Ishould. It grieves me, but I must do my duty." He banged loudly on thedoor. "Guard! Guard!"
Jason dropped his bowl and started to scramble to his feet, butslipped in the spilled soup and fell. As he stood again the locksrattled on the door and it opened. If he could reach Mikah before theidiot opened his mouth he would close it forever, or at least knockhim out before it was too late.
It was too late. Narsisi poked his head in and blinked sleepily; Mikahstruck his most dramatic pose and pointed to Jason. "Seize and arrestthat man, I denounce him for attempted revolution, for planning redmurder!"
Jason skidded to a halt and back-tracked, diving into a bag of hispersonal belongings that lay against the wall. He scrabbled in it,then kicked the contents about and finally came up with ametal-forming hammer that had a weighty solid lead head.
"More traitor you," Jason shouted at Mikah as he ran at Narsisi whohad been dumbly watching the performance and mulling over Mikah'swords. Slow as he appeared, there was nothing wrong with his reflexesand his shield snapped up and took Jason's blow while his club spunover neatly and rapped Jason on the back of the hand: the numbedfingers opened and the hammer dropped to the floor.
"I think you two better come with me, my father will know what to do,"he said, pushing Jason and Mikah ahead of him out the door. He lockedit and called for one of his brothers to stand guard, then poked hiscaptives down the hall. They shuffled along in their leg-irons, Mikahnobly as a martyr and Jason seething and grinding his teeth.
Edipon was not at all stupid when it came to slave rebellions, andsized up the situation even faster than Narsisi could relate it.
"I have been expecting this, so it comes as no surprise." His eyesheld a mean little glitter when he leveled them at Jason. "I knew thetime would come when you would try to overthrow me, which was why Ipermitted this other to assist you and to learn your skills. As Iexpected he has betrayed you to gain your position, which I award himnow."
"Betray? I did this for no personal gain," Mikah protested.
"Only the purest of motives," Jason laughed coldly. "Don't believe aword this pious crook tells you, Edipon. I'm not planning anyrevolutions, he just said that to get my job."
"You caluminate me, Jason! I never lie--you are planning revolt. Youtold me--"
"Silence both of you, or I'll have you beaten to death. This is myjudgment. The slave Mikah has betrayed the slave Jason, and whetherthe slave Jason is planning rebellion or not is completelyunimportant. His assistant would have not denounced him unless he wassure that he could do the work as well, which is the only fact thathas any importance to me. Your ideas about a worker-class havetroubled me Jason. I will be glad to kill them and you at the sametime. Chain him with the slaves. Mikah, I award you Jason's quarterand woman, and as long as you do the work well I will not kill you. Doit a long time and you will live a long time.
"Only the purest of motives, is that what you said, Mikah?" Jasonshouted back as he was kicked from the room.
* * * * *
The descent from the pinnacle of power was fast and smooth. Withinhalf an hour new shackles were on Jason's wrists and he was chained tothe wall in a dark room filled with other slaves. His leg-irons hadbeen left on as an additional reminder of his new status. He rattledthe chains and examined them in the dim light of a distant lamp assoon as the door was closed.
"How comes the revolution?" the slave chained next to him leaned overand asked in a hoarse whisper.
"Very funny, ha-ha," Jason grumbled, then moved closer for a betterlook at the man who had a fine case of strabismus, his eyes pointingin independent directions. "You look familiar ... are you the newslave I talked to today?"
"That's me, Snarbi, fine soldier, pikeman, checked out on club anddagger, seven kills and two possibles on my record, you can check ityourself at the guild hall."
"I remember it all Snarbi, including the fact that you know your wayback to Appsala."
"I've been around."
"Then the revolution is still on, in fact it is starting right now butI want to keep it small. Instead of freeing all these slaves what doyou say to the idea that we two escape by ourselves?"
"Best idea I heard since torture was invented, we don't need all thesestupid people. They just get in the way. Keep the operation small andfast, that's what I always say."
"I always say that, too," Jason agreed, digging into his boot with hisfingertip. He had managed to shove his best file and a lockpick intohiding there while Mikah was betraying him back in their room. Theattack on Narsisi with the hammer had just been a cover up.
Jason had made the file himself after many attempts at manufacturingand hardening steel, and the experiments had been successful. Hepicked out the clay that covered the cut he had made in his leg-cuffsand tackled the soft iron with vigor; within three minutes they werelying on the floor.
"You a magician?" Snarbi whispered, shuddering back.
"Mechanic. On this planet they're the same thing." He looked aroundbut the exhausted slaves were all asleep and had heard nothing.Wrapping a piece of leather around it to muffle the sound he began tofile a link in the chain that secured the shackles on his wrists."Snarbi," he asked, "are we on the same chain?"
"Yeah, the chain goes through these iron cuff things and holds thewhole row of slaves together, the other end goes out through a hole inthe wall."
"Couldn't be better. I'm filing one of these links, and when it goeswe're both free. See if you can't slip the chain through the holes inyour shackles and lay it down without letting the next slave know whatis happening. We'll wear these iron cuffs for now, there is no time toplay around with them and they shouldn't bother us too much. Do theguards come through here at all during the night to check on theslaves?"
"Not since I've been here, just wake us up in the morning by pullingon the chain."
"Then let's hope that's what happens again tonight, because we aregoing to need plenty of time--_there!_" The file had cut through thelink. "See if you can get enough of a grip on the other end of thislink while I hold this end, we'll try and bend it open a bit." Theystrained silently until the opening gaped wide and the next linkfitted through the cut.
They slipped the chain and laid it silently on the ground, thendrifted noiselessly to the door.
"Is there a guard outside?" Jason asked.
"Not that I know. I don't think they have enough men here to guard allthe slaves."
The door would not budge when they pushed against it, and there wasjust light enough to make out the large keyhole of a massive insetlock. Jason probed lightly with the pick and curled his lip incontempt.
"These idiots have left the key in the lock." He pulled off thestiffest of his leather wrappings and after flattening it out pushedit under the badly fitting bottom edge of the door, leaving just a bitto hold onto. Then he poked lightly at the key through the keyhole andheard it thud to the ground outside. When he pulled the leather backin the key was lying in the center of it. The door unlocked silentlyand a moment later they were outside, staring tensely into
thedarkness.
"Let's go! Run, get away from here," Snarbi said and Jason grabbed himby the throat and pulled him back.
"Isn't there one drop of constructive intelligence on this planet? Howare you going to get to Appsala without food or water, and if you findsome--how can you carry enough? You want to stay alive follow myinstructions. I'm going to lock this door first so that no onestumbles onto our escape by accident. Then we are going to get sometransport and leave here in style. Agreed?"
The answer was only a choked rattle until Jason opened his fingers abit and let some air into the man's lungs. A labored groan must havemeant