The first tale of Delphos unfolds. Delphos is a place of unique beauty, wealth and rarity, famed throughout the human-settled worlds of the Twenty for its magnificent jungle landscapes, exotic foods, precious minerals, and its inhabitants' skills at sensual delights. Native Delphans such as Barris hardly find this remarkable. But there are beasts on Delphos. And as Barris continues his labors at the mine he has known almost from birth, he discovers that some beasts can wear human skin. For Delphos is a slave world, and Barris has never drawn a free breath in his life.