CHAPTER XVVICTORY AND DEFEAT
Raphaelran down the hill to the plain followed by the eagles, who trailed him in great fluttering hops. Ruin spread before them: blackened walls smouldered under the bright sky; no sound broke the stillness except the hiss of escaping steam; white smoke drifted up like summer mist from a lake.
They came to broad rivers of lava which they flew across. In the thick stream was caught wreckage; automobiles and trucks with bent and twisted wheels lay upside down like dead insects. Steam engines and steam shovels, railroad and fire engines, crumpled and cast aside, lay scattered here and there, dried currants in a monstrous pudding.
When they reached the center of the city after an hour’s toil, walking became impossible. Heaps of broken brick and torn steel girders blocked every avenue, while empty chasms of concretethat had once been cellars made pits that were deep and dangerous. The subway lay open like a raided mole’s burrow. Only the tower of the Sorcerer surrounded by its gray wall frowned down upon the waste land.
Then Raphael saw the Sorcerer and Cassandra standing by the gate of bronze. Cassandra was waving excitedly to him.
‘Oh, Raff,’ she cried as she ran forward and threw her arms around his neck, ‘I’ve been so scared!’ The Sorcerer said nothing.
Raphael tried to look as dignified as he could. Pushing Cassandra gently to one side, he walked toward his enemy.
‘Do you surrender?’ he demanded, his heart beating very fast.
‘I surrender,’ said the Sorcerer.
Surrender! Now that the war was over, Raphael did not know what to do. The Sorcerer was in his power. And yet he knew of no prison in which he could shut him forever. Nor did he particularly wish to kill him; in fact, he was not at all sure he could. Then Raphael realized bitterlythat lasting victory is not won by war. If he were my friend, I might persuade him to stop making mechanicos, thought the boy.
The eagles, who had formed in line behind Raphael, glared at their enemy out of hungry eyes.
‘Well, what are you going to do?’ asked the Sorcerer easily. ‘Cut off my head? Put me in prison? Let the animals rule the earth?’
Raphael frowned. All the animals, with the exception of the eagles, had left him.
‘Look here, Raphael,’ continued the Sorcerer, ‘you must realize that the animals are not fit to run things. In the first place, most of them live by eating one another. And in the second place, not one of them is unselfish enough to help another species for the general good. Where are your allies now?’ The eagles stirred angrily. ‘You have won this fight and I have lost. If you destroy me, who will take my place in the world?’
‘And,’ countered Raphael, ‘if I let you live, what will become of the forests and the fields andthe rivers and the ocean and all the peoples who live in them? You will build machines to kill them all and man as well.’
‘Kill him!’ screamed the eagles.
‘Perhaps it would be better,’ said Raphael, ‘if Cassandra and I took you apart.’
‘You have Cassandra and you have destroyed my city,’ said the Sorcerer calmly, ‘isn’t that enough? I promise never to harm you.’
‘I don’t trust you,’ replied Raphael. ‘A machine doesn’t keep its promises. You might build another city.’
‘Perhaps,’ agreed the Sorcerer amiably. ‘But, Raphael, consider. If you destroy me, man might invent a more terrible machine, greater even than I.’ The Sorcerer paused. ‘And then, Raphael, do you realize what I do for you and your people? I harness the wind and make electricity to light your houses and run your mills. I build machines that cook food and weave cloth. I do this and much more.
‘I build boats to cross the ocean and bring food from all the corners of the earth so thatyour people do not die of hunger in the cities. I make telegraphs and telephones and engines of all sorts. I build aeroplanes and automobiles. I print books and build theaters and photograph moving pictures, and make all kinds of toys. Can your animals X-ray you when you are sick and broken? Without me you would live by killing and in fear of being killed, eating roots and raw flesh in the jungle.’
As the Sorcerer talked, a black cloud rose behind the mountain that frowned over the fallen city, rain began to fall gently, and a rainbow arched across the sky. Was it a sign from Gæa?
Raphael stood a long time in thought, so long that Cassandra stirred uneasily.
‘If,’ said the boy at last, ‘you will give me your word not to build another city of mechanicos, and if you will not kill the animals or injure my people, I will let you live.’
When the eagles heard this, they screamed angrily, and rising, disappeared into the black cloud which had formed overhead in the shape of a woman. Only Empyrean, Chief of All theEagles in the Sky, remained. He stood silent with bowed head.
‘Well,’ said the Sorcerer, ‘in that case there is no further need for talk. I accept your terms. Good-bye, Cassandra.’ And without another word or glance the Sorcerer turned and walked away.
Raphael and Cassandra said nothing, but stood hand in hand and watched his great figure until it was lost among the ruins. The boy was relieved to see him go, but felt downcast and depressed. Why, he did not know.
‘It is time I took you all home,’ said Empyrean from behind them. The children jumped.
‘Where are the others?’ asked Raphael, who noticed for the first time that the eagles had gone.
‘The war is over, and they have flown away,’ answered the eagle sadly. ‘What more could they do?’
An almost overwhelming wave of affection for Empyrean surged over Raphael. The war was over, Cassie had been saved.
‘Hurry,’ said Empyrean. ‘Both of you climb on my back. It will be night soon.’
Raphael looked up. The sun was setting, angry and red over the mountains in the west, and night was closing in.
‘Come on,’ said Raphael to his sister, and helped her to scramble onto the eagle’s back.
When they were seated between the great wings, night was already on them, and stars appeared in the curtain of the sky. The eagle leapt into the air, and soon they were flying rapidly through the darkness.
I never knew night to come so fast, thought Raphael. Moving through the night air made him yawn. He felt very sleepy. No one spoke. There was only the vague feeling of moving through space.
Raphael scarcely remembered when the sun rose pale in the east. The eagle set his wings and coasted down through the air. In a few moments it was quite bright and Raphael blinked with the intensity of light. He realized with a start that they were home again. Below the porchon which they lit was the apple orchard, and to the west lay the barn.
The two children crawled through the window into the nursery. Cassandra was still very sleepy and stumbled over to her bed which lay white and inviting with the covers turned back. Raphael tucked her in, kissed her, and then turned to thank Empyrean, their friend. But Chief of All the Eagles in the Sky had gone.
Raphael, bewildered, rubbed his eyes. There was Aunt Mary. She would be waiting anxiously. He turned and rushed down the corridor to tell her that he was back and that he had brought Cassandra with him.
‘Aunt Mary! Aunt Mary!’ He burst into her room. ‘I’ve brought Cassie home.’ He felt very proud and excited.
‘What!’ said Aunt Mary sharply, rising to the surface of the bedclothes like an angry seal.
‘I’ve brought Cassie back,’ shouted Raphael. ‘I’ve defeated the Sorcerer. I’ve destroyed his whole city.’
Was he not wearing the white pajamas the Sorcerer had forced upon him?
‘Raphael,’ said his Aunt, ‘you are talking absolute nonsense. Go right back to bed. Don’t you realize it’s only six o’clock?’
ruins after the war