VICTORY AND DEFEAT
Raphael ran 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 concrete that 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 bitterly
that 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 and the 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 that your 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 the Eagles 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 porch on
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?’
[Illustration]
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Superscripted text is preceded by a caret character: 3^{RD}
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.