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.