‘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.