"As a man looks across great lakes I have gazed into the days to be,
and as the great flies come upon four wings of gauze to skim over blue
waters, so have my dreams come sailing two by two out of the days to
be. And I dreamed that King Ebalon, whose soul was not thy soul, stood
in his palace in a time far hence, and beggars thronged the street
outside, and among them was Yeb, a beggar, having thy soul. And it was
on the morning of a festival and the King came robed in white, with all
his prophets and his seers and magicians, all down the marble steps to
bless the land and all that stood therein as far as the purple hills,
because it was the morning of festival. And as the King raised up his
hand over the beggars' heads to bless the fields and rivers and all
that stood therein, I dreamed that the quest was ended.

"All knowledge is with the King."


_IV_

Evening darkened and above the palace domes gleamed out the stars
whereon haply others missed the secret too.

And outside the palace in the dark they that had borne the wine in
jewelled cups mocked in low voices at the King and at the wisdom of his
prophets.

Then spake Ynar, called the prophet of the Crystal Peak; for there
rises Amanath above all that land, a mountain whose peak is crystal,
and Ynar beneath its summit hath his Temple, and when day shines no
longer on the world Amanath takes the sunlight and gleams afar as a
beacon in a bleak land lit at night. And at the hour when all faces are