Forolkin shared a platter of bread and cheese with Kelinda and then stretched and sighed.
"I suppose there are a hundred and one tasks waiting for me in the city?"
"The list is as long as you are tall," answered his wife, "but first we are going to walk across the plain to see Kerish's empire."
Mildly protesting, Forollkin was marched over the plain to a place where three streams converged.
"You are not to laugh!" Kelinda hissed in his ear.
"You said that we must build Galkis again," Kerish was saying, "So I have. Just look."
He had dug a large and satisfyingly muddy puddle to represent the Sea of Az. The three streams stood for the Zin, the Zin-Gald and the Gal. A line drawn with the sharp end of a stick had to do for the Jenze, and the heaps of stones were mountains. He had marked each of the Nine Cities with brightly coloured pebbles, and someone had lent him a golden bracelet to put round the stone that represented Galkis itself. Flowers had been jammed into the ground to make the Emperor's garden, but they were already withering. Further south, Kerish had planted leafy twigs and a handful of brilliant feathers for the Jungle of Jenze.
Forollkin allowed himself to be led round, listening patiently to Kerish's rambling explanations.
"I like your feathers,' he said. "They make the jungle look strange and dangerous."
"The feathered people are strange, but I'm not sure if they're dangerous. They frighten me in my dreams," whispered Kerish, "but I don't think they mean to."
"No, I expect not," agreed Forollkin absently. He was watching his wife, wondering again at the tenderness in her face as she looked down at the pebble cities. What had the real Galkis ever given her but pain and hardship? Yet she, of all of them, seemed to know best what was worth preserving from their lost empire. If she had passed that quality on to her son, perhaps there could be no exile.
"This is the beach where our Lady met Zeldin. I couldn't get it very white," said Kerish anxiously. "Do you think it matters?"
"Not if you tried," answered Forollkin.
He took Kelinda's hand, and the three of them walked back together towards the new city.
And Jezreen cried out to the Emperor and all his court: "Do you still not understand why Imarko died for us? Do you think that the answer can be found here, in this age of splendour? No. Blessed are they who are born in the shadow, for they must seek light. Weep for Golden Galkis in the hour of her fall. Weep and then rejoice, for she shall rise again when each man's heart shall be his Emperor and each man's soul a Golden City."
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