The boy hurried on, anxious to reach the meeting hill. He was almost at the summit when he heard the snarl of wolves fighting. The path led through a spruce thicket and then out to the open crown of the hill. There the sight that met his eyes made him cry out. Ten or twelve gray wolves stood crowding and jostling about something that lay still upon the ground. ‘Stop it! Stop it, I tell you!’ shouted Raphael as he ran forward. ‘You curs! You beastly curs!’ At the sound of his voice the wolves drew back eyeing him cunningly. They still panted from the chase, and saliva dripped from their red, jerking tongues. Only one glance was necessary to see that the deer they quarreled over was dead. It lay tongue out, staring up at Raphael out of unseeing eyes. Blood ran in thin streams down its neck, dropping slowly on the leaves below. The slim legs were bent and limp. ‘Oh, you fools! You fools!’ the boy almost cried. ‘How can you conquer the Sorcerer if you murder one another?’ ‘We were hungry,’ said the leader of the pack. ‘We must eat.’ ‘Where are the eagles?’ demanded Raphael. ‘They are asleep.’ ‘Summon them,’ ordered Raphael contemptuously. ‘Summon all the animals.’ The wolves left gladly. They were ashamed at being caught and glad to get away. Raphael sat down on a rock, chin in hand. The animals had failed him. They had not kept faith. But he had not kept faith either. Betrayer. Betrayed. The Sorcerer had known this. That was why he had allowed him to escape so easily. Slowly the clearing filled. The animals approached furtively: the deer, the rabbits, the field mice, the porcupines, and the snakes. But the wolves did not appear, nor the mountain lions, nor the bears, nor the weasels. Suddenly the eagles landed, dropping down like shadows out of the moonlight. ‘Where are the others?’ Raphael asked Empyrean sternly. ‘They have gone, Raphael,’ said the eagle in a cracked voice. The boy sat bowed with unhappiness. Then he said slowly, ‘There has been hunting. The truce has been broken.’ ‘That is life,’ answered Empyrean. ‘They thought you were never coming back. They were hungry. They must live.’ ‘Then whom can I trust?’ asked Raphael. ‘Whom can I trust, if we defeat this Sorcerer?’ Chief of All the Eagles in the Sky said nothing. Raphael rose slowly. He would return to Cassandra and the Sorcerer and stay with them forever. Then he saw again the mechanicos marching to work. Right, left. Right, left. He heard the grinding of a million wheels. He saw a battery of buzz saws gnawing down the forest. He remembered the cold streets, the tall buildings. Bigger and better. The Go-Getter gets. Gets nothing. It would be better to be dead. He would save the world in spite of everything. He would save Cassie and himself. ‘Dismiss the council,’ he ordered Empyrean. ‘I shall destroy the city myself.’ CHAPTER XIV THE BATTLE OF THE CITY