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. ‘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.