Titans of Chaos

I thought it was only a matter of time before the shore patrol or coast guard or whatever theycalled it in America would come by and demand to know what we were doing in an ancient Greekpentaconter off the coast of California.

And still I sat and watched the city, and still my friends stood nearby, silently or speaking butsoftly, awaiting my decision.

I had never seen a sight so glorious, it seemed to me, as the light growing strong across that city,as if some sunken island were rising to the surface of a sea of twilight shadows and, as the littlerivulets and pools of reddish gloom departed, displaying proud and tall her alabaster towers,arrayed in the strong young light, with lesser buildings and well-made homes gathered likeretainers about their knees.

If you have known cities or lived in them, or if you think only of their flaws, their crowdedsleeplessness or crimes, I cannot explain the romance or beauty of what I saw to you. Perhaps ashepherd from some houseless hill-country, peopled by a dull-eyed and simple folk, whose onlyroads are muddy goat-paths, if he has spent restless nightwatches dreaming of a better life, andyearns to see and to know the arts and letters, the men of renown, artists and engineers touchedby genius, women of grace, refined and fair, of civilized existence, perhaps that shepherd, when heat last, after long months of trudging ever-wider roads, comes by morning light to see the widewalls of Babylon looming above the colossal statues of the Ishtar gate, or he beholds by dawn theseven hills of Rome above the flowing Tiber, the aqueducts of Hadrian and the baths of Caracalla,and his rustic jaw drops because all words leave him, to that shepherd I could explain what seeingSan Francisco by the light of a new day meant, at that moment, to Amelia Armstrong Windrose.

It meant all the things I would never have, all the life I would never lead.

I said heavily, "Deserted island."

No smiles greeted my decision. Neither Colin nor Vanity was too happy about leaving civilization;Quentin nodded, but was not pleased; Victor had his usual self-controlled expression.

I said, "Once there, we can perform certain experiments, such as seeing if Gyges' ring can makeus invisible to other systems being used to track us. We can have Quentin take more readingsfrom the stars and from the invisible people who live in the middle air. Victor can go through hisblood library; Colin can try to learn music."