Ansond walked to the great winged horse and placed his foot in the stirrup. He swung into the saddle.

At a single command the great steed spread her wings and lunged into the sky. The awesome span would have cast a terrifying shadow had shadows been permitted there.

XII

Come to the court of God having eyes unwashed with dreams and you will see nothing.

Other hoof beats sounded in a blinding sphere of light that came in furious speed and thundered to the Singer’s very feet.

Dreamer closed his eyes against the brilliance and sought to stop his ears against the sound. A chorus rose:

“Light-Raider comes from that frontier

Where stars unclustered, dark with fear

Cower in their eternal night

And beg Earthmaker’s steed of light.”

The light softened gradually. Dreamer saw Light-Raider, magnificent and opalescent. From within his massive torso, flames shot out in beams that swept the court.

He had no wings yet he was larger half again than Invictrix. His bridle and reins were like strands of raw color—interlaced illusions. The saddle swam in shimmering blue-white hues that undulated in the towering phosphorescence of the chair.

A small, bright object rested just before the saddle on a little plane, where the mane flowed round it. It was the same blue ball the Singer healed when the dreadful duel of Ansond and the World Hater was done.

Again the Phoenix flew and interrupted Dreamer’s meditation.

“Command and Dominion, Authority and Grace!

Earthmaker has congealed the emptiness of Space.

A new world comes upon The Singer’s horse.

It is the Hour of the Replacement.”

A hush fell over Lifeland.

The Singer walked toward Light-Raider with deliberate steps and as he walked he sang:

“Now is complete the Father Spirit’s dream

Of one small planet sleeping in the sun

Of perfect love. The universal gleam

Of life as it should be is now begun.

Look up! Terra comes made new again.

A home for all of those who soon will be

Left planetless in space.

Poor hungry men

In sterile fields of inhumanity,

I take you in my injured hands.”

While he sang he took the new world from before the saddle and held it high. The Court of the Chair fell on their faces while the Troubadour sang out his ballad to the bright blue sphere.

“I knew your sister world. She flew around

Her radiant star without disease or pain

Or war, until the new men stabbed the ground

Of love. She dies and cannot rise again.

My Father Spirit shall not let her lie

A grieving vacant deadness in the night.

A gallant orbit shall new Terra fly

Where her elder sister died in flight.

Earthmaker’s love is born anew

And flies the skies as Terra Two.”

Light-Raider pawed the ground and tossed his head and snorted. He half-reared, then settled on his great forelegs and knelt. The Singer mounted. Light-Raider rose.

Taking the reins in his left hand, the Singer raised the broad sword in his right and led the army down the star-swept skyway toward the Plains of Man.