It was Lord Valentine's turn to make a speech. But the Coronal seemed strangely remote and preoccupied as he got to his feet. He appeared almost to be sleepwalking—his eyes distant and vague, his gestures uncertain. At the high table people began to murmur. After an awful moment of silence he started to speak, but apparently it was the wrong speech, and very muddled besides. Was the Coronal sick?

Drunk? Under some sudden malign spell? It troubled Hissune to see Lord Valentine so bewildered. Old Hornkast had just finished saying that the Coronal not only governed Majipoor but in some sense was Majipoor: and there was the Coronal a moment later, tottering, incoherent, looking as though he was about to topple—

Someone should take him by the arm, Hissune thought, and help him to sit down before he falls. But no one moved. No one dared. Please, Hissune begged silently, staring at Sleet, at Tunigorn, at Ermanar. Stop him, someone. Stop him. And still no one moved.

"Lordship!" a voice cried hoarsely.

Hissune realized it was his own. And he went rushing forward to seize the Coronal as he dropped headlong toward the gleaming wooden floor.

6

This is the dream of the Pontifex Tyeveras:

Here in the realm that I inhabit now, nothing has color and nothing has sound and nothing has motion.

The alabandina blossoms are black and the shining fronds of the semotan trees are white, and from the bird that does not fly comes a song that cannot be heard. I lie on a bed of soft gentle rubbermoss, staring upward at drops of rain that do not fall. When the wind blows in the glade, not a leaf flutters. The name of this realm is death, and the alabandinas and semotans are dead, and the bird is dead, and the wind and the rain are dead. And I too am dead.

They come and stand about me and they say, "Are you Tyeveras that was Coronal of Majipoor and Pontifex of Majipoor?"

And I say, "I am dead."

"Are you Tyeveras?" they say again.

And I say, "I am dead Tyeveras, that was your king and that was your emperor. See, I have no color?

See, I make no sound? I am dead."

"You are not dead."

"Here on my right hand is Lord Malibor that was my first Coronal. He is dead, is he not? Here on my left hand is Lord Voriax that was my second Coronal. Is he not dead? I lie between two dead men. I also am dead."

"Come and rise and walk, Tyeveras that was Coronal, Tyeveras that is Pontifex."

"I need not do that. I am excused, for I am dead."

"Listen to our voices."

"Your voices make no sound."

"Listen, Tyeveras, listen, listen, listen!"

"The alabandinas are black. The sky is white. This is the realm of death."

"Come and rise and walk, Emperor of Majipoor."

"Who are you?"

"Valentine that is your third Coronal."

"I hail you, Valentine, Pontifex of Majipoor!"