"This is the time of the end of penance!" the people reply. "This is the time of the Prince To Come!"

"The Prince To Come has arrived!"

"And you are the Prince To Come!"

"I am the Prince To Come," he cries. "Now all is forgiven. Now all debts have been paid. We have done our penance and are cleansed. The instruments of the penance have been driven from our land. The water-kings have had their recompense. Velalisier is rebuilt. Our life begins anew."

"Our life begins anew! This is the time of the Prince To Come!"

Faraataa lifts his staff, which flashes like fire in the morning light, and signals to those who wait upon the two Tables of the Gods. The four prisoners are thrust forward.

The long knives flash. The dead kings fall, and crowns roll in the dust. In the blood of the invaders are the Tables washed clean, The last act has been played. Faraataa holds high his hands.

"Come, now, and rebuild with me the Seventh Temple!"

The Piurivar folk rush forward. They gather the fallen blocks of the temple and at Faraataa's direction they place them where they once had been.

When it is complete, Faraataa stands at its highest point, and looks out across hundreds of miles to the sea, where the water-kings have gathered. He sees them beating the surface of the water with their great wings. He sees them lift their huge heads high and snort.

"Brothers! Brothers!" Faraataa calls to them.

"We hear you, land-brother."

"The enemy is destroyed. The city is reconsecrated. The Seventh Temple has risen again. Is our penance done, O brothers?"

And they reply: "It is done. The world is cleansed and a new age begins."

"Are we forgiven?"

"You are forgiven, O land-brothers."

"We are forgiven," cries the Prince To Come.

And the people hold up their hands to him, and change their shapes, and become in turn the Star, the Mist, the Darkness, the Gleam, the Cavern.

And only one thing remains, which is to forgive those who committed the first sin, and who have remained in bondage here amidst the ruins ever since. The Prince To Come stretches forth his hands, and reaches out to them, and tells them that the curse that was upon them is lifted and they are free.

And the stones of fallen Velalisier give up their dead, and the spirits emerge, pale and transparent; and they take on life and color; and they dance and shift their shapes, and cry out in joy.

And what they cry is:

"All hail the Prince To Come, who is the King That Is!"

That was the dream of the Piurivar Faraataa, as he lay on a couch of bubblebush leaves under a great dwikka-tree in the province of Piurifayne, with a light rain falling.

3

The Coronal said, "Ask Y-Uulisaan to come in here."

Maps and charts of the blighted zones of Zimroel, heavily marked and annotated, were spread out all over the desk in Lord Valentine's cabin aboard his flagship, the Lady Thiin. This was the third day of the voyage. He had departed from Alaisor with a fleet of five vessels under the command of the Grand Admiral Asenhart, bound for the port of Numinor on the Isle of Sleep's northeastern coast. The crossing would be a journey of many weeks, even under the most favorable of winds, and just now the winds were contrary.