"Margaret never said he'd kill me," said Alvin. "In fact she never said I'd die, exactly. But that's what I gather. She doesn't want me there until she can assure me that Calvin is out of town. But I'd like to meet the King my own self."

"Not to mention seeing your wife," said Verily.

"I could use a few days with her."

"And nights," murmured Mike.

Alvin raised an eyebrow at him and Mike grinned stupidly.

"Biggest question is," Alvin went on, "could I safely take Arthur Stuart down there? In the Crown Colonies it's illegal to bring a free person of even one-sixteenth Black blood into the country."

"You could pretend he's your slave," said Mike.

"But what if I died down there? Or got arrested? I don't want any chance of Arthur getting confiscated and sold away. It's too dangerous."

"So don't go there," said Verily. "The King doesn't know a thing about building the Crystal City, anyway."

"I know," said Alvin. "But neither do I, and neither does anyone else."

Verily smiled. "Maybe that's not true."

Alvin was impatient. "Don't play with me, Verily. What do you know?"

"Nothing but what you already know yourself, Alvin. There's two parts to building the Crystal City. The first part is about Makering and all that. And I'm no help to you there, nor is any mortal soul, as far as I can see. But the second part is the word city. No matter what else you do, it'll be a place where people have to live together. That means there's got to be government and laws."

"Does there have to be?" asked Mike wistfully.

"Or something to do the same jobs," said Verily. "And land, divided up so people can live. Food planted and harvested, or brought in to feed the population. Dry goods to make or buy, houses to build, clothes to make. There'll be marrying and giving in marriage, unless I'm mistaken, and people will have children so we'll need schools. No matter how visionary this city makes the people, they still need roofs and roads, unless you expect them all to fly."