The city had been built on a bay, and the shore curved outward in both directions. In the corner of her eye Hedia thought she saw the glint of water inland as well, but that could have been another crystal building.

She couldn't look away from the moving statues on the walls. In dreams the most innocent flower or vista can terrify because it is terrifying, not from any property which the waking mind can recognize. The glass men frightened her only because they were frightening in her dream; and even there, they radiated doom only because of the nightmare ambiance,

Ships floated in the harbor at the foot of the city walls. They were larger than the barges which rowed pleasure seekers on the Bay of Puteoli to the Isle of Capri but no bigger than the fifty-oared liburnians of the naval detachment at Misenum, adjacent to Baiae. One ship moved, then a second.

Hedia gasped with surprise. Instead of moving out to sea on crawling oar strokes, what she had thought were sails were beating up and down. The ships lifted from the water like heavily laden gulls.

"Hurrah!" Saxa cried. "All honor to Meoetes!"

Hedia's smile became wry. She knew that her husband was cheering his impresario, but it must seem strange to the audience to hear the Patron applauding his own spectacle. Except- Her face became briefly expressionless before resuming its look of bland acceptance.

– -that no one in the vast audience was paying attention to Saxa. Wonder at the performance had overwhelmed every other interest and speculation.