Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 77

House, farther than the Wallwindow Prison, farther than the hills and
hollows of Kopernik, the stone flies among the stars. Will you break the
frame, time's frame? See there!"
The slide and flicker of the bright beads blurred in Falk's eyes. He
held to the edge of the great patterning-frame and whispered, "I cannot
read it…"
"This is the game you play, Opalstone, whether you can read it or not.
Good, very good. My dogs have barked at a beggar tonight and he proves a
prince of starlight. Opalstone, when I come asking water from your wells
and shelter within your walls, will you let me in? It will be a colder night
than this——And a long time from now! You come from very, very long
ago. I am old but you are much older; you should have died a century ago.
Will you remember a century from now that in the desert you met a King?
Go on, go on, I told you you are free to move here. There are people to
serve you if you need them."
Falk found his way across the long room to a curtained portal. Outside
it in an anteroom a boy waited; he summoned others. Without surprise or
servility, deferent only in that they waited for Falk to speak first, they
provided him a bath, a change of clothing, supper, and a clean bed in a
quiet room.
Thirteen days in all he lived in the Great House of the Enclave of
Kansas, while the last light snow and the scattered rains of spring drove
across the desert lands beyond the Prince's gardens. Estrel, recovering, was
kept in one of the many lesser houses that clustered behind the great one.
He was free to be with her when he chose…free to do anything he chose.
The Prince ruled his domain absolutely, but in no way was his rule
enforced: rather it was accepted as an honor; his people chose to serve
him, perhaps because they found, in thus affirming the innate and essential
grandeur of one person, that they reaffirmed their own quality as men.
There were not more than two hundred of them, cowboys, gardeners,
makers and menders, their wives and children. It was a very little
kingdom. Yet to Falk, after a few days, there was no doubt that had there
been no subjects at all, had he lived there quite alone, the Prince of Kansas
would have been no more and no less a prince. It was, again, a matter of
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