redesign a section of the outer wall so that it contained a doorw feed this pattern into the monitors, and let the city resh itself to the new conception.
Alvin suspected that the large areas of the monitor control board whose purpose Khedron had not explained to him concerned with such alterations. It would be useless to periment with them; controls that could alter the very structure of the city were firmly locked and could be operated only with the authority of the Council and the approval the Central Computer. There was very little chance that Council would grant him what he asked, even if he was prepared for decades or even centuries of patient pleading. This was not a prospect that appealed to him in the least.
He turned his thoughts toward the sky. Sometimes he imagined, in fantasies which he was half-ashamed to recall that he had regained the freedom of the air which man h renounced so long ago. Once, he knew, the skies of Earth ha been filled with strange shapes. Out of space the great ships had come, bearing unknown treasures, to berth at the legendary Port of Diaspar. But the Port had been beyond the limits of the city; aeons ago it had been buried by the drifting sand He could dream that somewhere in the mazes of Diaspar flying machine might still be hidden, but he did not really lieve it. Even in the days when small, personal flyers had bee in common use, it was most unlikely that they had ever be 1 allowed to operate inside the limits of the city.
For a moment he lost himself in the old, familiar dream. He imagined that he was master of the sky, that the world lay spread out beneath him, inviting him to travel where hewilled. It was not the world of his own time that he saw, but the lost world of the dawn-a rich and living panorama of hills and lakes and forests. He felt a bitter envy of his unknown ancestors, who had flown with such freedom over the earth and who had let its beauty die.
This mind-drugging reverie was useless; he tore himself back to the present and to the problem at hand. If the sky was unattainable and the way by land was barred, what remained?
Once again he had come to the point when he needed help, when he could make no further progress by his own efforts He disliked admitting the fact, but was honest enough not deny it. Inevitably, his thoughts turned to Khedron.
Alvin had never been able to decide whether he liked the Jester. He was very glad that they had met, and was grateful to Khedron for the assistance and implicit sympathy he had given him on his quest. There was no one else in Diaspar with whom he had so much in common, yet there was some element in the other's personality that jarred upon him. Perhap it was Khedron's air of ironic detachment, which sometime gave Alvin the impression that he was laughing secretly at all his efforts, even while he seemed to be doing his best to help. Because of this, as well as his own natural stubbornness and independence, Alvin hesitated to approach the Jester except as a last resort.
They arranged to meet in a small, circular court not far from Council Hall. There were many such secluded spots in the city, perhaps only a few yards from some busy thoroughfare, yet completely cut off from it. Usually they could be reached only on foot after a rather roundabout walk; some-times, indeed, they were at the center of skillfully contrived mazes which enhanced their isolation. It was rather typical of Khedron that he should have chosen such a place for a rendevous.
The court was little more than fifty paces across, and was in reality located deep within the interior of some great building. Yet it appeared to have no definite physical limits, being bounded by a translucent blue-green material which glowed with a faint internal light. However, though there were no visible limits, the court had been so laid out that there was no danger of feeling lost in infinite space. Low walls, less than waist high and broken at intervals so that one could pass through them managed to give the impression of safe con-finement without which no one in Diaspar could ever feel entirely happy.
Khedron was examining one of these walls when Alvin arrived. It was covered with an intricate