the closer knowledge of the gods that Their images should be carven in
Runazar, and in all lands near by. And when Althazar's command, wafted
abroad by trumpets, came tinkling in the ear of all the gods, right
glad were They at the sound of it. Therefore men quarried marble from
the earth, and sculptors busied themselves in Runazar to obey the edict
of the King. But the gods stood by starlight on the hills where the
sculptors might see Them, and draped the clouds about Them, and put
upon Them Their divinest air, that sculptors might do justice to
Pegana's gods. Then the gods strode back into Pegana and the sculptors
hammered and wrought, and there came a day when the Master of Sculptors
took audience of the King, saying:

"Althazar, King of Runazar, High Lord moreover of all the lands near
by, to whom be the gods benignant, humbly have we completed the images
of all such gods as were in thine edict named."

Then the King commanded a great space to be cleared among the houses in
his city, and there the images of all the gods were borne and set
before the King, and there were assembled the Master of Sculptors and
all his men; and before each stood a soldier bearing a pile of gold
upon a jewelled tray, and behind each stood a soldier with a drawn
sword pointing against their necks, and the King looked upon the
images. And lo! they stood as gods with the clouds all draped about
them, making the sign of the gods, but their bodies were those of men,
and lo! their faces were very like the King's, and their beards were as
the King's beard. And the King said:

"These be indeed Pegana's gods."

And the soldiers that stood before the sculptors were caused to present