noon
`` O Imber , thou art indeed a fool , '' said Howkan . But Imber was dreaming . The square-browed judge likewise dreamed , and all his race rose up before him in a mighty phantasmagoria -- his steel-shod , mail-clad race , the lawgiver and world-maker among the families of men . He saw it dawn red-flickering across the dark forests and sullen seas ; he saw it blaze , bloody and red , to full and triumphant noon ; and down the shaded slope he saw the blood-red sands dropping into night . And through it all he observed the Law , pitiless and potent , ever unswerving and ever ordaining , greater than the motes of men who fulfilled it or were crushed by it , even as it was greater than he , his heart speaking for softness .