Marvels, and the Silence That Wins
The last tales, of strange powers and their price, rising to the single riddle that has no answer, where the just king's silence at last wins him the game, the yogi's treachery is undone, and the reader gathers everything the Betaal has taught.
Lessons in this chapter
- The Nereid and the King's Servant — A loyal servant plunges blind into the sea; his king later plunges after him toward a prize he already knows is there. Which of the two showed the greater courage?
- The Magic Pill — One man marries a princess in secret, by stealth and a false face; another is openly given her before the sacred fire. Both call her wife. Whose is she?
- The Brahman's Son and the Borrowed Power — A young man performs a great rite of magic flawlessly, word for word and step for step, and still the power is lost, and his teacher's power with it. Why does a perfect rite fail?
- The Thief's Son — At the holy well of Gaya, three hands rise to claim one son: the man who begot him, the man who raised him, and the thief who willed him into being. Whose son is he?
- The Unanswerable Riddle, and the Silence That Wins — A father and son wed a mother and daughter, and the kinship of their children has no answer at all. For the first time the king cannot speak, and his silence is the very thing that wins the game, and his life.