Chapter 9 Summary

Kublai Khan owns an atlas where all the cities of his empire and their neighboring realms are drawn. Polo's tales teach him that it is pointless to expect news of these places. He asks Marco if he will repeat these tales to his own people. Polo says that it is not the telling of the story. It is the listening to it that shapes it. Khan feels that Polo's voice is at times reaching him from far away while he remains a prisoner of the present. In Polo's voice, Khan hears invisible reasons that make cities live and come to life again after they die.

Khan has an atlas that depicts the terrestrial globe continent by continent. He pulls it out to test Polo's knowledge. Polo recognizes many places and describes them. For the others, he uses descriptions handed down by word of...