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.He was drawn to thisplace.Racing up to the dark house, he left his father to make his way alone.But, reaching thedoor, Sem stopped, not because it was shut but because it was open and the darkness within wasso much blacker than the night outside. Wait.I know the way, Alf called out in a voice weak from the effort of their journey.And Sem waited.Suddenly his attraction had turned into misgivings.Whatever hadpulled him forward was there, inside the house.He heard no sound except for Alf s difficultsteps up the path behind him, yet he sensed a presence beyond the open door somethingreaching out to him, trying to enter his mind.But then Alf stood next to him, and whatever he d felt from within the house ceased topose a threat. Let me see if I can make a light, Alf said.Sem heard a clicking sound and then saw a spark and then another spark, and finally asmall light.His father held up a candle. As you see, I came prepared. Inside, Sem saw a table and some chairs, but no signs of recent habitation.Like the doorthey d entered, the back door, too, was open.Drifts of leaves covered the floor and piled up inthe corners of the room.It was as if the forest were reclaiming its own. The Foresters kept this house stocked with provisions, but that was when they spent thesummers here.I didn t expect we d find food here today, Alf said. But don t worry.I broughtall we ll need.Nothing like your cooking, of course, but enough to get by on for a few days, andthere s good water out back I ll show you in the morning.The best this old house can offer isshelter from the rain but it won t be able to do that much longer, from the appearance ofthings. Dripping some wax on the table, Alf fixed his candle and removed a few items from thetwo packs journey bread, dried fruit, and a flask he d refilled at the stream. There are quarters for sleep on either side, he explained. This was the main room,where they cooked and ate and also where they talked.The Foresters were great talkers.Ialways thought it was because they spent so much time by themselves.When they sat down fordinner, they sometimes told each other everything that had crossed their minds during the pastday.But other nights they ate in complete silence.It was hard to know what to expect. Reaching it in daylight, the house might have struck Sem differently, but now it seemedhaunted.He d probably been deluded by his initial impression.As he stood at the door, Sem hadbeen certain he sensed a threatening presence.But it must have been effect of the strangeness ofthe place and the long day on the road, so he said nothing about his fears.After they had eaten, Alf led the way to one of the sleeping rooms, but both recognized atonce that it would not do.Water had come through the roof, rotting the floorboards, and the wallbeds were foul with decay.Unfortunately, the other sleeping rooms were little better at oncepoint Alf s foot broke through the flooring, and Sem had to help him from falling.But the worstof it was the smell.He wondered if animals had been living here. I guess the only good room is the one we ate in, Alf announced. We ll have to sleepon the floor, but that beats lying on cold ground.And once we close the doors, it will seem morelike a human habitation. Sem doubted that.He lay awake for a long time, listening to the sounds of the nightaround them, intent to catch the softest footstep outside.But he heard nothing.If something hadbeen here when they arrived, it had managed to escape in silence. ***When he woke the next morning, daylight was streaming through the door.His father spack lay on the table, but Alf was missing.Sem stood up and walked to the door.Not far belowthe house, his father was standing with two naked men Rand, they had to be at least one ofthem, for Sem was sure that one of the two men was Klei.He d seen Klei once before, on one ofKlei s trips to the valley, when Alf had brought him to meet Sem and his sisters.He d beenwearing clothes strange clothes, Sem thought at the time but his father explained that theRand normally wore no clothing and that these had been borrowed for the occasion.Klei wasn treally a Rand of course; like Alf, he d grown up in the Valley of Women but the Rand hadadopted him and made him their emissary to the outside world.That was because Klei could talk,just like anyone else although Sem couldn t help noticing something peculiar about his speech an oddly precise way of forming sounds that confirmed his father s explanation that, amongthe Rand, Klei communicated in an entirely different manner and now found oral discourseunnatural.His father had placed the palm of his right hand on the chest of one of the two Rand.AsSem watched, it seemed that the Rand were aware of his presence, even though neither looked athim directly.But then Alf removed his hand and turned up the hill. Sem, come down, he called. There are friends here who want to meet you. Approaching them, he saw that both of the men wore some kind of stone on a leathercord around their necks and that both carried small bags slung over their shoulders.Kleirecognized him at once. I ve already met Sem, don t you remember? Of course, of course you have, Alf said. I d forgotten.But Saash has never met myson. Sem had stopped on the path, but now Klei left the other two men and began climbing upin his direction.It was hard to believe that Klei was his father s age a year younger, Sem rememberedAlf saying.Small statured, like Sem and his father, the physical perfection of Klei s bodyastonished him
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