order to live. Some said it could move. Almost everyone agreed
that it seemed to keep getting bigger through some form of
ongoing construction. It appeared to be deserted. It always ap-
peared that way. An elite unit of Federation soldiers were sup-
posed to be in service to the tower, but no one ever saw them.
Just as well, Par thought as they drifted past undisturbed.
By late afternoon, they reached the mouth of the river where
it opened into the Rainbow Lake. The lake spread away before
them, a broad expanse of silver-tipped blue water turned golden
at its western edge by the sun as it slipped toward the horizon.
The rainbow from which it took its name arched overhead, faint
now in the blaze of sunlight, the blues and purples almost in-
visible, the reds and yellows washed of their color. Cranes glided
silently in the distance, long graceful bodies extended against
the light.
The Ohmsfords pulled their boat to the shore’s edge and
beached it where a stand of shade trees fronted a low bluff. They
set their camp, hanging the canvas in the event of a change back
in the weather, and Coil fished while Par went off to gather wood
for an evening fire.
Par wandered the shoreline east for a ways, enjoying the bright
glaze of the lake’s waters and the colors in the air. After a time,
he moved back up into the woods and began picking up pieces
of dry wood. He had gone only a short distance when the woods
turned dank and filled with a decaying smell. He noticed that
many of the trees seemed to be dying here, leaves wilted and
brown, limbs broken off, bark peeling. The ground cover looked
unwell, too. He poked and scraped at it with his boot and looked
about curiously. There didn’t appear to be anything living here;
there were no small animals scurrying about and no birds calling
from the trees. The forest was deserted.
He decided to give up looking for firewood in this direction
and was working his way back toward the shoreline when he
caught sight of the house. It was a cottage, really, and scarcely
that. It was badly overgrown with weeds, vines, and scrub.
Boards hung loosely from its walls, shutters lay on the ground,
and the roof was caving hi. The glass in the windows was broken
out, and the front door stood open. It sat at the edge of a cove
that ran far back into the trees from the lake, and the water of
the cove was still and greenish with stagnation. The smell that
it gave off was sickening.
Par would have thought it deserted if not for the tiny column
of smoke that curled up from the crumbling chimney.
He hesitated, wondering why anyone would live in such sur-
roundings. He wondered if there really was someone there or if
the smoke was merely a residue. Then he wondered if whoever
was there needed help.
He almost went over to see, but there was something so odi-
ous about the cottage and its surroundings that he could not
make himself do so. Instead, he called out, asking if anyone
was home. He waited a moment, then called out again. When
there was no reply, he turned away almost gratefully and con-
tinued on his way. ‘
Coil was waiting with the fish by the time he returned, so
they hastily built a fire and cooked dinner. They were both a
little tired of fish, but it was better than nothing and they were
more hungry than either would have imagined. When the dinner
was consumed, they sat watching as the sun dipped into the
horizon and the Rainbow Lake turned to silver. The skies dark-
ened and filled with stars, and the sounds of the night rose out
of dusk’s stillness. Shadows from die forest trees lengthened and
joined and became dark pools that enveloped the last of the
daylight.
Par was in the process of trying to figure out a way to tell
Coil that he didn’t think they should return to Shady Vale when
the woodswoman appeared.
She came out of the trees behind them, shambling from the