ys we have been crossing a
chain of mountains. The forest rose among cliffs, and whenever we walked
out upon a barren stretch of rock we saw great peaks before us in the
west, and to the north of us, and to the south, as far as our eyes could
see. The peaks were red and brown, with the green streaks of forests as
veins upon them, with blue mists as veils over their heads. We had never
heard of these mountains, nor seen them marked on any map. The Uncharted
Forest has protected them from the Cities and from the men of the
Cities.

We climbed paths where the wild goat dared not follow. Stones rolled
from under our feet, and we heard them striking the rocks below, farther
and farther down, and the mountains rang with each stroke, and long
after the strokes had died. But we went on, for we knew that no men
would ever follow our track nor reach us here.

Then today, at sunrise, we saw a white flame among the trees, high on a
sheer peak before us. We thought that it was a fire and we stopped.
But the flame was unmoving, yet blinding as liquid metal. So we climbed
toward it through the rocks. And there, before us, on a broad summit,
with the mountains rising behind it, stood a house such as we had never
seen, and the white fire came from the sun on the glass of its windows.

The house had two stories and a strange roof flat as a floor. There was
more window than wall upon its walls, and the windows went on straight
around corners, though how this house kept standing we could not guess.
The walls were hard and smooth, of that stone unlike stone which we had
seen in our tunnel.

We both knew it without words: this house was left from the
Unmentionable Times. The trees had protected it from time and weather,
and from men who have less pity than time and weather. We turned to the
Golden One and we asked:

"Are you afraid?"

But they shook their head. So we walked to the door, and we threw it
open, and we stepped together into the house of the Unmentionable Times.

We shall need the days and the years ahead, to look, to learn and to
understand the things of this house. Today, we could only look and try
to believe the sight of our eyes. We pulled the heavy curtains from the
windows and we saw that the rooms were small, and we thought that not
more than twelve men could have lived here. We thought it strange that
man had been permitted to build a house for only twelve.

Never had we seen rooms so full of light. The sunrays d