The girl’s song carried itself on the wind through the night and spread out in the four directions of the compass In the north it disturbed the sleep of a pack of white hounds they stirred restlessly whimpered and barked Their master looked at the sky and wondered why they should travel so soon Nevertheless the hunt would ride when and where it was summoned He saddled his well-muscled horse black as the night sky Then he hooked a polished hunting horn to his belt The hounds would be glad of some exercise and he wouldn’t mind some himself In the east the song reached into the sleep of the one-eyed man and gave him horrible dreams A striped orange cat held in a small trap by his bedside hissed longing for freedom Only hours before it had been hunting for a morsel of food or water In a cage next to the cat a gray rat hunched miserably rubbing its paws over its pointed face The man snorted loudly and called out in his sleep but because he lived alone nobody came In the next room other animals growled or mewled piteously Those without voices merely shifted seeking comfort in cages that gleamed like jewels
PART 1 STRANGE VISITORS
1 AT THE DOOR AND INTO THE HOUSE A STRAY GUST OF wind howled down the chimney sending a spray of last fall’s leaves out of the hearth and scuttling across the living room floor Timothy James Maxwell jumped up with a start from the book he had been trying to read It wasn’t a windy night Leaves had never blown down the chimney before He went to the fireplace and peered cautiously up the chimney but all he could see was the blackness of the flue A puff of air blew directly in his face and he pulled out his head smacking the back of it on the bricks Ouch Fortunately neither the leaves nor his cry awakened Mrs Clapper who had fallen asleep in the recliner at least half an hour ago She slept soundly with her legs thick as tree tr unks sprawled in front of her head thrown back mouth gaping like a trap Her nose whistled with each deep breath and her full lower lip quivered She wasn’t really too bad as babysitters went Timothy thought but the fact that she was a babysitter was a problem At eleven and three quarters he was quite sure he no longer needed a babysitter Unfortunately his parents
didn’t agree And even though they tried to pass her off as a companion companion he wasn’t fooled So when they had taken his older sister Sarah to a ballet audition in the city Timothy was left alone with the Clapper We’ll be home Sunday night as soon as we can promise his mother had explained Timothy looked down at the carpet and drew his eyebrows eyebrows together Buck up son Clapper’s a good sort and she’ll probably play Scrabble with you to your heart’s content Timothy considered this to be nothing nothing more than bribery because his father knew how much he loved Scrabble the smooth wooden tiles the random surprise of letters and of course the fact that he usually won I don’t think I need a babysitter anymore now that I’m almost twelve Timothy replied with dignity I can take care of myself just fine What could happen Nothing ever happens here If you really don’t want me left alone then one of you should stay It doesn’t take two people to see an audition He knew he was being unreasonable but he couldn’t stop the words We know that you’re very capable his mother had replied bending close so that he caught the minty fragrance of her soft brown hair and a faint whiff of turpentine We just want you to have some company and Mrs Clapper has already agreed Do be kind to her Timothy At that point Timothy had known the battle was lost He thought of the word conquer
