The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes (7 page)

             
" 'A good choice,' rang out the deep voice at my side. 'A noble sword indeed, though lighter than is my use to wield. Now, let us on to the contest
.
We face the first challenge and perhaps not the lightest!'

             
"Grasping the great weapon in his right hand, he strode down the hall and, freeing the bolts, flung open the great oak doors to the storm of wind and to whatever it was I knew waited for us in the night. Out beyond the portico we went, with me three paces behind.

             
"Facing the darkness, he called above the storm in a voice like roll-thunder. 'Come and do battle, Hunter! You
have no place here now! You and your kind were banished to the hills and under them, far back in the lost ages. You have no power over men of trust
.
I speak for Christ and defy you and all your pack. No longer should you roam the land and bring fear to the lost and the helpless in the dark! Come out, I command, on that horse I overthrew once and shall again!'

             
"And over the storm and the moaning winds, came an answer! Out of the night came a wild cry, a long rising sound, which pierced the noise of the wind as if it were not there. I could distinguish no words, but the tone was enough. In it, I heard defiance and anger, and something else, a kind of emptiness, as if whatever spoke were wracked with lost hopes and challenged us from bleak despair as well as dreadful hate.

             
"The moon had vanished for a second or two behind a cloud, and we stood in the dark, facing nothingness. In front of us and quite close, I heard the sound of a hoof, then another. Something was advancing on us and we were sightless!

             
"The Earl stood, his sword in the guard position, solid as one of his own great gnarled oaks. I raised my own blade, though I could see no target
.
I felt a sudden chill, which seemed to cut through me like a knife. Then the clouds parted and the pale moon burst through and gave us light
.
At the same time, the gale from the west seemed to stiffen, and I caught again the sweet scent of apples.

             
"In front of us, no more than ten yards off, was the outline of a great horse. Its color was a white, an opaque, shifting shade, so that it seemed almost without color at all. Its eyes were the same shade and showed no glint or light
.
And on its back, saddleless, it bore a rider.

             
"He was as dark as the horse was light, and seemed clothed in furs of a tight fit, which caught the fitful moonlight and trapped it, giving nothing back. His head was bare, with shaggy hair, and rising from it were two forked projections, as if somehow he had made a cap from the upper cranium of some strange deer. I could not see his face at all, but the flicker of red points came from the place where his eyes should have been. In one hand he held a great barbed spear, and this he now raised to shoulder height.

             
"I sprang forward as fast I could for I knew I was not the target, but I was too slow for the cast
.

             
"The feeling of cold sharpened suddenly and terribly, and something long and barely
glowing flew toward my companion's breast
.
His long sword flashed in the moon gleam, and there was a crash, as of riven metal. A nimbus of flame curved about his great blade and was gone.

             
"The light died as the racing clouds once more covered the white moon. Out of the pitch-black air in front of us came that wild cry again, despairing and lost now, its defiance gone, leaving only loneliness and utter wildness.

             
" 'Begone!' shouted James in that great roar. 'Seek the under hills and lie quiet! On the earth your time is done and your power gone from the world. I command you, get hence and never return!' He held the great sword in both hands with the cross guard facing out
.

             
"The moon came through the clouds again. Before us was
... emptiness! The twin shapes of the strange steed and its night-gaunt of a rider had vanished as if they had never been. And around us, the mighty winds raged as if in salute, roaring in bursts that sounded like my friend's new voice when he gave commands.

             
" 'Come,' said James, his call sounding clear over the storm. 'We need mounts, so to the stables. The Hunter has lost his power, save against the frightened, and he and his were put down long ago. But this raising of the long-gone is an evil thing and perhaps not the worst
.
We must go and seek out our enemy in his lair. We must ride to the
Caer
Dhub
, the Fortress of the Dark, and our time is short!'

             
"I had no argument, indeed I was eager to obey. I was
not master here, and I had no purpose of my own any longer, except to serve as best I could. But if I were no more than a pawn, at least I was a willing one, and I raced behind James at my best speed.

             
"The horses were wild with excitement when we reached the stables, plunging and rearing in their stalls. But James gentled two down in a most marvelous manner, speaking to them in some language I had never heard before. Where he had learned it, I had no idea. But this new James was not the man I knew, and strange tongues were a part of this whole nightmare.

             
"We saddled up quickly and in a few minutes had ridden out into the full force of the wind. We took the track which led south to the cottage on the cliff, our way marked out by the intermittent moonlight. James galloped in front, an extraordinary figure in his black dinner cloths with trousers stuffed into hunting boots. I wished that I had had time to get some, but my patent leathers were better on horseback than they would have been to walk in. Like him, I carried my sword across the saddle.

             
"We thundered on through the night, often in sight of the sea, which was beaten to a fury by the wild and howling wind. The gale actually seemed to be still rising, and had we wished to speak, it would have been quite impossible through its shrieking and raging. It tore at us, too, so that we had to crouch over the horses' necks, and they, poor beasts, had to angle themselves against it
.
But they bore us nobly and never faltered.

             
"Now on our right I glimpsed a single light. It was one of the windows of the cottage, gleaming through the dark. But our way did not lie there, I sensed, and James never drew rein. Our
path was south, south to the grim ruin on the headland, which James had called the Fortress of the Dark. It was from this that all the portents had come, the threats and the
wickednesses
had been unleashed. It was in
that
nighted
wreckage that some foul sorcery had been revived, and it was there that we must seek its sources, yes, and destroy them.

             
"I had lost my sense of direction by now, but James cantered on through the bracken and heath, and I simply followed him. Suddenly he put up his left hand, at the same time checking his mount. He gestured to me to draw rein beside him. When I came up, he leaned so close that his mouth was almost on my ear.

             
" 'We are very close now,' he shouted over the wind's howl. 'We must leave the horses and go to battle on foot
.
They are of no use to us and they have carried us bravely. We shall let them go and they will take no hurt. Dismount now and follow.'

             
"I did as he bade and gave my beast a pat on the flank, dismissing it
.
Both of them cantered back the way we had come, and we were left alone in the night and the storm. In silence we advanced, with me once more backing James. We angled into a gentle downward slope, and now the bellowing of the sea grew louder in front of us as we approached the coast
.
It had not yet rained through all this storm of wind, but now my face grew damp and I tasted salt
.
The spray of the Atlantic was being flung hundreds of feet up through the sheer force of the driven air.

             
"The moon broke through another cloud, and there, downslope, was the ancient fortalice, exposed in all its shattered and titanic wreckage before us. Nor was this all. Two squat shapes were crouched not a hundred feet away, staring in our direction as if awaiting us. As we stood mutually exposed, they rose to their feet and, with wild cries in their harsh speech, rushed at us. One carried a great ax, like a woodsman's but larger, while the other had a strange weapon, a thing like a great rounded hammer, large enough to need the strength of both arms to wield. Lord Lionel might have expected no danger, but he had, nonetheless, left his two guardians.

             
"It was over in seconds. James took the one on the right with a great sweeping blow, a blow which shore through his ax shaft like paper and drove deep into the fellow's chest. He crumpled up like a felled tree.

             
"The other swung his huge maul, or hammer, at my head, a swing that would have spattered my brains to pulp had it landed. I ducked under it, though I felt the air move in my hair, and extending my body, left hand on the ground, drove the Ferrara p
oint straight through his heart.
He stood for one instant, his face contorted, then fell transfixed to lie by his mate. I wrenched loose the blade and stood up. James was facing me, a look of stern approval on his face. 'A good stroke,' he said briefly. 'Now follow, once more. The last test is to come and it will be far more dangerous than what has gone before. Be silent and keep watch, especially to the rear. We go into the dark, the true dark now, to speak with the master of these creatures.'

             
"We were both damp with our exertions and the wind
-
driven spray, up-welling from far below. But I felt no sensation of cold as I walked behind James in the direction of the fortress. Instead, I felt, despite the storm and the bleak surroundings, a sense of high resolve, almost of exhilaration. I felt myself part of a crusade, and yet certainly a stranger one never existed,
consisting of two Englishmen in dinner clothes, armed with swords unused for many centuries!

             
"We crossed the bare wet rock around the site, and James headed unerringly for the spot where I had seen the cavity and its protruding ladder the previous day.

             
"In the flashes of moonlight we had no trouble picking our way over the rubble and soon the black cavity lay before us. The ladder was still in place.

             
" 'Listen,' said my friend, pausing above the opening, one hand uplifted. Faintly, above the great noise of the wind and the raging sea, I seemed to hear a far-off throbbing, a beating pulse, as if from some mighty drum deep in the earth. I had no need to ask whence it came.

             
" 'He is there. Still he works his crimes, still conspires with things that never see the light of day. So be it. He has found that which should not have been disturbed until the end of time. And from it he gains power even now. If we wait longer, matters will grow worse.'

             
"We two stood now in the lee of a broken wall, whose vast slabs cut off some of the gale. His face was grave, as he seemed to muse on things beyond my comprehension, leaning on the pommel of that giant sword.

             
"Then he looked up at me, strangely as if in doubt, not of me, I thought, but of something else, perhaps even of himself. 'We must go down. But my strength is less in the shadows under the earth, and his will be more. Let us go now, before I weaken further, from doubt and lack of faith. I will go first. Remember, have an eye to the rear and to the sides!'

             
"With no more ado he seized the first rungs of the ladder and began to go down. I waited and, when I could no longer see his hands, began my own descent, gripping the sword with two fingers and using the rest to cling to the ladder.

             
"The ladder was a long one, perhaps twenty feet
.
When my shoes touched rock, I was glad to stand up and look about James was next to me, peering down the long tunnel in which we now stood. For there was light. Ten paces off, set in a niche in the wall of undressed stone, a kerosene lantern burnt with a dim glow. It was as if the light were changed down here in some way, for the color was odd, a pale light, like marsh fire in a summer bog. Far down the long shallow slope of the tunnel, another spot of similar hue shone in the distance.