The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes by Sterling E. Lanier

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.