“That’s true,” she said, and I started shaking again and she fetched a blanket from the bed and put it about my shoulders.

She handed me my wine and I drank it. She sat beside me and rested her head on my shoulder, so I put my arm about her. A devil wind began to scream and I heard the rapid rattle of the rainfall that came with it. For a second, it seemed that something beat against the shutters. Lorraine whimpered slightly.

“I do not like what is happening tonight,” she said.

“Neither do I. Go bar the door. It’s only bolted right now.”

As she did this, I moved our seat so that it faced my single window. I fetched Grayswandir out from beneath the bed and unsheathed it. Then I extinguished every light in the room, save for a single candle on the table to my right.

I reseated myself, my blade across my knees.

“What are we doing?” Lorraine asked, as she came and sat down at my left.

“Waiting,” I said.

“For what?”

“I am not positive, but this is certainly the night for it.”

She shuddered and drew near.

“You know, perhaps you had better leave,” I said.

“I know,” she said, “but I’m afraid to go out. You’ll be able to protect me if I stay here, won’t you?”

I shook my head.

“I don’t even know if I’ll be able to protect myself.”

She touched Grayswandir.

“What a beautiful blade! I’ve never seen one like it.”

“There isn’t another,” I said, and each time that I shifted a little, the light fell differently upon it, so that one moment it seemed filmed over with unhuman blood of an orange tint and the next it lay there cold and white as snow or a woman’s breast, quivering in my hand each time a little chill took me.

I wondered how it was that Lorraine had seen something I had not during the attempted contact. She could not simply have imagined anything that close to home.