We waited, there in the shadow-clad chamber, as the taper burned away the minutes.
She asked me, “What did you mean when you said, if it finds you and names you…? Names you what?”
“The one who almost did not come here,” I said.
“You think that it might know you from somewhere, somehow?” she asked.
“I think it might,” I said. She drew away from me then.
“Don’t be afraid,” I said. “I won’t hurt you.”
“I am afraid, and you will hurt me!” she said. “I know it! But I want you! Why do I want you?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“There is something out there now!” she said, sounding slightly hysterical. “It’s near! It’s very near! Listen! Listen!”
“Shut up!” I said, as a cold, prickly feeling came to rest on the back of my neck and coiled about my throat. “Get over on the far side of the room, behind the bed!”
“I’m afraid of the dark,” she said.
“Do it, or I’ll have to knock you out and carry you. You’ll be in my way here.”
I could hear a heavy flapping above the storm, and there came a scratching on the stone of the wall as she moved to obey me.
Then I was looking into two hot, red eyes which were looking back into my own. I dropped mine quickly. The thing stood there on the ledge outside the window and regarded me.
It was well over six feet in height, with great branches of antlers growing out of its forehead. Nude, its flesh was a uniform ash-gray in color. It appeared to be sexless, and it had gray, leathery wings extending far out behind it and joining with the night. It held a short, heavy sword of dark metal in its right hand, and there were runes carved all along the blade. With its left hand, it clutched at the lattice.