We ate breakfast in silence. We all glanced at each other as we chewed on the last of the stale bread and dried beef, as though we were fed up of the sight of each other. I'd had an unsettling dream during the night and the memory of it still disturbed my waking thoughts.
Aglahad finished the last of his cold tea. "I dreamt that the skin-changer was here last night. I fear, though, that it was real. A Sindarin maid dressed in rags."
Lofar stopped chewing. "I too had that dream. But I saw a vampire."
"Like the one that stole the palantír?" Lóni said. "Please say it was a dream for I too thought the monster had come."
"Not a bat," said Lofar. "A fair elf-maid, pale of skin, dark of feature, with huge black wings." Now his voice wavered a little. "She whispered her name in my ear: Daeroval."
"Daeroval?" I muttered.
"You've heard the name?" said Finduilas.
"An ancient tale. Daeroval was one of the Vampires of Angband. She fled into the mountains at the end of the Elder Days." I left it at that, hoping that the others were too tired for storytelling.
"An ancient tale," the boy said. "Ancient but brief."
"There is nothing much to tell," I explained. "The Vampires of old were skin-changers. They also had certain – necromantic powers."
"How do you mean?"
I looked at Lofar. "They could raise the dead."
Later, as the others broke camp, I took an opportunity to draw close to Finduilas as she was rolling her blanket. "Did you have this dream?" I murmured.
She nodded. "She told me one of us would not walk out of Belegost."
* * *
We silently followed the remains of the road through the dark, green forest. As we walked, we collected suitable branches for torch-making. And I managed to find a patch of hwannor growing on the shady side of an elm tree.
Finding our way was simply a matter of tracing the scattered stones that were once part of this illustrious highway.
By mid-morning, we were once again high above the valley, keeping a good pace up the mountainside. The road here had hardly been touched by time. No moss grew at this height and it hadn't suffered from rock falls or the other upheavals that scarred much of the valley. A stout, stone wall, topped with a finely-carved coping, protected the outer edge of the road as it snaked up the mountainside. One last return levelled out and led us westwards into a glorious cloudless afternoon.
After two more leagues, we came to a junction where another road doubled back, climbing even further up the mountainside.
"It seems to lead up over the pass between those two peaks," Aglahad noted, pointing to the south.
It wasn't until I had looked about me for a few moments that I realised I had been here before.
"I remember this place," I said. "That is the way to Nogrod."
"When were you last here, Siri?" It always amused the boy to demonstrate how old I was.
"Oh, sixty-eight centuries, give or take."
He gave a little delighted chuckle.
"You have aged almost as well as this road," Finduilas said with a wry smile. Lofar gave one of his sonorous belly laughs.
"Belegost must be near then," Lóni said.
I nodded. "The road crosses the river at the foot of this slope."
We rested awhile, taking in the vastness of the landscape around us. The mountains marched off into the blue north where fair-weather clouds rose and drifted like gliding birds. I was about to turn away when something far across the valley caught my eye.
"What do you see, Siri?"
"Walkers like us. Across the valley." I focused and concentrated my vision. "Dwarves, it seems. Three of them."
"Dwarves?" Lofar said. "Where are they off to?"
"They seem to be making their way down the valley."
"Perhaps they're from the northern mines." Lóni sounded uncertain. Dwarves indeed lived in Ered Luin but their halls were high above Lake Helevorn and they were rarely seen this far south of the Little Lhûn.
"It is of little concern," Finduilas murmured. Her voice was almost lost on the wind. "They are few and far away."
At this, the sky darkened as though a rain cloud had covered the sun. I started to turn but was stopped by a high pitched shriek. It felt as though a nail had been driven into my temple. I clapped my palms over my ears and fell to my knees. I prised my eyes open and noticed that the others were also writhing on their backs, holding their hands to their ears. It was then that I looked up to see something like a huge black swan gliding above us. It was silhouetted against the glare of the sun but I saw now that this was a black bat. It felt as though my head was in a vice. Was it a dragon? An eel? A vulture? My mind swirled and I could not think. A winged serpent with the talons of a hawk. The shrieking stopped and I crawled towards the shelter of the wall.
"Over here!" I screamed before another of the huge beasts appeared alongside its mate. We all toppled over the wall and onto the ledge that dropped a hundred feet and more to the road below.
"What are they?" Aglahad shouted before the shrieking once more drilled into our heads. We covered our ears, trying to stave off the madness that seemed to be washing over us. I swung weakly with my staff but Finduilas was on her knees and drawing her bow. A twisted grimace betrayed the pain and bewilderment she was feeling put she raised her bow, aimed and fired. I caught a glimpse of the arrow piercing the black, leathery wing of the nearest beast before its scream made me hide behind the wall. Aglahad was curled up like a sleeping dog and the twins were hugging each other like lost children.
The injured beast flapped its wings once, twice then lifted away from the mountainside. But its mate was still hovering above us. Its tail twisted and writhed behind and below a pair of long black legs and huge taloned feet. It twisted in mid-air and faced us as we cowered by the wall. A long neck, scaled like some black fish and crested with tall slender spines, twisted and arched before us. Its head was a mass of sharp teeth with long barbels under each jaw. The mouth opened and the shrieking pressed us against the wall. The beast rose in a sudden uplift of air from the valley below. It lunged with its claws and snatched at the Dwarves. Lóni slid towards the edge of the precipice as the beast wrapped its talons around his legs. Lofar curled his arms around his brother's chest but he too started rising as the beast pulled away from the wall.
Aglahad wasted no time. While Finduilas and I were incapacitated, he swung Bregedúr in a wide arc. The bright blade caught the sunlight even in the shadow of the beast and found its mark; black blood sprayed from the beast's ankle and another shriek filled my mind with utter dread. I remember seeing the claws letting go of their quarry just before I passed out.
* * *
When I woke, it seemed that hours had passed but the sun was still high. Finduilas was nudging my shoulder and calling my name. I looked around to find Lofar rubbing his temples and Aglahad trying to rouse Lóni. The fell beasts were gone.
We found a small cave further along the road where I set Lóni's broken leg and gave him a tincture of naegloth for the pain. After making sure he was comfortable I left him in his bed roll at the back of the cave and joined the others. We huddled around a small fire and looked out onto the darkening valley and the rising crescent moon.
"What were those things, Siri?" Aglahad muttered. They had clearly been talking about our eventful afternoon.
"I believe they were the dragons of which our friend, the ferryman spoke."
"Those were no dragons," Finduilas hummed.
"Then some evil spawn of Smaug?" Lofar suggested.
"No," I said. "I agree with Finduilas. I sense they were more ancient than even the oldest dragons. Perhaps they were awoken by the evil that now stirs in Belegost."
"Whatever they were," Aglahad said, "I hope we have seen the last of them. My ears are still ringing from that horrific noise."
I glanced at the others as they recalled the mind-wrenching shriek of those bat-beasts. "Did we all feel it?"
"A dread I have never suffered before," Finduilas muttered. "As though my spirit were leaving me."
Lofar nodded solemnly.