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the passing of the grey company 1033
Lights went out in house and hamlet as they came, and
doors were shut, and folk that were afield cried in terror and
ran wild like hunted deer. Ever there rose the same cry in
the gathering night: ‘The King of the Dead! The King of the
Dead is come upon us!’
Bells were ringing far below, and all men fled before the
face of Aragorn; but the Grey Company in their haste rode
like hunters, until their horses were stumbling with weariness.
And thus, just ere midnight, and in a darkness as black as the
caverns in the mountains, they came at last to the Hill of
Erech.
Long had the terror of the Dead lain upon that hill and
upon the empty fields about it. For upon the top stood a
black stone, round as a great globe, the height of a man,
though its half was buried in the ground. Unearthly it looked,
as though it had fallen from the sky, as some believed; but
those who remembered still the lore of Westernesse told that
it had been brought out of the ruin of Númenor and there
set by Isildur at his landing. None of the people of the valley
dared to approach it, nor would they dwell near; for they said
that it was a trysting-place of the Shadow-men and there they
would gather in times of fear, thronging round the Stone and
whispering.
To that Stone the Company came and halted in the dead
of night. Then Elrohir gave to Aragorn a silver horn, and he
blew upon it; and it seemed to those that stood near that they
heard a sound of answering horns, as if it was an echo in
deep caves far away. No other sound they heard, and yet
they were aware of a great host gathered all about the hill on
which they stood; and a chill wind like the breath of ghosts
came down from the mountains. But Aragorn dismounted,
and standing by the Stone he cried in a great voice:
‘Oathbreakers, why have ye come?’
And a voice was heard out of the night that answered him,
as if from far away:
‘To fulfil our oath and have peace.’