Tuesday following the Feast of St. John, 1178

Lydia left the nameless, half-finished castle above Bois de Haillot in the hour after terce. The household was abuzz with talk of the knight in the village the day before. Fearing few opportunities in the future, Cook sent Lydia off with a basket for early mushrooms. The girl cast her eyes about for Georges as she crossed the bailey, but like so many he was probably off preparing for the difficult days that might lie ahead.

Under a densely clouded sky that yeilded its rain in a thin but thorough drizzle, Lydia took the path past Marie's cottage and through the Hog Wood. The pigs' noses were sharper than her eyes, though, and there was little to be found. Leaving the woods, she crossed the field down to the cluster of crofts called Bar du Sud, where she called briefly on a cousin. They chatted over the latter's gate, exchanging rumours between hamlet and castle, the chickens clustering around their feet in hopes the basket might drop a grain or two of corn. After a few moments Lydia continued her trek, crossing the pasture and entering the deeper forest by the path that led past the abandoned cottage.

It was the last anyone would speak to her. An hour later, her screams would echo through the dark, dripping chambers of the forest, unheard.

Vespers, and Renaut had left Daria's laboratory after extracting no vis from the waters of the Pool of the Stone Horse. Aline called him aside as he crossed the foyer, into the shadows of the council chamber door. What did he and his companions find at the Pool? the Magus wanted to know, and What did Daria and Forba say about it? Renaut held little back. Daria had said next to nothing, and he hadn't even spoken to Forba. "Do not return to the Pool," Aline ordered, "and tell no-one else about your visit--or our little talk." Renaut did as instructed, but only after reporting the conversation to his pater.

Shortly thereafter, Albrecht found Renaut as he gathered his companions to fulfill Georges's call for aid. They considered calling for the huntsman's hounds, but Edgard was certain that such a request would be denied, and that further, they would be banned from their search until the marrow. So they set out without permission or hounds, relying solely on Edgard's skills and the recollections Albrecht gathered from the covenfolk, and traced Lydia's path through Bar du Sud and into the forest.

The fading glow of dusk did not penetrate the wet, still woods, and the companions trudged along by the light of Christophe's lantern and a torch that sizzled and hissed as the trees issued heavy drops down upon them. Despite the rain, Edgard had little trouble finding the point at which Lydia's trail left the path, veering in the direction of the abandoned cottage and, beyond, the Three Sisters. Half an hour later, Edgard called Renaut forward.

"Something has joined Lydia's trail," Edgard pointed out, his voice low to save the others from alarm. Unlike the tracks Edgard had followed from the Pool of the Stone Horse earlier that day, these prints were clear to Renaut's untrained eyes, even in the uncertain light of the torch. And it was no man. "Nor a beast, that I am aware of," Edgard said. "It walks on two feet here, but every so often puts a knuckle down. The pace is bigger than a bear's, and these claws longer."

They found the body a little further on, amid a radius of upturned leaves and bloody, torn bracken. There were no tracks leaving the site.

It was on the way home, trudging slowly with the body slung between Renaut and Christophe, that they saw the angry, flickering glare above Bois de Haillot. Leaving Lydia at the fork in the path, they hurried toward the village. There were distant shouts from beyond the hedgerows, in the direction of the barn, and a lurid orange lighting the smoke that hung over the riverward crofts. Just before the brook that runs down from the Hog Wood there was a loud hiss and the clatter of arrows hitting stone, then Renaut was stumbling, 12 inches of shaft sticking from his shoulder. Three raiders emerged from the shadows of the nearest hedge, with a rider on horseback behind them--the knight Friedhold.

Rutger charged first, with Edgard just behind. The fighting was pitched, but Friedhold underestimated his enemies, and was soon lying bleeding on the turf. Two of the footsoldiers were killed, the third fled. Renaut's injuries were dire, but Christophe's quick action had held death at bay. Elsewhere, the raid had been repelled, though homes had burned and lives had been lost. Rutger laid rightful claim to Friedhold's armor and horse, and, after retrieving the corpse, the companions returned to the castle.

They made their entry without fanfare, keeping Lydia covered amid the confusing bustle in the bailey. Renaut called over Daria while Brother Christophe found Georges. Daria's effort to scrye the attacker revealed only the same blurred images Renaut had conjured earlier. "It's not an animal," Renaut explained, "my arts have shown me that. And I do not think it typical of the fey. This is a magical beast, perhaps, or infernal." Daria agreed, noting as Renaut had that infernal creatures do not wander through woods without being summoned. "Search the body with all thoroughness," she ordered.

The apprentice did, stripping her and cleaning the wounds, and finding nothing they did not already know. But then Albrecht parted her lips. Within was a dark object. "Do not touch it!" Renaut shouted. "Fetch tongs!" Edgard returned quickly with the tool and an earthenware bottle, and Renaut parted Lydia's lips again. Gingerly he pulled the object from her mouth. It was little bigger than a child's fist, blacker than pitch, and as hard as marble.

It was an egg.

Prologue: Monday and Tuesday following Feast of Saint John, 1178

It has been a dark and rainy Spring in Brabant, but Spring it is. A knight appeared in Bois de Haillot, fully armed and armoured and on a great destrier, his squire following with an armful of lances. The villagers gathered about, but few strayed close, for this was clearly a man with blood in his past, and even his horse was dangerous and eager. William de Bierve, the bailliff, challenged him at the ford, and the knight seemed satisfied to wait there, at least for a while.

Shortly after several people of the Covenant, including one of the apprentices and the squire of the Captain, came down from the nearby fields. Renaut spoke for the Covenant, or more properly for the princeps Anaxagoras (for that is who the knight, Friedhold, came seeking). Friedhold gave Renaut a letter in the name of Duke Gottfried of Brabant, calling him with arms, retainers, and provisions to an army the Duke was gathering. Renaut, along with Rutger the squire and Brother Christophe, delivered it up to the castle, leaving the other covenfolk, along with the bailiff and the villagers, to watch Friedhold as he idly sized up the manor.

Anaxagoras was infuriated by the letter—is not Bois de Haillot a fief of the Holy Roman Emperor, immune to a call to arms by any local lord? At his command, Renaut and Brother Christophe penned an elegant but unequivocal reply. Before returning to the village, Renaut magicked Rutger's horse Sven, giving the gelding the stature of the heaviest of destriers, and Rutger took up his arms and armour. The knight Friedhold left with Renaut’s written reply, apparently with some relish for the fight that it seemed might be coming.

The Covenant called Council, and the magi debated their options for some time. At last they emerged from their private council chamber, and orders were given. Under the supervision of Aline's apprentice Pietre, Renaut was tasked with gathering vis from the waters of the Pool of the Stone horse in the forest some miles from the manor. Given the danger of an army in the region, he was not to travel alone in the woods, so he gathered about him his companions from the day before: Rutger and Christophe, along with the huntsman Edgard, and Olaf and Albrecht (who may have been more attracted to the silver coins to be thrown into the pool than to the task at hand).

Someone had been to the pool before; Albrecht found footprints at the water's edge. Edgard and Olaf spotted a black horse moving in the bracken nearby, but despite its size and the density of the forest, it disappeared with hardly a sound. It has been speculated that the pool is home to a fey creature (perhaps that's what gives its water magical properties), and Renaut posited that this horse might be the fairie, driven from its home perhaps by the previous visitor. Edgard followed the footprints, which clearly led back to the manor but gave no clue as to their creator. Renaut would later find that the water he gathered had no power to produce vis.

Back at the castle, Olaf was approached by a friend. Georges was concerned for his lover Lydia, who had not been seen since morning. The two were banned from seeing each other (having endangered their virtue without the benefit of betrothal), so Georges was hesitant to bring the issue to Doriane, the steward. Could Olaf and his friends investigate first? Olaf found only that indeed, nobody had seen Lydia since midday, and that she did not reappear at compline.

In the mean time, a cousin of Edgard's appeared at the castle, seeking shelter for herself and her children. She reported an army occupying Arbois, the nearest manor to the north of Bois de Haillot. The Duke was gathering forces, and wherever men of war gather, fighting, looting, and death are not far behind.

Bois de Haillot shrinks before the threat of a nearby army. Covenfolk are missing, and people and creatures unknown ply the dark forests that envelope the covenant.