Tuesday and Wednesday following Easter, 1198

"The dogs!" Cornelius exclaimed, running to where they strained at their tethers. They were scent hounds, and eager for the chase, and they picked up the wolves' trail just beyond where the count and his entourage gathered about his lifeless lady. The trail skirted the pond and then  headed through the demesne woods, east and north. For an hour or more they crossed waste and field, skirted hedgerows, and hopped from one patch of woods to another, slowly curving north around the town. Along the way they passed villages and fields with peasants at the plow, but no sign of carnage. "These wolves came a long way to kill the countess," Madeleine remarked.

It was nearly vespers when they returned to the castle. The hounds had been keen, but Cornelius was hardly a tracker, and the trail had eventually been lost. The four of them climbed to the castle and were admitted to see Valprés. "The count has put a new bounty on wolves," he told them. "A shilling per hide." Michi whistled. But his jaw dropped agape when Valprés continued. "For the big one with grey-tipped ears: one-hundred pounds of silver. I advised against it--these wolves are not natural, and many peasants will lose their lives seeking this bounty." Valprés had an ear cut from one of the day's attackers, and Gaspard employed his magic upon it. But such spells were not his strength, and it told him little: "The wolves went north. And I see a building, a tower or such in the forest. . . ." Valprés had seen such a thing before. "Since the Romans, many have attempted to establish a stronghold in the Ardennes. I recall once seeing a keep or tower on a ridge over the Meuse--but it was deep within the forest, thirty leagues perhaps."

They set out before prime the next morning--it would be two days, at least, to this forest keep, assuming they could even find it. They entered the forest an hour or two before vespers, keen to gain as much distance as possible before stopping for the night. An hour or so later, as the evening gloom was starting to deepen, they found themselves in a dell between rocky ridges. A mist was descending, and the trees grew scattered and leafless as the ground became wetter. Soon they had lost sight of the mountains around as the mist became thicker. They turned back, but could not find their path

"Lost! Lost!" came a little voice, with a laugh. A figure appeared from behind a nearby tree: Like a child, perhaps 8 years old, only half that height. Naked and pale in the now-frigid mist, and with a pair of crystalline wings folded between his shoulders. "We offer no threat!" Gaspard addressed it. "We're merely passing through, looking for wolves." "Wolves? Why? Are you hungry?" the creature responded, running its tongue over sharp teeth. "They have killed our friends," Madeleine responded. "Oh, vengeance!" the creature replied. "I will take you to someone who knows where the wolves are!"

They followed the creature through the mist. The ground became even wetter, with ice crusting the stands of dead weeds and skirting the ponds that their path how threaded between. "She knows!" the winged child exclaimed as there was a splash from ahead. As they approached a bog, a woman appeared. Her head and shoulders emerged from the icy water, which bouyed her pale breasts and long hair. In the dark water below her body was invisible. "I will take you to the wolves," the water-faerie agreed, "I will swim you through my pond to the river by the wolves' home. But I am hungry. If you will not give me one of your number, I will have your dogs." Gaspard made a spell that would let them each breath in the water, and he was the first to enter the frigid bog. But no sooner had he descended beneath the surface than the faerie grasped him to pull him to its depths. Here beneath the surface there was no pale face or long hair--just a black, skeletal shape like a dead fish with claws. Gaspard pulled free and sputtered to the surface, his friends pulling him from the water just as the furious faerie resurfaced and grasped one of the hounds.

"What now?" exclaimed Michi, his sword gripped tightly at the ready. "We're lost in this place and who knows where that creature might emerge?" Just then there was the sound of a horn, and hunched shapes appeared in the mist around them. An enormous, antlered beast emerged from the mist, its eyes glinting a fiery red as it snorted impatiently. Astride it sat another woman, her hand grasping a half-dozen silver chains leashing a wretched entourage that stumbled around her mount. "I thought the hounds had scented something interesting," she stated, dismounting and pulling her thralls behind her. "You trespass in my lands, bearing arms of iron no less." "We became lost, my lady," Madeleine explained, "Perhaps you could help us find our way back to our realm, then we would be no trouble to you." The faerie lady considered, looking each of them over as she walked among them. "What price could you offer for such a favour on my part? Perhaps instead I might just add you to my entourage?" Her eyes fell upon Michi's sword. "Bladhmlonrach!" she whispered. "Very well. The sword then, and I will guide you from these lands." But Michi wouldn't consider it. "I've another idea. I wrestle with one of your hounds, there. If I win, we get outta here. If I lose, I join your gang there for a year and a day." The lady smiled. "Very well. If you win, I will give you a guide." She tugged on one of her chains, and a hunched creature sidled forward.

It was a short fight; within seconds the creature was on the ground. "Here is your guide," the faerie lady said, calling forth the pale winged child, "You can call him Siocán."

Siocán sullenly led them through the forest, and after some time they emerged from the mist onto a rocky slope. It was well after compline, and above them among the trees a tower stood silhouetted against the night sky. There were no lights, but as they approached they saw movement. Several men-at-arms stood near the entrance of the keep, and a robed figure emerged from the doorway. They were spotted as they approached, and the men-at-arms moved quickly to attack. The robed figure began calling to magic, first calling up poisonous mists, then conjuring the skeletal forms of beasts from the bones among the debris and the base of the keep. Michi pushed his way through the bodyguards to the conjurer, striking the dark-faced man once, but before he could hit again the man clutched a black gem about his neck and disappeared. His bodyguards fought on, to the very death, and before the battle was over Gaspard lay unconscious and the others staggered, bloody and panting.