Thursday following Easter and the days after, 1198

Gaspard lay unconscious until morning. They had investigated just enough of the keep to satisfy themselves that they were alone, then made a quick camp for the night in its lower hall. They were clearly not the first: Though a ruin, the keep had recently been home to a large band. There were coarse bunks, and the fireplaces had been used for cooking. The inhabitants had not been concerned with niceties--in addition to living under a rotting roof and mossy walls, they were careless with the debris of their meals and even their own filth.

But not everyone had lived in squalor. Cornelius found the chapel in an upper tower room; it had been made into living quarters with a bed of fine linens and a quality chest. "A lady lived here," Madeleine commented, noting a handful of dresses still in the chest and some few personal items. "If you think that's something, come see what I found," reported Michi. At the bottom of the spiral staircase, in a deep cellar, a wooden door was covered in arcane markings. "Wards," confirmed Gaspard. "A hedge wizard or a magus--but someone who understands such things."

Inside, the cellar had been a laboratory, with tables and shelves, tools and space for conjurations. Whoever had used it had, like the rest of the keep's inhabitants, cleared out, but one table was still layered in sacrificial blood.

The trip back to Verdun took nearly two days. Within sight of the city, a familiar form appeared on the road ahead: Gigot. "I am so glad you have returned safely!" he said, seeming genuinely pleased. The others confronted him. "What sort of spells is your mistress casting on the count? Or is she in league with a rogue magus?" Gigot became angry, and headed back toward the city. "He'll warn DuCraindre that we suspect her!" Bruder Cornelius said, and Gaspard caught up with the youth, casting a spell that wiped the encounter from his memory. "I'm so happy you've returned safely!" Gigot exclaimed again, having forgotten all about their meeting moments before. "We're pleased to see you, too, Gigot," Madeleine said. "What news of the city?" "My mistress spends much time with the count," Gigot answered, "but his children do not seem to like her."

In the city, Michi's informant Juste confirmed what Gigot had told them. "She's clearly involved with the robber-baron--perhaps she is the robber baron--and somehow she caused the attack on the countess," Madeleine reasoned. The next day, Michi unearthed further proof: Rendered invisible and silent by Gaspard's spells, he crept into DuCraindre's townhouse, stealing past her servants and lounging armsmen after she went up to the castle. In her chamber he found arcane tomes and implements.

Cornelius had gone to speak with the count about taking his children under his spiritual wing. He returned after nones, meeting the others at Lapidary's house. All were convinced of DuCraindre's role in the countess's death, but how to proceed? What binding proof could they present?

Suddenly Lapidary's apprentice announced a guest for them. It was Gigot, downcast, with a basket under his arm. "She asks too much of me!" he exclaimed, tears forming in his eyes. He lifted a cloth in the basket, revealing three small rabbits. "I am to take them to the river and drown them," Gigot explained. "At dawn they change back into the count's children, and when their bodies are found there will be nothing to indicate they did other than wander off and fall into the water." DuCraindre was a powerful sorceress, according to Gigot, and changing people into animals and animals into people was her favourite trick. "She makes birds and mice into servants. Her men-at-arms are wolves, sometimes bears or boar." So she was the robber baron? Gigot confirmed that she was, and that they had lived in the ruined keep for as long as he could remember. What of Slavek? Gigot didn't know what he was--unlike all of the others, he had never seen Slavek reverted to his natural form.

"And what of you, Gigot?" Lady Madeleine asked softly. He did meet her eyes "I am like the others." Perhaps when DuCraindre was defeated he would turn back into a wolf--and be free. Gigot was horrified at the idea: "The wolves that killed Lady Cecilia were from our band. I would not have that blood in my mouth! When I become such a creature, slay me--I beg you!"

But Gaspard didn't think that would happen. If Gigot had been made from a wolf, his true nature would still be that of an animal--so he would be affected only by magics that worked upon animals, and not those that affected men. He tested his theory with a harmless spell, concluding that Gigot was, in fact, human. The youth remained unconvinced. Nor could he aid in any confrontation with his mistress; he could not stand up to her in confrontation.

There was little time. DuCraindre would miss Gigot if he did not soon return from his errand. And he would not be able to lie to her if he did not complete it. They headed for the castle and sought out Valprés, laying all the evidence before him. "The count puts no stock in such things," the steward said. "We will have to draw her out--unless she reveals herself, we cannot lay a finger on her." They left Gigot and the basket in the solar and found DuCraindre in the hall, along with Slavek, the rat-faced man, and another of her armsmen. At first she denied all, but the evidence was too compelling. "The curse of Circe will stay your tongue," she told Valprés, and seconds later a terrified hog stood in his place. Michi drew his sword and charged the rat-faced man. Cornelius slammed into the table that stood between him and DuCraindre, but Slavek prevented him from pinning the rogue maga to the wall. "Free me!" Slavek demanded of DuCraindre as he struggled to keep her from harm.

He was a ferocious fighter, but the others were pressing in. Gaspard and DuCraindre traded spells, but neither seemed to affect the other. Michi and Lady Madeleine, who wielded her curved Saracen sword, drove the two armsmen back, and the rat-faced man soon fell. "Free me!" Slavek demanded again, and this time DuCraindre acted. She reached up and pulled the torque from his neck.

And where he had stood a vast dragon now took form, dwarfing her and the others and filling the hall's rafters with its great wings. The pig that had been Valprés squealed and struggled for a hiding place. DuCraindre's last armsman dropped his sword and ran. The others simply stared as the dragon regarded them, its gaze moving from one to another.

And then it attacked. Roaring in fury, it turned on its erstwhile master, and, free after years of her dominance, ripped DuCraindre's head from her body. Then it beat its vast wings against the rafters above while DuCraindre's bloody torso crumpled to the ground, the torque still in her grip. Finding no weakness among the heavy rafters, the dragon opened its jaws and loosed its fiery breath upon the woodwork, setting the roof ablaze.

It would take a moment for the fire to work its damage upon the roof, and while it waited the dragon turned its fury upon those remaining. It lashed out against Cornelius and Michi. Madeleine scrambled for the torque and tried vainly to secure it to the dragon's leg, but the creature threw her to the ground. Gaspard ducked out of the way as the dragon again employed its terrible fire, and Cornelius and Madeleine were horribly scalded. It had its victory, but just then the roof tiles began to fall in, and, sensing its freedom, the dragon instead leapt skyward, bursting through the now-blazing roof.

It was nearly a week later when they set back out for Bois de Haillot. Hundreds of townsfolk had poured into the streets when smoke had been spotted rising from the castle, and it seemed half the city had seen the dragon burst skyward, bellow a challenging roar as it pause on the parapet of a tower, then take flight eastward. At dawn the next morning Valprés and the children resumed their human form, shaken but no worse for wear. A few days later Eidelmann arrived in the city, and Triamore's business was finally settled.

Word had quickly spread of the heroes' deeds, and they were often hailed on the streets. But they were as often met with turned backs, suspicious glances, and signs of the cross: Verdun had been subject to magic and dragons, and for all they had done, the emissaries of Triamore were part of that dangerous world that no townsman wanted within their walls. It seemed the count felt the same way for, though Valprés allowed them to sort through DuCraindre's chattel before it was inventoried, they were not welcome again at the castle nor allowed to the countess's funeral.

They returned to Triamore with Gigot and the tomes and vis taken from DuCraindre's house. Daria and Remi took in their tale with great interest. But it was when they examined the books that Daria's interest sharpened. The tomes were beaten and old, their margins scribbled with notes in DuCraindre's hand and at least one other. "These books are no strangers to Triamore," Daria proclaimed, absently clenching her firescarred hand. "They were taken from here some twenty years ago--taken by a rogue apprentice called Pietre."

End of Chapter One