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Chapter One

The day after the fight, everyone wakes up late. Rhuadh and Geraint both slip away into town, whilst Frach takes time to stitch up various injuries obtained by the group. Aaron reveals his Glamour magic for the first time, lending Sir Frach the aid of the Green Man to improve his surgical efforts. The result is that everyone is feeling (more or less) fighting fit by the time they ride north at 4 o'clock. Sir Geraint has bought small rewards for those who helped defend the realm - a fine-quality dagger with intricate hiltwork for Rhuadh and a sturdy quiver embroidered with details of the lives of the saints for Aaron. For Iris, he has bought some fashionable but sturdy winter clothes, suited to the Avalonian clime. "Nothing for me?" grumbles Frach "I saved your life...."

Sir Frach and Sir Geraint are riding north to answer Baron Douglas Colby's request for aid. Iris is going with Sir Geraint, and the other two announce that they will be coming too. Mollified, perhaps, by the assistance they received the previous night, the two Knights assent to this. It is about a three hour ride up the northerly coast road to the Baron's estate and Rhuadh urges that they hurry, claiming that despite the clear day a storm is coming. It turns out that he is right; by the time it gets dark thick, cold packets of rain pelt the earth and the skeletal winter trees that surround the road.

Once off the main road and following an older way east into the hills, towards the Colby estate, Sir Geraint hears cries and the ring of steel from off beside the road. He spurs his horse and leads Frach and Aaron quickly through the wood, with Rhuadh riding more slowly behind. They break into a clearing where a young man has been beset by bandits, who lured him off the road by the ruse of having one of them pretend to be a maiden in distress. Here in the clearing, two of them lie dead at his hand, but the man now lies with a serious injury and the remaining bandits standing over him. However, when they see the knights arrive they turn and run for the far side of the clearing. Geraint, Frach and Iris ride over to help the downed man whilst Aaron rides down one of the bandits and stuns him with the pommel of his rapier. He ties the man's hands and throws him over the back of his horse.

The rescued party turns out to be one Domingo Esteban, a Castillian man who claims to be a student at Bedegrane University. His father's lands are in the region of occupied Castille where the fighting is at its worst and he has been trapped in Avalon, unable to go home, for over a year now. A devout believer in Theus, he was journeying north to a chapel in Lothian when he heard the "maiden's" cries and ran to her aid, into the trap. Frach judges Domingo, who is unable to stand, to be in considerable danger from his stomach wound. He binds the injury as best he can and then sets the Castillian on the back of his horse. The others mount up and ride towards the Colby mansion - a journey accompanied by the gathering fury of the storm and punctuated by a futile attempt at escape by the captured bandit.

At Colby manor they are welcomed by Maurice the butler, who is clearly expecting someone else. Baron Colby sends for his groundskeeper, who has some considerable herb lore, to attend to the injured Domingo and takes the two knights to his study in order to talk to them. There he reveals that he is being haunted. He describes a creature which appears in mirrors and resembles a dead loved one to each that views it. The apparitions have missing eyes and blood drips from the sockets. Many of the staff have taken to covering their mirrors at night before going to sleep and a week ago one of the maids had a nightmare where she claimed that she woke to find the cloth swollen up with a terrible glowing red miasma. Her screams, she claims, drove it away. The knights comment on the most salient feature of Colby manor - the prolific mirrors which adorn nearly every surface within. The Baron explains that they were an addition made by his late wife, the lady Heather Colby, when she married him and moved in. He also confesses that he has two ancilliary problems: A highwayman styling himself Lord Magpie has been predating on his tax gatherers and on the stream of nobles he has been encouraging to visit him as suitors for his only child, Henrietta. Finally, his best stallion went wild that morning and kicked the stablemaster in the head, fatally. His staff are freaked out and he is worried that many might desert him. Worse still, the latest suitor, Viscount Trevelyan St Clair and his father, Count Robert St Clair, are due to arrive for dinner this very evening.

Meanwhile, the others are being provided for as the Baron had specified. They are shown to rooms in the 1st floor of the manor's east wing and brought warm water that they might make a proper toilet before dinner. Hannah, one of the Baron's maids, takes Iris's measurements and finds her some dresses of the late Lady Heather's such as might be suitable for a formal dinner. Iris talks to Hannah a bit and learns somewhat of the haunting. Rhuadh takes time to see that the Quartermaster and his lads bind and take the captured bandit away. He also wanders the halls for a time before dressing, noticing a painting of an island which he identifies as a view of the Lonely Island, westernmost of the Out Isles in the Hebrides. Both he and Aaron have been lent suits of the Baron's to wear for dinner.

When everyone is ready they convene in the drawing room, above the central atrium in the main part of the house, where they are introduced to the St Clairs (who have arrived in the interim). Just as they are concluding that Trevelyan is a snivelling little weed, Henrietta Colby arrives. Henrietta makes an immediate impression as very beautiful, very stylish and very jaded with her comparatively dull rural lifestyle and the constant attention of suitors - which she makes plain she has very little interest in. In contrast, she seems very taken by the glamour associated with our heroes, particularly Aaron Flynn (who, it turns out, cleans up real good) and Sir Frach.

After a suitable amount of sherry and chitchat, everyone relocates to the main dining room - a large, rectangular room dominated by a great oak table. The Baron has arranged to have ornate tapestries hung on each wall, covering the full-length mirrors that once framed the room. On the way there, Frach and Geraint pull Rhuadh aside and tell him about the creature. Geraint suggests that it might be a mirror ghost, such as he has heard tell of when he studied in Montaigne, and asks that, should he encounter it, Rhuadh test this hypothesis by attempting to use Porte.

In the dining room they are reunited with a somewhat recovered Domingo Esteban (although he whispers to Sir Frach that he can barely stand). Everyone sits to table and begins to enjoy an excellent first course consisting of beef olives served over a plate of wild rice cooked with herbs. A strong, moody claret is served as an accompaniment and despite the now heavy storm which is buffeting the casement at the far end of the room a mood of cheer prevails. During the first course, Trevelyan gives people plenty of opportunity to score cheap points off of him, but only Henrietta does. Baron Colby talks politely with Iris and Frach, Geraint chats to Domingo, Count St Clair makes known his fondness for hunting quail, grouse and pheasant and Aaron and Henrietta flirt subtly with each other, virtually under the noses of the St Clairs.

All of this comes to a sudden halt as Maurice and his lads are clearing the table for the main course. For the tapestry on the north wall has begun to glow with a hideous ruby light. As the horrified diners watch, it seems to swell and grow. Aaron dashes to his feet and tears the tapestry down as Geraint and Frach run to pull the tapestry off the other mirror, hoping that if it is a mirror ghost they may trap it between them. Rhuadh rolls under the table and attempts to open a small Portal, only to find that he can't. A ghost wind snuffs the candles in the chandeliers and holders. When the tapestry hits the ground, Aaron finds himself staring into the eyeless sockets of his dead mother. From her place by the table, Iris sees the Vodacce courtier whom she seduced to aid her escape, and who was executed by her fiance not long after. Frach sees his dead grandfather. And Sir Geraint finds himself gazing at the sightless, bloody visage of Moira, his once-betrothed, stolen from him by a prince of the Sidhe three years gone by. Aaron tries to shatter the mirror but finds to his shock that his blow, and his arm, merely pass into it, moving as if through water. His mother catches hold of his swordhand with an icy talon and a grip like steel and he can feel his skin burning where she touches him. At the table, everyone has sprung to their feet save Domingo, who has his head bowed and is praying. Rhuadh rolls up from under the table and is surprised to see his father, Aidan McCodrum, sightless and grisly, clutching Aaron's hand within the mirror. Sensing a magical effect, Rhuadh runs forward and strikes the mirror with the Sidhe dagger which has been in his family for generations. Immediately, both mirrors burst into the room, dispelling the visions and sending shards of glass ripping across the whole room. Rhuadh and Aaron receive some nasty cuts and Aaron is glad that he instinctively jerked his hand free before something terrible happened....

Chapter Two

Sir Geraint Penarfion is in a black, black mood. That this creature - be it beast or spirit - should impersonate his lost love, should even have the temerity to imply that she may be dead, sends him into an apoplexy of rage. Baron Colby, meanwhile, is frantically apologizing to his guests, worried perhaps that this incident will scare them away. Indeed, both the St Clairs look pretty shaken and perhaps were the storm not so fierce about the house they might think of departing. Aaron, talking with Henrietta, notices that although she is putting a brave face on things she too is trembling. When he moves to comfort her she quietly disengages and moves away from him.

Maurice suggests to the Baron that perhaps he could prepare a table in the small dining room since the main room is covered with vicious splinters of glass. The Baron agrees and everyone retreats to the drawing room for a steadying nip of tokay while the room is made up. Maurice pops his head in and asks Sir Frach to accompany him to the kitchens. There he shows Frach that Sid, a kitchen lad of about 16 summers, is lying face down with blood trickling from his eyes and nose. Otherwise there is not a mark on him but the boy is quite dead. Frach notices that a mirror on the wall above where the boy is working is cracked. But perhaps the most worrying thing is the small, brown bottle of almond-scented liquid standing open next to the platters prepared with the porkchops on them, the broken dropper still clutched in the dead boy's hand. Rather than sniffing all of the porkchops, Frach suggests to Maurice that they put about the story that Sid was killed whilst the meat was still cooking and that it burnt and became inedible. The Eisen suggests that, while less comforting, cold cuts might in this case be more reassuring.

Most people are several tokays closer to the weather by the time the main course is served. Although the cold food may be less suited to the wintry climate it is still a fine spread and seems to be appreciated. Dinner is followed by coffee and then everyone retires to the drawing room to smoke their pipes and talk. While this is going on, the two knights meet again with the Baron, this time bringing Rhuadh with them. They show the poison to him and asks if he knows what is going on. Colby admits that he does not. Someone suggests that perhaps Lord Magpie is behind these intrusions and Colby admits that this is a possibility that has occurred to him, although the highwayman is famous for never having killed, or even harmed, anyone. Frach confesses that they are not entirely sure what they are dealing with. Rhuadh suggests that they remove the mirrors, thus hampering the creature's movement. At this point Baron Colby confesses an important fact about his late wife, the Lady Heather. Although her maiden name is listed as being McEndrie, he tells them, it was actually McEachern. Heather brought with her to Colby manor a mysterious dowry, of which she would never speak and which she arranged to have hidden even her husband knew not where. She also insisted that the house be clad in mirrors, laid out to a very specific pattern, as a defense against the Goodly Folk. Thus, the Baron is loath to remove the mirrors in case he calls down on his own household the same kind of terrible vengeance that destroyed the McEacherns so many years ago. Frach asks Maurice, who is also present, to try and get a head count of all the other servants, to see if anyone else is missing, and to send them all to bed when he is done.

Meanwhile in the drawing room, Iris tries to lighten the mood with a parlour trick or two and offers to perform a destiny spread reading for anyone who is interested. (She does not, of course, tell people that she is a Strega, preferring instead that they think her closer to a gypsy fortune teller.) She performs a reading for Henrietta and is about to do one for Aaron before Baron Colby, who has returned from his meeting, politely suggests that such things might be tempting fate a little on a night like this. Conversation between the young folk turns to various topics such as divination, with Domingo espousing some fairly traditional Vaticine beliefs, while the two older men smoke quietly in the corner.

The knights and Rhuadh make their way to the quartermaster's lodge to interrogate the captured bandit. However, when they get there they find both the bandit and the quartermaster dead in the same mysterious manner - with blood showing from the eyes and nose. There are no other marks on the bodies and the quartermaster's dinner, half-eaten, shows no signs of being poisoned. Rhuadh tests his Porte again and finds that it is still blocked, even though there is no sign of the creature in the room at the present time. They search the desk of the quartermaster, whose name was Roger Twain, and find a packet of letters from a mysterious S________, who appears to be a woman whom he jilted long ago, and who is still obsessed with him. Other than that, there is no clue to be found in the room.

Returning to the smoking room, the knights reveal to everyone there gathered that they believe an assassination attempt may be planned against one or more of them. They encourage everyone to take their beds and to post guards outside their rooms. The St Clairs have their own bodyguards - a pair of Eisen named Rutger and Tomas who are swordsmen of the Durchsetzunburg school - who will watch over them. Iris, it is agreed, will stay with Henrietta and Sir Geraint shall stand guard outside their room on the top floor of the east wing. The Baron will sleep in his own room, in the top floor of the west wing, with Aaron standing guard outside. This will leave Sir Frach and Rhuadh to continue the investigation. Maurice tells them that one of the other kitchen boys, Jim, has not been seen all day but that everyone else in the main house is accounted for.

Everyone retires to bed and Frach and Rhuadh make their way through the driving rain and howling wind to the stables, thinking that Jim may be hiding there. He is not, but they do find the two stableboys, John and Jack, playing Blackjack in the hayloft over the main stable. The boys point out Kingsolver, the Baron's breed stallion, which was responsible for kicking poor Johanns Emmett to death, and mention that he has generally been extremely placid. Indeed, Kingsolver seems to be one of only two beasts not driven to paroxysms of fear by the current storm, the other being Henrietta's bay stallion, Siegfried. The boys haven't seen Jim all day either. They explain that they aren't sleeping in the stablemaster's house, where they share an attic room, because they're scared that Johaans ghost might be there. Besides, there aren't any mirrors in the hayloft. When questioned about Lord Magpie they opine that he's somewhat of a folk hero, having confined his predations to the many stuck-up nobles who have come to visit the Baron over recent months.

With the St Clair's retired and Domingo helped to his bed, Henrietta asks Iris and Geraint to wait in the hallway while she tidies her room a little. The oil lamps that light the manor are burning low now and will soon go out for the night, so everyone who is still moving around is equipped with a lantern. Henrietta lets them in and sits on her bed while Geraint occupies the chair by her chiffonier and Iris prowls around toying with her stuff. On Henrietta's desk Iris finds a bent hairpin, which she pockets. Later inspection allows her to tell that it has been used - whether successfully or no - as a lockpick. Under cover of an escort to the bathroom, she points this out to Sir Geraint. After some more conversation, on the topic of literacy and education, Henrietta lends Sir Geraint two popular romances and a rather dubious history concerning the deeds of Mad Jack O'Bannon. Geraint hopes these texts will help him stay awake through another tense night.

Aaron Flynn sits outside Baron Colby's, listening to his snores. After a time, he finds himself beginning to nod. His thoughts are turning to Henrietta and various sleepy fancies and he realises that he had perhaps one too many glasses of tokay to really facilitate guard duty. To keep himself awake, he decides to explore the rest of the top floor of the west wing - rooms which once belonged to the late Lady Heather. Opening the door to her bedroom he sees a covered four-poster and an intricate weaving of a Hebridean village scene on the wall. After a few seconds, he feels a cold breeze caress the back of his neck. Perhaps, he feels, there is somebody standing in the window bay, behind the thick green velvet drapes. He quickly goes back to the hallway and closes the door but once there he convinces himself that he is being foolish and strides back into the room, past the covered bed, whips the curtains open and brings his rapier up, only to find himself slicing a branch off of a long-dead potted vine. Outside, a sheet of lightning breaks the sky. Aaron whips round to face the bed with a feeling of sudden dread. Cautiously, he pries up the hangings and shines his lantern in, but the bed too is abandoned and dusty. He is just about to turn to inspect the tapestry when he hears a sound over the storm, a sharp crack like a bone breaking from outside the window.

Frach and Rhuadh let themselves into the late Johaans Emmett's house and, while Frach searches a small cellar located under a trapdoor in the kitchen area, Rhuadh goes through Emmett's desk. However, when he finds a hidden drawer at the back, with a packet of letters in it, he pockets them and says nothing of it to the Knight. Cautiously, the pair make their way upstairs to the boys' attic, but there is no-one to be found there. Returning to the main house, Rhuadh notes an area where the ivy has been torn away from the trellis by the storm. But the more that he looks at it the more convinced he becomes that in fact the ivy was scraped away by someone scaling the side of the building. When he points this out, Frach tells him to follow the climb whilst he goes around the building and makes his way to the outside of the same room. Rhuadh begins climbing and becomes convinced that he is following someone's trail. Then, about halfway up the trellis, one of the wooden struts pops under his weight and he nearly falls.

It is this sound which came to Aaron's ears. Looking out the window he is able to see Rhuadh clinging on to the trellis as the storm howls around him. Frach opens the window from the inside and Rhuadh climbs into the room on the floor below Aaron's. That room is a storeroom for herbs, spices, nuts and other dried goods. Frach spots a slight trace of mud on the windowsill but there is otherwise no sign of any of the wet and dirt that an intruder would have brought with him. Puzzled, the two make their way upstairs.

Aaron, meanwhile, has been studying the weaving. Although it appears to be a simple village scene, with men working on the repair of a fishing boat in a town square, he realizes that the design of the boat is unrealistic, being instead a skeletal blueprint of Colby Manor. He moves the tapestry to check behind it and there is nothing but a wood-panelled wall, but on the back he finds a small, red sword embroidered. He is still puzzling over this mystery when the other two arrive from downstairs. Rhuadh wonders whether the sword indicates anything on the map and, after a bit of testing, they work out that it seems to point to the quartermaster's lodge. Hearing nothing but soft, regular snores coming from Baron Colby's room, the three make their way down to the abandoned lodge.

Henrietta is getting sleepy, so Geraint retires to the corridor and attempts to read the rather turgid book about the O'Bannon, which turns out to be even more sensationalist than one might expect. Iris meanwhile contrives to keep her hostess awake as the two sit up late in Henrietta's pajamas (a Montaigne style which has come in in Avalon) talking of education, womanhood and many other things. Eventually, Geraint gives up on the books and takes to pacing to and fro along the corridor to keep himself awake. He is still glancing at the mirrors from time to time, hating the creature for showing him a vision of his lost Moira.

In the quartermaster's lodge, everything is as it was before. The two bodies from there, along with that of Sid the kitchen boy, have already been placed in the basement with pennies over their eyes. Aaron, however, has a very bad feeling about the room. Moving over to the southeast corner, he can feel in his Seelie blood the tingling of a vast quantity of cold iron, apparently sealed away under the oaken boards of the floor. Frach reasons that this lost treasure may be the intruders' goal and that the safest way to safeguard it is to possess it, so he sends Aaron and Rhuadh to the basement to look for suitable carpentry tools with which to rip up the floorboards. Shortly after they have gone, however, another sheet of lightning interrupts the stormy night and he spies a mysterious hooded figure making its way up the path to the front door of the house. With the others gone, Frach slips out the quartermaster's entrance into the teeth of the storm to follow the figure.

In the east wing, Geraint's pacing is interrupted by the sound of a soft cough and a chilling gurgle from the stairs below - a sound the young knight recognizes as a man's death rattle. Drawing his rapier, Geraint goes haring down the stairs by the mezzenine. At their foot, he sees one of the Eisen bodyguards lying still, with a blade in his neck, and on the stairs below a figure dressed as a maid is hurrying down to the ground floor. Further investigation, however, is halted when he spots the dark figure lurking in the shadow of a nearby doorway. The man steps out and tosses a knife into Geraint's shoulder. Where the blade bites into his flesh, everything begins to go numb as some form of contact poison begins to work. Geraint closes with the man, who is dressed all in black and barefoot, his dark hair pulled back in a ponytail to stop from falling into his face. The two trade blows and Geraint pinks him once but takes a pair of nasty cuts in the process. He can feel the poisons in his bloodstream as he begins to weaken. His opponent, however, seems impressed and, speaking in an accented voice, suggests politely that Geraint should retire and save them both the unpleasantness of his having to kill him.

In the atrium below, on their way to the kitchen to get down to the cellars, Rhuadh and Aaron hear Geraint's cutting retort to this suggestion, followed by the ring of steel on steel. Drawing their weapons, the two race for the east stairs, with Aaron giving a great cry as he charges ahead. Once there, Rhuadh successfully throws a blade into the assassin's shoulder before Aaron closes to join with Geraint in attacking him. However, the man in black feints high and then delivers a terrible blow to Aaron's guts, slicing him savagely. Then, judging the odds to be against him, he turns and flees down the corridor. Geraint takes this chance to collapse under the weight of the poison and Aaron is going nowhere fast. Rhuadh, however, gives chase. At the corridor's far end a flare of lightning illumines the cicular window set in the end wall. The assassin does not hesitate but flips his legs up, crashing through the window feet first to land like a cat on the soaking turf two floors below. Without thinking, Rhuadh leaps after him, landing with a minimum of shock, and hares after him up the slope and into the nearby woods.

Outside the front doors of the manor, Sir Frach accosts the cloaked figure, who is busily rapping on the heavy brass doorknocker with one gloved hand. When the stranger wheels to face him, Frach is confronted with an older, beaky man, soaked through from the storm, with thinning white hair and ruddy skin, wearing the tabard of Her Majesty's Knights. The fellow explains in gruff tones that his name is Sir Peppin and that he is here seeking the fabled Mirror Beast, for which he must eternally quest.

Chapter Three

In Henrietta's bedroom, the girls' conversation is disrupted by the distant sound of Aaron's shout. Grabbing her rapier, Iris dashes out into the corridor, with Henrietta in her wake. The young Ducchess Colby is clutching a letter opener and explains that she feels safer not being left alone. Both girls are still in their pajamas, which are rather too large for the diminutive Iris and serve to impede her. At the foot of the stairs they find Aaron stumbling around, holding his guts in, next to the unconscious form of Sir Geraint and the two Eisen bodyguards, only one of whom it turns out is actually dead. Various throwing knives which failed to find their marks jut from the walls and lintels.

Outside, Rhuadh furiously chases the assassin into the winter forest. For a man running barefoot, the stranger seems to be making good time, until he loses his footing and goes crashing off the path. He leads Rhuadh through an area which he has previously trapped with a mesh of tripwires, but the young Hebridean spots them and avoids them. By this point, his quarry has rounded a bend in the trail and Rhuadh decides to go off-road to cut him off. This plan is slowed, however, by his becoming entangled in a clearing overgrown with briars and brambles. It is while he is attempting to negociate this obstacle that he notices that the sounds of the fleeing man have stopped.

In the house, Sir Frach and the newly arrived Sir Peppin give some first aid to the injured Sir Geraint and Aaron, while Iris and Henrietta roust the St Clairs out of bed. Trevelyan is sleepy and incoherent, but they find Count Robert sitting up in bed clutching a pewter candlestick. They also check on Domingo, who is sleeping soundly. Sir Peppin is able to answer some questions surrounding the Mirror Beast, including that it has been haunting his family for generations due to a curse levelled on them by the Goodly Folk and that it feeds on one's sins and feelings of guilt. He admits that it has never killed anyone in the manner described, and theorizes that it may find itself in Colby manor due to the unusual disposition of the mirrors there. Something, he suggests, must have infuriated it so as to drive it into a killing frenzy.

Cautiously, Rhuadh prowls through the woods until he comes to a sheer gorge cutting across them. The tracks of the assassin lead over the edge of the gorge but there is no sign of anyone below. Rhuadh begins to climb down and is about halfway when the man in black pops out of the bushes below and sends a knife clattering off the rocks right next to his head. Rhuadh drops down to the floor of the valley and draws his own Sidhe dagger but the man does not immediately attack, instead telling Rhuadh how impressed he is by him and suggesting that he join him. He tells Rhuadh that he can make him extremely wealthy if he assists him. Rhuadh responds that he can do no such thing for a man whom (he believes) has just slain his good friend Sir Geraint. Very well, says the assassin, so mote it be. The battle is short and painful, although the assassin chooses to keep the young Hebridean alive as his prisoner, disarming him and pocketing the McCodrum family dagger.

Sir Frach takes charge of matters in the house, suggesting that Sir Peppin and the girls go and wake the Baron while Sir Geraint recovers from his injuries and Aaron accompanies him into the forest to follow Rhuadh and the assassin. The eye of the storm now lies directly over Colby manor and a deathly calm persists over everything. When the girls reach the Baron's room they see a terrible red light spilling from under the door. Sir Peppin kicks the door in and they behold the room all filled with a crimson miasma. Iris dashes forward to try and wake the Baron, who is writhing as if in the grip of a terrible nightmare, but the mists smother her as she does so and she feels their terrible grip on her mind, pulling her into a waking dream of guilt as she watches the eyeless courtesan whom she seduced be led to the execution block. Then Peppin draws forth the familial blade of his line and thrusts it aloft into the cloud of ruby smoke. The vapours recoil around the blow and seem to quiver, hissing "Peppin," before they suddenly wind their way back into the mirror and disappear.

Outside, Frach and Aaron stand in the preternaturally still night, looking up at the clear winter stars revealled in the tunnel of non-storm directly above them. Aaron admits that the tracking is going to be slow in the dark and suggests that they go back in and fetch Iris, who seemed to be able to find Rhuadh even in the thick mists of the previous night. Inside, they meet with the others. Peppin says that he is going to the library to study and think on what might be done to deal with the creature. The Baron assigns a now-recovered Geraint and Henrietta to roust all of his servants, guests and all and assemble them in the drawing room. Meanwhile, the other three will go into the forest and hunt for Rhuadh.

Rhuadh McCodrum, meanwhile, is carried over his captor's shoulders to the ruins of an abandoned leprosarium in the next valley over. There his captor, whose name is Peiter Iago, drugs him with a strange concoction and begins to whisper terrible things in his ear, turning the befuddled young hebridean's head around. The leprosarium serves as something of a temporary base for Peiter, who takes the opportunity to outfit himself with new boots and daggers, as well as one or two other things. He dresses a now compliant Rhuadh in a spare set of his own dark clothing and frees his legs, leaving only his wrists bound. He explains that they are going to go back to the manor, where Rhuadh's job will be to distract the attention of the other heroes, drawing them away from the conflict while Peiter closes in for the kill on his intended target.

Of course, it doesn't work out quite as planned. Thanks to Iris, the paths of the two parties converge in the woods. Even though Peiter's skills as a hunter are formidable, they are no defense against a Strega. However, it is just as Iris has pointed off the trail to the bushes where the pair of black-clad men are crouched that she overextends her power, receiving a nasty fate lash, which causes her to lose track of Rhuadh's strand, as well as giving her a horrible whip-scar up her left arm, like a great purple slug trapped beneath the skin. Aaron brings up his bow and Frach charges forward as Peiter whispers to Rhuadh, "Go! Lead them into the woods!" Rhuadh takes off away from the house and Frach and Iris go charging after him into the darkness. Aaron, still injured, sends a couple of arrows after the fleeing black-clad figure, then decides to investigate the bushes where he was crouched. There he finds signs of two men crouched. When the one made his break for freedom the other crawled to a position of concealment and then stole away towards the house. Aaron sets off in pursuit.

Inside, Geraint and Henrietta have assembled everybody, save for the still-missing Jim and the studying Peppin, in the drawing room. Both Colbys are there, as are both St Clairs and Rutger, the surviving bodyguard, as well as Domingo Esteban. Geraint gives the entire staff a telling off, pointing out that there is evidence that several of them have been collaborating with a dangerous assassin. He offers clemency for anyone who will now confess and explain what is going on. When this achieves nothing he then mentions that he knows that one of the maids is involved with this conspiracy. Thereupon, dark-haired Clare confesses that she woke up to see redheaded Issie sneaking back in a couple of hours ago. Issie hotly denies this and the two begin to argue. Geraint brow-beats them a bit and Clare breaks down and admits that in fact it was she who lured the Eisen bodyguards into Peiter's ambush. She describes the assassin as having a voice like Legion himself, beguiling and convincing. He had told her that he had been sent to kill Count St Clair by the family of a woman St Clair had wronged by raping and murdering her. He had made it sound so convincing. At this point, Clare breaks down, sobbing, while dumpy Hannah holds Issie back from flying at her, St Clair the elder glowers and Baron Colby goes into a passionate rant threatening that, by Theus, he had better find no more of his staff infested with the worm of such bitter lies as these.

In the forest, Frach and Iris gradually catch up to the fleeing figure, who appears to be lumbering almost mindlessly in a straight line away from the house. Eventually, Frach gets close enough to tackle him, knocking him flat. Fortunately, Iris realizes that it's Rhuadh that they're chasing before the Eisen loosens any of his teeth. The two slap him out of his stupor and Rhuadh tells them what has happened. He then attempts to reach for his blooded Sidhe blade, only to find his way blocked. He can only conclude that Peiter is once more within the walls of Colby manor.

Geraint and Baron Colby are drawn out of the drawing room by Sir Peppin, who has come upon the missing Jim, hiding in the library. With Peppin twisting his ear savagely, Jim confesses to Sir Geraint that he had been in league with Johaans Emmett, the stablemaster. Johaans had maintained that the Colby family had a hidden treasure somewhere and had paid him money to sneak around at night and look for it. Jim had seen "that gypsy fellow" hanging around the stables the day before Kingsolver trampled Johaans to death and the way the gypsy looked at him while Johaans was talking to him had made him fear for his life. When Johaans died, Jim was convinced he was next and was frantic to find a place to hide. The story told, Geraint opens the door to a scene of sudden panic.

Peiter Iago is indeed within the building. He has snuck back in and carefully prowled around. Finding that everyone is gathered in the one room, he has snuck into the servants antechamber which joins both the main hall of the west wing and the drawing room itself. From there he prepares his final, and least subtle assassination attempt. Opening the door between the rooms, he lights the fuse and rolls a grenade into the middle of the drawing room, then slams the servants' door shut.

There are over thirty terrified people in the drawing room and most of them are surging towards the door. Over the hubbub, Sir Geraint hears the hiss of the grenade fuse. And then the house is rocked by the shock of the explosion. Aaron Flynn hears it as he comes bounding up the stairs from the front door, where he is nearly decapitated by an over-eager Sir Peppin, mistaking him for a villain. With half of the population of the room crowded into the hallway, Geraint steps into the room over the two servants lying dead in the doorway. The furniture has been thrown hither and yon. There are bodies strewn everywhere. Here lies Maurice, his skinny arms wrapped protectively around Clare. Both are badly burned. And there lies Robert St Clair, having thrown himself in front of his lacklustre son to take the brunt of the blast for him. And there, over the bodies of the fallen St Clairs, stands Peiter Iago, his knives drawn, about to deliver the death blow to Count Robert.

Geraint throws himself forward and the battle is joined. Peiter is confident this time, convinced that he can beat the young knight and have plenty of time to slay St Clair. However, before more than a few blows have been swapped, here comes Aaron Flynn to reinforce Geraint. The rest of the group is not far behind, either. Sir Frach decides to skip taking the long route round to the front door, opting to scale the wall at the end of the east wing and climb back in the window that Peiter and Rhuadh crashed out of earlier in the night. Rhuadh climbs with him, with Iris not far behind. Meanwhile, Sir Peppin finds himself in an awkward dilemma in the corridor, holding one hand to the neck of Neville, the coal boy, who has taken a piece of shrapnel to a major artery and whose body is pumping itself empty of blood. The kindly knight cannot bring himself to abandon the attempt to save the dying boy. Frach pushes by him and into the fray of the drawing room. As he does so, he notices baleful red eyes watching him from the mirror, but has no time to ponder on this as he arrives just in time to stop Pieter, who drives Aaron back and makes to stab St Clair, only to find the tip of the Eisen knight's main gauche catching his dagger. Rhuadh, meanwhile, slips into the servants' room and prepares to ambush Pieter from behind. Arriving last, Iris finds herself helping Sir Peppin, ripping off pieces of cloth from her blouse to try and provide an adequate tourniquet for the dying boy.

With three opponents against him, and several injuries, Pieter begins to give ground, embracing the inevitable. He can hear Rhuadh behind him and is preparing to turn and fight his way past when Aaron catches him with a great blow to the guts, pinning him in the doorway. The Inishman then slams Pieter off the wall and drags him back into the drawing room. Pieter falls face down and mutters, "My name is Pieter Iago, you will not forget it...." There follows a short hiss from under him. Rhuadh enters the room, eager to find out what is going on. Aaron rolls Pieter's body over and the villainous Fidheli rolls the grenade between Frach's legs to lie next to Count St Clair. Rhuadh dances around them to snatch the grenade up and makes ready to throw it clear, into the servants room. But before he has time to lob it, Geraint slices the burning wick clear of the grenade with a perfect blow from his rapier.

In the aftermath, Frach grabs Baron Colby and hussles him down to the quartermaster's lodge. There he demands that they break up the floor to find what is cached beneath it. The reluctant Baron finds a heavy iron fire-poker and the two use it as a crowbar, levering up the thick, oaken boards. Dropping into the chamber below, Frach is surprised by an enormous spring-loaded scythe blade and would have been sliced in two were it not for his dracheneisen breastplate. Instead, he is pinned against the wall. Colby lowers himself into the chamber and tries to no avail to use the poker against the blade. Then, searching around with his lantern, he finds a large burlap sack. Inside are many swords, fashioned in an antique wise of a dull, leaden metal. The Baron hefts a claymore and delivers a great blow to the blade, shattering it and freeing Sir Frach. Aaron meanwhile, is desperately looking around for the missing Henrietta. Failing to see her, he hefts the great couch up off the floor to find her, conscious but stunned, laid beneath it.

And then the beast is upon them.

From the mirror it comes in a snarl of bloody vapours and wailing accusation. Pieter begins to writhe and scream and then, with an audible crack, his neck snaps. Blood begins to pour from his eyes and nose. Aaron grabs Henrietta and drags her from the room into the hallway. She takes over from Peppin and Iris and all three run back in to try and help the others. Geraint is dragging Clare into the servant's antechamber, but the fury of the beast falls upon them all and one by one they are struck down. Aaron siezes Rhuadh's dropped Sidhe blade, but when he slices the bloody mirror more gore splatters him and he too is lost in a terrible dream. Iris sees the dead courtesan again, while Rhuadh sees himself swimming away from his old crew on a bloody sea, while they shoot him recriminating glances from their sightless, maimed sockets and the world rocks crimson around him. Even Peppin is struck down by the ruthlessness of the creature's assault. Only Geraint does not respond with violence, instead fumbling open the tiny locket he carries with a portrait of Moira within and beginning to recite an old love poem, her favourite. Where his prayers have proven ineffectual the power of his passion comes through. The beast suddenly gives a high-pitched and agonized shriek - the sound of a soul experiencing terrible loss and bereavement - and then it vanishes with the suddenness with which it came. The room falls silent.

Returning from the basement, armed with their new weapons, Sir Frach and the Baron encounter Sir Peppin on the stairs. Peppin identifies the weapons as being of the McEachern manufacture and suggests that it was when the beast sensed their presence in the quartermaster's lodge that it was driven into a killing rage. He goes on to say that Geraint's courage has given him an inspiration and curtly orders all of the remaining survivors to go into their rooms and hide. He then opens the front door and positions himself by the great curved mirror on the balustrade in the atrium. Minutes later, a frightful keening, rising to an inaudible pitch of longing, fills the building. And then silence. When our heroes emerge, they find great bloody footprints, somewhere between a bear's and an eagle's, leading from that mirror down the stairs to the open front door. Peering out into the night, where the storm has renewed its fury, Sir Frach spies a distant figure on horseback, galloping away. And for a moment, in its wake, he thinks he catches sight of something vast and serpentine, moving like quicksilver amongst the night and trees and rainfall, chasing the fleeing Knight. Then the storm enfolds them and the vision is gone.

Thanks to Sir Frach's medical skills, Maurice's life is saved. Count St Clair, however, is touch and go. He has been very badly burned, as well as being injured by shrapnel. Trevelyan escaped the brunt of the blast, although a piece of shrapnel ruptrued his left cheek and has left him with a large and unsightly scar. Of our heroes, most everyone seems to be okay, save for poor Rhuadh, who has fallen into some kind of torpor and seems incapable of waking up. Pieter Iago is dead, as is the poor coal-boy, Hannah the maid, Andrew the kitchen boy and Maurice's assistant, Fred. Henrietta, although having been in the room with the grenade, was protected by the couch and seems to be more or less fine. It is agreed that Rhuadh and the St Clairs will remain at Colby manor to recover, with Aaron Flynn staying to watch over them, whilt the two Knights and Iris ride south to visit Geraint's superior, Sir Lamorak. Frach offers the Colbys that the Order of the Rose & Cross might be able to take the dangerous weapons off their hands and better protect them and they assent to this. In the meantime, the weapons are returned to their chamber and the Baron decides to undertake an amateur carpentry project to replace the missing floorboards.

The only thing that leaves everyone stumped is what happened to Domingo. He was in the drawing room with everyone else when the grenade was tossed in there but somehow he got lost in the crush of escape and now no-one can seem to find him anywhere about Colby manor....

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