"Nay, I'll go downstairs to the hall and find Eadgar. He can send one of the servants across to the tower with a fresh torch."
Clare turned toward the door, grateful for something to do.
"Will you ask Eadgar to bring us something to eat?" William said with a hopeful look. "I vow, I am starved."
Clare smiled. "Very well." She made to open the door.
"Lady Clare, come quickly." William's voice was sharp with fear.
Clare whirled around. She saw that William had both hands planted on the windowsill. He was staring down at the courtyard.
"What is it?" She asked. "What's wrong?"
"Come see. There are men in the courtyard. But the gate is still closed."
"By Saint Hermione's needle." Clare hurried across the chamber. "What are you talking about? Is Lord Gareth back?"
"Tis not Lord Gareth and his men. These are strangers." William turned a shocked face toward her. "They were not there a moment ago. You and I both saw that the courtyard was empty. And no one has opened the gate. This is truly magic."
Joanna dropped her embroidery. Her face was stark with terror. "The magician."
Clare reached the window and stared down at the torchlit courtyard. She could hardly believe what she saw. Half a dozen men armed with swords and dressed in black hooded cloaks strode toward the front steps of the hall.
Several of the men had the edges of their cloaks pushed back over their shoulders. Torchlight glinted on their mail.
The leader of the group held a familiar figure in front of him, a dagger at his throat.
"Tis Dalian," William whispered. "He's captured Dalian."
"Dear God." Joanna's voice cracked.
The man who held Dalian signaled to one of the others. A cloaked figure went up the steps and pounded on the front door of the hall with the hilt of his sword.
"Open in the name of the Grand Master of the Order of the Star Stone.
Open or die."
Clare gripped the window ledge with shaking fingers. She leaned out.
"Who goes there?"
The man who held Dalian at dagger point looked up at the open window. He threw back his hood and smiled.
Clare found herself gazing down at the man she had once known as Raymond de Coleville.
"Good evening to you, Lady Clare," Lucretius's polished voice and flashing grin were as charming as ever.
Clare stared down at him, unwilling for an instant to believe that he was actually there inside the wall.
But she could not deny the truth.
The fiery light of the torches cast an evil glow on Lucretius's handsome, falcon-sharp features. He was slender and graceful, just as she remembered, a devastatingly attractive man with long, tapered fingers. His black cloak swirled around him like the ebony wings of a great bird of prey.
"How did you get inside the wall?' Clare demanded.
"What a foolish question. I am a magician." Lucretius's smile was brilliant. "Open your hall, madam.
I want the book that this foolish boy failed to bring to me."
"Don't do it, Lady Clare," Dalian shouted. "Don't let him inside." He broke off, choking, as Lucretius squeezed his arm around his throat.
Clare watched Lucretius's face carefully. "If you are indeed a great magician, sir, why do you not simply materialize inside my hall and take the book?"
Lucretius continued to smile. "Materializing and de-materializing are hard work, madam, even for a magician as accomplished as myself. I would prefer to do this in the simplest manner."
"Are you mad?"
"You will bring me your father's recipe book, or I shall kill your minstrel here and now." The dagger in Lucretius's hand glinted. "And then I shall enter your hall and kill your people one by one in front of your eyes until you choose to bring me the book."
"Let him kill me, Lady Clare," Dalian pleaded. "I beg you, let him kill me. You must not open the hall to him."
Lucretius's smile was cold. "I congratulate you, Clare. I did not believe that you could win young Dalian to your service so easily, but obviously he is now devoted to you. I thought the boy had enough wit to know better than to turn against me, but apparently he does not."
"Don't give him the book," Dalian cried. "I don't care if he kills me."
Lucretius did not take his eyes off Clare. "You do not know your lady very well, boy. She is too softhearted. She will never allow you to die for the sake of a mere book. Is that not right Clare? No book is worth the death of one you care about, is it?"
"Nay,"' Clare said quickly. "I will bring you the book if you will promise to release Dalian."
"You may have your minstrel back as soon as I have Sir Humphrey's book.
The clumsy boy was never of much use, anyway."
"Very well, I shall drop the book down to you from this window," Clare said.
"Nay, madam. You will bring it to me. I want you as well as the book."
"Me? Why do you want me?"
"I am a prudent man. I desire a more useful hostage than Dalian to ensure my escape. You are going to accompany me until I am safely off Desire."
"But why?" Clare asked desperately.
"Something tells me that the Hellhound will bargain more seriously for your life than he will for the boy's. You are vastly more important to Sir Gareth, are you not? After all, you are the source of the wealth of this isle."
"I will bring you the book." Clare whirled away from the window and ran to the door.
"Clare, you must not open the hall door," Joanna said. "You will risk all our lives."
William's eyes were huge. "Maybe he truly is a magician. If that is so, we are doomed."
"That is ridiculous. He is no magician. There is no such thing as true magic. Lord Gareth had the right of it. Lucretius is merely a clever alchemist." Clare opened the door and raced down the hall to her study chamber.
Joanna and William followed.
"William, bring me a large pouch that has a flap," Clare said.
"Aye." William took off in the other direction.
Clare dashed into the study chamber and grabbed the heavy leather-bound book off the shelf. She unlocked the clasp and reached for a nearby urn of dried flowers.
Joanna stared at her. "What are you doing?"
"This mixture contains a large amount of mugwort." Clare sprinkled several handfuls of the dried concoction inside the heavy covers of the book. "The magician does not care for mugwort. It makes him sneeze uncontrollably."
William appeared in the door. "Here's the pouch, Clare."
"Give it to me." Clare took the bag from him. She emptied the remaining contents of the urn into the pouch.
Then she closed the flap and slung the leather bag over her shoulder.
She picked up the book in both hands. "Lucretius will want to see the book before it goes into the pouch in order to be certain that he had not been tricked."
"Clare, please do not do this, I beg you," Joanna whispered. "'Tis much too dangerous."
Clare looked at her. "I shall go out alone. Close the door and bar it behind me the instant I have stepped onto the steps. Do not open it until Lucretius and his men have gone."
"But what about you?' Joanna wailed.
"Lord Gareth will soon realize what has happened. He will return to retake the hall. And then he will come for me." Clare smiled wistfully.
"The magician is right. I do have a certain value to the Hellhound.
These lands would not be nearly so profitable without me."
She went quickly past Joanna and William. Her soft boots made no sound on the stone floor of the corridor as she raced toward the tower stairs.
Downstairs in the main hall she found Eadgar and the servants huddled near the hearth. Their faces were stark with fear.