"What brought you here?" the steward inquired.

"We have been adventuring," Lind answered, "for we have not yet taken wives. We decided to see a bit of the world, and so we travel about, offering our services to those who can use them. We were at Manneville last, and were recommended here by the sieur's lady."

"The position here would be permanent," the steward said. "I want no vagabonds, you understand. The terms would be fair, and you would be housed, fed, and clothed. I would expect you to serve my lady for a year, at which time it would be decided if you suited us."

Lind pretended to think a moment, and then he said, "I agree for both Lang and myself, sir. This is a fine establishment, and traveling about the world is not really all that they say it is."

"Good," said the household steward, and then he asked, "You are competent at what you do, are you not? We already have one falconer, a gruff fellow, but an excellent man. He will not tolerate poor performance."

"We have been trained by a falconer who once belonged to the great house of Merlin-sone," Lind said. "We are more than competent."

"Good!" the steward answered. "I shall take you to Alain, and tomorrow he will test your skills. If they are all you say they are, then you will become part of this castle's company."

Their eyes had made instant contact at the mention of Alain's name, but now they bowed to the steward, who decided they had pretty manners and would do nicely, provided their skills were everything they claimed they were. They followed him from the Great Hall, back out into the bailey, across the courtyard to a fine stone mews.

"We're just beginning to collect birds," the steward explained. "Alain, are you there? Come forth!"

The door to the mews opened, and there was Alain. Isabelle almost cried aloud with joy as he stepped out into the fading light.

"Here, Alain, I've brought you two young falconers come to the gates this day seeking a place. Take them out tomorrow, and if they are worthy of your own skill, we shall take them on. The taller is Lind, and the other, Lang."

"Why, Sir Steward," Lind said before Alain might speak, "this is the very man who taught both my brother Lang and me our skills. He was once a falconer in the house of Merlin-sone. Do you remember us, Alain of Worcester? Lind, and his brother Lang, of the New Forest."

Alain made an appearance of peering at the two, and then he smiled, saying to the steward, "I did indeed train these two lads myself, Master Jean." He turned back to Lind. "What brings you here, my friend?"

"We were looking for the right place, my brother and I," Lind said meaningfully. "I hope we have found it."

"You have indeed!" Alain said enthusiastically. "You will enjoy being in service to this house, my friends."

Master Jean beamed, pleased. "I shall leave these two with you, Alain. Bring them to the Great Hall for food, and find them a place to bed down. She will be most pleased by this turn of events, not that I don't believe she didn't cast one of her spells and arrange it herself. He has been restless of late, as we both know." With a nod to the trio, he then hurried off.

Alain shepherded them into the mews, where Couper was given her own perch. While Belle fed her bird they spoke in low, hushed voices.

"How did you find us?" Alain demanded.

Lind explained their adventures, and when he had finished, Isabelle said, "Are the Langston men safe, Alain?"

"My lady?" Alain was astounded. How could this dark-haired boy be Isabelle of Langston? And yet there was no mistaking her voice, or the merlin, Couper. Recovering his equilibrium, Alain said, "Aye, the men are safe, and in her service now."

"Can they be trusted, Alain? I do not think they would recognize me in my current state, but what if one did?"

"They want to go home, lady. We all do. If you can help us to get home to England, we will do whatever you desire of us," Alain said.

"Where is my lord Hugh?" Isabelle said.

Alain flushed. "She has bewitched him, my lady. I do not know what she did to him, but he does not remember his life before her. He is her lover, lady, and does whatever she bids him do."

"I must do what I can to help my husband regain his memory," Belle said quietly.

"Lady, perhaps it would be best if you returned home," Alain advised. "We are trapped here by our love for lord Hugh, and the fact that she will not let us go lest we tell my lord's family where he is; but you, my lady, you and Lind can yet escape La Citadelle on the morrow. I have but to tell Master Jean you are not as skillful as I had thought you to be."

"No!" Belle's voice was sharp. "Let me try to penetrate my husband's memory. If I cannot after a reasonable time, then I shall seek help from Duke Robert in this matter. Vivienne d' Bretagne cannot continue to hold Hugh captive, depriving his family, and his son."

"You may not want the man he has become," Alain said low. "He is not the Hugh Fauconier any of us know. He is a totally different man, my lady. He is hard, and sometimes cruel."

"He is my husband, and I love him," Belle rejoined quietly.

Alain shook his head. She didn't understand. Well, let her see for herself, and then they would decide. She was his mistress. He had to obey her. He sighed, and then said, "I will show you where you can sleep. Lind and I must, of necessity, bed with you, you understand."

Belle laughed softly. "I understand," she said. She wondered if Alain thought she feared for her virtue. She followed the falconer into a hay barn.

"We sleep up in the loft," he told her.

"Who else shares this place?" she asked him.

"They allow unimportant travelers to shelter here, but most of the time it has just been me," Alain said.

"Where do the Langston men bed?" Isabelle asked.

"In the barracks with the other men-at-arms," he answered.

"I think it best," she told him, "that no one know who I am, even the Langston men. When I see the lay of the land, then I will decide the matter. For now, only you and Lind will bear my secret."

"Agreed, my lady!" Alain said. "That way you'll be able to escape this place should it become necessary."

"The fewer who know, the fewer who can tell," Isabelle said wisely.

"We'd best go to the hall for the evening meal now," Alain told them. "There's no one at La Citadelle but her, her brother, and Lord Hugh. The rest is servants, or soldiers, and they're a rough lot. Keep clear of them. I generally sit with the huntsmen. There are two of them, and they're good men. I must warn you that you'll see things in her hall you won't see anywhere else. Show no fear, or you could regret it. Fear is counted as a great weakness here."

The hall was a large stone rectangle of a room. There were no windows in it, only two enormous fireplaces, one on either side. Lining the room, however, were arched alcoves where windows might have been. In two of these alcoves Isabelle saw naked men chained up.

"Why are they there?" she whispered to Alain. The men were both obviously exhausted, and their bodies were striped with lash marks.

"They're being punished for some infraction," Alain said. "It is permitted that any man may beat them while they hang there. Usually it's the soldiers. The drunker they get, the cruder they get. She will not allow them to be killed, though. She passes her sentence, a day, two, perhaps three. They are kept alive until they are released, and then they are expected to return to their duties immediately."

Alain led them to a small trestle that had been set to one side of the room. He introduced them to the two men seated there, the huntsmen, Paul and Simon. "Lang is yet a boy," he explained, "and mightily awed by all he has seen here so far. He speaks little."

"A lad who listens, learns," Simon, the elder huntsman said, "eh, boy?" He poked Isabelle with a friendly finger.

"Aye, master," she replied, bobbing her head.

"Good manners," Simon pronounced, and then ignored her.

The food Was excellent, even here at their table below the salt. There was variety: fish, game, and fowl. The bread was warm and crusty. There was both sweet thick butter and a tangy Brie cheese. There was even a bowl of braised lettuces, and another of crisp apples. Their cups were kept filled with wine by a buxom serving wench who chucked Lang beneath his chin and then laughed heartily at the blush she coaxed onto his cheeks.

"If you've never swived a lassie, that Jeanne-Marie is a good one for a lad to practice his skills upon," Simon said with a rich chuckle. "There's not a man in the castle who hasn't enjoyed her favors."

"I've a lass in England I'm true to," Isabelle said in her Lang voice. "We swore an oath, we did."

"He's a fine lad," Simon said. "I wonder that this is a good place for him."

"When a man needs a position, he cannot be choosy," Lind said, and the others nodded, agreeing.

Isabelle let her eyes wander to the high board where Vivienne d' Bretagne, the mistress of La Citadelle, was even now taking her place. With her were two men. One was a very tall man who was obviously her brother, for he looked just like her. He was, Belle thought, the handsomest man she had ever seen. He sat on his sister's right. To her left, however, was another man. It was Hugh Fauconier, although Belle almost didn't recognize him for he had greatly changed.

His short, dark blond hair was now long, and drawn back into a horsetail. His once serious expression was now severe, and the look in his blue eyes was predatory. He did not smile. His whole look was hard. He was Hugh Fauconier, and yet he was not. What had happened to him? He was bewitched by the beautiful woman who sat by his side, they said. She was exquisite. Isabelle forced her eyes away from the high board lest they feel her interest. She must not draw attention to herself.

"You see now," Alain whispered to her.

Isabelle nodded, and then she said, "Love between a husband and a wife, Alain, is the strongest magic of all. I truly believe it." But she had lost her appetite suddenly.

Master Jean, the household steward, came to the trestle and said, "Lind and Lang, come with me. She wants to get a look at you. Alain, you come, too. I'll need your good word else she be difficult."

Belle brushed the crumbs from her forest-green cote and followed the steward with the others. They stood before the high board waiting for the mistress of La Citadelle to acknowledge them. Belle could feel eyes upon her. She did not look up. She was afraid of what she might see if she did. Instead she struggled valiantly to keep her eyes upon her feet. They stood, and they waited. She could hear Vivienne d' Bretagne's smoky laughter, and the deeper undertones of her companions.

Then suddenly the steward said, "I have taken these two young falconers into your service, most high lady. Alain assures me that they are worthy to serve you, do you not, Alain?"

"Though it is by chance they came here, most high lady," Alain replied, "I trained these two brothers in England. Their names are Lind and Lang. They will work well with me."

"Lind and Lang." Her voice purred their names slowly. "You may raise your eyes to mine, my young falconers." She turned to her companions. "Hugh, you are the expert with the birds. Will they suit?"

"If Alain says they will, then they will. He knows the penalty for disobedience, or lying, don't you, Alain?" Hugh Fauconier's voice was strangely harsh. He stood up and, descending the dais, walked across the room to one of the alcoves where a prisoner was hung. Picking up the whip that lay curled on the stone, he swiftly gave the hapless man several hard, cruel lashes, completely disregarding the pitiful cries of his victim. Instead he laughed, and, tossing the whip aside, came to face the falconers. "You will be well fed, and housed at La Citadelle," he told them, "but in return you will obey without question. If you do not obey, you will end like those two fools." He looked hard at them. "Do you understand, and agree?"

"Yes, my lord," they answered him, and he turned away from them, moving back up to the dais to sit with his mistress.

"They look like good lads," Vivienne d' Bretagne murmured, and then she said to the falconers, "You are dismissed," and turned back to Hugh.

They backed away. Isabelle was astounded. Hugh had stood right before her and shown not one iota of recognition. Of course she was dressed as a boy with short, dark hair, but could he, of all people, not see through her disguise? She was devastated, and suddenly felt sick. Was she being naive? Had she truly lost her husband to this beautiful enchantress?

"Come," Lind said, as if sensing her mood. "Let us get some rest, little brother. It has been a long day for us all."

She followed him from the Great Hall, but even as she did, once again she felt eyes upon her. Unable to contain her curiosity this time, she turned her head to see Vivienne d' Bretagne's other male companion staring at her. "Who is that looking at us?" she asked Alain.

He glanced back over his shoulder. "It is her brother, Guy d' Bretagne. Why?"

"He has been staring at us," Belle responded. "Why is La Citadelle not his? He appears slightly older than she does."

Alain shook his head. "I do not know. The castle belonged to their mother. It has always belonged to a woman. They are a race of sorceresses and sorcerers. Come, do not look back at him. He is very wicked, and has taken both boys and girls to his bed, or so I am told. You do not want him intrigued by you, lady."

"No," Isabelle agreed. "I do not."

Together they left the hall.

Chapter 13.

Alain was surprised at first, and then quite pleased by Isabelle's skill as a falconer. "You've taught her well, Lind," he praised his old friend. "I'm going to leave the merlins and the sparrow hawks to her. She's as competent as any I've known." He watched as the young woman brought her charges out to weather upon their stone block. The birds were all caught wild as nestlings, and not as easy to manage as Couper had been, but Isabelle acquitted herself admirably.

"She's got a touch with the birds the same way he always did," Lind said. "It's not me that taught her, 'tis Lord Hugh. What's happened to him, Alain? He ain't the same man we knew as our master."

"We came from Duke Robert's court to Manneville," Alain began. "At first all was well. Lord Hugh strove hard to overcome the sieur's bad temper, and his lady wife was most kind. The sieur, however, could not get it out of his head that Lord Hugh had stolen Langston from him. One night he drugged Lord Hugh's wine and had us all thrown into the dungeon. When Lord Hugh stirred before they imprisoned him, that Luc de Sai hit him a fierce blow on the head. I feared he'd killed him. There is a cage behind the barrels of wine. There we languished for several days without food, and precious little water. When Lord Hugh finally awoke, he began to rage over what he called his own stupidity in trusting Richard de Manneville. He shouted, and he cursed our jailor, until he could no longer speak. Luc de Sai came and struck him again to quiet him. After that he wasn't the same, and didn't know any of us.

"Then she came. We gaped like village idiots, Lind, for we had never seen anything so beautiful as her. The sieur said that if she wanted him, she could have him, but she had to take us all. She laughed and agreed. She came near our cage and smiled at Lord Hugh. Their eyes met, and it was as if he could not break the gaze. He followed her like a wee lamb to the slaughter, and we after him, glad to be free of Manneville. After we got here, the Langston men were told they had a choice. Swear their loyalty to her, or die. She had me stay by his side while she nursed Lord Hugh back to health again. I was there when she mixed her potions, and fed them to him. Eventually his voice returned, but it was now harsh and unlike his old voice. He seems to have forgotten absolutely everything about his past life but the birds, which is why I was set to catching them and raiding nests last spring. She wants him happy, Lind, for she has fallen in love with him."

"Does she continue to feed him her potions?" Belle asked, and they realized she had been listening all the time.

"I do not know, my lady," Alain said. "Once I was set to the task of the birds, another took my place serving my lord Hugh."

"We must find out!" Belle said. "If she needs this particular magic to keep him in her thrall, if we could prevent her from giving him the potions, then we might be able to restore his memory and free him."

"But how?" the two falconers asked in unison.

Isabelle shook her head. "I do not yet know," she said.

"Perhaps we should leave La Citadelle and take our evidence before Duke Robert," Lind suggested reasonably.

"It is too late! You have agreed to enter her service," Alain said. "There is no escape for you now. I warned you to flee that first day you came, but you would not heed me. It is not as if you were a pair of scullery boys running away. Scullery boys are easily replaced, and she would not care; but you are falconers. She needs you. You are now as trapped as we all are. May God have mercy on us!"

"No, I will not accept it," Isabelle said resolutely. "There must be a way to help Hugh, and I will find it, I promise you. Then we will go home to Langston!"

Their lives took on an almost strange monotony. They arose early each morning, breakfasted, and spent their day attending to the birds. Another meal was served at four o'clock in the afternoon, and then Isabelle would slip from the hall, which she found too rough for her taste, and retreat to her loft. She longed for a hot bath. Her ablutions were scant, and the water always cold. The scissors she carried with her kept her hair trimmed short. Her supply of walnut dye would keep her hair dark through the next few months, if they were forced to remain here.

She wondered about her son. Was he well? How he must be growing. In just a few months he would be two years old. He would have forgotten both his parents, of course, but she took comfort in the fact that her mother and Rolf would be loving and kind to Hugh the Younger. Isabelle sighed. What if she never saw her child again? The thought brought her to tears. She had yet to find a way around their dilemma. She could not spend the rest of her life pretending to be a boy! She hated this unnatural life she was living now, and she was condemned to it unless she could find a way to release her husband from Vivienne d' Bretagne's powerful spell.

Several days later they accompanied the mistress of La Citadelle, her lover, and her brother on a hunt. They had been directed to bring along several of the birds, although they would be hunting deer in the morning. Belle had brought Couper and a particularly clever sparrow hawk she had been training. Alain and Lind had a gyrfalcon and a peregrine. The huntsman and his assistant had stalked their quarry, a fine stag, earlier that morning with the dogs and their handlers.

"He's a grand big fellow, lady," Simon told his mistress. He spread his thumb and his forefinger. "His tracks are this big. The scratches where he rubbed his antlers on a tree were this high." He again used his hand to demonstrate, and then he held out his hunting horn. "Here's a sample of his fumes."

Vivienne d' Bretagne looked at the size of the droppings in the huntsman's horn. "You are right, Simon. He is a big one. I will have him before the day is out. Let us loose the dogs."

The huntsman bowed as his mistress raised her own ivory hunting horn to her lips, blowing a series of short notes. This was the signal for the greyhounds to be unleashed. Made familiar with the stag's spore, they dashed into the forest, baying wildly, the hunters coming behind them on their horses.

The falconers did not keep abreast of the hunters, for the pace was too quick for their birds. Instead they followed along at their own pace, always listening for the sound of the hunting horns and the baying of the dogs ahead of them. The chase would continue until they either killed the stag or it managed to elude them.

The falconers came upon the hunters again even as the dogs brought the stag to bay. It was a magnificent russet-colored creature with a full set of antlers. Simon, the head huntsman, offered up the lance to his mistress. Violet eyes glittering, Vivienne d' Bretagne slipped from her black mare and took the lance. She advanced upon the stag, moving through the pack of dogs fearlessly. With a swift thrust she killed the beast. Belle turned her head before the deed was done, unwilling to see such a brave and beautiful creature slaughtered.

"I am ravenous, my darling," she heard Vivienne d' Bretagne say gaily. "Let us picnic here in this glade while the deer is skinned and the meat divided up. Let the hounds share its skin, Simon. They have done well this day." She turned to her two companions. "Have you had your fill of hunting, my darlings, or shall we seek some ducks with the birds this afternoon? The marshes nearby are full of them."

"Whatever would please you, dear sister," Guy d' Bretagne said. It was the first time Belle had been near enough to him to hear his voice. It was a deep, rich, almost musical one.

" 'Tis a good day to try the birds," Hugh agreed in his harsh voice. "Let us see if these new falconers are worth their keep, mon amour, or if they are to be hung in the hall and whipped."

Isabelle shivered beneath her cote. Hugh sounded as if he would enjoy whipping them. Oh, dear God, she silently prayed, help me to find a way to save my husband! Lind and Alain brought her some bread and cheese, but she could not eat. What if the birds did not perform to their best potential? Heaven forfend!