The refugees of fallen Salisbury sheltered in Cameliard as they planned their next course of action. Sir Bleddyn, Sir Helbur and Sir George contemplated what they should do to reclaim their homeland. Meanwhile, Sir Cuthbert, newly returned from Faerie, had a different task. Sir Esther had been morose and despondent ever since the death of her sister-in-law Lady Argyl, and her comrade in arms Sir Brietta. Sir Cuthbert made it his task to bring some levity to her life to cheer her up. In this task he had an ally: the adorable three-year-old Guinevere, daughter of King Leodegrance. Guinevere drew a picture for Sir Esther (of Jesus, and bunny rabbits), while Sir Cuthbert and his dog the Questing Beast snuck fish into her quarters to attract all the cats in the castle. After that, fish kept showing up when Sir Esther least expected it. It did manage to pull Sir Esther out of her fugue: she began playing pranks on Sir Cuthbert in revenge!
Sir Esther had also received a letter from a long-lost friend. After Sir Gherard moved to Devon, he had corresponded with Sir Esther regularly, but after the death of King Uther, the letters stopped. In the chaos of the subsequent years, she had been unable to discover what had happened to him. But now a merchant delivered a weather-beaten letter to her from her friend.
Sir Esther,
You must forgive the tardiness of my reply to your letter, and also the brevity of my response. I do not know if this letter will even reach you. If it should, know that I have been imprisoned upon the Lost Island of Manannan for many years. Any assistance which could be rendered would be appreciated.
Your friend,
Sir Gherard
There was no time to start investigating just yet, however. The leaders of Salisbury decided that it was important that Sir Bleddyn, Sir Cuthbert, Sir Esther, Sir George, and Sir Helbur begin the restoration of their homeland. They would have to seek out alliances (for while King Leodegrance was happy to shelter the exiles, he did not have the military strength needed to defeat the Saxon force occupying Salisbury). There would also need to be a scouting mission to gain information about the Saxons.
Sir Cuthbert knew that all of this was unimportant compared to his counterpart - the redcap changeling. Now that he had returned, there was no place for the Redcap in Salisbury any more. Furthermore, the Redcap was responsible for the fall of Salisbury by corrupting the Saxon Prince Cynric. If the Redcap were destroyed, the black heart of the Saxon occupation would be no more.
And before any of these tasks were undertaken, there was a problem closer to home. In the town of Wednesbury, in southern Cameliard, a rapacious green dragon had been attacking the chapel on Sundays and massacring the faithful. It had already eaten the Mayor, and many people were no longer attending services. The knights of Salisbury decided that they should confront this terror, in the name of Jesus Christ and for the sake of their current alliance with King Leodegrance.
The five knights travelled to Wednesbury on a Thursday, giving them a few days to prepare for the arrival of the dragon. Sir Esther and Sir George convinced the townsfolk to hold a service on Sunday despite the danger (with some knights suggesting that Sir Esther, as the most pious, would be acting as bait). Sir Cuthbert thought about what he knew of dragons, and remembered that most dragons have a weakness, connected to their nature. He was sure that the Green Dragon's weakness would be connected with its hatred for Christianity. Sir Helbur spoke to his new squire, Siegfried (the eldest son of the deceased Sir Albrecht). Siegfried told Sir Helbur about the legends of his namesake and how he slew the dragon Fafnir. Fafnir had a weak underbelly, and Siegfried dug a pit so that he could hide in it and then attack the dragon's weak point; Sir Helbur decided to do the same. Sir Bleddyn tried to take charge of the defence, although the other knights did not trust him and his plans, expecting that he would betray them and flee if things went wrong. He organised for more pits, with spikes and oil, to be dug.
On Sunday, the (small) congregation gathered outside the ruins of Wednesbury's chapel as Sir Esther rang an improvised church bell, and listened to Sir George's sermon. Sir Helbur and Sir Cuthbert hid in trenches, while Sir Bleddyn sat nearby on his horse, to oversee the situation. The first sign of the dragon was the terrible smell, followed by the rasping slither of its scale and the crashing of breaking trees. Finally the monster itself emerged, a terrifying serpent with row upon row of teeth and gleaming red eyes. Sir Bleddyn and Sir Esther's nerves broke at the sight of the fiend, and they turned to flee, along with most of the peasants. One brave peasant boy who was going to ignite the oil in the first trenches panicked as well and fled in the wrong direction; the serpent tore him into shreds without stopping its advance towards the congregation. But to do so it had to pass over Sir Helbur's pit. Crushed by the weight of the dragon above him and gagging on its terrible reek, the brave knight still had the strength to drive his sword into the slug-like underbelly. The dragon's own weight and momentum did the rest, tearing open its innards. The dragon screamed in terrible agony, rupturing Sir Helbur's eardrums. Its black blood ran down into the trench, melting away Sir Helbur's armour, skin and flesh.
Gravely wounded, the Green Dragon turned to flee. Sir George refused to let it depart, however. He mounted his nearby horse, seized his lance and galloped after it. Meanwhile, Sir Cuthbert climbed from his trench, and Sir Esther regained her nerve; they rushed to Sir Helbur and dragged the gravely wounded man from his trench. Sir George screamed a prayer at the dragon in challenge. It spun to face him, charging forward like a striking serpent. His lance struck it in its open mouth, and went through the roof of its mouth and out the other side of its skull. Still the dragon would not die; Sir Esther drew her blade and rushed to help him. She hacked the monster's tail nearly entirely off, and Sir George's own sword split the already wounded skull. The dragon thrashed about in its death throes. It flung itself into the spiked trenches, impaling itself repeatedly. It tore itself free, with many of the spikes still driven through it and struck the forest, impaling itself anew on broken trees.
At last, the dragon was dead. But as Sir Esther, Sir George and Sir Cuthbert tended to their fallen companion, they heard a sound behind them. Although it still had spikes and tree limbs still in its flesh, the dragon's wounds were knitting together, and it was beginning to stir once again. Sir Esther and Sir Cuthbert drew their blades and then attacked once more, cutting the terrible beast into bloody chunks. As they did, Sir George administered the last rites of the church upon each piece of the dragon - and by doing so, slew the dragon permanently. It was foul work, all three soon becoming soaked in the dragon's caustic blood, but the Green Dragon of Wednesbury was no more.
Sir George and Sir Esther held Mass immediately, to thank God for delivering Wednesbury from the peril of the foul worm. They set about directing the villagers in rebuilding their ruined church. Some time passed as the knights recovered from their ordeal. For a time, they did not know whether Sir Helbur would live or die. But he gradually began to recover, in body if not in spirit. He had a mask made for him of wood, to fit into the places in his face where the dragon's blood had eaten away at him. Meanwhile, Sir Esther and Sir Cuthbert headed into the forest and tracked down Sir Bleddyn. His terror, and perhaps a sense of guilt, had driven him witless. None of his comrades were surprised by how he had fled the battle. When Sir Bleddyn was found, he was raving incoherently. As Sir Esther tended to him, some of his ravings about dragons began to make sense, as he ranted about what he had done the previous year. For now, Sir Esther kept Sir Bleddyn's secret to herself, and said nothing to anyone.
Two months after the battle with the dragon, the five knights set off upon a new quest. They decided to seek an alliance with one of the powerful lords of Britain, who could help them reclaim Salisbury. Some of the knights thought that King Idres of Cornwall would be the best to seek aid from; others, King Nanteleod of Escavalon. King Idres was openly seeking as much power as he could seize, believing Logres dead, while Nanteleod was trying to become High King to restore order. The knights decided to seek an alliance with the more honourable King Nanteleod. They travelled to Estregales. King Nanteleod had recently defeated the Irish who had conquered it, and restored King Dirac to the throne as his vassal. The King agreed to help reclaim Salisbury when he could spare the troops, in exchange for Lady Jenna officially acknowledging his claim to become High King.
The knights spent a little time in Pembroke, while messengers settled the negotiations between Jenna and Nanteleod. While they waited, the knights helped drive out one of the remaining groups of Irish. Sir Helbur told a story, Sir George played the harp, and Sir Cuthbert and Sir Esther danced. They also did their best to avoid King Dirac, remembering his abnormal attraction for Sir Esther. He asked to see Sir Cuthbert privately, which left the group feeling worried that he had transferred his feelings to the beautiful young man. Fortunately, King Dirac was not interested in him and just wanted to ask him tips for attracting Sir Esther's attention, after he saw the two dancing together!
Word came from Lady Jenna: a proclamation that Salisbury acknowledged King Nanteleod as High King of Britain, and would swear vassalage to him. While Nanteleod was preparing war against northern Wales, he could not spare an army, but he assigned a group of ten experienced mercenaries to accompany the knights. They would do reconnaissance in Saxon-occupied Salisbury. They would also find and slay the Redcap, who was responsible for the entire affair. With Cuthbert's return, the presence of the Redcap was an imbalance which had to be corrected. The leader of the mercenaries was Sir Cador, formerly of Cornwall. He did not like how dishonourable the mission was. Sir Helbur immediately antagonised him by telling Sir Cador about how his father Duke Gorlois had died. Sir Cador was furious, but managed to stay focused on the mission at hand.
The knights decided to send a small scouting group ahead to Amesbury, to learn what had happened in Salisbury in their absence. Sir Cuthbert, Sir Esther, and her attendant Asha disguised themselves as nuns and made their way across Salisbury, avoiding the main routes. However, they did not know that the Redcap was anticipating their arrival, sooner or later. A group of Saxon warriors intercepted them in the Chute Forest and called for their surrender. Sir Esther and Asha managed to escape, but Sir Cuthbert was captured and taken as a prisoner to his evil counterpart, the Redcap.
Sir Esther returned to her companions, waiting outside Salisbury. As the Saxons were aware of the mission, Sir Cador followed his instructions and sent his knights home. He himself refused to abandon a comrade, however, and proposed a lightning strike at Sarum to rescue Sir Cuthbert. The five knights rode like the wind along the road, before any preparations could be made for their arrival. They struck down the Saxon patrols that they encountered, and reached Sarum that evening, to find that they were expected. The gates were open and unguarded, and Sir Cuthbert's flayed body was staked up, still wearing the nun's habit disguise, along with a message, "The Zoo." The knights were appalled, but they recognised that the corpse was too short for Sir Cuthbert - it was just a sick joke by the Redcap.
The knights entered the city, and made their way into the Allegorical Zoo. It was overgrown, and the animals howled and screeched at them. In one of the cages, Sir Cuthbert was imprisoned, naked but largely unhurt. The Redcap had only barely started to play with him. The sadistic faerie locked the doors to the zoo behind them, and opened the animals' cages. The seven animals that had represented Christian virtue had been driven insane by the Redcap's influence, and attacked the knights, while the Redcap himself fought with Sir George and Sir Esther. Sir Cador single-handedly held off the lion, while Sir Bleddyn fought the eagle, and the dog attacked Sir Helbur. The birds and the camel were less effective, but served as a distraction from the more lethal adversaries. Sir Cuthbert used his own faerie talents to soothe some of the animals from within his cage. As for the Redcap himself, he vastly underestimated his enemies. Sir Esther, usually a pacifist, was driven into a quiet fury by the horrors that her foe had unleashed, and decapitated the evil faerie with a single mighty blow. His cackling head flew off into the gloom. Freed from his fell influence, the animals fell upon their hated oppressor and devoured his remains.
The knights had been victorious against the second supernatural enemy of the year. They took Sir Cuthbert and fled the city. With the Redcap dead, reclaiming Salisbury would be a far easier task - but one for another day.
