In mid-January, Conrad Baker, Kykna, and the grog Alvaro took a ship across the Irish sea, bound for Chester in Stonehenge. On the second day, they landed at a walled town of about 2,000 people. Hoping to make good time, they quickly departed through the eastern gate, where they spotted a strange sight: a low hill with a cave entrance, and inset into the side of the hill was a shrine to the goddess Minerva. This, it appears, was a vestige of Roman habitation in Britain, and Kykna improvised a respectful prayer to the goddess before the group began their journey.
The trip to Coventry was 90 miles, and with Conrad's help (for he was the only one who spoke English) the trio found rooms at inns along the way, arriving at the Mercer House four days later. The house itself was a large stone building with a barn and other outbuildings, all tended by a few aging and retired Redcaps who answer to Lucy, the wife of Perceval, one of the five active Redcaps who serve the Tribunal. Lucy, whom Conrad knew well, welcomed Kykna very courteously and seemed not to catch on that Kykna barely understood a word of Latin. Kykna and Alvaro were also introduced to Lucy's two children: Guy (age 10) and Maud (age 2). At first, Conrad seemed to intend to travel through the Mercer Portal to Harco to get the information he wanted, but Lucy insisted all the records of covenant locations were here in the house, and she could find them for him. But perhaps he could do her a large favor in return?
Lucy explained that she had a cousin, Morris, employed as a master of the hunt in Scotland. She had heard from a Loch Leglean redcap that Morris was dead, killed by a werewolf. Could Conrad go to Guardbridge, where Morris lived, to learn the truth of this rumor? She offered to pay vis, find the covenant records Conrad was after, and cover all traveling expenses with her "discretionary funds." After consulting with Kykna, Conrad agreed.
It took 4 days for the trio to reach the eastern coast of Britain, and then they spent 5 more days on a boat bound north. Guardbridge, it turns out, was a small fishing village on the east coast of Scotland along the pilgrim route to St. Andrews. A stone manor house overlooked the wharf, and as Kykna, Conrad, and Alvaro approached, they saw a young man practicing swordplay in the yard. This, they soon learned, was Sir Alec, lord of Guardbridge. He had recently returned from Crusade only to learn that his father was dead. Morris was in fact Alec's huntsman, and had been killed by a beast in the nearby moor. Some of the locals had witnessed a man transforming into a wolf, and they naturally blamed the werewolf for the death of both Morris and the old lord, but Alec believed another creature was to blame. Conrad boasted of his hunting prowess, so Alec asked him to help hunt the beast, and Conrad agreed.
That night, Conrad and Kykna investigated Morris's room in the house, where they found the journal of Lord Andrew, Alec's father. Andrew, it appeared, had long been hunting a creature he called the Black Boar of the Bog, which dwelt in the nearby marsh. And, judging by the sudden end in the diary, he had found the Boar and it had slain him. Morris, in turn, had learned all this and, certain that if he were to reveal it to Alec, the young knight would insist on hunting the boar to his own death, Morris vowed to hunt and kill it himself. This he had apparently tried to do, only to be slain in turn.
Kykna began to wonder if this creature, whatever it was, might be one of the Great Beasts of her house, for the Black Boar had been hunted by others and seemed to be responding in self defense. Further, she knew that old Bjornaer sometimes turn into their Heartbeasts and never leave, remaining alive forever unless slain. And so she took it upon herself to go out and seek the creature in her swan form. After a while flying above the bog, she found a part of it where the trees came together, blocking out all sunlight. As she entered, the heavy air was oppressive and she could feel the dark aura of the place. And sure enough, wallowing in the water of the bog, was an enormous black boar, no werewolf at all. Kykna tried to communicate with it, but it did not answer her. It charged her, not in an attempt to hurt her, but to frighten her, and the fear instilled by the boar was so great that she lost all reason and fled, returning to the manor.
Meanwhile, Conrad, Alvaro, and Sir Alec had gone out to hunt the Black Boar. With Conrad's help, Alec got them to the heart of the bog, and Alvaro positioned himself in a tree where he might ambush the creature. Then Alec drew its attention and the Black Boar charged at once, crushing the brave knight with its tusks and hurling him several yards. Conrad picked up the wounded knight and retreated, luring the Black Boar under Alvaro's ambush, and the heroic Almogavar lept from the tree, impaling the Black Boar's eye with his spear. But though it was greviously wounded, the Black Boar was not dead, and it lashed back and forth in fury. But Alvaro was the quicker, and when Conrad rejoined the battle the two of them slew the monster.
But Sir Alec was nearly dead and might die before Conrad and Alvaro could get him back to the manor. Fortunately, Kykna arrived, for the setting of the sun had caused the terror of the Black Boar to lift from her. She used spontaneous magic to bind Alec's wounds, and the group was able to get back to the manor before the wounds reopened.
The Black Boar was dead, but now they had a new problem: Sir Alec's injury. He refused the medical attention of clergy, for he knew that if he were bedridden for long, the truth of his own curse would soon be revealed. With no choice, he confided to the others that he, Sir Alec, was the werewolf the villagers had spotted. In the past, he had always kept his transformations a secret with the help of Morris, but with Morris dead, Alec's precautions had failed and the locals had seen him, then blamed the deaths caused by the Boar on him. He asked the magi for help.
And so with the occasional Bind Wounds from Kykna, Sir Alec was taken to the Mercer House, where Lucy provided a casting tablet that would heal all of Alec's wounds. But the ritual would take 8 pawns of vis—all that Lucy had paid them, plus some of the vis they had gained from the corpse of the Black Boar. Kykna performed the ritual and it worked. Alec was healed, and he promised to repay the magi for saving his life.
Lucy also shared what she had learned about Man: there had been three attempts to found a covenant there by Stonehenge magi, and the location of each was known to her. But also, she had discovered that magi from the covenant of Ungulus in Stonehenge had attacked a Diedne covenant on Man in 1003. Although the details of this attack had been erased from the records by House Guernicus, a few clues were left in the text.
Armed with this knowledge, and Sir Alec as a trusty companion, Kykna, Conrad, and Alvaro returned to Man. It was now mid-February; their adventure had taken a month, and Spring was approaching.