Flight of the Falcon

On Walpurgisnight of 1365, Margerite bears her child into grave danger: Graf Günther, a leader among the dark Order of Light-Bearers, has prepared a blasphemous anti-baptism for the babe the Order believes to have been sired in spirit by Lucifer. Fearful for her child, Margerite accepts, against the wishes of her heart, Graf Heinrich's marriage proposal, enlisting his unknowing aid against the Order. Even in Heinrich's castle, however, she is not free of the Light-Bearers: Nikolaus, Heinrich's younger son, is a member, and designated by the Order to teach Margerite, whom they believe to be one of themselves. Bertram, meanwhile, is called to abandon her by news of the death of his father, the Landgraf of Niederwald, which leaves his lands in the control of his brother's wife Ortlieb, one of the greatest and most evil among the Order of Light-Bearers. He resolves to take his true name, Bernhardt von Niederwald, again, and rescue his people from Ortlieb, whatever the cost to himself. When