The Chronicle:

The plan to lift the curse of Canguine actually worked; after a couple of false tries, the entire town's populace succeeded in spending a whole day completely courteously.  At sunset, a troop of perhaps forty soldiers approached the town, followed by a host of fairies which they apparently did not see.  The people of Canguine congregated to see the new arrivals.  A haughty man on horseback announced that he was the new Lord Mayor, come to collect years of back taxes. 

Lucas managed to get the Lord Mayor to talk to him in private, and tried to talk him out of trying to extract too much, too fast.  But as soon as they were out of earshot, the Lord Mayor's eyes changed colour, one red and one blue.  In Derwyddon's voice, the Lord Mayor told Lucas: "You have done well.  Now you must go see the Queen of the Sky."  When Lucas ask how to do this, Derwyddon answered: "You must enter her realm."  Then his eyes returned to normal and the Lord Mayor looked dizzy.  He quickly regained his composure, however, and dismissed Lucas's words of caution.

The new Lord Mayor then made his way, under the protection of his soldiers, to the town square and addressed the crowd.  He declared his new position and his intention to collect taxes, then went on at length about the reforms he intended to make to city government.  When he paused at last, a wit in the unimpressed crowd yelled: "And didja die?"  The lord looked startled.  "No, of course not.  That is silly."  "Ah, then it must be a lie!"  And with this, the crawd started manhandling the soldiers, and a huge brawl broke out.  The heroes decided to tiptoe away, waving back at a cheerful Berek bashing a soldier's head with a belaying pin.

Lucas explained his bizarre encounter with Derwyddon and the heroes decided that to enter the realm of the Queen of the Sky must involve going to a very high location.  The highest in the area was the Syrneth Lighthouse, so they returned there.  Constanza's reduced crew set up camp at the foot of the lighthouse and the heroes climbed the structure.  At the top, they called for the fae's help, but in vain -- until the Ferdinand-Domae called and a great wind answered, physically lifting the heroes off the top of the lighthouse.

The heroes were carried off by the wind to the Queen of the Sky's aerial castle.  The landed in the middle of a dark, damp, chilly forest where the trees were almost leafless.  Constanza remembered that the four cardinal directions in Bryn Bresail were Summer, Winter, Light, and Dark, so they were fairly Winter-Darkward.  They called to the spirits of the forest to open a path and one opened, but further toward Winter-Dark.  Since it was so difficult to move without a path, they followed it though with apprehension.

They walked several hours, stopping once to cross a stream.  Melisandre asked passage from the water spirits, and was able to cross by walking on water.  During the crossing, Tiny Lucas swallowed some of the water and fell into a deep slumber from which he could not be awakened.  The path eventually led the heroes to the entrance of a dark cave, but they noticed a faint branching trail leading to a cabin.  They were very cold and tired so they moved towards the cabin, but both Melisandre and Constanza accidentally stepped off the path and disappeared.  Lucas and Ferdinand made it to the cabin, but no one answered Lucas's knocking and calling out.

Ferdinand circled the house and found a window, through which he saw a crone working at a spinning wheel.  She had a pointy, foot-long nose and her lower lip dragged to the floor.  Ferd called to her, asking if they could come in, and she said yes.  But she kept ignoring Lucas, answering only Ferdinand.  Questioned as to why, she told Ferdinand that she was only interested in the Common Man, though she had heard of all four heroes.  Lucas asked if the crone, whose name was Habetrot, knew where Melisandre and Constanza had disappeared to (Ferdinand kept acting as a translator or intermediary for Lucas, who got no answers otherwise.)  Habetrot said they were in the cave.

Since she was spinning wool, Lucas asked if she had any warm clothes they could barter for; when Habetrot said yes, he offered his hat for a cloak and she agreed.  Ferdinand also wanted a cloak, but could not think what to trade for it.  He kept asking what Habetrot needed, and she answered that she had already told him what she was interested in.  He did not understand, but said she could have whatever she was interested in as a trade for a cloak.  She agreed, and Lucas discovered that all his wounds were healed when he put on the cloak.  He offered to tell her stories of his adventures, and she said that if he was offering to do this freely, he could, so he did.

Lucas wanted cloaks for Melisandre and Constanza because it was so cold, so he traded his gloves for two cloaks and a torch, then left to explore the cave.  He found an oversized kitchen, the two girls trussed up and hanging upside down near the chimney, and a troll chopping onions.  The troll spotted Lucas when he tried to cut Melisandre down, and was unwilling to part with his dinner.  Lucas traded his healing cloak for the promise that the troll wouldn't cut the girls' throats.  When he took off his cloak, his wounds returned and reopened, splurting blood into the troll's cauldron.  Then the troll wanted flavouring from Melisandre and Constanza, so he said he would bash them since he couldn't cut their throats.  They eventually bargained for locks of hair from each girl to flavour the soup, and Lucas was able to leave but had to drag the still-unconscious girls out of the kitchen.

Back at the cabin, Ferdinand was still telling stories.  Lucas returned and asked Habetrot (through Ferd) why the girls would not wake up and the crone said the troll must have fed them some river water.  Lucas asked if she had anything which would wake them up, and when she said yes, asked what he could trade for it.  He was running out of ideas, and was getting impatient with communicating through Ferdinand.  Habetrot told Ferdinand to ask his friend if he was willing to lead a more interesting life.  Lucas shrugged, saying that he didn't see how his life could get much more interesting, and agreed.  Habetrot turned to him and said "Very well, then, you will find what you need in this chest."  He found blankets, but was a bit confused, asking what she wanted in return.  Habetrot said: "Your friend had what I was interested in, and traded it to me. Now I traded it to you."

Once wrapped in the blankets, Melisandre and Constanza (and Tiny Lucas) woke up.  The heroes politely took their leave and headed out.  They crossed another stream, which they learned was the domain of the Lady of the Lake.  They soon found themselves at the edge of an immense plain.  Finding incredibly tiny little green fairies in the grass, the heroes asked for permission to cross and are denied -- until they realised, through question and answer, that these fairies didn't have the right to give or deny permission anyway... 

The heroes reached a bridge guarded by a knight dressed in black armour.  He refused to let them pass and when he wouldn't budge, was challenged by Ferdinand.  After a rowdy fight, the Black Knight was unable to prevent the heroes from crossing.  He seemed to be very despondent from now being unemployed, having been defeated, so Constanza impulsively offered him a job on his crew as soon as she could get a new ship.  He immediately disappeared.

After a long walk, the heroes approached a castle that appears to be made of sunlight.  The castle was surrounded by revelers, masses of fairies gathered for a festival though none can name the exact reason for it.  A misshapen little fairy called a barabu or baraboo, Humdig, was smitten with Melisandre and offered his services freely as a guide (but turned out to be a pretty inept guide, since he walked backwards, staring at Melisandre.)

The heroes reached the castle and Ferdinand asked the guard for an audience with the Queen of the Sky.  The others waited for him for a while until Lucas got tired and asked for an audience with the Queen too.  After a bit, a group of guards arrived and arrested the heroes, then dragged them to the Queen's throne room!  The Ferdinand-thing was with her.  She said he had just negotiated for her help.

The Queen said Lucas had the Grail, which she wanted.  Lucas wanted to trade it for Seldane, but did not know how to "give" it back; the Queen said if the Domae were freed they could help.  Constanza perked up, because she did want to remove the wretched collar from Ferd's neck, and asked if the Queen knew where to find the music box.  The Queen said the Constructs, who had been made by the Syrneth, could free the Domae.  Lucas asked where his doppelganger was, and the Queen said in the Highlands.  Faced between heading for Cabora to find the Mumblety Pegs in order to trade for Seldane, or go to the Highlands to stop Queen Elaine's murderer, the heroes chose the latter.  They were told they would have to go through the Cursed Fen.  Humdig eagerly offered to guide them again.

Leaving the castle, the heroes followed Humdig to a pestilential bog.  They followed the narrow path indicated by Humdig, but at the first misstep something tried to pull Lucas, then Melisandre, under the mud.  Humdig tried to help Melisandre but was sucked under the mud.  Melisandre kicked off her boots and slipped away, soon imitated by Lucas.  The heroes eventually reached a deeper pool of murky water, with very steep edges; the pool was marked by a carved stone with symbols so decided they had to step in the pool.  After staying under as long as they could, they had to resurface but found they were now in a different bog.  They climbed out and started walking across bleak moors, some of them barefoot.

At last they reached a hilly sheep pasture, then a modest cabin, as night fell.  They knocked and found a single occupant, and older woman smoking a pipe.  She called herself Miss MacDonald.  Questioned, she said the nearest town was 70 miles north, and agreed to give the heroes hospitality for the night.  She left before dawn to tend the sheep and take them to pasture, but agreed when Melisandre asked if they could stay for a few more days.  Melisandre then performed surgery on all the wounded.  That night, their hostess did not come back.  Melisandre searched for her in vain.  The next morning, the three healed heroes expanded the search while Melisandre tended to her own wounds.  They did not find Miss MacDonald, though her tracks led north before disappearing, but somebody had left four rabbit skins at her door.  The skins did not seem to be magical in anyway, so they were used to make shoes for Melisandre and Lucas.

The heroes started heading north across the moors.  After several days' walk, and thanks to Constanza's skills with a compass, they reached a a hamlet and a half-ruined keep.  The former moat was now no more than a shallow ditch filled with grass.  Two or three dozen armed men and women, the lean and hungry type, milled around.  The heroes asked for hospitality, hoping these were not brigands but seeing no other place to spend the night.  Lucas introduced himself as ambassador of Castille.  The armsmen eyed him sharply, then took the heroes into the keep's main hall.  The keep was in sad disrepair.

In the main hall, they found more armsmen, Miss MacDonald... and Lucas (except for Constanza, who saw a fairy.)  They learned that Meryth had made a deal with the MacDonald clan; the clan would destroy the Grail, which would get rid of the fairies forever in Avalon and break Elaine's heart.  The MacDonalds, it turns out, hated faeries and were willing to take a chance cutting a deal with some of them -- having probably hedged their bet in some way.  Now Lucas had apparently brought the Grail to them.  Somehow.