The location was set on the banks of the Snowbourn river. It was midway between the two capital cities and thus no argument should ensue. "Unless someone pulls out their handy dandy ruler and starts boasting that they're three inches closer to Edoras," muttered Laurelin.
The meeting day arrived and both rulers had eventually agreed to attend, though both were sullen about it. Elfwine's party arrived first, and when the group from Minas Tirith arrived, the Rohirrim monarch was not happy.
"Nice of you to join us, Eldarion," the king said tartly, tapping his foot in irritation.
Eldarion dismounted and replied using Elfwine's tone. "The meeting is not set to begin until noon. Shall we begin?"
The men entered the pavilion, which had been erected a few days before, and were seated. There were two score in attendance, from Rohan and Gondor and neither side took their eyes off of the other for a moment. The atmosphere was tense as Dorothy took her seat between the two lords.
The teen was arrayed as a child of the Maiar and looked very wild indeed. Outwardly she looked very calm and dignified and the troops around her were mystified at how one so young could intimate such power through a single glance.
Inside, however, Dorothy's heart and thoughts were racing in fear. What if the pair got out of control? What if they didn't listen? What could she say? What could she do?
Fortunately the meeting went well. At first. The royals talked and were even beginning to agree on a few things when everything began to go wrong.
Eldarion placed a finger in the middle of the map they'd spread on the table. "Alright, my lord, I believe you when you say you haven't been raiding us. But then-"
A voice came from the Gondorian side of the crowd, cutting him off. "Filthy strawhead! Don't believe a word out of his lying mouth, lord Eldarion!"
Elfwine was on his feet, drawing a knife. "Take it back!"
Eldarion was up a heartbeat later, his knife crossing the Rohirric one. "Don't even think about it, my lord. We are here under truce."
Dorothy began to rise and draw the two back to their seats, but was stopped by a goblet flung from the crowd. It hit her squarely in the head, knocking her out and back into Elentathar's arms.
Along with the goblet came another jeer, this time from the Rohirrim. "Let's do what we should have done all along, men! Let's gut the butchering dogs and be done with it!"
With a roar, the men fell to, fighting tooth and nail in the absence of weapons. Eldarion and Elfwine leaped into the fray to try and restore order, but when an incensed Rider of Rohan spun Eldarion around with a punch to his jaw the cause was lost and they fell in with the rest. Anarchy ruled the day.
The sisters of Eldarion and their three charges crouched behind the dais which the rulers had but recently been seated upon. Howls and cries filled the air while Elentathar tried desperately to wake Dorothy. She shook the girl, trying to remember what she should do. "Dotti, please wake up, we need you!"
A young soldier of Rohan came tumbling over the dais, bloody and bruised. But he charged back into the brawl, not heeding the small group of women he nearly trampled. This close encounter charged Loni's already frayed nerves and she slapped her foster sister in the face. "Dorothy Annaeru Maethoriel O'Kelly, there's no time! Wake up!"
Dorothy's eyes snapped open and it took a moment for her to focus. Then it all came rushing back and she buried her face in Elentathar's bodice, weeping. "Oh Ellen, it was terrible! I was so scared. The Valar must have made a mistake, I can't do anything about this!" Ellen held her tightly, trying to block out the sounds of the altercation around them. She didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say.
Anita, meanwhile, was not bored. She bobbed up and down behind the dais, fully aware of the danger but trying to catch a glimpse of Legolas in action. Suddenly she stopped. An unseen force seemed to bid her look around. As she did so, she spotted a shrouded figure creeping stealthily away from the pavilion.
Anita froze as the figure pulled its cloak closer about itself. The hand was as black as her own. And Anita knew quite well that there were few or none like her that did not mean war for the Dunedain.
She sprinted for the form and, grasping its shoulder, swung it to face her. A Haradrim woman, hair as white as snow and eyes like candleflame, stared up at her. The malignant look in her face told Anita all she needed to know and the girl snatched the elderly woman's wrists before she could make a move. The woman was of small stature and was obviously quite old, but it was still a task for Anita to fight her back to the group behind the dais.
"Help me," she gasped. "She may be old, but she fights like a tig- Ouch!" This last was exclaimed as the woman's teeth met in Anita's hand. Laurelin quickly bound the woman's wrists with a belt she'd shanghaied from Loni and used her own to bind the woman's ankles.
Subdued but not broken, the woman's eyes sparked cruelly. "Bind me if you will, but you cannot bind the slaughter I have unleashed. This 'peace talk' will come to a bloody end and Gondor and Rohan will destroy the West in war! I have won."
"You," Elentathar whispered, mind racing furiously. Then she turned to Dorothy. "Dorothy, you have to go back out there."
Dorothy's eyes grew saucer wide. "Ellen, no, I can't!"
Ellen took her by the hand. "Listen to me, I have a plan. You must go back up on the dais and this is what you will say..."
The battle raged on. It had turned to fight or be trampled, like it or not. So no one noticed when Dorothy O'Kelly ascended to the platform. She gripped her staff tightly for strength and called out, "Men of Rohan, of Gondor, listen to me!"
No response from the seething mass of humanity.
"Stop the madness and listen!"
Still nothing.
This angered the girl. She was risking a lot by being up here; the least they could do was look. Her warrior blood rose and for the first time she felt at home in this place. "I am Annaeru Maethoriel and you will listen to me!" She banged her staff down forcefully. It cracked and a report like a gunshot snapped over the assembled men and Melaglar flashed in time to the sound.
All fighting ceased and every man stared up at Dorothy, who stood holding two halves of an ash stave and feeling not a little foolish. This did not deter her though and she laid the halves aside. "Thank you! This is important."
She nodded to Elentathar, who wrestled the still-struggling Harad dame into the crowd's line of sight. "This woman, through her own words, has confessed that she has been the one behind this madness. I would assume she has accomplices. Rally around your lord. See who among you is unfamiliar. If any try to escape the pavilion, capture them if you can and kill them if you must."
The power in her voice brooked no argument and soon a half-score of men were bound upon the dais along with the woman. Patrols had been sent to see if any had escaped during the fray. A group of twenty gathered around the prisoners in the now semi-deserted pavilion. Eldarion, the women, Legolas, Gimli and Belegorn were there, along with Elboron, Prince of Ithilien. Elfwine and his captain Cena were also in attendance, as well as eight other men of the Mark. They separated the woman from her accomplices and prepared to question her.
