Chyrellos was an ugly city. But it definitely had two very handsome men running around in there. Two naughty handsome men who were going to be firmly...well they were going to be firmly something'd as soon as Marjory and Carol found them!
As soon as they had laid their plans with Aslade, she had sent them with Khalad to Chyrellos. Although she had made it safely around the world, something told her that they just might need a chaperone.
"Okay Khalad, where does this Dolmant fellow live?"
He sighed. He didn't know the details, but from Aslade's farmhouse clear to the city he had seen them with their heads close together, whispering and conferring. He felt sorry for the two champions. They had thrown down the gauntlet in the face of a foe that they did not know. Khalad's father had not raised him to be stupid, however. He recognized one fight that he did not want to enter and so obediently led them to Dolmant's house.
"Thank you, Khalad. You can go home now."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Khalad." Rather than push his luck, the young man fled, but not before hearing a part of what the two young women were calling from outside the door to Dolmant's house. He winced in sympathy yet again for the two knights...
"MURDER! DECEIT! LIES, PAIN, AGONY...DISHONOR!" Marjory shouted up. People stopped curiously in the street and stared at the seemingly mad young woman.
"My good people," Carol said to the crowd, "have you ever seen such pain? No, I quoth, never! For heart has not suffered such since the dawn of time." Dramatically her eyes filled with tears. "But I, yea, her dear sister, do feel her pain. For my heart, too, has been wrenched painfully by the cold, cruel, and bitter hearts of a great knight."
"WOE! WOE IS ME! WOE IS MY SISTER! WOE ARE WE!"
Carol looked at Marjory funny. "Woe are we? What?"
"Just play along," she muttered back. "Yea, woe are we! We two who first trusted in the strength, the honor, and the nobility of the Church Knights." The crowd was getting larger, and a tall, thin man with graying hair had stepped to one of the windows. At the mention of Church Knights, he left the window quickly. "Yea, I am wed to one great knight, who hath left me to wander the world and fend for myself. And my dear, dear sister...betrothed to another who hath engaged a great, foul beast, yea, even the beast of abandonment!"
"Verily," Carol picked up, "are these great knights abandoning us for duty and honor? Perhaps death hath wrought upon them and we, gentle, fair maidens, are left to live this world. Painfully, I say, nay! Such hath not passed. Neither has it been uttered or dreamt in this cold world." She lifted her hands to the sky, raising her voice with them. "But we, WE women without faith, without hope, are left, ABANDONED, by the greatest knights to walk the earth. ALONE!" Her voice caught on a sob and she dropped her head into her hands. Marjory placed her arm around her, tears streaming freely down her face as she stared into the distance.
"Tell me, good people, is this the treatment that men of honor bestow upon virtuous maids?" Marjory asked.
A soft mutter arose in the crowd.
"Is this the treatment that will happen to all who put their faith in these knights?" People looked around nervously, even as some were obviously stirred. "What is to become of you who, not even bound by the ties of love or matrimony, when they treat us thus?" The crowd became more angry, some crying out against the injustice of it.
"Then let us rise up together! Let us find these so-called gallant knights that they may face the judgments of God and answer for their vile abandonment! Find for us, good people, Sir Tynian and Sir Bevier, Champions of their respective orders!" The spell was broken and the crowd dispersed–not to their daily routines, but to find the knights.
"Well done," Carol muttered from behind her hands, her shoulders shaking.
"I'm thinking they're going to have quite the surprise when we see them again," Marjory replied.
The door to Dolmant's house opened. "I'm assuming that you're Dolmant," Carol said drily.
"What have you done?" he whispered, eyes wide and face pale.
The two smiled cheerfully. "We've answered the challenge that the knights have given us. Dolmant, allow us to introduce ourselves. I am Lady Bevier, and this is Carol–betrothed now, is it?–to Sir Tynian. They did something to us that they shouldn't have, and now, we have to find them and make them pay." Dolmant swallowed nervously, even as the crowd could be heard shouting in the distance.
Soooo, this is WAY different than what I remembered. It's kind of going slow, but I guess that should help the rest to be better...I hope. I hope that it picks up in these next couple of chapters too. Ya'll know the drill, that none of this belongs to me alone, but to Marjory, and to David Eddings. Okay, the majority to David Eddings. Anyways, read and review...and for crying out loud, HELP! FIND THE KNIGHTS! MAKE THEM PAY! Spank 'em... ;)