Chapter 17
Molly woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to watch the tournament. Marta was just pulling the curtains back as Molly sat up in bed. "Good Morning Milady," Marta said smiling. Molly looked around the room to see her breakfast waiting for her on her small drafting table. The small spread held toast, eggs, and pastries. Molly pulled herself from her bed to examine her breakfast more closely. She smiled as she looked upon the pastries. Nestled among the Avalonian flaky pastries, was a lone apple tart. Molly picked it up biting into the dense sugary goodness of the crust.
"Marta," Molly asked wiping the crumbs from her lips. "Yes milady," she asked turning
"Do you know where this came from," Molly asked holding the tart up.
"No, milady. It was there when I picked up your breakfast." Marta said turning to Molly's trunk. "Which dress shall you wear today," she asked opening the trunk.
"The blue and silver one," Molly said. Today was the tournament, which reminded her of Edmund. It made sense to her that she should wear his colors. Marta nodded pulling the deep blue gown with silver bodice from the trunk.
"It seems a bit dark for spring milady," Marta said as Molly finished her pastry.
"Marta, the colours represent the best dueler in all of Narnia," Molly said stepping behind the folding screen to shield herself from what she knew was coming
"Five, four, three, two…' Molly counted under her breath. Before she reached one, the doors to her room burst open, and the sound of clinking metal filled the room.
"Molly, you're up early," Caleb's voice boomed from the other side of the screen.
"Milord, to what do I owe the pleasure," Molly asked as Marta helped her into the blue petticoat with silver embroidery .
"I was wondering if you would wear a token of mine during the tournament today," he said. Molly thought it over for a second, her thoughts drifting to the opal necklace that lay in the bottom of her trunk. She had planned to wear it today, but if the need be she could hide it in the pocket she had Susan add to all the dresses she'd sent.
"What pray tell would you have me wear," Molly asked as the skirt was pulled into place.
"Nothing large miss, just a handkerchief," Caleb said.
"Fine," Molly said as the bodice was lowered into place. The dress naturally had a corset, but Molly had instructed Marta long ago that her corsets were not to be tied tight, but just tight enough to keep the top up. This time, however, Marta pulled hard at the laces as Molly held the front of the dress up.
"dear Aslan, " Molly wheezed as the laces were tugged.
"Are you alright Molly," Caleb called from what she assumed was the door.
"Yes," she squeaked, "leave the token on the table. I'll get it on my way out." Molly looked over at her shoulder glaring at Marta, who smirked. "I thought you might like a distraction from that rubbish milady," she said. Molly grinned at this, "yes Marta, just loosen it please," she begged.
Marta did her work quickly letting Molly leave her red locks down. Molly moved to look out the window as Marta fastened the clasp on her opal necklace. "Tis a beautiful necklace milday. Whoever gave it to you," she asked admiring the colors in the windows reflection.
"It was a birthday gift from someone dear to me," Molly said. The boat was closer to shore then it had been last night. Molly could make out a tiny pinprick of a man standing in the crows nest. The sky was grey, however making the man difficult to see without straining one's eyes.
"A precious gift it is," Marta acknowledged when she finally stopped staring.
"Yes." Molly said curtly, turning to the door. She'd be late if she didn't leave soon. As she walked past the table she spotted the square of yellow cloth with the crest of Avalon embroidered on one corner. She picked it up gently tucking it into the secret pocket of her dress.
The stands were nearly full when Molly arrived, but then again she'd gotten distracted on the walk to the tournament. She'd stopped to watch the men warming up, longing to be among them. Her fingers were itching to hold her sword again. She made her way to the royal box, where King Lune and Lord Alistair were sitting. Lune smiled at Molly as she entered the box. "It's a pleasure to see you on the sidelines for once lady knight," Lune said offering her a small cup of mead. She refused it for a glass of fruit juice one of the maids had brought specially for her.
"I have no idea what you mean King Lune. I have often found myself on the sideline," she said grinning over her cup.
"Yes, well I would fight myself, but tournaments are a young man's pleasure," he said sipping his own wine.
The two turned their attentions to the field in front of them. A squat man in striped plantoon pants and top with poof sleeves stepped into the middle of the ring. "Ladies and Gentlemen," his voice bombed louder than Molly thought possible for such a small man.
"Welcome the 125th Annual Avalon Tournament of Wills. The rules are simple, survive the round and move forward. If you are knocked out or killed, well, lets just say there are no consolation prizes. We shall begin with jousting, then move to man to man combat after lunch. In jousting there is one other rule, if unseated, your opponent may not kill you, as he has already won. But enough of my talking,. Let the tournament begin!"
The crowd roared from all sides as the first jousters were announced. Jousting was something new to Molly. There was no jousting in Narnia as the Talking Beasts refused to take part and the centaurs had an unfair advantage.
She watched in awe as the large lances shattered on contact and the rider in pale blue fell to the ground with a hard thump. She shuddered as she thought about the amount of pain the knight must be enduring. Molly watched as the pale blue knight dusted himself off as he stalked away back towards the tent village surrounding the stadium.
The rider in red stood in front of the king, bowing as best he could. The crowd cheered for him, obviously he was a favorite of the people who attended the tournament every year. The next knights were already lining up ready for their turns.
Molly sighed, while more deadly for the participants jousting was boring to watch if you had no one to cheer for. She kept a smile on her face as each pair appeared before her trying to unseat each other. She did notice as page standing by the edge of the area, his black hair made him stand out against the sea of blue and green tents. Eventually, the final pair appeared and bowed before King Lune.
The red knight had survived, though Molly figured he had from the way the crowd cheered. Next to him was a man in plain steel armor on a roan horse, a female one if Molly would have to guess. Lune waved the pair away and they took their places at opposite ends of the rail.
The two knights ran towards each other. Molly looked away unable to look at field as the two knights clashed, a boom similar to that of an explosion made Moly wince and cover her ears. No one else had hit that hard. She glanced up for a second to see the damage. The red knight was on the ground, a large chunk of his opponents lance impaled through his throat. Arcs of crimson sprayed across the battlefield. The crowd cried in dismay. The few healers available rushed on to the field in an attempt to save the knight. By the time the pair reached him, the knight was dead.
The man in the steel pulled his helm off to reveal a middle aged man, a large scar distorting the majority of his features. This man made his way to King Lune, bowing when he arrived.
"Well done, Sir Baskerville. You have fought honorably and shall receive…" King Lune started. "Just give me the treasure,' he interrupted. Molly sat there, her mouth agape, wondering why that man would talk in such a way to his king.
"Of course," King Lune said obliging the knight, who trotted briskly away on his jet black colt. The stands slowly emptied, those who stayed were too caught up in their own tears to worry about anyone else.
Molly stood herself, intent on finding some small food stand to buy her lunch from. As she began to turn away, a voice called that Molly tried to ignore. "Lady Fitzroy," Lord Alistair called. Molly whirled around on her heels to face the older man, noticing he was grimacing despite his obvious enjoyment of the tournament.
"Lunch is this way," he said motioning to the other side of the royal box. Molly sighed inwardly. The last thing she wanted to deal with while eating was Caleb going on and on about what a great swordsman he was. It would give her indigestion, and she'd be tempted to challenge the man to a fight to the death, but that would probably end with the son of a warlord dead, and her being tried for treason.
She did the best she could to bite her tongue throughout the meal. She did however, manage to get a few words in about Narnia, as one of the lords sitting near them was raving about the insanity of the idea of talking beasts. Most of the people eating around her dropped the subject of Narnia after the outburst.
When the servants came around with desert each offered a different type of dessert on their platter. Molly tried to be conservative with her choices, but found it hard to turn everything away. The final platter to be presented to her was one covered in sugar rolled pastries. However, a small square of powdered sugar caught her eye. She looked up to the boy from the previous night, his chocolate brown eyes holding a certain mischievousness that gave him away. Molly smiled at the boy, taking the Turkish delight from the center of the platter. The boy put a finger to his lips, as if telling her to remain quiet.
As she finished her treat, Molly realized that the tent was slowly emptying, and the noise outside had increased considerably since she'd entered the tent. Molly finished her Turkish delight and left the tent returning to the royal box. This time all of the competitors were present to hear the rules of the hand-to-hand competition. There is little use writing them here, as the rules given to the competitors were fairly straightforward and standard to most tournaments of this nature.
Molly surveyed the competitor. Compared to the jousting competition there was a bit more diversity here. All sorts of men in various states of dress stood in a line looking out into the audience. Molly marveled at the types of weapons the men held. Most held typical swords, though they ranged in length and curvature. However, Molly noticed at least one axe, several spears, and one man holding something that looked suspiciously like scythes.
The first pair called was a knight, and a young common man, mostly likely a sailor of some type from his clothing. They bowed to King Lune as the crowd cheered. The two faced each other waiting for the starting bell to sound. The knight's hand was poised just above the hilt of his long sword, while the sailor was crouched only his right hand poised above the pommel of his weapon. The bell rang out through the stadium.
The two men drew their swords and charged each other. Molly watched analyzing the fight as Orieus had taught her years ago.
The sailor attacked first slashing his sword at the knight's torso one handed. From the way he moved, Molly suspected he was more use to fighting at sea than he was on land. That would hurt him in the tournament, but it looked like he was, at least, well versed in the use of the sword. The knight blocked the blow easily. Actually, he looked bored as he moved his broad sword to block the salior's blow. The man's cutlass hit the broadsword with a clang.
Molly sighed as the pair continued to swing at each other. While the knight was good, he definitely was missing the endurance. The sailor made up for his lack of skill in endurance. The pair kept swinging, the noise becoming near unbearable, even for someone like Molly who was well versed in swordplay. As the two continued to clash, sparks flew off of their swords. Molly lost interest in the fight, absent mindedly twisting the chain of her necklace around her finger.
She was soon jolted out of her thoughts by cheering from the stands to her right. The sailor had disarmed the knight and was moving in on the unarmed man. The sailor put his blade to the knight's neck signaling he'd won. Molly shook her head. It was obvious the knight had never seen combat, whereas the sailor had loads of experience.
As the tournament moved forward Molly had half a mind to go find some gambler behind the stands and bet on each match up. Of the fifteen matches she'd seen, she'd predicted fourteen of them correctly. The one she'd missed had been the masked man with the scythes against a knight using a standard broad sword. Molly decided after seeing the scythe man move she wanted to learn for to use them.
The tournament broke for dinner just before the finals. This last round of the tournament would be fought between the man with the scythes and a very scary knight with a battle axe. Dinner was a quite affair that allowed Molly to slip out of the tent unnoticed to sample some of the street food. She sampled the food finally buying a few taco looking things made with flat bread and goat. Molly licked her fingers clean as she made her way back to the stadium.
Before she made it back, someone sprang out from behind a food stand wrapping their arms around her waist as they did so. As the arms pulled her into the dark alley between the stands Molly turned around to face those chocolate brown eyes she'd be seeing since yesterday. She smacked the man's arm. "You could have told me, Edmund."
Hi everyone! I hope you liked this installment of Not Just the Help. Up next is the conclusion of the tournament and the bazaar. Don't forget to review by pressing that nice little button below. I read all the reviews and look forward to your comments. - Yoko