Good for me I have a busy weekend anyway.

The fire burst forth in the dining room and the enraged matron of the house screamed in seething anger.


"Get that fire out!" she bellowed.


Lord Hurbury took his dazed son by the arm, and grasped young Ravyin with the other, and pulled them from the room before it could catch further on fire. The cleric rushed out, eyes wide followed quickly by Lady D'vena.


As the room burned behind her, she grabbed the cleric's collar with her hand. "This WILL be finished here," she ordered. Lord Hurbury was a bit taken aback by the attitude, but he shrugged. Wasn't his home burning behind him.


Young Doran Hurbury finally squeaked, "I do," and the cleric nodded.


As the tapestries smoldered and caught flame behind young Ravyin, the cleric spoke, "And do thee, Ravyin D'vena, take Lord Doran Hurbury to be thine husband.." The words were drowned out in her mind, as she frantically searched for Drayton. In her mind, she was screaming his name but her lips could barely move.


As the cleric finished and looked to the young girl, Jaelyan leaned over and nodded. "Of course she does, I am her mother, and she chaos is frightening for her. She consents to the marriage. Dost thee consent Ravyin?" Her cold eyes peered into her daughter's.


The cleric nodded and then began the last of the ceremony that would bind the two together.


"With the powers granted me by God, the Church, and the King..."


Time was running out.

Crispian jogged with the lead troops, the King's personal banner in the center of the group behind. His cloak snapped in the wind as they rushed along, the jingle and clanking of harness and arms accompanying them.


He could make out the dancing bonfires that had been drawing them in. But there was more smoke. From the building! Something was dreadfully wrong! "Move it up people! Let's go! To the Estate! For Albion!" he snapped loudly at the troops with him, nodding to a minstrel to strike up a martial tune. As the first chords drifted on the air, the troop began to pick up the pace, pulling slightly ahead of the royal group.


"All groups, speed it up!" he called out, as a sprinting figure burst into his midst.


"Crispian," Rasputyn gasped, running full out to keep up, "Lady D'Vena, messenger, left, hour ago, been, looking for, you," he continued, sucking in great breathes of air.


"Satan's Arse! Something is very wrong then!" He looked around for Moryan or Arguyle as the troops pressed forward, defensive but at the ready.

 

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/bump This thread just looked WAY wrong sitting on the second page

Drayton stood over the cleric with a candlestick in hand. The cleric lay motionless, alive, but incapacitated. He had snuck up behind him with the intricate candlestick, and broght it hard upon the cleric's skull.


A tear formed at the corner of his eye. He had no time to be stealthy about it...he had nearly seen his love married forever off to Doran Harbury....and he wouldn't allow it. He wouldn't let her lead the life of chattel. He loved her, and damn it, she was HIS wife, and HE was her husband...not Hurbury.


Drayton just stood there, standing over the fallen cleric, his gaze intense, staring right at D'Vena.

 

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Arguyle could see the plumes of smoke rising from the D'Vena residence as he and the Red Lions approached. He looked back to his men and women and yelled, "For the Order of the Red Lions! For King Constantine! Ride!!"


With that he spurred his stallion forward and he could here the clomp of hooves as the men and women of the Order of the Red Lions followed after him. He could hear Carrington shouting orders to the troops. Macivor was bellowing a migty battle cry as they drew closer and saw the soldiers of House D'Vena preparing for some sort of battle. As they rounded the last turn to the estate they were joined by Moryan and the Wayward Band and King Constantine's Guard being spurred on by Crispian.


Arguyle smiled as he thought about the moments ahead. Then he pulled his sword and raised it high into the air.

Lady D'vena stared down at the young thief that stood proudly with the candlestick in hand. Ravyin's eyes fluttered and she recognized Drayton and with a cry, began to stumble towards him.


The room behind them was a towering inferno of flames as the two young lovers met. Drayton's arms encircled his wife and he merely glared back at D'vena, daring her to try to stop him. Ravyin was crying soundlessly, holding tight to the man that was her hero, her savior, her husband.


A loud cracking sound was heard, and the ceiling above the three started to collapse! Servants and men at arms ran through the estate, some tried to put out the devouring flames, others merely ran for safety. Outsides the sounds of horses and the approaching guards were drowned by the crackling and hissing of the flames.


"Thee will pay for this young one, thee will surely pay," spat the Avalonian woman. With a lithe grace, she turned and darted back further into her home, leaving Drayton alone with his wife and the unconscious cleric.


***********


Moryan led the Wayward forward, those that had been found in enough time to be of use. Not a military unit by any stretch, but they came for Drayton and Ravyin, two of their own. She looked for Carrington, wondering where in the hell her cleric had gotten himself too.


************


Deep inside the estates, Lady D'vena found her way to the wine cellars, and the long unused passageway. Only she knew of its existance, and she had kept that knowledge since the day she'd become the mistress of the mansion. Today, it would save her life.


She'd travel to meet one of her sisters, knowing they would take her in without question. And then, she would plan her revenge.

With a cry, Crispian drew his blade and motioned in an arc. The troops at his side surged forward and into the compound.


"Alive! Take them alive if possible!" he called as the core group with him in the first wave spread into the courtyard. Two men, sargents by the decorations, tried to block his progress. Turning the swing of one on his shield, Crispian attacked. His sword arced up, releasing deadly magics as it tore into the man's body, parting armor like cloth. Before his companion could make a strike, Jashen was on him, twin blades flashing in the wan sunlight and smoke. The steel blades came up bloody, and the foe sagged, wounded but alive.


A short, chaotic fight ensued in the courtyard as royal guardsmen, Wayward band members, and Leaguers supressed the errant guard force. Some lay on the gorund, slick blood flowing from them, others were being bound at the wrists as Tannir unfurled the battle standard of the League.


Crispian surveyed the yard, spotting Moryan and crossed to her.


"our friends know how to host a wedding!" he said, a grin spreading on his soot smeared face. "Remind me come to your next gathering! I'm sure it's not dull!" He nodded to the two strangers, held in each other's embrace then turned to finish securing the courtyard and move the prisoners clear of the fire.

 

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Drayton cringed as a large beam fell flaming to the ground in front of them. But he didn't falter, he turned to Ravyin, and met his lips with her in a spontaneous moment of passion. He piercing green eyes gazed at her for a moment as he looked her over.


"Can you walk?" he asked her, a concerned look on his face.


She smiled and wiped some tears from his face, then nodded. Drayton nodded and picked up the unconcious cleric.


"I'm sorry Father." he said to the unaware old man.


Ravyin and Drayton ran toward the front hallway door, where they could escape. If everything was well, they would meet Arguyle at the doors. They could only pray something didn't stand in their way.

 

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Carrington turned, and with one fluid motion incapacitated a D'Vena soldier with one swing of his hammer. He saw flames billowing from the manor, and a look of worry came to his ghostly blue eyes. Smoke was beginning to slowly haze the air.


He adjusts his cloak and took off running for the front gate. He desperately looked around for Mory, to make sure she was allright, and to find Arguyle. He found Arguyle first.


The firey-headed Highlander paladin was shouting orders when Carrington found him.


"Drayton, Ravyin, and D'Vena are still inside!" he screamed, a desperate look on his face.

 

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