Meanwhile, only a few furlongs distant, a gallant prowed boat touched the windswept shore, and three figures leapt out, flung themselves on the beach, and kissed the fair land that they had never expected to see more. They made a great noise in the night, as they were in full armour, and needed to be helped to their feet by their trusty servants. Then they embraced each other in turn, disentangled themselves, and breathed in the fresh air of home. The obvious leader of the trio, armour emblazoned with a strange device -- a circle with a cross subordinate -- pulled out a great broadsword and held it up, so that it caught the moonlight in a slice of silver. "We come to free the Lady Caitrin!!!!" And the other two repeated the solemn oath, that rang through the charmed night.
With that, the powerful knights pulled off their great helms. There were gasps among the servants, none of whom had ever seen the faces of those they served; and now they realized for the first time the heights of the privilege that had been bestowed upon them. For the three were none other than Katlaughing of Wyomingtane, wisest of those who wove the Net of Cyberfate, brown as rope from her years of crusading in farthest Afghanland; Bonnie of Banjo, the Hot Troubadeuse who had once sat at the feet of Fieldyn, Dreamerbard, and learned the dropped unicorn trick that none but he had mastered, and had learned all the quotes of the indefatigable Mbo and could recite the hundred thousand lines of the futile story of Big Mick and the Fair Alysoon, and was all around Top Lute; and, last but not least, Sherry Aims, Crusader Nurse.