Author's note: Hi there! I'm a French Canadian, so there might be mistakes in my English. If you see any, feel free to tell them! :)
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Caspian was running through the many ramifications in the castle with his mentor to flee the soldiers that wanted clearly his death. When they arrived the stable, the professor, who was short of breath after such a run and a little panicked, gave to him a magical trunk and summoned him to use it only in case of great danger.
"I would have so many things to tell you… to explain to you. If only I had just a little more time, my prince. You must flee now and quickly until you have still time!"
"Will you be in security here professor?"
"Miraz would not dare hurting me. He needs my knowledge to much for that. Have faith in me, now go!"
Caspian was about to leave when he stopped abruptly only a few steps later.
"Johanna! I must fetch her! They will kill her!"
"She is safe my prince. She is not the heir of the throne, now leave!" repeated the professor who was gesticulating frantically to indicate Caspian to go.
They began to hear some soldiers shouting and the noise of the armours colliding resound in every walls of the castle. Caspian considered that it was, indeed, maybe the time to go, if he desired to stay alive. He gave, that time, a harder blow with his legs to the horse and left his domain that, it seemed, he was now banned.
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Johanna woke up in a start, covered of sweat. She felt bad energies everywhere. Why this strange feeling? She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, got up from her bed with shaky legs and unstuck her delicate and rich gown of her wet body. Never a nightmare made her have so many cold sweats in her entire life. She didn't understand why her body reacted this way that night in peculiar. Why all her senses seemed multiplied tenfold? Each noise made her jumped; many smells seemed more perceptible than usual. The adrenalin causes all of this; it's sure… but why?
Only a few hours ago, there has been a big feast. Her uncle Miraz had a boy. It has been a big celebration and Johanna was named godmother, to her joy. The little man was quite cute for a newborn. He was a little wrinkled, like all newborns, but because he was in her family, he was more beautiful than any other babies in her eyes.
Many fireworks burst into the sky, which made Johanna jumped. She took deep breaths to calm herself a little and approached her large French windows to admired the show. She had always liked fireworks. It was so magical, all this lights! She was so much drowned into the many coloured lights that she almost forgotten what made her woke up in the beginning. She opened slowly her doors and went to the banister of her balcony. She contemplated, with children eyes, the fireworks. Suddenly, she heard some metallic noises; her gaze went quickly to the source of the noises and saw a troop of cavalier that was leaving the castle with great haste. Something bad was happening. She was now sure of it. All her fears flood back again. She decided to do, then, what she had always did since her young age when she was afraid of something or when she had a nightmare. See her brother Caspian.
She lighten up a candle on her nightstand, opened slightly the door of her room to see if there was no one in sight and, when she felt completely secure, left quickly her room and tiptoed to the quarters of Caspian.
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Hardly a few moments later, the professor Cornelius knocked softly at Johanna's door, the knocks were so delicate that it was almost inaudible. In these dark times, he had to stay as quiet as possible not to alarm anyone. The professor knew, fortunately, that Johanna had a very light sleep. Sadly, there was no answer at his knocks. He tempted again, but this time with harder knocks, though they were still very soft. Again, there was no answer. He checked if the door of her chamber was locked by turning slowly the handle and noticed that it was not. He decided, then, to open it and to wake her up. He turned the handle completely and his eyes grew wider at what he saw.
Her bed was empty.
Her sheets indicated that she had slept in it and that she had woke up. The doors that lead to her balcony were open and the curtains were slowly floating by the wind. She saw everything. He was sure of this. And now only god knows where she is. Oh dear Johanna, in what mess you put yourself trough this time…Cornelius feared suddenly for the life of this sweet and delicate child.
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Johanna climbed to the tower of Caspian and noticed that his bedroom door was already opened. Strange… she thought. She knew that, like her, Caspian always kept his door closed for the night. She moved very slowly, pushed the door of his chamber and stood still, in shocked. Her eyes began to filled with tears and her whole body started to shake in front of this horrible scene. So that was it. This fear. This strange sensation.
The draperies of the four poster bed of Caspian was filled with holes. No chances of survival, if he was inside the bed during the attack. If. She said to herself. She hoped with all her heart that he wasn't there when it happened. She started to walk slowly to the bed with shaky legs. At each step she took, she felt that a world was crumbling around her. The most her arm was reaching the bruised curtains, the most there was tears running trough her pale face. Her fingers stretched and grasped a small part of tissue. She stood there for was seemed eternity for her without making any movement. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. At least, she took the deeper breath she was able to take considering that her throat was tied. And finally, she pulled the curtains in one blow. A smile appeared on her sad face. She wasn't seeing that well, her vision being blurred by the tears in her eyes, but she was seeing enough to notice that her brother hadn't been here during the attack. There wasn't any trace of blood, only some pierced sheets and feathers scattered everywhere that the arrows have spread outside the mattress at the impact.
Everything became suddenly clear for her. The newborn and the attempt to murder Caspian. Miraz would become the King if Caspian died. And has he had now an heir, he was in security. Johanna knew she represented no danger to Miraz, because for the Telmarines, woman couldn't become a Queen, only man could govern. A woman could acquire the title of Queen only if she married a King. So, her nephew would be the successor after Miraz death.
Johanna heard some metallic noises climbing to Caspian's room. She glanced quickly to the origin of the noise. Her respiration became harder. She had to flee, no one had to see her in this place or they would need to kill her too! She rushed herself into the same wardrobe in which Caspian had fled earlier, but sadly, the soldier saw her leaving. He had hardly entered the room, when he noticed the trail of her delicate white gown disappearing in the wardrobe.
The soldier ran to her pursuit. Johanna discovered soon enough that someone was following her and began to run as quickly as she could in spite of the fact that she was in a dress and barefoot. Each contact of her feet of the cold stone was extremely painful as she was giving the best of her capacities to flee. She finally reached her quarters, closed the door behind her, locked it and pushed her cupboard on the door. This will give me some time. She thought.
She hurried to change herself into a more suitable clothing, in a way she could stay unnoticed among the crowd. She combed her hair into a ponytail and placed it into a hat, dressed more like a man with pants and an ample shirt, took her shoulder-bag and stuffed in it some foods and some personal effects. While she was quickly preparing herself to leave, she heard many times someone knocking on her door; sometimes the knocks were quite violent. Which was frightening her a lot. At each knocks on her door, she closed her eyes in fear and her heart was pounding ever harder that it was already beating. There was a small respite, but when she was finally ready to go, the knocks started over again but this time quite harder. They're going to kick down my door! She thought panicked. Indeed, her door was now beginning to curve at the impact of, what she thought, must have been one of the marble statues in the corridor.
She ran outside, thrown a rope made from several sheets, attached it to the banister and began her quick descent, hoping really hard that her improvised rope would hold out. She was almost on the ground when the soldiers finally succeed in kicking down her door. They saw that she was about to flee and whistle loudly to the soldiers below to indicate then that she was jus a few feet away. She ran to the stable, took her personal horse, didn't even took the time, as she clearly hadn't any, to saddle her horse and fled the castle as Caspian did only half an hour before.