Ch 3: Hello Again
"Ed, everyone in Cair Paravel already knows these people are here," said Lucy, frowning over the parapet at the castle's new arrivals. "You can't possibly expect me to lie for you."
Edmund's frown darkened into a scowl. "I can, and I do. Susan isn't to be bothered, and especially not by him. Keep him busy. I don't care what you tell him, but I don't trust him, and I don't want him near her."
"Does Peter know about--"
"Peter has enough trouble minding the whole of Narnia. I'm asking you to mind one ... person." He clipped off the last word as if he doubted whether the object of their discussion warranted the term.
Of all her siblings, Lucy was closest to Edmund. Since his disastrous foray into the clutches of the White Witch so many years ago, Lucy and Ed had grown very close ... but privately, she thought he still had his failings. While before he had been too quick to trust, his encounter with Jadis seemed to have forced him in quite the other direction. A fine trait for a diplomat whose job was to meet and assess representatives (and possible threats) from other countries, but rather irritating when applied to an overprotective brother.
Lucy fixed her gaze on the dark-blue smoke trailing the arrivals. When the party arrived at the outer gate, the smoke cloud behind them solidified into the human shape of a Jinn. Saris raised his sulfur-yellow gaze to the parapet as if he had known they would be there. When their eyes met, he nodded. Lucy smiled and waved back.
Ed turned his scowl on her.
"Don't look at me like that," she said. "He's been nothing but civil since--"
"Since he impersonated me and went around kidnapping women and ravaging the countryside of Narnia?"
"He was acting on orders. You know as well as I--"
"He's deceptive."
"And people can change," she snapped, giving him a pointed look.
Ed turned the scowl back over the parapet, but he didn't say anything further. What would he say? He couldn't argue. He had changed, himself.
Lucy just wished he'd believe others capable of that, too.
- # -
"No, no, no," Susan cried, surveying the seating arrangements for supper. "You cannot place Tarkaan Halumvar near Lord Morunt. He'll be offended. Last time they were here together, Morunt beat him at every game of chess. Now please, move Halumvar closer to the Selbarani dignitaries. He spoke highly of their fruit exports."
When the faun hurried away to correct the error, Susan sighed. Battles might be won on the field with swords and spears, but they could begin with something as little as a lapse in ceremonial etiquette at dinner. The last thing Narnia needed was to play host to a fight between the proud Calormene Tarkaan and the brash young Archenlander lord. Susan often wondered how many lives she'd spared simply by overseeing the arrangement of Cair Paravel's social functions.
Her job was important, she knew. She ought to be paying the closest possible attention to every flower arrangement--something personal and thoughtful toward the guests at each table. Bouquets of pine sprigs and dogwood flowers for the people of Selbaran. Lush desert plants for the Calormene guests. Mountain flora for the Archenlanders.
None of it, absolutely none of it, held any interest for her. Her mother was in danger. Possibly mortal danger.
After Cori's words of comfort at dinner last week, her brothers and sister hadn't spoken of their parents. They seemed to take Cori at her word--that it might simply be a metaphorical warning.
But it felt so real.
And Susan had been dreaming it every night since.
How she hated magic. Nothing about it was logical.
Every time she thought on the dream, her mother's frightened face etched itself into her memory until she shook with fear. Was Mother even alive? What about Father? He never even appeared in the dream after that first time.
Troubled, Susan stalked the feast hall, absently straightening a fork here, a centerpiece there. Everything was perfect. She drifted on, haunted by a problem she had no power to fix.
"Su, there's no salt on the-- What's wrong?" came Lucy's voice.
Susan looked up. She had walked out of the feast hall and down a little-used corridor without knowing where she'd been going. "Hi, Lu. I'm fine, really," she lied.
Lucy grabbed her hand. A flash of alarm crossed her features, drawing Susan out of worry and into curiosity. "Why don't we go out to the--"
"Good afternoon, Your Majesty," said a deep voice behind Susan.
She spun around and took in a bare chest, hairless scalp, earrings, yellow eyes, and sardonic smile. The Jinn bowed.
Susan found her tongue. "Jinn Saris. When did you arrive?"
Saris looked past her. Susan followed his gaze to find Lucy looking shamefaced. She turned back to Saris to find him watching her with one brow arched. "I've been here all day, my lady."
Susan eyed Lucy again. Lucy's cheeks reddened. "Ed's going to kill me," she muttered, just loud enough for Susan to hear.
