Chapter 2: The Road
"It could be a little less dusty," Ninnia complained with a cough that was more than a bit over-dramatic. Avayna stifled a giggle as their lady mother turned her gaze from the passing countryside to her eldest daughter.
"We could close the windows," Elmany of Archenland suggested, in a tone of voice that indicated that they would do nothing of the sort. It was dim and sweltering enough inside the carriage without closing the thick shutters.
Ninnia scowled, but said nothing. She crossed her arms on the narrow windowsill and rested her chin on them, blinking through the dust to watch the rolling grassland pass by. "I wish we could ride up front with Father and Rev."
Revilian, by virtue of being a boy, was lucky enough to ride with Kavidan at the front of the procession on the horse he had received for his last birthday. There were a great many men, horses, oxen, and wagons between the standard-bearers and the heavy wooden structure that bore the ladies of Andowell, and so the carriage was constantly enveloped in a cloud of grit and grime.
"It's better than mud," Revilian had explained knowingly after the girls, specifically Ninnia, had complained about the dust that first day. "We'll make good time. You can't get stuck in dust."
"You can't breathe in it, either," Ninnia had shot back.
Avayna was fighting a cold, and at the first sign of her sniffles Lady Elmany had nearly sent her back to the manor house with one of Father's men. Lord Kavidan had intervened, and so now Avayna sat smushed between Mother and Governess, trying very hard to wipe her runny nose in the most ladylike and mother-pleasing fashion. The dust, however, certainly didn't help with the sneezing.
The whole countryside was dry, she had noticed. As soon as the timber- and mineral-rich hills of the Northwest gave way to the undulating plains that surrounded Telmar City, it became obvious that drought had been harsh to the region. She didn't know much about agriculture, but she was fairly confident that fields should not be quite as brown as those she was seeing. She had also overheard Sir Lewess, a minor lord with whom the family had lodged on the third night of their journey, telling Father that the farmers were worried about a poor harvest. The story was the same along much of the road. Although the peasants cheered the passing caravan, there was something about their joy that didn't quite reach their eyes.
"When I am Lady Passarid," Ninnia continued to anyone who would listen, "I will ride my own mare at the head of the column."
"When you are Lady Passarid," their mother replied, "You will submit to the wishes of your lord husband, and you will conduct yourself in a manner that honors him. I somewhat doubt that that includes straddling a horse with the standard-bearers."
She didn't say it unkindly, but Ninnia knew better than to retort. It didn't stop her from scowling. Avayna sniffled to hide another laugh.
The wooden structure rolled heavily on, and Avayna wondered if Warnick was intentionally driving them over every bump and hole or if the road was just that rough. For all the excitement that had accompanied their grand departure from Andowell Hall eight mornings ago, the long days of slow, bumpy, dusty travel were exhausting. Each night they were hosted and feasted by minor lords and landed knights eager for their liege's favor, which provided a welcome reprieve from a lengthy day of jostling and sore backsides. Last night they were guests at the immense manse of the Pinnacles. Lord Pinnacle was her father's friend and equal, and his son Zirus was just Avayna's age. The feast was wonderful, but the pudgy Zirus had tried to kiss her during the dancing and Revilian had very nearly hit him when he saw. Avayna had spent much of the evening worrying that all of the talk between Father and Lord Pinnacle might be including the subject of her betrothal to the pig-like Pinnacle heir.
Pushy little lords aside, she would have given up all the feasts if it meant that they would reach Telmar City all the sooner. Today, at last, was to be that day. Father had told her that they would see the city gates before nightfall, and she could hardly wait.
Avayna had heard stories of the capital city of Telmarine Narnia for as long as she could remember. Governess was the first and most frequent storyteller; she had grown up in the capital and would tell them of the crowded streets teeming with scents and colors and accents from all over the known world. Minstrels and other wandering musicians who had found their way to the doorstep of the manor house entertained their lord and his family with ballads and poems of the great deeds done in the city and across the realm. Avayna and her siblings would listen wide-eyed, her brother Revilian demanding more tales of knights and tourneys while Ninnia begged for another love story or sonnet. Avayna, for her part, sat and listened rapturously to them all without prejudice or preference, only the burning desire to see and experience it all for herself.
It was Uncle Uvilas's stories she loved best, however, for her uncle was a magnificent storyteller and knew just how to paint a picture with his words that could send his nieces and nephew shrieking with laughter or cheering with glee. That was the best part about Uncle Uvilas's stories: they were never sad for long and the bad people never won in the end. Uncle also did the most wonderful impressions of the other lords and ladies at court. If her uncle's colorful tales were to be believed, Avayna imagined that Telmar City and the people in it must be magnificent indeed.
"More palaces than even your sister could possibly imagine," Uncle had told her once. "Manses and shops and stables, and rising above it all the great castle of the Conqueror, where generations of kings have ruled Narnia and Telmar since the first Caspian first brought us to this land. You'll see it all one day, my sweet girl, and you'll have to remind yourself to breathe."
She had never been farther than Town, and she could barely imagine so many people and so many buildings all in one place or the kind of grandeur Uncle described.
"Avayna's daydreaming again," Ninnia giggled, bringing her out of her reverie and back into the hot, dusty carriage.
"Are you excited to see the city, Lady Avayna?" Lady Rynn asked in her sweet, lyrical voice. She and Lady Sitsy, her mother's ladies-in-waiting, were seated across from Avayna. They both belonged to lesser families, but were ladies in their own right, and Lady Sitsy had even come the whole way from Archenland with Mother when she and Father were wed.
Avayna nodded and dabbed at her nose with her kerchief. "Yes, Lady Rynn."
"Lady Avayna has been starry-eyed for weeks," Governess said with a kind smile. "It was a lion's task to get her to pay attention to her lessons."
"How much further, Mother?" Ninnia interrupted, with just a tinge of whine in her voice.
"Nearly there, child," Mother answered. "It is almost sundown. We should be able to see the gates soon."
Avayna's heart leapt a little, and she squirmed between Mother and Governess, trying to see across them and out the open window. Sunlight was streaming straight through the window to her right, which meant that the sun was fast approaching the western horizon.
It was only a few moments later that her ears caught the shrill sound of trumpets from somewhere in the distance, and she met Ninnia's equally wide eyes.
"Telmar City," Avayna breathed as Ninnia scrambled to her knees to peek out the window, pretending not to hear their mother's admonishment to sit down and not embarrass the entire House of Andowell by gawking like a farm maid at a fair. Avayna was craning her own neck to see past Governess, who upon noticing this gestured for the girl to trade places with her. Avayna bobbed as much of a curtsey as she could muster while stepping around Governess in the bouncing carriage. Once properly settled, she peered out the window, squinting through the dust and trying to catch her first glimpse of the city's fabled wall.
"As high as two men standing on each other's shoulders!" Uncle Uvilas had said. "Thick enough for three men to walk abreast along the parapets at the top, with bricks carved from the mountains of Telmar and brought here by the wagonload. They say the wagon train stretched from horizon to horizon, my Avayna, can you imagine? With all those bricks sparkling in the sun due to the flecks of quartz found therein… And gates of solid gold - they're just for show, of course; there's an iron portcullis as thick as your waist that can be closed in front of the gates at a moment's notice if the city is threatened…"
All she could see now was a faint line in the distance as the road began to curve toward it. The dust and the haze and the front of the caravan all worked together to block anything else from view. There were more people about now, Avayna noticed. The farms were closer together as they neared the city, and they passed a few scattered inns and wayhouses and taverns as well. A shepherd and his wife stood near the road with their immense flock scattered all around them, keeping at bay any of their sheep who might wander and be in the way of the horses and wagons. Avayna gave a shy wave as she met their eyes, and the woman smiled back with a wave of her own as her husband swatted back a curious sheep with his staff.
"Oh, look, 'Vayna!" Ninnia cooed. "Look at the little lambs!"
"Why do the inns all have such funny names?" Avayna asked Governess as they passed a row of haphazard wooden establishments. "The 'Pig and Pumpkin' doesn't sound like a very nice place to sleep."
"Or the 'Drunken Dog' right beside!" Ninnia said with a laugh, pointing to the tavern in question. "They make the 'White Rose' in Town seem rather dull. Look, there's the 'Perilous Pirate.'"
"I suppose the more interesting the name, the more attractive they are to travelers," Governess replied.
"'The Buxom Beauties of –'"
"Ninnia, stop reading signs this moment," Mother interrupted sharply. Ninnia's head snapped to Lady Elmany in surprise, but Lady Rynn whispered in her ear before Ninnia had time to question her mother's command.
"That's not a tavern or an inn, dear one."
Ninnia's eyes went wide, and Avayna giggled. The older girl turned back to the window with renewed interest, though any sign-reading from that point forward was done silently.
They came upon a wide river that the caravan crossed by way of a sturdy wooden bridge, with children playing in the water underneath and women doing laundry or gathering pails for their homes or gardens. The fields were slightly greener here, though she didn't know whether that was because the drought had not been so harsh or because of the efforts of the men she saw carrying heavy buckets of water hanging from yokes across their broad, bare shoulders. The farmers cast long shadows as they moved through their fields of waist-high wheat.
"Oh, Ninnia, look!" Avayna exclaimed suddenly. "Look! It's the wall!"
The carriage was rounding a little curve in the road, and with each turn of the wheels more and more of the city was coming into view. Avayna felt her heart begin to race. They were still at least a league away, and it was every bit as grand as Uncle had said.
The setting sun was reflected a million times and more by the specks of quartz in the dark gray stone, making the great outer wall of Telmar City glitter like one of Mother's Archenlandish diamonds. Peering out above the wall were the tops of more buildings than Avayna had ever thought could possibly exist in one place: spindly spires, great belltowers, square rooftops, and enormous-looking domes of temples and palaces. It was like a city from a story, one of the fairy tales that Nurse used to tell them when they were small, but it was here and real and as a Narnian it belonged to her. Her heart felt fit to burst.
"Oh, Mother, it's beautiful. Do they have cities like this in Archenland?" she asked in half a whisper.
Mother smiled. "There are fine cities in Archenland, my sweet one, tucked away in mountain valleys so beautiful that they make you want to cry, but even I will admit that there is no city in Archenland so grand-looking as Telmar City."
Avayna turned with a proud smile back to the window, only to frown as another curve in the road obscured the wall from sight. They were traveling directly toward the city now; the road ran straight and true for the final league all the way up to the golden gates that were thrust wide to allow the last travelers, traders, and farmers in before sundown.
It wasn't long before the carriage was rumbling through the tents that had been hastily constructed for the men-at-arms and household members who had accompanied lords and ladies great and small across Narnia to the prince's celebration. The encampments were stuffed full of all kinds of people, with the myriad standards of each House flapping gaily in the late afternoon breeze like pennants announcing the entrance to a fair in every color imaginable. Men in leather mail, simple jerkins, or surcoats emblazoned with the colors and emblem of their lord went about on all manner of business or pleasure, while women and even a few children bustled in their midst. Avayna couldn't help but think what fun it might be to explore the ramshackle alleyways of the tent city with the children. No doubt there would be no lack of merry-making once the lords and ladies were safely shut up in the city for the night and the lesser folk were free to celebrate the prince's birthday in their own way.
She could smell the smoke of hundreds of cookfires and the aromas of the food being prepared on and around them. For the first time, she realized how hungry she was. It felt so long since Lady Sitsy had passed out the apples, bread, and cheese that had made up their afternoon meal, and she hoped that Aunt Meriana's cook would have a supper prepared for when they arrived.
The wall was coming back into view, and much closer now. Trumpets sounded from the parapets in announcement of their coming, and before Avayna knew it they were passing through the immense gate and into the city. She caught a quick glimpse of the open gates shining golden in the sun before the carriage was through and she was caught up in a world of stone and wood and brick and, oh, so many people.
She could hear the crier going ahead of them, bellowing for people to make way for Lord Kavidan of Andowell and his noble family. They rolled past a group of men-at-arms and other folk, and she was startled to recognize a few of their faces until she realized that they were members of her own traveling party. Having seen their lord safely into the city, they must have been given leave to stand aside while a smaller contingent of guards and servants who would stay with the family at Uncle Uvilas's home escorted them the rest of the way there. For the twentieth time that day and the hundred and twentieth since they left Andowell, she was jealous of Revilian for getting to ride through the city on horseback while she was limited to the view out a single window.
She glanced over at Ninnia, who was doing her best to look very prim and proper despite appearing ready to jump out of her skin with curiosity and excitement. Even the ladies Rynn and Sitsy had stopped chattering and were looking out the window as the carriage moved through the crowded streets. Avayna could have watched the houses, shops, stables, and other buildings go by for hours had her stomach not been protesting so loudly, but thankfully it wasn't long until she felt the carriage roll to a stop and heard merry shouting.
"Uncle Uvilas!" she exclaimed, recognizing his boisterous laugh. There was a harsh sound of wood scraping wood as the handle was turned and the thick carriage door was opened, allowing in the last of the evening sun and a view of Uvilas spreading his arms wide to welcome his female relations. He was a short man, almost a head shorter than Father, with a barrel chest and a thick brown beard that nearly obscured the square line of his jaw. The hair around his head was similarly thick, though it had grown thinner on top since she had last seen him at Christmas two years past. His wide smile was the same, however, kind and welcoming with two holes on the left side where teeth had been knocked out in one of his melees.
"My dear sister!" he cried, reaching a hand into the carriage to help Mother navigate the two steps down to the cobbled street. "How glad I am to see you in Telmar City again! You look all the lovelier for the journey."
Mother laughed and kissed her brother-in-law on each cheek. "Your silver tongue never fails you, Uvilas. We've all been subjected to ten days' worth of dust and are each in need of a warm bath!"
"But all the more beautiful for it," Uncle continued without missing a beat. "I rather like Lady Elmany's hair that shade of dusty red, Meriana, don't you agree?"
Aunt Meriana, who had deep reddish-brown hair herself, shook her head with a small smile. "Uvilas, do let them all get out of the carriage before you overwhelm them with your flatteries." She clasped hands with Elmany and they exchanged kisses as Uvilas continued, unfazed.
"And where are my darling nieces?" He gallantly handed Governess, Lady Sitsy, and Lady Rynn down from the carriage before Ninnia appeared in the wooden doorway.
"We're here, Uncle!" she crowed, reaching out a hand to be helped down as the other ladies had before her. Uvilas made an elaborate bow that made her giggle, and handed her down with comical pomp. Avayna, last of all, held her hand out the same way, but was plucked right out of the doorway and spun around to her delight before finding her slippered feet on the cobblestones. Father and Revilian were there as well, having already made their greetings by virtue of having been among the first in the party to arrive. Revilian's freckled face was caked in reddish dust, making his blue eyes and white teeth stand out all the more from his dirty cheeks as he grinned. He clearly had very much enjoyed riding with Father through the city like a man grown.
"It is good to see you, Uncle," Avayna said, bobbing a polite curtsey to him. "And you, too, Aunt Meriana." She had to sniffle badly but managed to resist until her sister spoke up. When the attention turned to Ninnia, Avayna did her best to dab her nose with her handkerchief in the most ladylike way she could muster, hoping that Mother wouldn't notice.
"We're ever so excited to be here," Ninnia added with a quick curtsey of her own. "Can we see the new baby?"
Meriana laughed. "In time. She's sleeping now. But you remember your other cousins, don't you?" She gestured to three girls who stood along the wall beside the great wooden door to their home. "Uvila, Asani, Meri, come greet your cousins."
The girls came forward and there were kisses exchanged all around. Uvila was the same age as Rev, but she was taller by an inch or two, with bright red hair that must have been inherited from somewhere in her mother's family. Asani was nine and skinny as a reed, with hazel eyes that were a little too close together, while Meri was squat and round and only six.
"You must be exhausted," Aunt said after the greetings were finished and the horses and carriage had been taken away. There were only a few men-at-arms and members of their household left now, including Governess and Mother's ladies. "Cook has prepared a meal for us when you're settled. The servants will see to your things." She turned to a hook-nosed woman dressed all in black, with sharp eyes and a stern mouth. "Dear Mrs. Reine, will you please see to it that Lord and Lady Andowell and the children find their rooms? And do have some water brought up as well so that they might refresh themselves."
The woman, who must have been the housekeeper, nodded. "This way, milords, miladies."
As other men began gathering the heavy trunks, two of Uncle's manservants pushed open the doors and the Northern Andowells and their city relatives disappeared inside.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Apologies for the horrible delay in this chapter (again). I've been working on an update to this story for the past few months as a part of the Big Bang challenge over at the Narnia Fic Exchange LJ, but I think that the challenge may have fallen to the wayside. Thus, I'll just post everything here! Look for another chapter in the next week or two.
Special thanks to everyone who assisted with ideas, beta-ing, and other support, especially Heliopause, rthstewart, and greaves. I would welcome any thoughts, feedback, and suggestions from other readers as well.