Head spinning.
Sore muscles burning.
Feet feeling as if walking on lit, hot coals, unstable.
Vision limited because of the grave, hostile darkness of the underground room.
The disgusting scents wafting in the air, emerged from the disgustingly damp floor of the cell, were scorching her throat.
And the constant clattering noise of the bars was bouncing off on the stony walls, piercing her ears.
"Enough! It is pointless. The only thing you'll accomplish is anger them and…" her voice trailed off meaningfully and she looked away, biting her lips.
Queen Susan the Gentle was a person who liked to speak the truth, no matter how cruel or heart-breaking it was. She would speak it, of course, in a way that was neither cruel nor heart-breaking, but she would speak it none the less. She did not want to hide her true opinion and in some way, lie by altering the truth. And everyone respected and was content for that trait of hers. But she would not dare speak the words now, not when they were both aware how terrible they would sound. No, she didn't even want to imagine another punishment befalling on her youngest brother by those barbarians because of the noise he made.
King Edmund easily figured out what the words she dared not give voice to meant, and so he withdrew himself from the rusty bars of their cell, ceasing his repeated violent knocking of foot on it, and sat by his sister's side, throwing an arm over her bare shoulders –her gown's design was an off-the-shoulder one and the Calormenes were not as polite as to offer her a blanket or jacket and she was already starting to tremble- and pulled her to him. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and sighed.
"Don't you worry, Sue, we shall be fine." He said in a whispering voice and she was surprised by the emotion wavering in his words. Edmund had never been one for heart-felt words and conversations but he must be really shaken himself by the last events. "Really. I trust your beloved Corin will alert his father. King Lune would never abandon us in our fates. He will find a way to save us. Just wait and see."
Susan smiled against his neck. "I know." She said softly, enjoying feeling so much closer to her brother. "Wait." She exclaimed in a hushed tone and lifted her head. "My beloved Corin?"
Edmund chuckled. "Isn't he?" he said in a challenging manner, arching a clever brow. "Oh, you should have seen your face when you found he had returned from his last escapade here in Calormen!"
Susan scrunched her nose dismissively and had she been in a playful, gay mood, she would probably have stuck her tongue out at him. He chuckled and looked away, pulling her again close to him when catching with the corner of his eye her sorrowful, uncertain frown. "Do you think Aslan is around here, somewhere? Watching us?"
"Aslan is always watching over us and He always will!" he whispered comfortingly and wished that he were anything like Lucy. She was the faithful, the valiant one. She held more faith and trust in Aslan than anyone he knew, she would have had the right words to speak to their sister and comfort her. "Sue, what happened? Why have you suddenly lost your faith?"
"I have not lost my faith, Edmund!" she practically exclaimed and stood up, walking across the cell and standing before the window, tiptoeing a little to gaze at the world out of it. She sighed after a while and looked at him. "I'm just being…"
"Logical, Susan?"
"No!" She sighed again and hid her face in her palms. She didn't know what to think or feel. She was lost. She wished Lucy were with them to offer them her valiance and she wished Peter were also there to give them strength and courage with his noble heart. How dearly she missed her siblings and she so regretted missing her little sister's nineteenth birthday. But Lucy had said she did not mind and that they would after all throw a private party upon her and Edmund's return. But now they were imprisoned and Aslan only knew what was to happen to them. "I don't know, I am not sure. I… I just have a bad feeling about this. Something just not…feels right. Something is out of place."
"Like this was not meant to happen?" the young King added intrigued and somehow he found some of his own thoughts were matching his sister's uncertain words. Susan looked at him only a little surprised and nodded silently. Edmund waved slightly his hands and shrugged the matter off. "You know, we would not be here had you brought your quiver or horn."
"Dearest brother, how many times must I ask you to quit mumbling? It's quite frustrating, you know." She replied, this time the smirk barely able to be disguised by her pursing her lips. He stared at her blankly before they both started chuckling. It was a private joke of theirs, he would blame everything on her and she would reply saying something either completely irrelevant or nonsensical.
"Here, here, here. And I used to think that prison causes one's sorrow not merriness." A heavily accented, hoarse voice, spoke made them snap their heads to the direction of the bars. A man with dark characteristics and skin had placed his arms through the iron rails and was resting them on the bars while a mischievous smirk was plastered on his tanned face. "Greetings, Your Majesties. How are you enjoying your stay in our luxurious accommodations so far?"
Edmund's face hardened and his jaw clenched as he greeted his teeth in fury. Susan was trying hard to mask her feelings of disdain and hatred under her indifference but emotions are usually difficult to be hidden or altered, especially for the Gentle Queen of Narnia. She placed a hand on her brother's shoulder and gave a cold glare at the young man on the cell's bars. "What is it that you want, Saqib?" she asked calmly but the menace and harshness was crystal clear in her narrowed, dark cerulean orbs. "Did His Highness send his minion for a purpose or mocking us is your favourite past time?"
"King Edmund, your sister needs to remember her place and guard her tongue." The man said in a counseling, ironical friendly manner and Susan could sense her brother's muscles tense under her palm. "Or there might be consequences that nobody, especially my noble master, desires."
"Noble, you say? We are talking about the same unworthy, spineless git of a Prince, are we not?" Edmund pretended to be ignorant and Saqib's dark eyes narrowed threateningly, gripping with such force the rails that the olive skin of his knuckles turned white.
"You shall watch your tongue when speaking of His Highness, King Edmund, or you shall lose it." He hissed, poison dripping from his dark lips and moist eyes. "I will overlook your lack of respect towards my master's face for now, King Edmund. Besides, it is her I came for. His Highness requests to have an audience with the barbarian Queen."
"Oh, and he expects that this kind of compliments will lure her in following you?"
Susan squeezed Edmund on the shoulder before he spoke words that the Calormenes would make him regret later and walked forward. "If making another marriage proposal is what Prince Rabadash plans to do then I refuse to acquiesce to his request. And now I must ask you to leave. There is nothing you can offer or say that will change my mind, so you might as well save yourself the trouble of trying to persuade me. It is a lost cause."
A malefic but soft chuckle echoed through the humid stony walls of the dungeons before another man made his appearance, standing proudly right beside Saqib. The servant gasped and bowed while walking aside, apologizing for being in the Prince's way. But the Calormene Prince gave little notice to his minion. "Susan the Gentle of Narnia. This title is terribly unfit for a barbarian Queen, would you not agree, Saqib?"
Edmund could not control his rage and he gripped the bars as well. None of the two men stepped backwards but they both looked surprised at his reaction. But Rabadash waved aside Edmund and glued his disgustingly lustful and hungry eyes on Susan's gentle form. "Very well, Susan of Narnia, I shall leave you a day to consider my generous offer. But keep in mind, barbarian Queen, that the very next time I shall pay you a visit and your answer is still negative, then I will be forced to put into action another…method…" his voice trailed off meaningfully as he glanced significantly at her brother.
Susan instantly got the message and gasped in terror over thinking the nasty and cruel tribulations her young brother would be forced to undergo because of her. The Prince of Calormen was aware of that fact and gave her one last vicious, amused chuckle before ordering his minion away and tailing him.
Susan sank in her feet, kneeling on the moist floor, salty tears watering her diamond-like eyes. But she bit her lips and fisted her palms, keeping control of her exhausted body's emotional outbursts. Edmund, seeing this, knelt beside her and placed a palm on her back, requesting the reason of her distress through his worried eyes. He knew Rabadash's persistence was coming to not only annoy but also scare her for the last few days, but now something else, something different was toying with his sister's gentle and loving heart. "I've got to accept.."
Edmund's eyes grew twice as big and even the mere thought of Rabadash touching even her hair was driving him insane and was making his insides toss and turn in disgust under his skin like restless snakes. "What? No! What are you talking about? What has gotten into you?"
"Edmund, I must… do you not understand? If I refuse once more, this time he is willing and able to act however he wishes to. I saw it in his eyes as if reading his mind, he plans to hurt you if I do not accept! And I cannot let anything happen to you, brother! I would never forgive myself if I ever did! So I must accept, but I will submit my conditions. In this war, I may be defeated, but I will not lose without a fight yet!"
The Just King stared at his sister frightened and disapprovingly but he could not help the wave of pride and satisfaction filling his heart and chest. Pride for his older sister who even when she thought all hope was lost, she would not stop fighting. She may have been given the title of Gentle, but she was a warrior Queen deep in her soul, despite her hard efforts to bury that side of her deep inside of her.
However, no matter how proud and elated he felt for his sister's courage, he also felt a shattering worry for her for in a day's time, she would give herself for his, and probably their siblings and Narnia's, safety. She would practically sacrifice herself, her happiness, her life. He did not want to let that happen, but he also had no way of preventing it. He had been trying for the last week to find a way to break out of their cell but it was pointless. There was no way of salvation. So all the Just King of Narnia could do was hold his sister in his arms and pray, pray hard and from the depths of his very core to Aslan to aid them.
And maybe help would be sent sooner.
"Are you sure you all remember the plan clearly?"
A murmur of mumbling 'yes's shattered the haunting silence ruling the Calormene air and Caspian waved a silencing hand almost spastically in order for his troops to be quiet. He nodded calmly when they all hushed up and started creeping with his back against the wall of a house that was facing the palace of Tashbaan and was closest to it, his seven troops tailing him.
Their horses were tied up on a couple of trees nearby the house. Gikabrik, the archer dwarf was taking care of them. Caspian had to smile at the way the dwarf had started mumbling incomprehensible sayings in a grumpy voice when he asked him to just guard the horses. He reminded him too much of Trumpkin and the young man realized how much he actually missed the dwarf who seemed to be annoyed by anything and anyone.
"There! A squad of five Calormene troops is coming! Quickly!" Avidan hissed under his breath, pointing discreetly at five Calormenes riding on their horses, probably returning from their posts of patrolling the area.
Caspian nodded without turning to face them and he, followed by the Narnians, ran back to where Gikabrik was left, while the rest three humans remained in the middle of a clearing formed by crossroads. Caspian, Kamrian, Damir, and Griffith commenced arming themselves with the help of the complaining dwarf who had also been taking care of the weapons wrapped in torn fabrics.
"And you are sure this will work, boy?" the red dwarf requested for what seemed like the billionth time to Caspian, who rolled his dark eyes exasperated and replied positively once again. The Telmarine had not exactly thought his plan through, he had only had a couple of hours in peace to think, so one could find the plan a little rushed or wanting but perhaps the execution of it would prove of its efficiency.
The only difficulty was that the afternoon sky was already starting to be replaced by the evening's dark one and they had to be swift and vigorously drastic in order for them to free the two monarchs and escape before the break of dawn. And taking into account they had been travelling on horseback with almost no rest at all and were all sleepless, it could be quite a task, but they would succeed. He owed it to the four monarchs, all four of them.
"Oi! Captain! You better come quickly!" Damir, a young, red-head faun hissed and waved frantically at him to follow. So Caspian did follow, tailed by their companions, apart from Gikabrik, who took his place grumpily among the horses.
They crept against a wall once more, struggles and battle cries gaining more volume and frequency. Caspian took a careful look at the clearing, his chocolate, scanning eyes roving over the area, falling over the fighting bodies of the rest of his troops who were struggling violently against each other.
"Well, that's just…perfect…" he muttered to himself and headed to their direction. The three fauns, however, remained in their current positions since the squad of Calormen troops had almost reached them, alarmed by the fighting of the strangers.
Caspian attempted to get in the middle but got pushed away, attempted learning the cause of the fight but received no answer. He would have intervened in another way that he was sure it would have been effective, had it not been for the five Calormenes dismounting their proud stallions and approaching them cautiously, dark eyes narrowed in suspicion and warning. "What is going on here?" one of them requested imperatively –Caspian guessed he was the captain- and when he received no reply, he unsheathed his scimitar and started approaching them. "In the name of the Tisroc (may he live forever) I order you to disband! Disband! Now!"
Bohdan pushed away Avidan and Ashok and doubled up, catching his breath. Caspian walked before him and looked him square in the face with his penetrating, brown orbs. "Explain yourselves." He spoke calmly before turning to face the other two with frustration and disappointment written all over his handsome features. "Explain yourselves all of you. Now."
The three men stared at their feet in shame before Bohdan stepped forth and uttered something about them stealing from him. Caspian pinched the bridge of his nose before glaring demandingly at the men who had been accused by the Archenlandian. They started mumbling incomprehensible words and Caspian got even more vexed by their childish behavior.
"My good sirs, forgive my companions." The Captain addressed the Calormenes with as much politeness as he could master. The five troops were now encircled by Caspian and his men since they had thought it best to get in the middle of the fight, their hands on the swords' hilts, supervising the four strangers. "We seem to lack of trust to each other, unfortunately."
"If you cannot trust yourselves, are we to trust you?" one of them asked and despite his captain's disapproval of speaking up without permission, he seemed to actually agree with his troop.
Caspian chuckled. "But, of course!" he practically exclaimed enthusiastically as he started walking closer to them. "We are guests of the Tisroc (may he live forever), though we are instructed not to give away our purpose to anybody."
"And you are?" they did not seem yet convinced by they were surely less hostile after the mention of the Tisroc.
"Uh… Miraz of Telmar. We are allies of the Tisroc (may he live forever) and we are here on matters of great importance. The only thing I am to tell you is that it concerns that… barbarian Queen of Narnia and her brother. In case she refuses to marry His Highness, Prince Rabadash, if you understand what I mean…"
The captain scrutinised his figure with his piercing, honey eyes with some doubt and wonder. Caspian did not avert his eyes or even blink, but only stared back at the man intensely, with determination, knowing that would help him get what he wanted. And he did. The Calormenes' grips relaxed around their swords and seemed less tense and ready to fight. "Fair enough. We shall take you to the Tisroc (may he live forever). If you are not who you say you are, you will be sorry."
"Well, if that is the case, then," Avidan stepped forth with a smug smirk forming on the corners of his lips. The soldier he was approaching arched a quizzical brow. "there shall be no need for you to take us anywhere!"
And with those words, all four men let a battle cry and charged on the five unprepared men with their daggers. One of Caspian's daggers found the captain's throat and another man's forehead, while Avidan strangled one of them with his bare hands, leaving the rest two to Bohdan and Ashok. They chose not to use their swords since they needed the cloths intact and ripping them off with their blades, staining them with blood, was quite undesired. "Quick, remove their clothes before the blood stain them!"
Soon all were dressed like Calormene troops, with white turbans on their heads, covering their faces up, leaving only the area of their eyes free, and Calormene armor and garments. Caspian, of course, convinced much more easily for Calormen thanks to his olive skin that had got tanned even more because of the desert's scorching sun. Ashok, however, had them tie his hands behind his back with rope since his own role demanded that to be done and had removed the turban while Caspian was holding Ashok's horse's reins.
They mounted the Calormenes stallions and started riding carelessly, towards the palace.
"Well done, gentlemen!" Caspian applauded calmly his companions but without actually facing them. "Fighting? A perfect idea to attract a Calormene's attention!"
Once they had gotten past the massive walls that were surrounding the palace, they seemed more at ease since the guards at the gate had not recognized them or gotten suspicious. To the contrary, they had convinced one of them to take them to the dungeons since they had a prisoner to deliver, a spy from Archenland. Caspian would hide his smirk behind the garment wrapped on his skull, thinking it was awfully easy and that maybe it would work. However, he also figured that Calormenes were actually expecting to be spied on by Archenlandians and that maybe they had reinforced the guard of the King and Queen.
The Calormene guard guided them to the dungeons through a passage at the other side of the palace where they had to dismount their horses and continue on foot. Caspian dismissed the guard as politely as he thought a Calormene would speak and waited till he was out of sight. He was aware of the guards patrolling the walls but they would cause them no trouble since they would not give them a reason to.
Avidan and Bohdan waited at the entrance of the dungeons as if guarding it, sending the real guards to another post saying it was switch time, while Caspian, trying to look as violent as possible when pulling Ashok by the ropes but not ceasing apologizing to him, entered the ghastly place.
The scent of mold and moist mildew was wafting in the air, making both men scrunch up their noses in disgust. "I hope they won't have died by the smell by the time we get to them…" Ashok whispered and Caspian would have agreed had he not been biting his lips to preventing from grimacing.
They had to descend two spinning stairwells and walk across a damp, cold hallway in order to reach the dungeons in which the royal captives were being held. There, Caspian remembered to actually let go of Ashok, he had been greatly blissful when thinking he would meet his friends again that he had almost forgotten of the plan.
They found the two royals curled up in a corner, Edmund's arms wrapped tightly around his melancholy sister. They had their eyelids shut but Caspian could tell they were not asleep. They walked closer and Caspian gripped the bars, making them aware of their presence. Edmund's eyes narrowed in weariness while Susan's sorrowful but ever beautiful face remained expressionless. "Who are you? What do you want?"
But Ashok gave the answer by producing small, iron tools from up his sleeves and kneeling before the barred gate and working on the keyhole. "Ashok? It is you! By Aslan!" Edmund exclaimed in a low voice.
The two monarchs stood up and Caspian could better look upon their figures. Edmund was a fully grown young man, with ebony, dark hair and unruly just like he remembered it, dark, shimmering eyes that would usually warm up with generous kindness and mischievous playfulness while he was taller than he remembered him to be and much more built, fit for battles. He had the stature of a true King of Narnia and wisdom was reflected from his fiery eyes and determinative expression.
Susan, to the contrary, was exactly as the picture of hers that was imprinted in his memory. Flawlessly beautiful, with sparkling cerulean diamonds for eyes that were usually glassy, filled with tenderness and love, full, luscious, rosy lips that never stopped tempting him to feel their softness with his own and chestnut, velvet hair that cascaded down to the small of her back in soft waves. The only thing different about her was that her beauty had matured and was even more dangerous. No wonder Rabadash persisted so stubbornly.
Despite him believing he was quite over the Gentle Queen, he found himself once more not only drawn to her but that he actually had forgotten how to breathe for a brief moment. Just looking upon her awakened his passion for her, strong feelings that had once consumed him just by the mere thought of her. Was it possible that she was a witch? For she had definitely bewitched him and he would make sure that he would know.
"Ashok!" Susan exclaimed delighted and walked a bit closer to them. Caspian was of course once again enchanted by her delicate, melodious voice and found himself smiling idiotically upon seeing the smile forming on her gracious lips. "Oh, it is good to see you again! Thank you so much for getting yourself in all this trouble just for us!" she placed her hands over her heart in a grateful manner.
"Please, Your Majesty, you don't have to thank me. It is my duty and honor." the young man inclined his head in respect.
Susan smiled back and remained silent until her eyes fell upon Caspian's figure. "Oh, and you, sir? Who are you?"
Caspian was taken off guard by her sudden addressing him and he realized that he had not only remained foolishly silent but that the garment was still masking his face. "Oh, right, forgive me, Your Majesty…" he mumbled as he commenced removing the turban and cloth off his head and once he had, he was about to introduce himself. "I am-"
Susan's surprised gasp cut him off and made him look up in question. "You!"
Ohhh, a cliffhanger? Oh I like that XD jejeje yes, I'm evil like that! So how was the first meeting or actually, the first part of the meeting? I kind of like it, or actually Caspian's thoughts on it since it was from his POV. Oh, and as per the plan of them getting in, I think it wasn't really screwed up or SciFi, right? :P I thought that Caspian would easily convince as a Calormen because of his tanned skin and dark characteristics and because of...something else I'm not about to reveal now!
The first part of this chapter has only introductive purposes, I wanted to show the two siblings first bond before I rescued them,I hope you don't mind. After all, Edmund and Susan are my favourite pair of siblings ^^
Thank you everyone who has reviewed from the depths of my heart and please keep it up. There is no greater joy for a writer to hear her readers' thoughts and getting ideas from them :) Oh and something I forgot to mention in the previous chapter, I want to thank (and give some credit!) to Colorblind City since she's the one who gave me the idea of Lucy helping Caspian. So, yeah, thank you!
And now if you please, press that button below and REVIEW :D
Thanks for reading!