Caspian lay on his stomach in the silence and darkness of the sleeping room. His back still burned like fire, and he was both physically and mentally exhausted with the pain. It was dinnertime, but Caspian neither felt the motivation nor the interest in getting up to eat. Instead he had decided to lie there and think. Eventually he gave up on the thinking part, and merely stared at the wall of the room, darkening now as the evening came.

A voice startled him out of his reverie. "Sarielle sent me to clean up your back."

Caspian pushed himself up high enough to turn his head and peer blearily at the girl in the doorway. He had seen her among the kitchen staff—she was tall and graceful, with soft blonde hair falling down her back. She held an empty bowl in one hand and a lamp in the other.

"That's alright," Caspian replied, trying to keep the groan out of his voice. "It's likely to take awhile, and I don't want you to miss dinner."

"Oh, it's all in the name of King Edmund," she answered, moving to set down the lamp.

There was that phrase again! Caspian frowned, but didn't feel like delving into the topic at the moment.

"Don't worry about it," he repeated, turning his head back to stare at the far wall. The girl shifted nervously for a moment, as if she would argue with him, but then she left, taking the lamp with her.

In a few minutes, though, the light was back. Caspian expected it to be the same girl, and was rather surprised when Sarielle said, "She wouldn't really have missed dinner, you know."

Caspian turned to stare at her as she sat down next to his pallet with the lamp and the bowl, now full of mildly soapy warm water. "When Susan came back and told me what you said, I realized you might not have understood her."

"Susan?" Caspian said in surprise as Sarielle dipped a cloth in the bowl and wrung it out. "Was that her name?"

"Yes." Sarielle narrowed her eyes at him, stilling her movements for a moment. "Why?"

"It's—" Caspian recalled himself. "It's just an old Narnian name, that's all."

Sarielle still looked thoughtful, but then she returned to the subject at hand. "You don't actually object to having your wounds cleaned?" she clarified, indicating the cloth. "They'll likely get infected if you don't. In fact, it should really have been done hours ago, but Gerius wasn't going to let you come in from the fields after your confrontation."

Caspian shook his head. "Go ahead. I just didn't want Susan to miss her shift at the table."

"I was keeping some food aside for her," Sarielle explained, wiping gently at the lashmarks on his back. "That's what she meant when she said she was acting in the name of King Edmund."

Caspian bit back a hiss of pain, grimaced, and swallowed hard before answering, his voice tolerably steady as she cleaned his wounds. "I've heard that phrase a couple of times, now. I don't think I entirely understand it."

Sarielle gave what Caspian almost thought was the ghost of a smile at these words, but it was gone before it entirely registered. "King Edmund was a great king in Narnia long ago," Sarielle explained. "They say he was a very just ruler. Anyone who had been oppressed could appeal to him, and they could be sure that he would defend them.

"The slaves in these islands have long said that one day King Edmund will return to free us. We look forward to that day. Meanwhile, it is our duty to help one another—but we have learned to help one another wisely."

Caspian caught his breath as she cleaned a particularly tender cut, but his mind was on much greater things than the pain in his back. He pushed the implications of Sarielle's words to the back of his mind to be pondered later—he needed to learn more. "What do you consider to be 'helping wisely'?" he asked.

"We help one another as much as possible, but at the same time, we try not to incur the anger of the overseers. As you did this morning."

Despite his exhaustion, Caspian flared up at that. "Somebody had to stop Gerius!" he exclaimed fiercely. "That poor girl—"

"And what did your defense of her achieve?" Sarielle broke in, a hint of annoyance in her usually calm voice. "You were flogged and Igenia is just as vulnerable to Gerius as she was before. In fact, he is now probably even more determined to possess her, just to show you who's boss!"

Caspian opened his mouth to retort, and closed it again. He remembered the look on Gerius's face as he had grabbed Igenia's arm and pulled her back as she was sneaking away.

Sarielle waited a moment, and then continued, her voice once more calm and controlled. "You need to learn that you are now a slave, and slaves have no power here. The only ones with the power are the overseers and the master. We cannot directly challenge them; we only have the ability to subvert. Challenging Gerius will only get you and everyone around you into trouble. If you want to defy him, you will have to be rather more creative about how you do it."

She set aside the bowl of water and gently patted his back dry with a soft flannel. "When Susan told you she was acting in the name of King Edmund, she meant that she wouldn't miss her dinner: she was taking care of herself, as well as you. That is how you must act if you want to help your fellow slaves." She paused and gave him the tiniest of smiles—yet somehow it softened her entire expression. "The next time an overseer threatens someone, you should probably leave the protecting to an expert."

Caspian returned a wry smile. "Probably."

Sarielle gathered up her things and rose to leave. Caspian caught the hem of her dress. "Sarielle." She glanced down at him. "Thank you."

The tiny smile appeared again. "All in the name of King Edmund," she answered, and left the room.

000

The conversation had given Caspian plenty of food for thought. To tell the truth, he was rather ashamed of himself. He hadn't understood what it was truly like to be a slave, and had judged his comrades' behavior based on that of free people. He realized now that to expect a slave, someone with almost no power even over her own life, to put herself in jeopardy for another was selfish. It was one thing if you knew a ship was coming for you and you could leave as soon as they found you. It was another thing entirely to know that you were a powerless slave and would be one for the rest of your life. Sarielle had said that the last housekeeper had been killed for "sticking his neck out too far". With no imminent chance of release from captivity, the slaves had to keep their heads down.

He had to admit that Igenia had been right. He shouldn't have stuck up for her in the way he had; he had only made matters worse, not only for himself, but for her. Maybe the reason all the slaves loved Sarielle so much was because she didn't make such scenes. She kept in the overseers' good graces, and so kept her position and her ability to intercede wisely on her workers' behalf.

Caspian was to see an example of Sarielle's wise intercession the next day at lunch. As predicted, Gerius was still showing too much interest in Igenia, and he kept throwing mocking smiles in Caspian's direction as he did so. Caspian managed to swallow his spleen and his pride and ignore the overseer as much as possible. Finally, toward the end of the midday meal, when the slaves were beginning to disperse back to their tasks, Gerius cornered Igenia by one of the large trees. Caspian, rather worried, glanced around for Sarielle.

And there she was, walking toward Igenia without even a glance at Gerius. "There you are, Igenia," she said in her usual calm way. "Remember what we discussed this morning?" Igenia turned to look at her with panic in her eyes. Gerius looked irritated. "You need to cut some goldenseal and red clover…?" Igenia's eyes widened and a blush spread over her face. She nodded and silently rushed off.

Gerius directed a fulminating glance toward Sarielle, who didn't seem to notice, watching Igenia disappear in the direction of one of the uncut hayfields. "Poor girl," she said, shaking her head, then dropped her voice so that Caspian only barely caught her next sentence. "She has the itch."

Gerius' expression of surprise and disgust and the bland way in which Sarielle walked off to attend to her other duties was almost ludicrous, and Caspian turned away to hide a smile. He wondered how many pretty serving girls Sarielle had falsely attributed with sexually transmitted diseases. It couldn't be comfortable for Igenia to know that Gerius and the other overseers thought that of her, but Caspian was sure she preferred it to being molested.

Gerius, in his annoyance and disappointment, had noticed that Caspian was still nearby, not moving as quickly as some of the others toward the hay meadows. "Back to work, boy," he said, giving Caspian a hearty clap on the back. Caspian shut his eyes and gritted his teeth.

TBC

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