Disclaimer: I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia.
A/N: Lion's mane, it's been a long while since last I updated! Hope this chapter finds all my readers well and content in the new year. Unfortunately, now that the movie VDT is out, our Canon Keepers will have a little more trouble with their already unruly adventure (although it may not show for several chapters more). Hope this chapter contents thee. Enjoy!
Chapter 6: In Which Connor Does Something
The eight captives plodded along as the sun beat down on the back of their necks. Donovan was sure that they had walked for three hours for the sun was now at its zenith instead of straight in front of them. When the slavers stopped in front of a longboat on the beach, Donovan inched over to Connor, who still looked slightly dazed.
"What's wrong?" she whispered. "You look a bit dazed."
Connor shook his head. "I've got a headache enough to burst. And my lip is starting to really hurt." He winced, which added authenticity to the latter comment.
"You look kind of funny with super puffy lips," Donovan said with a smirk. "Like Anna Popplewell or Keira Knightley."
"Oh, go away," Connor mumbled, trying not to move his lip much. He and Donovan looked at out the bedraggled ship and sighed. Hopefully, Lord Bern would come any time now regardless of the fact that the Canon had been broken a thousand other times.
"Now, youngsters, let's have no fuss now," the slaver said, leering at Lucy, who inched closer to Donovan as if for reassurance.
I can't leave her, Donovan thought, because for an instant that blonde hair was not Lucy but one of her own sisters, and an ache of compassion and protectiveness overwhelmed her. Queen Lucy was the darling of the Canon Keepers—it was always taken for granted that she and Aslan were among one's favorite characters. If Donovan could have done anything then to protect the queen, she would have…until she realized something painful.
She couldn't. The Canon must proceed as planned…even if it meant seeing Lucy and Edmund and Caspian getting knocked around by the slavers and sold on an auction block. But when she glanced at Lucy again, she thought, with a grin, that maybe she didn't need protecting. The girl's face was stern and brave looking, even as she blinked back tears. Also, both Caspian and Edmund were watching her like they would've broken their own arms to keep her safe. This comforted Donovan, somewhat: to know that there was a Canonical protection for the valiant little queen.
Another thing: she couldn't let her emotions get the better of her. This was Lucy—not her sister or friend or responsibility. Well…sort of responsibility, but not exactly. Donovan shook her head. She had a duty to leave with the Su as soon as possible. No attachments. That was Rule #1 at NCK control center. Not only was it important in cases like this, but if romantic attachments were formed (which had been known to occur if one let one's guard down)…well, that made the NCK part of the bad fanfiction problem.
"Well, Pug, what's this? More of your usual wares?"
Donovan looked up at the wry, somewhat impatient voice and saw a man with a neatly trimmed beard strolling towards them from the steps of an inn. She and Connor looked at one another hopefully. So the Canon wasn't damaged that badly yet. Just as well.
Donovan turned and watched as smarmy Pug bowed, kissing up to the lord. Trying to earn some favor in the good lord's eyes so he can sell one of us off to him, Donovan thought, somewhat repulsed by the way the pirate groveled. Though Lord Bern is very more Narnian than Lone Islander—astonishing, really.
"How much for that boy?" the lord asked, cutting Pug off in the middle of his rigmarole.
"Which, my lord?" Pug asked.
"That one. The one with the blond hair."
"…which, my lord?" Pug asked again, grinning grotesquely and bowing.
Donovan froze and turned to look at Connor. His dazed look had vanished, and he now appeared to be very, very worried. Because he and Caspian were both blond. They looked back at the lord, who was looking from Connor to Caspian with a fascinated stare.
"That one," he said at last.
And he pointed at Connor.
"Um, sir?" Connor wetted his lips nervously and shuffled his feet. "Um, you really don't want me. I'm set on escaping and I eat like a centaur. You'd have no end of trouble, and I think you'd really be a lot happier if you bought—"
One of Pug's men—the one called Tacks—boxed Connor's ear. He yelped and fell to one knee.
"See, that one," Connor continued, gesturing at Caspian, who was watching with some confusion, "that one you want. He's my…um…brother. Older, you know. Heir to our father's…land."
"Connor," Caspian said warningly.
Tacks grabbed Connor's arm and dragged him to his feet.
"You shut up," the big man said, holding up a fist. "Or this gen'lman's property will be damaged."
Connor craned his neck and saw Lord Bern counting coins into Pug's hand. Desperately, he jerked away from Tacks' grip and dove toward Caspian. And when he got there, he did the strangest thing he'd ever done—hit him in the mouth.
Caspian jerked back and yelped, more out of surprise than pain.
"What are you—"
"You rotten little!" Connor tackled the other to the ground, and then, while an uproar began around them, hissed, "Pretend to be me. You have to go with this man."
"It won't work," Caspian returned. "We don't look that much alike! And your shirt is bigger than mine, and your feet aren't as—"
"Maybe they won't notice," Connor hissed, hoping that somehow, maybe, it might possibly work. A second later fingers closed on his tunic and another of Pug's men—not Tacks—dragged him to his feet. The Canon Keeper, wiping blood from his cut lip, glared at Caspian, who was also being righted, and said, "What was that for?"
He was impressed that the king didn't even look confused.
"I know what you're trying to do!" Caspian snarled, so fiercely that Connor almost lost face and looked astonished. "You're so bloody protective—won't let me try to help you by convincing this man—"
Tacks appeared, and his fist, but Caspian (amazingly) ducked his blow.
"Really, sir," he said to Lord Bern, shifting his weight. "It's him you want."
Pug's face was red with rage, and he looked about ready to throttle Connor and Caspian both, but as he stepped toward the boy king, Lord Bern stopped him. Connor was surprised to see that the lord was trying to hide a smile.
"Wait, Pug. I'll take them both.
"Two for one hundred and fifty crescents?" the pirate shouted, scowling. "You'll pay double for both! They're strong lads, and I could sell each for four hundred on the market—still letting them off cheap, I am, for three hundred each."
Tacks caught hold of Caspian at last and cuffed his ear. Lord Bern raised an eyebrow.
"But they're damaged, you see. Two bloody lips, some missing teeth no doubt, and that one's half deaf now I'd reckon. Two hundred for both."
"Five."
"Two-fifty."
Pug grimaced and turned away.
"Sorry, my lord, but alas I have better things to do than give slaves away like charity. Perhaps some other time…"
"Curse you, Pug," said Lord Bern, glaring at the man coldly. "You are a pirate. Three hundred."
"Make it four and we've got a bargain."
"Three fifty."
Pug looked thoughtful, but right then Connor wriggled almost free of his man's iron grip and the pirate gave him a belt that rattled his teeth and made his eyes swim. Lord Bern met his gaze and said, "Three hundred. I won't pay above the original price for damaged property."
The slaver turned a venomous look on the others that encompassed Connor, Caspian, and his men, but then nodded jerkily to the lord.
"Three hundred crescents, then. Shouldn't wonder if I became a beggar after all this work for nothing."
"Unrope those boys, Pug," said Bern with a small lifting of the corners of his mouth that could've been a smile. "And look—treat those others well while they're in your care, or it'll be worse for you."
"Blown if I ever do—I treat them like my own dear children," said the slaver, gazing fondly at Lucy.
"Quite likely enough to be true," Lord Bern retorted acidly. Then he gestured to Connor and Caspian, (Tacks had glared at them fiercely while untying them, but hadn't dared strike them again for fear Pug would be angry) and said, "This way, lads."
Lucy cried out after them, and Donovan saw Edmund give his sister a gentle nudge to remind her that Caspian didn't want to be known, not even now.
But then Susan decided to be difficult.
"Noooo!" she screamed, not to be outdone by her little sister, and fell to her knees. "My love—my love!"
And, blast it, Connor's hands were still tied so that he couldn't use his mindwiping spray. So he just had to endure a confused coughing fit from Caspian, as the other wondered whether she'd been talking to Connor or to him.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Donovan watched the retreating three figures until Tacks, one of Pug's men, shoved her not ungently toward the longboat.
"In ye get, lass. And be quick about it."
She obeyed him with a somewhat sullen look, jerking at her ropes and wishing she'd thought of a way to keep them from chafing her wrists. Edmund's were loose (although not loose enough for him to slip free), and she thought she remembered reading about some trick of tightening the wrist's muscles so that the rope would fit looser after you relaxed. It was too bad she hadn't remembered it earlier.
Lucy was no longer crying, but she looked almost sick when she settled between Donovan and Susan on the floor of the longboat. Edmund, sitting a few inches away, was trying to watch both his sisters and the pirates, apparently wondering how he should react if the situation demanded it. Eustace was still screaming into his gag and glaring about with furious blue eyes. Reepicheep had settled near Lucy, and looked almost more frighteningly protective than Edmund.
They were rowed out to a small ship that was settled a league or so out from the mainland. It was a nasty little boat—rotten timbers made up the sagging hull and deck. But the sail was fresh canvas, and the ropes were well tended. Unfortunately the hold was more similar to the hull and deck than the canvas. It reeked of month old fish and worse, and was crowded with other unfortunate prisoners whom Pug had managed to capture.
Once in the hold (they tied her hands before her, and she remembered to tighten her muscles correctly so the ropes fell slightly loose), Donovan curled up against a wall and rubbed at her arms. It was warm down here, but there was a rank chill that hung in the air, and everything was slightly damp.
For the first time on this adventure, she wanted to cry—not because she was afraid for Connor or Caspian or herself and the others (she knew what would happen to them eventually)—but because she hadn't imagined it being like this. This was so real, the squalor and stench and hopelessness of the people around her. How glad they would be, she thought, smiling slightly, when Caspian ended the slave trade once and for all.
Edmund had gotten Eustace's gag off (at Lucy's demand, for though he would have done it eventually, it was singularly nice not to have to listen to his cousin's whining) and, as expected, Eustace Clarence Scrubb was telling everyone what for.
"And now see what you've got us into!" he sobbed, jabbing a finger at Edmund, who was looking annoyed, but subdued. "You and your magic paintings and other worlds. This is your fault, cousin—and that idiot's fault—and those Nazis fault—and that thing's fault too," he finished, glaring at Reepicheep.
"Couldn't you just put the gag back on?" Susan snapped, annoyed because she was trying to fix her hair but was finding it difficult with her hands tied. "It's not as if Caspian meant to get us captured. And anyway, he's probably in chains right now…or terribly ill…or in need of a rescue."
Donovan shifted her weight and rolled her eyes, but said nothing. Lucy was the one who spoke up.
"Do you…do you think he's alright? You don't think that man will do anything to him—to them," she added, glancing at Donovan. "He looked rather nice."
The Canon Keeper opened her mouth to say something comforting when Susan interrupted her and said, "Nice? He's a slave owner. And he knew this pirate, and that horrid friend of yours," this to Donovan, "made him buy my Caspian too. When he could've been left with us!"
Donovan wondered, for a moment, if Bern's choice of Connor had not been a device of the Author of this Accursed Fanfic (in which Susan was a Mary Su and in love with Caspian) to get Susan and Caspian alone together in a hold. Good thing Connor had worked it out.
"Don't worry, Lu," said Edmund quietly, the first he'd spoken since coming aboard. "They'll be alright. Aslan has a way of using bad things for good."
And it seemed that at the mention of the Lion's name, the darkness of the hold grew a little less oppressive.
To be continued...
