Chapter Seven: Pursuit and Descent

After so many of Lucy's pleas, Jasmine reluctantly agreed to stay with the group, at least for the night. Though the others did not know, she was secretly grateful for she had no where else to go without the impending presence of the Telmarine soldiers.

"Tell us about yourself," Lucy said as she sat herself next to Jasmine. The girl looked around at everyone else: King Peter was leaning against a tree and looking sullen, King Edmund was staring in the opposite direction, Trumpkin the Dwarf was watching her with a look of intense hatred, and Queen Susan wore an apathetic expression. All in all, Jasmine decided that, with the exception of Lucy, they all found her as interesting as last month's porridge. Scratch that; Kings Peter and Edmund looked as though they would find even that more interesting than her.

"Er -- yes, your Majesty," she replied in a quiet voice. "What is it that you would like to know?"

"Why are you in these woods alone?" Trumpkin interrupted gruffly. "Who sent you?"

"Trumpkin!" Lucy scolded, "Do be nice, she's done nothing to harm us."

"She's a Telmarine," he said with narrowed eyes. "She's one of them." At this, Kings Peter and Edmund glanced over at the group.

"Is that true?" Peter questioned. He didn't say it quite as rudely as she would have expected from his facial expression, but it still wasn't kind and she was glad that he happened to be on the other side of the campfire. The two kings frightened her with the intimidating looks in their eyes and their broad shoulders; both were much bigger than her and she had no doubt that they could overpower her quite easily.

"Yes, your Majesty. It is."

"Much worse than that," Trumpkin said as his eyes skimmed over her -- the look disturbed her; it was rather like some sort of inspection. "She's a royal Telmarine."

"How can you tell?" Susan questioned.

"The state of her clothes," Trumpkin said with a pointed nod in Jasmine's direction. "Despite the scratches and tears, they are royal. I've seen enough of the Telmarines to know this."

"You have?" Jasmine asked. The only time she had ever remembered her people coming in contact with Narnians was their termination of the poor creatures.

"Been to the castle myself," he continued, "I was captured and taken to that usurper Miraz not too long ago."

A gasp escaped Jasmine's lips at the sound of the name and she clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh dear!"

"The man has no mercy," Trumpkin added.

"No he hasn't," Jasmine quietly agreed.

Trumpkin once again narrowed his eyes and looked at her coldly. "What kind of Telmarine are you? Usually they would be praising Miraz for his cruelty."

"It's awful," she replied. "He is not fit to rule."

"Are you a rebel perhaps?" Lucy asked. "You obviously seem to have been travelling about these woods for ages and now you disagree with the Telmarines' practices."

"You could say that," Jasmine replied grimly. "However, instead of a heroic call to arms, I only escaped to save my own life."

"Whatever do you mean?" Lucy pressed. "Surely you would have been in no danger had you been of royal heritage."

"No," she replied, "I was lulled under that false security once, but I am no stranger to the cruelty of my people. You see, the brutal regent Miraz...is my father."

"And he threatened your life?" Lucy asked quietly with wide eyes.

"Not directly," Jasmine replied. "The night I left, my mother bore him a son. And I knew that he would want no other to stand in the child's way of the throne. I knew that I would be killed if I stayed much longer."

"But that's...that's horrible," Lucy gushed. "How can he do such a thing to his own daughter?"

"He would order others to have me killed, actually," Jasmine corrected, "But I don't suppose he would have any quarries to do the job himself."

"Are these people really that bad?" Lucy asked Trumpkin. Small tears were at the corners of her eyes and she looked very saddened.

"Narnia has become a much more savage place," he growled. "The Telmarine invaders are brutal and it shows in their lifestyle. They've spread that same atmosphere everywhere they go."

"We must do something about them," Peter spoke up again. "We'll have to gather armies, make plans, do anything we can to take Narnia back."

"We'll have to find the Prince," Trumpkin added. "Though I hate to involve Telmarines, he will be an incredible asset."

"Prince?" Jasmine asked earnestly. Could it be...?

"Yes," Trumpkin responded. "It seems you're not the only rebel among the Telmarines. Just before I was captured, my comrades and I found a lad who I believe may be the Prince Caspian."

"Is he well?" she asked with a smile.

"I should think so," Trumpkin replied gruffly, "The soldiers took me and didn't bother to search further for him."

Thank the stars! As long as Caspian was all right...she could hope again.

"Thank you ever so much," Jasmine said with a bright smile.

"You seem to know him," Peter said, a slight bit of interest in his voice.

"I -- I do, your Majesty," she said, stunned by his sudden speech; she'd almost forgotten of the two men beyond the campfire. Her insides squirmed with fear as she locked eyes with Peter briefly. She quickly looked away and at the ground. "We grew up together, your Majesty."

"He seems important to you," Lucy said.

"Very much so," Jasmine agreed, "I don't know what I would do without him."

"Well hopefully you shan't have to find out," Lucy replied.

"Hopefully," Jasmine agreed softly. She brought up a hand to stifle a yawn.

"Oh!" Lucy exclaimed. "I've forgotten how late it's getting. You must be tired from all of your travelling."

Tired? No, she was exhausted. "Just a bit, your Majesty."

"We should all get some sleep," Lucy said. She looked back at Jasmine again and smiled, "And you can drop the 'your Majesty.' I prefer my friends to call me Lucy."

"All right, your -- I mean, Lucy," Jasmine stuttered.

Lucy grinned at her. "See now, that's much better, isn't it?"

Jasmine gave the Queen an embarrassed nod of her head as she laid upon the soft grass of the campsite. There was a shuffling of feet and the fire was put out, then all was quiet.

"Good night, Jasmine."

Jasmine smiled to herself; she was beginning to like the Queen very much for her kindness. "Good night, Lucy."

---

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Susan asked.

"Of course I am," Peter snapped. Jasmine found that he was becoming more irritable by the moment and felt her dislike for him flood at such times.

"I just thought I'd ask, Peter," she replied testily, "No need to be so rude."

He spared her no reply and only trudged onward.

"Don't mind him," Lucy whispered to Jasmine, "He's been quite grouchy this entire time."

"Have you any idea why?" Jasmine asked.

"No," Lucy replied, "Though his ego has been inflating rather more than usual."

Jasmine nodded and the two sped their pace to catch up with the others. "Why have we stopped?" Lucy asked when they reached them.

But then the two heard a great rushing of water and inched forward just a bit to peer over the cliff that the others stood upon.

"That's why," Trumpkin said when they both saw that one wouldn't reach the water until the very bottom; a drop that seemed perilous from these extreme heights.

"Well we weren'tlost," Peter said defensively when Susan and Trumpkin gave him glares of reproach.

"Just going the bloody wrong way," Trumpkin grunted. "There's a ford near Beruna though, how do you lot feel about swimming?"

"I'd rather that than walking..." Susan muttered. She began to follow Trumpkin back into the forested area and Jasmine made to go too, but a cry from Lucy stopped them all.

"Look! Look there, it's Aslan!"

"What?" Susan turned to peer across the cliff where Lucy pointed excitedly.

"I don't see anything," Peter said.

"He's right...there." Lucy's face fell when she looked again but must have seen the same empty cliff that the others had seen. "He was there," she said to Susan and Peter's challenging looks.

"Why wouldn't I have seen him?" Peter asked.

"Maybe you weren't looking," she replied, staring at him with big brown eyes.

He shrugged his shoulders and gave her something of an apologetic grimace. "Sorry Lu."

Jasmine looked back at Lucy as she watched the others go and saw that her face was extremely saddened.

"It's all right," she said in a hushed tone as she put an arm around Lucy's shoulders. "I believe you well enough."

"You do?" she asked, apparently taken by surprise at this knowledge.

"Yes," Jasmine said. "You're an honest person and if you say you saw Aslan, than I believe you."

Lucy smiled and sniffed as the tears came to a stop. "Thanks Jasmine."

"Your welcome." And Jasmine smiled down at her new friend.

---

"Oh my..." Jasmine peered over the log and saw many Telmarine soldiers working incessantly at building large pieces of weaponry. "They must know you four have returned."

"I hope not," Peter whispered; even he looked wary at the sight of the Telmarines preparing for battle. "That could lose us some time that we don't have."

"We had better get moving again," Susan said, "Obviously we cannot cross this way."

"Where else can we go?" Peter asked. "We can't possibly cross the River Rush either."

"Yes we can!" Lucy whispered back. "Aslan wanted us to follow him! It seems so obvious now: he was trying to help us get to our destination!"

"Lucy..." Peter sighed and exchanged a look with Susan.

"It's the only thing we've got for now, Peter," she said, "We might as well try."

After a moment, he nodded wordlessly and the two began to walk back towards the trees, followed by Trumpkin and Lucy. Jasmine waited, expecting to follow Edmund but he nodded his head after them in indication for her to go.

The moment she stood up to follow the others, he watched her again and their eyes locked for the briefest time. She flickered them away and felt blood rising to her cheeks. Was she blushing? Well, she was always shy around strangers, so that did make sense. She shook her head to clear the thoughts and once again made to leave her spot behind the pile of wood. And accidentally knocked it over in her haste.

"What was that?" A voice that was neither hers nor Edmund's spoke, and it sounded dangerously close. "The Princess!" Her body stilled at once and she looked around her shoulder. Close by one of the carriages, she spotted General Glozelle. He was quite alone but she saw him glaring in her direction and beckoned other men to come over to him. The others looked and saw her as well; angry shouts resounded and several of the men began to sprint towards them.

Edmund's hand flew to grasp hers and he lurched through the trees, pulling her along with him.

No, no, no! She'd led the soldiers straight to the Kings and Queens, straight to the only hopes that the land had left!

"I'm sorry!" she cried to Edmund.

He shook his head to stop her from talking. "Just keep running."

She nodded helplessly and pushed herself to move faster, still keeping a hold on his hand for support. She did not want to be alone right now, even if her only other option was a king whom she barely knew and scared the wits out of her. She looked back and found that there were a few soldiers in their pursuit, all on foot. Which was just as well; without horses, the bunch could possibly be outran.

Then her stomach dropped sickeningly when a sudden thought occurred to her. Where were the others? They could just as well be caught...and it was all her fault. But she hadn't much time to think about this. It was all she could to keep her legs moving as fast as possible.

Quite abruptly, Edmund stopped and she lurched forward before their entwined hands pulled her to spring back. "What?" she questioned him hurriedly, "They're after us -- we've got to go!"

But she looked forward and spotted the cliff again; now she understood why he'd stopped. But, the others should be somewhere around here!

"Didn't the others come around here?" she asked him. "Perhaps we should look for them." The shouts and yells grew closer. And fast,she thought.

She broke free of his grip and walked forward to take a closer look at the cliff. She found the spot where Lucy had been standing when she'd seen Aslan. "I don't understand," she muttered, "Lucy said he was right -- " Caught in mid-sentence, she shrieked when her foot suddenly slipped over the edge and she plummeted downwards. The last thing she saw was Edmund racing over to her and the Telmarine soldiers edging out of the trees behind him.