At ten I was waiting. At eleven I was waiting. At twelve he finally came out from his chamber. Without saying a word he took off down the hall. I jogged to keep up with his brisk pace. He led me around to parts of the castle that I hadn't yet explored. It was rather exciting. This wing of the castle contained all of the royal families chambers and meeting rooms. Some said that there was even an old library. We walked for some time. Finally we came to a solid oak door. There seemed nothing special about this room ,but it was still a new room so it excited me. Lord Miraz did not bother knocking he merely pushed the door open and walked up the small flight of steps. We came into a small room filled with books, scrolls, maps, all kinds of great delights. Sitting in a chair was a fat old man with a long white beard. My heart skipped a beat to notice who the man sitting across from his was. Caspian was sitting with his nose in a book. When Caspian noticed his uncle's appearance he quickly snapped the book closed and slid it away under a pile of papers. Not before I had had time to see the picture on the page. There sat the lion surrounded by the four people I had seen in my dream. Miraz did not seem to notice anything.
"Uncle, what are you doing here? This is the time scheduled for my lessons."
"What, can an uncle not stop by to see how his nephew is coming alone in his education."
"Of course uncle."
"Do you have the charts i asked for?" Miraz turned to the fat old man.
"Of course my lord. They are here," He handed over a pile of charts which were in turn handed to me to hold. "I had some difficulty tracking them down, but with luck I found all of the ones you requested."
"Good, until tonight then." With that Miraz withdrew from the room. I cast a last look at Caspian. He was looking at me. I felt a blush spread over my cheeks, but the possibility of a beating hung over my head so I turned and followed Miraz. This time the walk was not so long and he brought us to a larger room. The council chamber. I had heard many servants talking gaily about the splendid room during my week, I could never have imagined its beauty though. I stood by Miraz's side as other men eneterd the room and took their seats. Several of the intricately carved chairs were empty. I wondered what has happened to the men who had once occupied their seats. The meeting then commenced. For hours the Lords talked about the charts I had carried in. They were talking about a bridge that they were building across the river and about the peace treaties that were in the process of being weighed. They talked about crime rates, war, foreign affairs. Everything that you would expect to hear talk of during a council meeting. Why is Miraz so concerned by hiding this information. Anyway with a head on their shoulders could have guessed all of this information. When the meeting ended all the participants left the chamber except for Miraz and myself. He stood and walked along the rows of chairs.
"Every seat inthis room was once filled by a Lord," he began, turning he pointed to the throne at their head. "That was where our king, my own brother, sat. After he died, several of the men occupying these seats died. It was tragic. A great loss for this kingdom. Only a few remained strong enough to carry on with what must be done. Yet slowly, one by one, they died. Lord Felaeigh, Tawlpin, Durnfer, Verdin." My heart froze over. My father! He had once sat in one of these chairs. Had the others suffered such awful deaths as my father had? Were they all burned alive while their families were away. Did they leave daughters behind who were beaten and left mute and forced to work for someone who would no doubt kill them one day? I wanted to fall down and burst into tears. Something in my gut again told me to keep still though and show no emotion and so I did. "Aw, so this doesn't bother you. That means that you are strong." His calm facade slipped and he looked boastful. "They did not die of natural causes. I killed my brother. Then slowly one by one I found out who the most loyal ones to him were, the ones who suspected more than a death. The ones who suspected an inside murder. The first were easy to kill. They did not see it coming. After though it became harder to kill them off without being found out. The last one I had killed was lord Verdin. He hadn't been to the castle in weeks, he hadn't even known of the King's death yet. He did know however that I was going to kill him. He had known for quite sometime. I had made the decision that he had to go quite some time before I killed my brother. He was just to good. There was no way to get my way out of him. And so that is why most of these seats are now unoccupied. You may be wondering, why am I telling you this? Hmmm? Well, unlike the others you cannot tell anyone what I have done, what is really going on in this kingdom so I want to see how long it takes you before you try to find a way to tell people, how long before I have to kill you, just like all the others." The look he gave me froze me to my inner core. "You are done until dinner. Go do whatever it is you please to do."
I didn't have to be told twice, I ran out of the room and away. I followed the path we had taken until I had retraced my steps back to the room Caspian was in. The door was still open slightly and i could here his and the fat man's voices. I slid down the wall outside and sat to listen to what they were talking about.
