Chapter 8

Caspian marched over to the refreshment table, blood boiling. He considered, for a moment, simply leaving and walking back to Susan's house. But then, that would be immeasurably rude, and somewhat cruel—he knew Josephine would worry about where he was. He scowled at the crystal cut punch bowl. Why should he care if she was worried? Josephine obviously didn't care about his worries; his fears for Narnia. His thoughts were interrupted by a feminine voice, emanating from his left.

"Had a fight with your girlfriend? That's not surprising, Josephine's so difficult."

Caspian looked down to see the brunette from the mall; Michaela. She was wearing a slinky red gown and a rather gaudy necklace. Under closer inspection, he could make out a purple bruise beneath the fake diamonds. So this was the girl Josephine punched. "More of a conflict in priorities." He murmured stiffly.

She frowned. "I don't know how any girl would ever fight with you."

Caspian raised his eyebrow, but said nothing and took a drink of punch. A new song started up in the background.

"Hey, do ya wanna dance with me?"

[~*~]

Josephine sat in her overstuffed chair for a moment, watching Caspian periodically though the swirl of people. She supposed she could have handled things better, but honestly, he could have too. It wasn't like they even knew how to get to the sword, or into Narnia. She picked at a frayed patch of fabric on the chair and idly wondered what the chance of her accompanying Caspian on his quest were. Probably better if she apologized to him. Like that would happen. Josephine refused to apologize again; she had said it once. If that wasn't good enough for him, then too bad.

She looked back at the refreshment table, but was dismayed that Caspian wasn't to be seen there. After a moment of frantically scanning the room—Susan would kill her if she 'misplaced' their guest—she located his now familiar figure on the dance floor. Josephine scratched the fabric of her chair so hard when she saw who he was dancing with, a small patch of silk came off in her hand.

"Oh. Looks like Michaela's getting her revenge for you punching her." A rather sullen voice, from the unnervingly close vicinity to Josephine's left ear, said. She quickly turned her head to see, Tony, the school's now blond Johnny Depp look alike, who had played the half mad prince in Hamlet. She sent him a hateful glare; Josephine had never liked the boy too much, and after playing Ophelia, she had a more solid distaste for the sulky, capricious, boy.

"What do you want?"

"See, now that's why no one likes you. You're so rough and unwelcoming." Josephine was about to give a biting retort, but she paused, studying Tony for a moment. The pale blond hair—dyed for his role as a Danish Prince—suited his lighter skin tone, and with his cupid's bow red lips, he looked quite ethereal. He had high, aristocratic cheekbones and a rather pointed chin with a well defined jawline. His eyes were an intense green.

Josephine tilted her head to the side coquettishly and looked up at him through her thick, black eyelashes with wide violet eyes. "Would you care to dance with me, Tony?"

He smiled a strange, wolfish grin, before nodding. "Sure thing, Ophelia. My grandma made me learn how to dance."

Josephine stood up and Tony led her awkwardly out to the dance floor. He placed his hand on her waist and clasped her other hand, a little too tightly, before swirling her out past Caspian and Michaela. Josephine found that Tony was more awkward on his feet than Caspian, though when he stepped on her feet she kindly pretended that she felt nothing. The dance was, at best, vaguely pleasant, though she didn't like Tony to get too close to her. Afterward she felt better when she noticed that Caspian was still scowling—though she told herself that he could be mad because of their misunderstanding and not because she had been dancing with another man. She smiled as sweetly as she could at him from across the wooden floor, though instead of giving her some sort of expression in return, Caspian simply looked away.

"So, Sweets, how about another dance?" A conceited smiled was plastered on his face.

Josephine frowned. "No thanks. I have to talk to Mr. Litz about something." She made to move away, but stopped abruptly when Tony's strong grip attached itself to her upper arm. She looked at his hand, then up at him. "Let go of me."

"No, we're going to dance again." Josephine tried to wrench her arm out of his grip, but the faux blond man was too strong.

"If you don't take your greasy hand off of my silk dress this instant I'm going too—"

"Going to what? Make a scene. Go ahead, everyone already thinks you're a spazz. They won't help you." Through her abundant skirts Josephine felt is other hand slide down to her bottom. She was about to deck him right between the eyes when all of a sudden, Tony wasn't next to her. Instead he had his head slammed down on the snack table, right between the taco dip and cheese platter. Caspian grounded the blond's head down whilst twisting the arm, that had been grasping Jo's bottom, at a painful looking angle behind Tony's back. Josephine wasn't too sure where Caspian had come from, but she was damned glad that he was next to her now.

"You should never, NEVER, touch a lady without her permission and absolutely never in an inappropriate manner. Do you understand?" Caspian hissed in Tony's ear.

"Get off me! I was just playing." Tony replied rather frantically, pain laced in his voice.

"You do not play with a lady that is so high above you, you should feel blessed that you can see the soles of her shoes."

Josephine, mindful of the stares and the advancing teachers, put her slight hand on Caspian's tense, rigid shoulder. "Caspian, its okay. Let him go." After a long moment the Narnian King relented and eased up on the younger man.

"Apologize to Josephine." He commanded, arms crossed menacingly across his well defined chest.

Tony looked at Caspian in a frightened manner, before turning his gaze to demure Josephine. He could not meet her violet eyes with his green ones. "I'm sorry Jo." He mumbled.

Josephine nodded imperiously, copying Caspian's general air. A moment later Mr. Litz and a calculus teacher, Mrs. Fischer, appeared next to them. Mr Litz spoke. "Josephine, I'm going to have to ask you and your guest to leave the dance, I'm sorry."

She nodded and gripped Caspian's bicep. Neither looked back as they marched elegantly up the stairs and out of the room. They did not speak until after she had pulled the car out of the parking lot and was a few miles down the high way.

Caspian's lyrical voice broke the silence. "So tell me about this sword."

Josephine glanced at him sideways, unsure if he was still upset. "You're not still mad?" She questioned timidly.

"Of course I'm still mad. But I need to hear this."

Josephine pursed her lips for a moment before speaking. "Its called Dyrnwyn. If you pick it up for good intentions...or maybe if you're a noble? I can't remember, either way, if you pick it up like that, the blade will blaze with purple fire. If you pick it up for bad intentions, or you're not noble...it will consume you in fire; burn you alive. Apparently, its somewhere in northern England or southern Scotland; a region called Hen Ogledd or 'Old North'."

Caspian didn't respond, and when Josephine chanced a look at him, she could tell he was thinking hard about something. Finally, just before she turned into the driveway, he spoke. "Do you think it is possible to find this Dyrnwyn in your world? Or its is in a different one?"

Josephine shrugged as she parked the car in the garage and turned the key. "Ask Susan."

[~*~]

Caspian followed Josephine warily into the house; he could tell from her precocious nature that she might make trouble for him with Susan. He could tell from the quick pace and the angry swish of silk that Josephine was upset, though this revelation simply made him more distempered. He as the one that should be angry; instead of sharing vital information with him, Josephine had dragged him to some ball. Not only that but while there he had to suffer through watching her dance with that commoner.

Not that he cared who she dance with. Well, sort of, but only because she was a princess of Narnia and Telmar and shouldn't be dancing with plebeians, let alone allowing them to put their hands on her. Caspian ran a hand through his thoroughly disheveled hair and walked into the living room to see Susan frowning at him, arms crossed over her chest. Josephine was slumped over the on the sofa looking dejected.

"What happened?" Susan questioned both of them.

"Ask him!" Josephine snapped, and pointed a long white finger accusingly in Caspian's direction.

"Josephine..." Susan said, warningly.

"ME? We didn't have to go. There was still time to tell us about the sword." Caspian thundered.

"You said you'd go, because you gave your word to Michaela. Wouldn't want to disappoint her, would you?" Venom dripped off of Josephine's every word.

"I do not know why I even listen to you; why I even let you know what was going on."

"Because you need my help. Even if it kills you to admit it; you came to us." at these words, Josephine stood up and marched out of the room, barely hearing Caspian's next words.

"My first mistake."

Josephine whirled around at his words, and, as Caspian met her gaze, he saw rage in her eyes. "No, your first mistake was thinking you could be king." He could tell that the moment she said the words, she regretted them. Her face softened and the rage left her eyes, but her words had found their mark. Peter had said something to the same extent and it hurt more the second time. Caspian felt like her words confirmed all his self doubts and magnified all his short comings.

"Your family left Narnia, you have no right to the throne or to judge who sits on it."

"No! Your family invaded Narnia. You have no more right leading than Jadis does."

"And you think you could do better? I'd like to see you try to hold a kingdom together." He hissed. A mischievous glint flitted through her eyes; Josephine pulled herself to her full height, though she was still almost a full head shorter than him.

"Is that a challenge?"

A light cough from behind them brought their collective attentions back to the room around them and the other person present. Susan peered at them with unreadable expression on her wrinkled face. "Whats past is past. Caspian, Josephine, sit down and we'll discus this like rational adults."

Caspian stared at the older woman for a moment before slowly sitting down on the paisley sofa. Josephine perched delicately on the edge of the opposite end of the sofa, hands folded in her lap.

"Josephine, tell us about this sword." Susan ordered kindly.

Josephine sighed, but then smiled. "Its called Dyrnwyn. If you're 'good' it will blaze with purple fire. If you're 'bad' it will burn you to death. Its somewhere in northern England or southern Scotland; in place called 'Hen Ogledd' or the 'old north'. That's all I know."

Susan directed her blue gaze at Caspian. "In what ways does this information help your quest?"

"I now know of a weapon I can use. I also know where it find it, more or less. The only problem is, because it comes from myth, we cannot know if I will be able to find the sword in your land, of if we will need to gain access to the Woods Between the Worlds."He slowly felt his anger deflate with each calm word he spoke, even the sting from Josephine's barbs was dissipating.

Susan nodded. "How much time do you have left before you must meet Jadis' challenge?"

Caspian paused for a moment, contemplating how long ago the gauntlet had been thrown. "I have four and one half months, to the day."

The older woman nodded sagely. "You came to me for counsel, this is the course of action I suggest you take. Allow another week for preparation; I have a good idea of how to access the Woods Between the Worlds, either way, you will need to travel to Britain. I will obtain the necessary traveling papers—passports, tickets, money, etc—while you focus on packing items you may need. At the end of the week, you should travel to London, England; firstly, you should try to obtain a certain pair of rings which will aid you in slipping through the worlds, whether or not you will find these rings is questionable, but regardless, afterward you should travel to the region generally referred to as Hen Ogledd and search. If we are lucky, you will find the sword without need of leaving this world, or you will have the rings to partake such a journey should the need arise. Finally, you will need to return to Narnia."

The room was heavy with silence as the information sunk in. "Caspian can hardly go gallivanting around northern Britain by himself." Josephine pointed out. "He doesn't know enough about the modern world."

"Which is precisely why you will go with him."

Caspian, in a rather un-kingly moment, snorted—an action he feared he picked up from Josephine. "How do you imagine that will work when we cannot go more than a week without wanting to kill each other?"

"Josephine, close you mouth. Will all due respect, Caspian, Josephine belongs in Narnia more than she does this world. I request, on behalf my older brother, High King Peter the Magnificent, that you take her home."

The impossibility of her request filled his mind. Knowing this infuriating, infatuating girl was one thing, having her permanently reside with him was completely out of the question—he would end up strangling her. "Absolutely not."

"Why?" Josephine's soft voice suddenly chimed in. "Because I'd be High Queen? Don't look so surprised that I understand dynastic law." She snapped.

"Besides, what better an ally to have at you side when you face the White Witch but the heir of Peter the Magnificent?" Susan questioned. "Her blood is sanctioned and she anointed by Aslan. It would be fighting deep magic with deep magic."

"You're no fighter, Josephine, I could not defend you all the time." He stated dismissively, clinging to any excuse to not have come with—he didn't trust himself with her.

"You'd be surprised what sort of hobbies I pick up with nothing better to do."

Caspian decided to drop the argument for the moment; seeing as the two Pevensie women were 'ganging up' on him, as it were. "Tell me about these rings, you mentioned?"

"There are a pair of rings, that, when put on, will transport the wearer to the Woods Between the Worlds. They were made my a magician over a hundred years ago, when there still was magic in this world. My brother, Peter, died with those rings on his person; I'm assuming they should be somewhere in the train station still."

Abruptly, with a streak of gold and a swish of silk, Josephine stood up and, stretching, left the room. Caspian, in spite of his now much abated anger, called out after her. "Where are you going?"

She turned around in the doorway and fixed her eyes on him. "I'm going to bed; dancing and fighting takes a lot out of girl. Besides this will be one of the last nights I get to sleep in a nice bed for a while, seeing as we'll be traipsing about the countryside for god knows how long." And with that final declaration she turned and sashayed up the stairs.

Caspian looked at Susan, who smiled knowingly at him. "You'll regret not taking her, you know. She's already under your skin; there's really no defending your heart from her anymore."

He stood up and bowed to her, stiffly. "I don't know what you're talking about. Goodnight."

Susan watched as the King of Narnia sped off to the small guest room, and shut the door a little too hard. For a very long time that night, Caspian simply laid on his bed, thoughts tumbling around chaotically. He knew of a sword that could vanquish the White Witch, this knowledge brought him hope that he had not felt for a long time, all now he simply needed to do was retentive it and then find his way back to Narnia. They only problem was, he couldn't possibly take Josephine with him, as Susan asked. How could he take away the only family the old woman had left? How could he manage to be alone, with Josephine? Some days he all but loved her, and other days—well she was simply so naive, she'd be in over he head at court; at war. Secretly though, in the back of his mind, lodged in a corner that he himself rarely ventured in, he knew the reasons for his trepidation at bringing her. Firstly, if he brought the High Queen to Narnia and they had a disagreement, there could be an uprising to place her on the throne; and secondly, he didn't know if he could manage to be much longer in her presence without kissing her.


Hoped you liked it. I don't really have too much to say except thanks to all the lovely people who reviewed! You guys make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It seems like Caspian isn't mad anymore. So yay! Review?