Author's Note: I adore the Dufflepuds, and I used to wonder, what were Caspian and company doing while Lucy was having all the adventures on their island? I had a ball writing this one; hope it's enjoyable to read


"In other words, you are asking this lady to face some danger which you daren't ask your own sisters and daughters to face!"

Caspian, the Island of Voices

"Be careful, Lucy," Caspian urged as she set her foot on the first stair. "I wish there was another way!"

"Bu there's not, Caspian dear. I'll be quite all right; make sure you stay out of mischief." She was, Edmund thought, more like Queen Lucy the Valiant of the Golden Age than he should have thought it was possible for his little sister to be. She climbed the long staircase steadily, without ever glancing back to the anxious knot of people - and the Mouse - who watched her.

"What," said Eustace nervously when she was gone from sight, "are the rest of us supposed to do now?"

"Wait, I suppose." There was nothing for it. Caspian turned resolutely away toward the great double doors that led from the magician's house onto an elegant, manicured lawn. "They should have at least allowed one of us to go with her - they have nothing to gain by a failed attempt!"

"Let's wait outside," Edmund agreed. "This place is all so grand and silent - creepy!"

From the shadows of the entrance hall they stepped into the brightness of a summery morning. "Is the little girl gone upstairs?" came the hail from thin air.

"Queen Lucy is attending that business you dare not undertake for yourselves," Drinian shot back, riled as much by the uncertainty of where the cry originated as the flagrant disrespect for a Narnian Queen. The air around them filled with laughter.

"We dursen't go near that book again!" the one they called the Chief declared. "An' no more will the little girl, after today!"

Caspian ground his teeth; he was conscious of Reepicheep's rising anger about his knee-level; could hear the scrape of Drinian's sword against its leather scabbard as the taller man gripped and raised the hilt. "Had you but permitted one of us to accompany Her Majesty…"

"No, no, only one can look on the book at a time!"

"That's right, Chief; nobody tells it plainer! Only one can look on the book!"

"I wish we could see them, so we could avoid seeing them, if you see what I mean."

"Clear as day, Eustace," muttered Drinian, reluctantly sliding his sword fully back into its scabbard at Caspian's nod. "However ugly they may be!"

"Ugly as they make 'em, we are!"

"That we are, Chief! Ugliest things you ever saw!"

"Except we don't," Edmund pointed out.

"The young 'un's learning from you, Chief! 'Cept they don't!"

"Because we're invisible, mates, that's why."

"I wish the magician had made them inaudible instead!"

"What's that? What's inaudible?"

"Aye, Chief, we all want to know. What's inaudible, young 'un?"

Eustace positively glowed. "Well, when a thing is inaudible, it has no sound," he began seriously. The Chief Voice cut him off.

"No what? Can't you put it plain, boy?"

"Can't he say what he means, eh Chief?"

"I really do wish you'd let us see if they become visible when a sword strikes them, Caspian!" muttered Edmund

"If something is inaudible," Drinian roared, in his best captain's voice. "You can't hear it! See?"

"Can't hear it, eh? That's what inaudibible is, mates; it's something you can't hear."

"Well said, Chief!" howled the Lesser Voices. "Inaudibible's something you can't hear! They can't have it told 'em any plainer than that!"

"Hurry up, Lu!" said Edmund, to wherever in the magician's house his sister might be. "I don't think I can bear much more of this!"

The Voices offered to fetch refreshment; more for something to do than because they were thirsty, their guests accepted with thanks, wandering to sit on a pair of low wooden benches placed to enjoy the shade offered by a long avenue of evenly-spaced trees leading along the shingle drive from house to shore. "It's a rum do," Edmund said suddenly. "Am I the only one rather nervous about what we'll see, provided Lucy manages to break the invisibility spell?"

"No!" answered Eustace promptly. "And I got the feeling Lucy was worried about that: she was watching the way the dishes hopped to the table last night with very big eyes."

"Giant grasshoppers?" Caspian suggested.

"With boots on?" Drinian enquired. "That thumping sounds like a single foot; and a large one!"

"Our hosts are returning."

"How are we to tell if they all went away, Reep?" Caspian wondered ruefully. "Gentlemen, perhaps you should lay the flagon and cups on the ground, for us to pour our own refreshment?"

"You're a mannerly one, aren't you?"

"You've worked him out, Chief! Mannerly!"

Caspian's jaws cracked painfully with the effort of smiling. Wine sloshed, turning the pale sand around their feet to mud. "We would not distract your warriors from their work, Chief," he said, turning in what he hoped might be the direction of the first Voice. "If you have business to attend, we can wait quite comfortably alone for our companion's return."

"Hardly hospitable that'd be, masters and we a folk that like good company!"

"You tell 'em, Chief!"

"I wish he wouldn't," sighed Eustace.

"It would seem Her Majesty's task, in venturing to the magician's chambers, might be less daunting than this remaining to us," squeaked the Mouse.

"I wonder how she's getting on?" Edmund knew it had been twenty minutes, not more, since Lucy had left them. "How far from the main stair is the magician's book room?"

"Can never tell; the corridors are all enchanted."

"Fiendish enchanted!" yelled the hideous chorus. Caspian's head was beginning to ache.

"Will you permit us to walk in these gardens? We have been many months at sea since we had such a pleasure."

"Aye the sea, nasty, cold, wet stuff, ain't it?" The unarguable question had Drinian rolling his eyes, and Eustace trying desperately not to giggle. "Walk where you will, but beware the magician!"

"Watch for 'im!" shouted the Lesser Voices. "Might be invisible, might not."

"We dun't know, lads."

"That we dun't, Chief!"

"I think we understand that much." Caspian stood sharply. "Ow!"

"Sorry indeed, young feller, I was pickin' up your cup."

"That is - most kind; I do apologise for…" Caspian let the sentence die, suddenly realising how ridiculous he would sound, apologising for not seeing an invisible creature. The Voices joined in raucous laughter.

"Aye, couldn't see young Cullo there, eh? That's what bein' invisible does to a chap."

"That it does, Chief!"

"We stumble into each other all the time, don't we, mates?"

"All the time, Chief!"

"Most uncomfortable for you," Drinian sympathised, his innocent tone daring his friends to laugh. Edmund turned his snigger into a hasty coughing fit.

"Never a day goes by that someone don't break an arm on another feller," the Chief Voice informed them, his statement stoutly supported by his fellows. "You walk all you want, masters; the little girl will be gone hours yet; if she comes back at all!"

"If she don't get caught by the magician!" The other Voices expanded with ghastly relish on their Chief's point.

"Lu can look after herself," Edmund promised the others.

"Yes, but a magician!" said Caspian. "Oh, I can't bear sitting here doing nothing! Shall we explore the perimeter of the garden?"

They tried to amble: they tried not to wonder how long it had been since Lucy had disappeared into the magician's domain. And the harder they tried not to ask each other "how long?" the more the thought nagged and niggled in the corner of everyone's mind.

The Voices died away; by the muffled thump and the scattering of sand along the straight, pebble-edged paths, Drinian suspected they were content to watch their frustrated guests from a safe distance. "Should have tried bumping into one sooner, Caspian," he murmured to his neighbour. The King snorted.

"It's not easy, bumping into something one can't see, you know!" he joked. "Hang it! I wish I knew how Lucy was managing! There might be a thousand spells to read through before she finds a visibility one!"

"We could be here all night!" Edmund blenched. "Golly, I hope not, that'd mean another dinner ending up in my lap! Let's hope the magic book has an index. It's under V for Visibility, Lu!" he shouted up toward the leaded windows of the mansion's upper floor.

"I'm bored." Eustace plopped down onto the grass, his bottom lip sticking out almost as far as it had in the old days. "I'd go back and tease the Voices, but they give one a headache."

"They're not easy to have a sensible conversation with," Edmund agreed, squatting at his cousin's side. He plucked a blade of grass and began, methodically, to shred it. "Still, at least the sun's shining. If it had rained, we might have been confined in the house with them - whatever they are!"

Caspian stretched on the lawn nearby. "I shall try to snooze," he decided, carefully closing his eyes. "I slept little enough last night, wondering what Lucy would be facing on our behalf today."

Reepicheep wandered off to inspect the array of dainty flowers in the pathside beds. Drinian began to pace the width of the lawn, back and forth as he might the poop on a slow watch. Edmund selected another piece of grass and blew along it, to produce a sharp, piercing note. Caspian sat up abruptly.

"Sorry. I'm not good at waiting."

"I think we all might say the same. How long…"

"Not an hour yet." Drinian measured the sun's height with a practised eye. "Confound this hanging around!"

"The Thumpers are coming back," Eustace announced, and sure enough, the muted thud-thud of a mallet striking the ground was growing louder. "Is she back?"

"We ain't visible yet, are we, young 'un?"

"No we ain't, Chief, no!"

"And do you know how we know we ain't? Because we still can't see each other!"

"I thought you said that was a relief!" yelled Edmund.

"Aye, a proper relief, to be spared the sight of each other's ugly mugs," agreed the Chief. "But we're mortal tired of it now."

"That's right, Chief!"

"Is he ever wrong, I wonder?" mused Reepicheep.

"And if he is, do the others tell him so?" The strangest things, Caspian decided, served to pass the time when one was helplessly waiting. The boys laughed. Drinian raised a brow. Even Reepicheep twirled his whiskers in appreciation of the lame joke.

"We're off for our nap, we are."

"They can't ask to be told simpler, Chief!"

"We'd be mightily obliged to you gentlemen if you'd have a care not to tread on us, too."

"If you will be so kind as to tell us where you'll be," said Drinian, carefully. "We will be sure to avoid the area."

"Can't ask for fairer than that, lads, can we?"

"Can't indeed, Chief! As fair an offer as you could want!" yelled the Chorus.

"We sleep in the shade of the house, we do; stay on the paths, and you shan't stand on us."

"We'll be careful to do that," Edmund promised. "I mean, we'll stay on the paths!" he added, into the babble of confused Voices that questioned quite exactly what he meant. "I bet they agree with each other in their sleep, too!" he added under his breath. "Let's go back up to the house ourselves: surely she can't be much longer?"

They had an anxious wait of what seemed like an hour (in fact it was barely fifteen minutes) before scampering footsteps above had them all straining to see up the stairs. "It's all right!" Lucy shouted, as they surged to meet her. "I've met the magician - he's lovely! And I've seen Aslan! And they're visible again, come and look! I never saw anything so charming! Goodness, you all look very grim! Have you been worrying about me?"

"Oh, no!" Edmund grated. "We've had a positive picnic! Of course we've been worried! You were gone for ages!"

"No I wasn't." Smilingly, she pointed to the grandfather clock standing off to one side of the hall. "Look! I've been an hour and a half at the most. Honestly, you men! Have you never heard it said that patience is a virtue?"

"Then Your Majesty had best be virtuous for all of us," replied Drinian, first to recover his breath in the face of rank audacity. "Shall we go and meet our hosts? I imagine they will think the last hour and a half time well used!"