Chapter Ten: A New Beginning and Farewell

Disclaimer:

I didn't write one because it's so obvious I don't own Narnia.

They celebrated with Lord Bern that night. Lucy and Edmund, having helped freed slaves before, spent most of the afternoon running through the castle to help them find their way around, to establish a routine as a base but to show them what it meant to have freedom. ("What would you like to do now that you're done? Yes, you're allowed in the gardens - let's go!" And the slaves gradually gathered around them, Kelta, a slave who'd never known freedom, Gareth, a slave who'd been captured two years before, and Hentle, a gentle giant who had bruises all over his body from the beatings he'd taken for others.) Caspian joined them after a couple hours, asking questions the fearful slaves might want answers to as well, like where Lucy and Edmund had learned to do this. So the first day in the castle was spent listening to legends tell their stories, and then preparing for a celebration of freedom and the return of justice.

Lord Bern joined them much later; he had been most concerned with setting up a good guard and restoring good, old laws. (Caspian helped with the first). His family had come once victory was gained, and Lucy found yet another friend in the Lady Bern, and sat beside her that night at the feast. Caspian raised a toast, to the first of their missing lords, a man of compassion and honor, and Lucy breathed a sigh of happiness. The first Lord had been found, and with him so much good had happened. In that night, she heard an echo of the Lone Islands' past hospitality that rang loudly and long.

All the travelers were given their own chambers, and Lucy slept long and well that night. The next morning she got up, toes and fingers tingling with excitement. Today they reached the boundaries of what she'd sailed in her past reign; today they were going further. She met Reepicheep at breakfast and smiled when he piped, "To the beginning of our real adventures! (1)"

Only they found it wasn't going to happen today. Lucy had been sailing before and berated herself; of course, the Dawn Treader must be repaired first, and made ready to go as far as she possibly could. Lord and Lady Bern were handling the provisions, water-barrels, new ropes, and such the ship might need. The four Narnians went out and gathered a group of former slaves at the market who were looking for work, borrowed eight horses (2) from Lord Bern's estate, and went to the beach. Lucy, Edmund, Caspian, and Reepicheep sailed to the Dawn Treader (Eustace complained loudly at the idea of "being forced back onto a floating bathtub; as if that thing could be made more seaworthy"). Lucy ran up and down the sides, tying knots to the ropes that two of the sailors would take back to shore; then the majority of the crew went to land and watched as the Dawn Treader was pulled, groaning and creaking, out of the water and onto the shore, rolling slowly higher and higher. The whole group cheered when the last bit of her was pulled above high tide, and Lucy grinned at Caspian's shout. She walked forward and ran her hand over the side, marveling at how high the boat was. Somehow, without Lucy noticing, the Dawn Treader had become as much home as Cair Paravel, and it was as odd to see her grounded as it would have been to see Cair Paravel floating. She grinned at the image and imagined it for a moment; walking out the large double doors and jumping into the sea to swim with mermaids. She wondered if such a thing could be made. But Edmund called her and she turned; Caspian, Reep, and Ed were waving her over. "We're headed to the market, to find the old ship captains," Edmund told her. "We want to see if any of them have gone further where we're going."

Lucy smiled and they were off. But as they entered the market she moved just a little closer to Edmund. The memories of visiting before were overlaid with the memories of people watching her like she was a vase, or a set of tools. She thought back to the laws Lord Bern was establishing, and relaxed a bit. But it was odd, to have seen evil in the lands belonging to Narnia and know it wasn't hers to remedy. Once, it had been. Hers and her siblings. But their task had changed after a few years; people brought them evil situations to solve instead of them going out to hunt it. They no longer had a shattered foundation and were told to build a kingdom. But the need here still felt familiar; as did the rebuilding of the slaves lives. She wanted to see Hentle learning to use his strength to build as well as to shield, to rejoice in how Aslan made him, to find someone to love and to have a large and happy family. To see the keen-eyed slave who'd brought her down from the platform stay with his lord as a freeman, and to see what he'd become, with that bright intelligence and overwhelming joy. She knew he'd probably value his freedom for years; and she wondered what he'd do with it. A part of her longed to stay and do what they'd done in Narnia once; another knew it wasn't her calling. It would be left to the former slaves, to Lord Bern, and to those living here. And to Aslan. It might be the hardest part of being a queen, but a queen of the past; to come for part of a story and have to leave the rest to Aslan, trusting Him with the rest of the story. She hoped she wouldn't have to do that with Caspian, with Reepicheep, with Drinian and the others. She wanted so badly to at least know the end of their stories, even if she wasn't there for all of it.

But that wasn't her place. Aslan was only calling her to be a part of it this time; a reminder of His faithfulness in the past, a show of His strength in the present. The future was something only He could see. She closed her eyes. She had to trust Him with it, whether she would ever know what it was or not. She opened them again. He had still given her a few days to stay, to help. Those would be good, for her and for the Lone Islanders; then she would leave.

Because Aslan had given her a home, one towering on the beach at the moment, with the most skilled shipwrights going over every centimeter (3). Her current future, one Aslan Himself called her to, through a painting in her aunt's house. And that future - Reepicheep's wish had caught her heart. She longed for Aslan's country more than anything else; and her home would soon be sailing there. Soon. Her breath came a little faster. Soon.

"Ho, captains!" Caspian's yell from just ahead jerked her out of her thoughts, and she looked ahead to see a group of bearded men talking, one breaking off from talking about "his ship." Caspian walked up to them first, one seafarer to another, and said "I look for news of the seas beyond the Lone Islands." Two of the captains bowed after a moment, and the rest caught on and bowed as well.

"We've tales enough of those lands, your majesty," one said slowly, looking at Caspian with little scepticism, "but it'd be told better with a tankard of ale in hand."

Caspian laughed. "Well said!" he agreed. "Come to the castle and we'll serve some." Lucy looked, and knew from the glances they were sending her that this was one place where she'd be more of an inhibitor than a help; the tales might not be told so freely around a ten-year-old girl.

"I'll stay here," she volunteered, and Caspian nodded. As the group moved off she caught Edmund's arm. "Tell me everything later?" she whispered.

"Sure thing," he responded. "All right by yourself?"

She nodded. "It's still Narnia," she whispered back. "And I'm still a queen here, even if no one knows it." Edmund smiled, bowing a little, then he left. But not with the others, Lucy realised, watching him. He was up to something, and wasn't telling them what. She smiled. That, too, was familiar, and Edmund would tell them in his time.

Unless she figured it out first. She'd have to keep her eyes open.

Till then she walked about the market. It was something she'd done often in Narnia, though usually with a panther or badger at her side. There was much that could be found out just by walking slowly and listening. She heard schoolgirls chattering about a king here in the Lone Islands, and young boys talking about the way the armor shone. She heard, over and over again, how the Dawn Treader had been pulled onto shore, it's dragon head "fierce and open-mouthed, it looked hungry enough to eat me, it did!" and smiled to hear how her home got bigger and the dragon fiercer with every snippet she heard. By afternoon it was large enough to bring an entire army - "they're going to go conquer new lands for Narnia, my dear, I'm certain of it! Maybe they'll bring back things we've never heard of, even more exotic than Calormen oils!" But she didn't hear anything negative about the Narnians, nor any reaction to the new governor. She wondered if they realised that good rulers are involved in the lives of the people they ruled, much more than Governor Gumpas was. She resolved to mention it to Lord Bern that night, and to speak with Lady Bern about the ways she and Susan had found to make the royal family authoritative and yet friendly. It had been a hard balance to strike, and Lucy would be the first to admit having a panther helped. Maybe Lady Bern could make do with soldiers in armor.

That conversation happened late that night, after Caspian and Reepicheep had shared the tales the sea captains had told, (4) wild stories of islands inhabited by headless men, floating islands, waterspouts, and a fire that burned along the water. Or fears of sailing to the edge of the sea to find currents that would wreck boats; or one captain, who thrilled Reepicheep by saying beyond that edge might be Aslan's country. Edmund, who had reappeared sometime in the afternoon, brought other tales from slavers ships he'd somehow managed to gather, that there were no islands worth bringing people off of, and no reliable tales. So whatever islands they found weren't likely to be inhabited by humans. Lucy smiled. She might have known.

The next day the Dawn Treader was once again put to sea; most of Narrowhaven watched from the shore. The food and water were brought aboard; the sailors rowed themselves out; and even Eustace came aboard, though not without much complaining. They had food and water for twenty-eight days (6), and Lucy ran her hands over the deck railing, trying to stop herself from bouncing. Soon had become today.

Caspian was the last to come on board. Edmund and Lucy, noticing a new determination in his face, walked over.

"The six lords who were friends of my father sailed east, the last Lord Bern saw them," Caspian said. "And now so do we."

OOOOO

(1) VOTD p. 52
(2) VOTD p. 52
(3) VOTD p. 53
(4) Direct quote from VOTD p. 53