Susan was still forcing herself to keep her eyes open against the bright lights when she was roughly picked up and hauled forward by her captor. Free from the sack, she used all her energy to wriggle and squirm, trying to get out of her captor's grasp, but he held her firmly. Too firmly. Halfway up the long walk, Susan gave up trying to set herself free. She opened her eyes long enough to focus on her captor's wrist, and then she bit down hard.

"Stupid barbarian witch!" the man exploded as he dropped her, clutching his wrist, which was now pulsing with blood.

Titters flew throughout the room, and as Susan picked herself up, she realized that they were not directed toward her. They were directed to the man standing beside her, holding his wrist and examining it with a scowl on his face. She took the opportunity to glance around the room and found herself in a magnificent court bedecked with gold and silver. Her eyes could not take everything in as she glanced around. She realized that the snickers were coming from the courtiers and the slave girls who were standing and lounging around the room. The path that Susan's captor had been taking was obviously leading up to the gilded chair at the end of the room, so Susan squared her shoulder and lifted her chin, slipping into her role as queen despite her dress and hair.

"I'm quite capable of walking by myself," she said, surprising everyone, including herself as she kept her voice even. She then sashayed up the aisle to the throne before her, twisting her body out of her ailing captor's revengeful grip. When she reached the throne, she swept into a curtsy, elegant even in her bedraggled state, and addressed the Tisroc, "Your Grace, I must say, if you wanted to speak with me, you should've just sent a formal request to Cair Paravel." She smiled demurely. "I would've gladly come and visited with you." With effort, Susan held back, 'And graced you with my presence.' This was not Cair Paravel and such manners could have her beheaded.

The pompously fat man leaned forward, examining Susan with his beady black eyes. His meaty fists tightened against the arm rests of his throne as he spoke through gritted teeth. "I didn't want you to come for a visit," he hissed. The atmosphere in the room seemed to change, and everyone grew quiet, focused on their leader as he continued. "I sent one of my soldiers for you because I doubted that you would come of your own free will." He smiled cruelly. "And even if you did choose to come, I doubt that your precious Caspian would've let you, barbarian witch."

Susan lifted her chin at the insult, but she said nothing about the taunt. She'd been called worse by another Tisroc, Rabadash the Ridiculous. One of her eyebrows shot up as she responded, "You underestimate what one will do for the love of her country." Everyone drew in a sharp breath when she made no effort to add a befitting title for the Tisroc to the end of her sentence.

The Tisroc sat back in his throne, drumming his fingertips against the arm rests. "Do you know why I brought you here?" he asked.

Susan pretended to think, forcing herself not to push her courageous façade too far. "I'm going to guess that it has something to do with you and your fanatical ideas that you can right every wrong done to your great family line." She smiled sweetly up at him. "Am I right?"

The Tisroc smiled once more, but the action held no warmth. It was as cold as ice. "You're right," he said. "But I'm sure that you figured that out by your witch's skills."

Susan smiled as well. "No," she replied evenly. "I'm just really smart."

"Of tongue," the Tisroc growled. "But possibly not of mind, since not many people would be standing before me contradicting me."

"There is a first time for everything," Susan replied, shrugging. She saw the Tisroc's face turn almost purple and realized that she had gone too far. "But tell me, Your Grace," she hastily added, "how your soldier was able to capture me and take me away without anyone seeing him."

The horrid shade of purple faded from the Tisroc's face and he sat back, grinning. "Narnia is not the only land that has a higher power, Witch," he said. "The great god, Tash the Irresistible, is ever wise, and ever wonderful. He guided me in making my soldier invisible. No one saw or heard him."

"I didn't realize that Tash helped his people on a whim," Susan remarked.

"He doesn't," the Tisroc snapped. "But when a soul is sacrificed to him, he is more open to requests." The Tisroc smiled, and Susan was once again reminded of Rabadash as she saw the same lewd, cruel smile forming on this Tisroc's lips. "The barbarian Aslan has pushed Tash the Inexorable to the limit, and he was quite willing to grant me power enough to concoct such a scheme." He leaned forward toward Susan and whispered, "You're not the only one who has powers now, Witch."

Susan frowned. "What makes you think that I have witch's blood in me?" she asked.

The Tisroc replied, "I've read all the accounts of your famed beauty, and the trouble you put my ancestor, Rabadash the Peacemaker, through." He glared at her. "That was over a thousand years ago."

"Thirteen hundred, actually," Susan corrected, trying not to roll her eyes at the title the Tisroc had given to Rabadash. 'He would choose the kinder title,'she thought with as smirk.

"What?" the Tisroc asked, unused to people correcting him.

Susan shrugged. "It was thirteen hundred years ago, not one thousand."

The Tisroc shrugged. "All the more reason then," he replied. "I've heard stories about you and your siblings being flung from one world into another." He sat back, pleased with himself. "How do you explain that and not be a witch?"

Susan shrugged. "Easily," she replied. "All that my siblings and I have ever done has been through the grace of Aslan." She started to go on, but then something the Tisroc had said previously came flooding back and she gasped. "You sold your soul to Tash?!"

The Tisroc smirked. "Yes, I did. Now, I have more power than any of my ancestors before me. Tash the Irresistible has granted me with knowledge that I could not begin to put to use." He smiled, and Susan forced herself not to take a step back at the look in his eyes as he stared at her. "I haven't used much of my power, just for your capture, because I have a special little something that I'm going to do first." He rubbed his hand together gleefully, and Susan drew in a breath.

"What would that be?" she choked out, surprised that the question sounded calm.

"I am going to set my family line to rights, humiliate Aslan, and please the great god, Tash, all at the same time."

The gleefulness in his voice made Susan tremble inwardly, but she responded, "You are ambitious, I'll give you that." She crossed her arms over her chest and asked, "How do you intend to accomplish all of that at once?"

The Tisroc smiled. "I'm going to sacrifice you, Witch."

A/N: What did you think???