Chapter 12
Deathly Shores
After 3 days, the storm did finally let up, clouds rolling away to be replaced by clear, sapphire skies. With the sunny weather temperatures began to rise, telling us we'd also drifted a little further south. As morning came the day after the skies cleared, smooth sailing awaited us for a time, and by midday, the lookout stationed in the crow's nest spotted an island.
"Here's your chance," Cami whispered as we peered over the side. I shrugged, trying to ignore her upbeat attitude about the prospect. As much as Eustace deserved what was coming, I knew it was going to bring a hassle, and I knew why Cami was so eager to see the plan come to fruition: it was another way to tick off the boy who'd out-annoyed her, and she enjoyed riling up anyone she could.
"Only if everything works out," I replied. "And wipe that smirk off your face; people are going to start getting suspicious." Cami gave me a deadpan glare as a reply. "Right, never mind. That's just how you always look. Come on, the dragons need to get out for a while."
By the time we were within anchor dropping distance from the isle, the dragons were well exercised, though none of them were planning on landing anytime soon anyway (never keep a dragon cooped up if you can help it), and decided they were ready to explore the little spit of land. I, however, landed on the ship and folded my wings, and made to board one of the rowboats, the same one Reepicheep was already on. As I stepped aboard, he gave me a funny look.
"Why stay stuck on a boat with the rest of us when you can fly in this weather?" he asked. I shrugged. "Can't talk as easily when I'm twenty feet up in the air," I explained. "Plus, I'm keeping an eye on him." I nodded slightly in the direction of Eustace, who was feigning being disgruntled as he stepped aboard the other rowboat.
Reep sighed and looked up at me. "He's not going to be a bother all the way through this trip ashore as well, is he?" "Don't know. But, he'll probably sneak off in order to get a chance to be away from us and walk around on solid ground. And he's already got it coming, anything else he happens to do now would just be icing on the cake." Reep gave me a confused look, but decided to let it go and help with the launching of the boat.
As we neared the island, it became ridiculously apparent that we probably wouldn't find much. It was almost pure rock, coated in sulfur from the acrid steam floating over the numerous vents, and toxic minerals were leaching out from anywhere the stone had been worn down. Higher up we could see small amounts of smoke mixing with the steam from larger vents on the mountain. The entire place looked like death, and the appearance certainly didn't help with raising spirits.
We rowed toward the nearest bay, one of the few places on the shoreline that looked safe to land at. In the other boat, I could hear the conversation going: "We'll have the men split up to search for anything that could be used as supplies," Caspian was saying, "and the five of us will go look for any signs that the lords may have stopped here." "Don't you mean the six of us?" Eustace asked, the pleading unmistakable in his voice. I watched as everyone turned and looked at him with expressions clearly saying you've got to be kidding.
"Oh come on, please don't send me back with the rat," Eustace begged. "I heard that," Reepicheep called out from next to me. I smiled and began muttering, "Three, two, one-"
"Big ears," Eustace practically whispered. "I heard that too!" Reep quipped, glancing at me and winking, knowing Eustace was now red with frustration. There's little a mouse won't hear. We all just laughed as Eustace sulked.
When we reached the island, we all began unloading tools we thought we would need to gather supplies or explore the island. All of us, that is, except Eustace. The second he got a chance, thinking no one was watching, he slipped away from the boats and disappeared behind a rock ledge, heading into the island. I smirked. Everything's playing out perfectly now.
"I'm going to go get a layout of the island," I announced, before turning toward the center of the island as well. Once the group acknowledged they'd heard me, I spread a pair of grayish wings and launched upward, gliding over the sharp rocks and through small clouds of the sulfurous steam. Naturally, looking down I did not find any sign of Eustace right away, as he wasn't planning on sticking close to the boats, but it wasn't an issue. Shadow dragons can find missing persons plenty easily even if the quarry had a head start. I landed in a wide ravine and morphed, slipping into the surrounding shadows before flowing across the shadows filling the many canyons and caves that dotted the island, searching for the soon to be very sorry runaway.
"Hey guys, over here!" Edmund yelled. Caspian and the other Pevensies rushed over to see what he had found. A deep crevasse had opened in the rock, leading into a cave below, and at the bottom, Edmund had spotted the remains of a rope. Caspian walked over and un-shouldered his own rope, tying it to a rock spire near the mouth of the crack. "Well, looks like they may have stopped here after all," he commented. "Let's find out if there's anything down there still." Edmund took the rope first and threw the other end down, shimmying down the length until he'd landed at the bottom. When he signaled it was clear, the others followed one by one, dropping down behind him to find themselves all in a large cavern, lit by beams of light through the rock ceiling above and dotted with small pools of water here and there.
All of them stayed oblivious to the whispering green tinted mist that followed them in, seeping through the cracks in the rock and trailing the group like a silent predator. The fog raced ahead of them, staying out of sight in the cracks. As it came upon a larger pool of water, it coalesced momentarily into a figure; a gruesome spirit guised liked a goblin, and reached down to the water, touching a single claw to it. It muttered to itself almost unheard, "Things will go well now, three more to fall here," before dispersing back into thin air as the group came around the corner and found the pool.
Peter stepped up to the edge first, and pointed toward the other end. "There's some sort of statue in the water," he said. "It looks like it's shining too." The others stepped around him to take a closer look, before they began to venture along the edge. The statue looked like a man, kneeling down to grab something. And as Peter had noticed, it was a shimmering yellow color, the same sheen as a very precious metal.
"It looks like gold," Lucy noted. "Well, let's see if we can fish it out and find out for sure," Edmund suggested. He turned and began to search along the wall of the cave, and found a root from a long dead tree, the only thing they'd seen that looked remotely like something alive yet. He pulled it from the wall, and walked back to the pool, sticking the end of the branch down into water, attempting to reach the sunken statue.
He didn't get very far. The second the root hit the water, a crackling, clinking noise sounded and the root began changing appearance, the shimmering gold color racing up it and replacing the dull brown. Edmund lifted it up and watched the branch continue to transform racing toward his own hands. He yelped and threw it, jumping back from the pool as well. All five of them stared in shock as the root hit the water and sank, disappearing into the deeper parts beyond the edge, and then their attention turned back toward the man. All of them were sure now it wasn't just a statue that sat in the water.
"He-he must have fallen in," Lucy whispered. "Poor man," he sister echoed behind her. Edmund peered closer. "You mean poor lord," he corrected, pointing toward the sword and shield lying in the water just to the right of the man. The shield was emblazoned with a symbol Caspian immediately recognized.
"That's the crest of Lord Rheston. We need to see if we can get the sword out." They all looked back to Edmund again, who still carried Lord Bern's sword. He nodded in understanding, and unsheathed the weapon, walking around to get as close to the sunken sword as he could and dipping the tip into the water. It caught the hilt of the sunken sword, and he pulled it out of the water gently, letting the liquid drip off before carefully handing it over to Caspian. That was when Peter noticed the still silvery color of both.
"The swords didn't change," he noted. Caspian shrugged. "Both of them were inlaid with power remember?" he said. "Coriakin mentioned that the evil was using a mineral of some sort as a catalyst, and these swords were the key to neutralizing it. That means they're probably immune to alchemical spells like in this water."
Edmund put his sword away and cast an apologetic glance at the golden man below the surface. As they turned to leave, however, he stopped. "What is it now?" Lucy asked. Edmund bent down and grabbed a large shell, likely washed in from the recent storm, before looking toward the pool again. "Maybe he didn't just fall in," he mused. "What if he was onto something?"
"Edmund, what are you jabbering on about?" Susan asked, clearly impatient to leave. Edmund bent down to the water, and dipped the very tip of the shell in. Immediately, it began to shimmer, and the same odd clinking noise sounded as the shell converted to the soft metal. He set it down on the ground until the shell had fully transformed. When it was, he picked it up and glanced between it and his siblings.
"What are you staring at Edmund?" Peter asked worriedly. Edmund looked up, a shade of green just barely clouding his eyes. "Think about it, we'd be so rich," he said. "We could be royalty not only here but in our own home as well! We wouldn't have to listen to anyone, or follow orders, be made to stay with people we don't want to."
Lucy's eyes widened as he said this, recognizing the odd tone in his voice. Unbeknownst to anyone save herself, she had already had her own run in with a temptation of her own a couple of night before.
"Have you lost your mind?" Susan asked. Peter shook his head. "You can't take anything out of Narnia Edmund, save what you brought with you." "And why not?" Edmund quipped back, still staring at the gold shell. "Because it doesn't belong to us, it's supposed to stay here." "And it would be defying two kings of the land," Caspian added.
That made it click. Edmund glared at him, standing up and ever so slightly reaching for his sword. "I am a king of Narnia," he hissed, standing straight and glaring at Caspian. "You've been waiting for this, haven't you?" Caspian toned lowly. "I am the rightful ruler here now, but you want to challenge me, you doubt my leadership, don't you?" Peter drew his sword, sensing an oncoming fight. "What's going on here?" he asked warningly. "Edmund, don't do anything stu-"
You were also the high king!" Edmund snapped. "Why should I listen to you, I've always played second fiddle. First you, and now him!" "You're sounding a lot like a traitor now, Ed," Peter warned. "And you two are acting like spineless saps!" Edmund lashed back.
Caspian had had enough. He drew his own sword and hissed, "If you think you're so great, prove it!" Edmund drew his sword, and both weapons flashed, slamming together as the pair of near-indestructible swords threw sparks. Peter leapt forward, a third sword adding in as he tried to break them up, but it only made it worse as he was drawn into a three-way battle. Metal clashed with metal as the trio began shuffling toward the pool unknowingly, and they would have ended up all falling in had it not been for the two left out of the fight.
"Stop it!" Susan yelled, her voice echoing off the walls as she and Lucy leapt forward and into the way. "Stop it, all three of you!" she snapped again, and the boys stepped back, looking shocked that they'd begun fighting like they had. "Don't you see it yet?" Lucy asked. "This is exactly what Coriakin was talking about. That demon has followed us here, and this place is bewitching you, turning you all against each other."
Edmund's eyes widened in response, and he dropped the shell still in his hand like it was a boiling potato. It hit the ground and bounced, rolling away and into the pool to rest by the man in the water. Susan shook her head. "Look, we have the sword, we have no reason to stay here. Let's just get out of here and head back to the boats. Everyone else is probably back by now."
One by one, they turned away and headed back toward the entrance of the cave, Edmund being the last to leave as he took one last glance of nervousness around. Now, he could feel as if something was watching him, and that only confirmed to him what Lucy had said. With a final shudder, he raced after his siblings.
When they were gone, out from the cracks came the mist again, forming into the goblin-like spirit, who hissed, spat, and muttered about the two girls foiling that chance. Had they not been there the three kings would have been lost and the boat would have turned back around, but it was no use cursing his failure now. After the little tantrum, the demon composed himself again, and took off toward the other side of the island. There was still a chance to ruin things, what with a clueless wandering boy who was still highly susceptible to his own greed, and the boy with the gift who had plans of his own. All he needed to do was start complicating things, and maybe, just maybe, get the guardian and his Viking friends thrown off the ship.
