Lu awoke to a crushing weight covering her entire body. It was warm, but didn't smell like a satyr. A long time had gone by since one of the furry creatures had fallen on her while she was asleep, so what could it be?
She wriggled a little, trying to slip away, and suddenly whatever it was had its arms around her. The life was being crushed from her scrawny body, and the arms continued to grow tighter, until Lu could no longer draw breath. Panic clouded her mind. This was not the battlefield she had wanted to die on, surrounded by soldiers with the Narnians at her back. She had to think of something.
As consciousness started fading, Lu started hitting the back of the thing with her tiny fists. Desperately thrashing and kicking, she finally felt the arms loosen around her. Thank Aslan.
" Hmmmm. Stop squirming," murmured a very familiar accented voice. ...
Oh damn. That's what it was.
Lu tried to facepalm, but ended up hitting Caspian in the back again, which seemed to hurt her more than him.
"Then stop trying to kill me!" She pushed at his shoulder until he rolled off to the other side of the bed, taking all of the blankets with him. Lu sat up and shivered, glaring at the sleeping prince. He had the nerve to try and kill her in his sleep? Bastard.
Cold air nipped at her exposed skin, the fire having gone out long ago. She glanced back at Caspian. What would happen if she tried to reclaim the blankets? He would probably grab her again, and the chances of surviving that were slim. Maybe she should use his current state of unconsciousness to her advantage and try to escape. He had locked the door, but maybe someone would come in?
A crazy plan started to form inside Lu's devious little mind. What if she knocked the prince out and waited for someone to come and check on him, then slipped out the door? At least that would get her out of the room. It was a long shot, but definitely worth a try.
Now, how to knock out a sleeping prince with unconscious homicidal tendencies? Lu strained her eyes to search the dark room for the answer to her problem, and discovered a heavy-looking clay mug sitting on top of the fireplace. That might work….
Careful not to disturb Caspian, Lu slid off the bed and padded softly over to the fireplace. The huge handle of the mug made her hands look tiny and childlike as she lifted it silently and tip toed back to the giant bed.
Lu stood beside the sleeping prince, weapon in hand, staring down at her victim. He looked so peaceful and innocent when he wasn't looming over her. Even though all she could see was the back of his head, she imagined that his face held no trace of the usual frown or scowl.
The reason for the almost constant angry expression on his face suddenly hit her. Caspian, though he was a prince, had the hardest life of anyone she could think of. Doomed to obsessively love someone that would only hate him in return? He hadn't even done anything wrong! Why should he have to pay for the first Caspian's mistake?
But what could she do about it? Lu came up blank. Narnia definitely expected too much of her.
She raised the mug, focusing luminous icy eyes on the back of Caspian's head. The weapon whistled through the air as she brought it down with all the force she could muster.
Before she could hit her target, a hand shot out and grabbed Lu's wrist. She squealed and hissed, dropping the mug onto the bed where it rolled to the floor with a resounding thump. Turning away from the apparently awake prince, she threw her weight against his grip, desperate to escape. Only accomplishing severely straining her arm, Lu dropped to the floor in frustration as the hand started dragging her back towards its owner.
Caspian finally looked up and rolled over, pulling her onto the bed. Pinning her arms and legs down with his own, he burned through the terrified green gaze with cold, angry black eyes.
"You're going to be more of a problem than I thought," he growled. Lu just stared up at him, trying her hardest to look innocent.
"Well, you tried to kill me too! While you were asleep! It scared the stuffing-" Caspian put a finger over her lips, silencing Lu immediately for the first time in history.
"I'm just worried about you." The green eyes clouded. What?
"Huh?" Caspian brushed stray red curls out of her face and rested his hand on her cheek. Lu was too curious to protest this action.
"If you ever try and kill me and someone finds out, they might tell the council lords, who will arrest you for attempted assassination. They might not go as far as to hang you, seeing as you're the future queen and they know I would kill them if they chose the death sentence, but I'm sure they'll come up with some sort of nasty punishment. And I can't let that happen to you. Plus, technically you're still a prisoner, and that means if you try to escape they can arrest you then too. I'm not king yet, so the council lords still have a lot of authority."
Lu sighed. "So when I try and escape or kill you, I'll get arrested by a bunch of smarmy old bearded guys? Ugh."
"Yes, but hopefully they won't try and kill you. Just don't try to escape." Caspian looked down at her sternly, but Lu just rolled her eyes.
"Not try and escape? Really? Yeah right. Somehow, I don't see that happening."
Caspian glared. "You know, you're never going to succeed."
Lu scoffed indignantly. "We'll see about that! There's no way I'm going to live with being stuck here- Oh look, the sun's coming up!" Caspian smirked at how easily she was distracted, but his eyes still held traces of anger. He rolled off the bed, and Lu let out a sigh of relief. Having him on top of her was always more than slightly terrifying. Unfortunately, he seemed to enjoy it.
"I have a meeting with the council lords, you should get some more rest."
"You're right. I didn't sleep too well... for some reason." She glared at him, burrowing into the blankets. Sleep overcame her in seconds.
When she finally awoke, light was streaming in through the cracks in the curtains and the prince was gone. Thrashing around to rid herself of tangled bed sheets, Lu rolled a little too far and hit the floor.
"Damn!" she hissed. Lu sat up and glared at the door. It was most certainly locked, and further inspection revealed that the windows were locked as well. Though they wouldn't have been much help unless she learned how to fly.
Lu's eyes fell on the door to the gigantic bathroom. She hadn't had the luxury of regular bathing in a long time, and she could use that to pass the time. Besides, she felt icky after being forced to sleep in the enemy's bed. However, soaking in hot water with nothing else to do was too boring for someone with the attention span of a walnut. There had to be something entertaining involved...
Like a sign from Aslan, Lu stubbed her foot on something hard lying on the floor. Hopping up and down on one foot and clutching the other with much cursing, she discovered the source of her discomfort was the large book of Lucifer Jadis stories. Lu's eyes widened in delight. Snatching up the book, she proceeded to do a victory dance all the way into the bathroom. After a long and frustrating five minutes of figuring out how the knobs worked to get the right temperature, she read the front page as the tub filled.
A collection of tales centered around the mysterious bane of our kings
Lucifer Jadis
Ooh, that sounded good. Lu slid into the scalding water and carefully turned to the first story.
Not many people realize it, but the demoness Lucifer Jadis was actually a stray mermaid that unwittingly flopped up onto the king's flagship-
Wait, what the hell? Lu re-read the line twice, but either her dyslexia was really acting up, or whoever wrote this actually thought she was a mermaid. That would explain her appearance on Caspian the Conqueror's ship while it was still about a mile from land, but still, it was just plain lame. Mermaids were obnoxious, giggly little creatures.
Lu finished reading the first story, but there was not a shred of truth in the entire thing. For one, she was most definitely not a mermaid. And, there was no way in hell that she had seduced Caspian the Conqueror with her mystical mermaid powers. Like she would even want to go there.
The next version was a little more accurate, obviously having been written with the knowledge that she was part elf and part ice witch, not a mermaid. However, she definitely did not have the power to freeze hundreds of soldiers to their deaths. If she had, then her Narnians would be free by now, and those pesky Telmarines would all be chillin' six feet under. No pun intended.
The next version was almost dead-on about everything, including the tunnel that she had made to try and help the Narnians escape. The only thing it got wrong was her personality. She wasn't that evil, selfish, stupid, clumsy, vicious, stubborn, and just downright rude... Right?
Most of the stories ended with her death, sometimes even at Caspian the Conqueror's hands. Those explained his obsession as one of guilt. Usually she was portrayed as an evil seductress, luring the kings to their death. One story actually described her as an innocent victim whose only goal was to protect her subjects. Sadly, that one ended with her turning into a llama, which seemed to be some sort of weird animal.
One version of the story sent chills down her spine, even through the hot bathwater. She and the first Caspian had been in love, but she had been unable to forgive him for killing her people and ran off into the forest. Then, Caspian had followed her and strangled her to death in rage. Apparently, madness and violence ran in the family or something. Hopefully the present prince hadn't inherited much of it, but just in case, Lu made a mental note not to antagonize him within strangling distance.
By this time, there was only one version left, the water had gone cold, and Lu was quite clean. Wrapping herself in a fluffy towel, she drained the tub, grabbed her book, and stuck her head out the door to make sure the way was clear. Afraid Caspian would be back at any moment, she shot across the room to the closet and wrenched it open. Inside were dresses, but she was more interested in the prince's clothes. Digging around in the back for something old that might fit better than his last shirt, she came up with an outfit that was definitely not the right size, but small enough not to trip her. She slammed the closet door and dressed in record time, taking a moment afterward to enjoy the feeling of not being in a dress.
Retrieving the book, she plopped herself down in a cozy armchair and turned to the last story. Finding some sort of strange handwritten cover page, Lu struggled to make out the loopy cursive. It read:
As this book will be locked where only those with scholarly intentions have access to it, I, the maker of this compilation of tales, see fit to include the only authoritative source of information on the elusive Lucifer Jadis, written by King Caspian I himself.
Something about her written by Caspian the Conqueror? Lu's hands shook slightly as she turned the page. This was going to be interesting….