Chapter Fourteen: Taking the Castle, Part One
Glenstorm lead the raiding party across the open field and disappeared with them through the tree line. The small group of humans watched them go as they waited for their way of transportation. Seeing as the plan centered around them, they needed a different way of getting into the castle, one much quicker than walking. And seeing as they had no cars or planes as they did in London, the quickest form of travel other than horseback was by griffin. They didn't have to wait long before six suddenly appeared in the sky, circling the How a few times before landing lightly in front of the group.
"Your majesties," the one who was the leader said as they all bowed their feathery heads in respect. "The men continue to work on the bridge though not as quickly as they do during the day. The castle is quiet, we spotted only a handful of guards in the square and in a few in the towers," it reported once it had lifted its head.
Peter nodded his head. "That's good." He turned his head once more to the sky. "The clouds provided good cover, we didn't see you until you were already here. That will help."
"If it holds, we should be able to take out a few of the guards no problem," Georgie agreed. "It might make signaling the reinforcements a tad difficult, though."
"If we place both you and King Edmund on one of the lower towers, where the cloud cover isn't as thick, your signal should still be seen," the griffin answered.
"Good. Then let's head out," Peter instructed, not wanting to waste any time.
With one last farewell to Lucy, the group paired up with a griffin before taking to the sky. Lily instantly found herself wishing that she had her cloak, no matter how impractical it would be for a raid, as the night was much cooler the higher up they went. The clouds did provide good cover, but that also meant that they weren't able to see anything below. That made it difficult for them to estimate where they were or how long they had been in the air. Thankfully, the griffins seemed to know as without warning, the two carrying Edmund and Georgie dipped out of the sky and soared towards one of the lower towers that made up the front of the castle.
Landing on the roof, Georgie held a finger to his lips before pointing down at the guard they had seen. Taking out one of his daggers, he made a quick jabbing motion with his hilt before pointing to the griffin that had carried him and carefully raising a finger up towards the sky. The creature nodded his head in understanding. Rolling his shoulders slightly, the protector moved down the roof until he was at the edge and positioned himself behind the guard before jumping. Landing behind the man who was about the same height at him, he pulled back his hand holding the dagger and hit the man at the base of his skull with his hilt, just below his helmet, before the man could even turn around. The griffin then appeared and pulled the man from the tower as he fell unconscious.
"Very nice," Edmund said as he jumped down from the roof as well, straightening up next to his protector.
"Didn't want him to scream or anything and let the others know we're here," Georgie explained with a shrug of his shoulders. "The griffin was right, though, the clouds aren't this low so your signal should be seen clear enough."
Edmund nodded his head in agreement before pulling his torch from his belt and walking over to one of the open spaces that faced the woods where their small raid party should be waiting. "Let's signal the troops," he said before slowly flicking the light on and off, using Morse Code.
"Let's just hope they can see it with all this fog."
"There's the signal," Peter called loudly in an effort to be heard over the loud whip of the wind. He had the griffins circling the castle, sticking to the very last layer of clouds so that they could just make out the basic shapes of the building while hopefully still being unseen. It was a risky bet, but one that thankfully paid off as they were able to see the flash of the torch.
Now to hope that none of the guards on watch saw them.
Diving down, the four griffins sailed towards the castle. As they approached the ground, Caspian drew his sword and swung it at a soldier just as he was turning around, knocking the man to the ground. Susan also drew her weapon, wasting no time in loosing an arrow. It found it's target easily; a soldier who had noticed Edmund's signal as well and was aiming a crossbow in that direction. Touching down on the stone floor of the parapet, Peter was the next to take out a soldier leaving their path clear.
"Alright, the Professor's room is way," Caspian said, sheathing his sword for the moment.
"Then lead the way," Peter instructed, sheathing his own sword. He cast a sideways glance at Lily, but the brunette girl continued to face forward. A faint sigh escaped him as he turned towards his sister, placing a hand gently on her back so that she went in front of him. If Caspian was going to lead them, then he was going to bring up the rear.
The small group moved carefully along the parapets and worked their way towards the center of the castle. The Professor's room looked out over the courtyard so they would have to repel down in order to reach it. Caspian removed a coil of rope from his belt and secured it to a large iron fire pit so that they could better reach the window. It was a tight fit for the four of them on the window ledge, but they somehow managed to not fall to the cobbled stones below.
Caspian bent down in an effort to better position himself in front of the window. Lily grabbed a fist full of his shirt by his shoulder so as to catch him in case he lost his balance.
After a quick nod of his head in thanks, Caspian turned to the window and gave the glass a gentle tap. "Professor?"
There was no answer so Caspian repeated the action. "Professor?"
"Is he a heavy sleeper?" Susan asked.
"Not usually," Caspian answered before trying the window once more. It was locked, but with the help of his dagger, Caspian was able to remedy that situation. Pushing gently, he opened the window.
Upon entering the study, the four found it to be empty.
"Something's happened. I have to find him," Caspian insisted, knowing instantly that something was wrong.
"You don't have time," Peter reminded, "You and Lily need to get to the gatehouse."
Caspian turned to face Peter, his face set with determination. "You wouldn't even be here if it weren't for him. And neither would I. I can't just leave him here."
Peter held Caspian's gaze before turning to his sister who gave a slight shrug of her shoulders.
"We still have to take care of Miraz," she said softly, reminding her brother that they too had a job they needed to do. And them all standing in the study arguing wasn't helping any of them stay on schedule. She turned to Caspian. "Do you think you know where he might be?"
Caspian nodded. "Yes."
"Then let him go, Peter."
Caspian smiled at the raven-haired queen. Lily turned to him before looking at her two charges. "I'll go with him and make sure that he gets to the gatehouse in time," she promised. If the door was as heavy as they thought, there was no way that she was going to be able to open it herself. Peter gave her a look and she rolled her eyes, feeling a slight twinge of annoyance as she thought about their fight a few hours ago. "Trust me."
Peter stood there for a moment before nodding his head. "Alright, you two go and get the Professor, we'll handle Miraz. Just get to the gatehouse as quickly as possible."
Lily and Caspian wasted no time as they took off towards the door, turning left once they had reached the hallway.
"So where do you think he is? " Lily asked as they moved from shadow to shadow, her voice barely above a whisper.
Caspian didn't answer; just help a finger to his lips as a pair of guards crossed their path. The two hid behind a suit of armor and waited until the guards had passed before continuing on. It was much harder to travel unseen now that they were inside the castle, as they constantly had to hide behind objects to avoid being spotted. Minutes felt like hours. But soon they were able to reach their destination.
The dungeon.
Grabbing a key from a hook on the wall, Caspian moved towards the only occupied cell. Working quietly, he unlocked the door and knelt down next to the large man who was sleeping on his side.
"Five more minutes?" he asked, gently shaking the man's shoulder.
There was a moment as the Professor looked up at Caspian, a mixture of shock and worry covered his face as he sat up. "What are you doing here? I didn't help you escape just so that you could break back in. You must leave before Miraz discovers you here."
"He'll learn that soon enough. We are giving him your cell," Caspian promised as he grabbed the older man's arm and helped pull him to his feet.
"Yes, but to do that we must be going," Lily reminded, drawing the attention to herself.
The Professor's eyes widened at the sight of her. "My word, the Lady Lillian" he breathed before shaking his head slightly and turning his attention back to his student. "You must not underestimate Miraz as you father did," he warned.
Caspian, who has been releasing the Professor from his shackles looked up a confused expression on his face. "What are you talking about?"
The old man looked down at his feet before shaking his head once more. "I am so sorry."
"Caspian?" Lily asked, watching as the boy seemed to go into a slight daze. She could see something turning in his head before, without warning, he turned and took off towards the stairs, which he took two at a time.
"Caspian, we have to get to the gatehouse!" she cried as loud as she dared, not wanting to be heard by any guards that may be nearby. "Where are you going?"
"My dear, I imagine is his going to face his uncle," the professor answered sadly.
"Great. Peter is not going to like that," she muttered under her breath before taking off after the prince.
Author's Note: First, I would just like to apologize for the lateness of this chapter, the long weekend through me off and I wasn't able to finish it until last night. The second thing I would like to say is damn! This raid ended up being a lot longer than I had originally planned! Originally, it was supposed to be two parts. But then towards the middle of this first part, things just kept getting longer and I had so much more I needed to add before I was even close to my cut off point that I just decided it would be better if I made the whole raid into three parts. So that's really exciting. Either way, thank you so much for the reviews last chapter: Isadora-Greenhall, Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967, and Kate07. Yeah, Geucy doesn't exactly sound appealing when it comes to a ship name, haha. Not as good as Pily anyway. And jealous Peter is everything. We'll get to see a little bit more of it soon so that's going to be fun! Thanks, everyone else who has followed or favorited this story as well as though who are just reading along. You guys are awesome!