Ch 21: Breathe
Blessed air filled Peter's lungs. His head reeled with disorientation.
A naiad. Here, in the Witch's lake?
"Come," she said, her voice warbled by the water. "There's little time, Your Highness."
Peter started back anyway. Onyx still thrashed in the water.
"He will make it to the castle. Hurry." The naiad tugged him deeper.
For a few seconds, Peter worried that this naiad might still be loyal to the Witch's cause, but then he wondered why she wouldn't simply have let him drown. An instant more, and then he was kicking against the lake currents and letting the naiad pull him with her.
She drew him toward the castle with almost as much speed as he and Onyx had galloped toward it minutes before. Her long, reddish hair flowed along her back as she went. Fish darted out of the way, and the surface of the lake receded as they dove still deeper. She paused to blow more air into his lungs. The pressure of the water began to crush in on him. Seconds before it became too much, they arrived at a rocky wall. The naiad swam (if you could call it as mundane a thing as swimming) into an opening half-hidden by long strands of seaweed and pulled him after.
Up they went, past sunken statues that he only glimpsed. He shuddered, wanting to turn back to see if any of them were Cori or his siblings. The broken halves of the Witch's wand had never been found after the Battle of Beruna. Who knew if they could be fused together again?
His head burst through the water's surface and he sucked in as much air as he could hold, then choked on the last of the lake water in his throat. Shaking, he struck out for the bank, a gloomy underwater cavern shore. The bank sloped upward into darkness. Peter slicked back his hair and took several welcome breaths. Musty air was still air.
The naiad's head and shoulders broke the surface beside him. "Your brother and sisters are in the castle, sire. You will find them if you take that path." She pointed to the darkness beyond the bank.
"What about Corisande? The Telmarine woman?" Peter's heartbeat thudded, worse than it had when he'd been drowning. "Have you seen her?"
"I have not, sire."
His heart crashed into his boots. What if she were already dead? It was his job to protect her. His responsibility. And more than that--he needed to protect her. The thought of anything happening to her, to his Cori... She had become much more than a marriage contract and a way to protect his country. She was a sly attack with a rapier. She was a laugh into the wind while galloping along at full speed on horseback. She was that inviting blush when he kissed her hand.
He closed his eyes, fighting the shaking in his muscles. When he opened his eyes again, he managed to sound normal, though he was nowhere near calm. "Thank you..."
"Cyrenaea," said the naiad. "I cannot go any farther, Your Majesty. The water ends here, and there are many foes along that path. It is lucky that any naiads were able to return to this lake at all." Sorrow filled her eyes, even in the gloom of the cavern.
"Thank you again, Cyrenaea. Please, if you can, rally the Narnians. Tell them to find Oreius and come to the Witch's castle." He stared up the darkened bank. "I fear there's going to be a lot more trouble before this is over."
- # -
Cori spent the bulk of the afternoon sitting in that very same spot on the musty couch, ignoring her feverish pain as best she could. She squeezed her eyes shut, the only thing she could do to vent her fear and growing frustration. She couldn't test her ability to move, because Elian watched her every moment from his perch on the throne. Now and then he would tell her to stand and approach him, and he'd stare at her as if he were admiring a highly-coveted horse. Then, she had to command herself not to test her restraints and lurch backward.
He had her standing before the throne now, a plaything to be studied. A new toy. The possessiveness in his eyes made her sick as much as it scared her.
Soldiers came and went and murmured in Elian's ear. Then the Jinn appeared (still disguised as Edmund, but now Cori would have known him on sight by his arrogant posture). He transformed into the bluish creature that must have been his natural shape, then spoke to Elian in a hushed voice that even Cori's newly-sensitive ears couldn't hear.
Elian began to laugh. "You've earned your keep many times over, Jinn Saris. My last wish--"
The Jinn leaned forward with an expectant look.
"--is that you remain obedient to me for the rest of my life. And my first command under that wish, is that you are to protect me at all costs."
The Jinn's mouth dropped open. Had Cori been able, she might have gasped, herself. Elian had taken away the Jinn's freedom and bought himself a powerful bodyguard with a few simple words. Cori found no satisfaction in the Jinn's sudden enslavement.
The Jinn's voice reached her ears, calm but seething with an undercurrent of hatred. "As you wish, Sir Elian."
He floated from the room. As he passed Cori, his yellow eyes seemed to lose some of their lamplight glow, and now she thought she saw a touch of empathy.