Bonjour, my friends! We have reached chapter 20. The story is about to get a bit darker from I plan to rewrite the first few chapters because I don't really like the way I wrote it since it sounds really immature. So I request you guys to give me some time to make these changes as I'm really busy with my college applications and the SATS. But I'm not abandoning this story. And if you guys want it, I even have a sequel planned. Just let me know though if you want it or not!
As for the poem, the lives of Arrianna and Charlotte as explained in this chapter is based on nothing but pretty lies. But the lies hold more value than the truth for them.
Disclaimer : I won Narnia and the Middle Earth and all the centaurs, unicorns, yetis and sasquatches in the world. Not to mention the Lock Ness Monster.
CHAPTER 20 : A LOVELY LIE
I told a truth, a tragic truth
That tore the sullen sky;
A million shuddered at my sooth
And anarchist was I.
Red righteousness was in my word
To winnow evil chaff;
Yet while I swung crusading sword
I heard the devil laugh.I framed a lie, a rainbow lie
To glorify a thought;
And none was so surprised as I
When fast as fire it caught.
Like honey people lapped my lie
And peddled it abroad,
Till in a lift of sunny sky
I saw the smile of God.If falsehood may be best, I thought,
To hell with verity;
Dark truth may be a cancer spot
'Twere better not to see.
Aye, let a lie be big and bold
Yet ripe with hope and ruth,
Beshrew me! but its heart may hold
More virtue than the truth.
- ROBERT SERVICE
I eyed the ring on Charlotte's hand. It was a pink diamond set in rubies, gaudy and heavy. I was actually stunned. I duely admired it, remembering the engagement ring King Peter had given me (albeit it had come via a messenger. But we were nobles who couldn't afford the luxury of a romance). It had been a simple diamond ring with a platinum band.
"Who is it?" I asked.
" Lord Gravenshaw." She said.
"WHAT! LORD GRAVENSHAW? You mean Hector Gravenshaw? Are you mad? He is nearly thirty nine years old! And he has already been married once. Mark my words, starting as the second wife shall do you no favours in a strange household!" I said, shocked that she had accepted.
"He is a good man." Charlotte said, indifferently.
"Charlotte, darling, Charlie, listen to me please. There are many young men who would line up to marry you. Why are you marrying this man?" I asked, not comprehending her reasons.
"Because I am tired, Arrianna. After the High King refused my sister, our family has been spurned like curs. We are the laughing stock of the whole court. I cannot afford to marry below my station. And Lord Gravenshaw is still in love with his late wife. Marrying me is just a formality as he has a son already from his first wife. He is not going to expect me to run his household the way a wife should. I want to be free from all this, Arrianna.
I don't care to stitch or embroider. I want to fight for my country. And marrying Gravenshaw would ensure that I can carry on my life with the least inteference. And I shall try to love him, I really will." Said Charlotte, almost sobbing by the end.
I hugged her. I had nothing to tell her, nothing to say that would console her. She was right. All that we could hope for was a husband who wouldn't be too stifling. Even in Narnia, freedom to us was a strange concept. We were nobles in Narnia, but our roots were in Archenland. And we followed the Archenlandian concept of politics. In Narnia, the Kings and Queens were the Law, Love was the norm and freedom was a right. In Archenland, the King had to answer to the Council, freedom meant priding ourselves on our honest labour yet adhering to strict social rules of etiquette, and love was a ploy in politics.
We appreciated but could not follow the openness of the Narnians. Perhaps that is why the Great Winter had come upon them and not us. Because we did not have enough freedom to be snatched away, anyway.
But who could stop silly,young girls from dreaming? Some dreamt of finding love. Some, like Charlotte, only dreamt of freedom. Some dreamt of heroic deeds and the chance to prove oneself.
It hit me like a ton of bricks then. What had I dreamt of? I remembered the faint stirrings of hope, wherein I had wanted to be a healer but a sharp word from my father and a good spank from my mother had put an end to it. I felt ashamed. Here was Charlotte, compromising everything for her dream and I, on the other hand had givn up my dreams so easily. Were my dreams worth that little?
"I'll not judge you Charlotte. I do not know if you are right or wrong in using Lord Gravenshaw. But by the Lion, I'd be the wrong person to judge you." I said, hugging her.
And we fell asleep, crying for no reason or perhaps for all the reasons out there in the world. The cool night breeze dried our tears.
Peter Pevensie crept out from behind the curtain he was hiding. He would admit it. it had been shameful to spy on the girls, but he had to be sure that they had no hidden agenda. It was too much of a coincidence to believe that both Arrianna and Charlotte had come at more or less the same time without some kind of plot. But hearing the girls made him feel both guilty and slightly sick.
He had never considered the repurcussions his actions had had on Camilla's family. He wished he could go back and set things right. At the same time, he felt sorry for Charlotte, whome he honestly could not picture in a domestic setting, having to marry someone as saving grace.
To his astonishment, he saw his Susan creeping out from the shadows and Edmund hauling hiumself out of his crouch beside the door.
He raised his eyebrow.
He was rewarded by a sardonic grin from Edmund who then disappeared into the room they shared.
He looked questioningly at Susan.
" I don't believe it, you know! I just –" Susan started to whisper furiously.
Peter grinned.
"Oh, just be quiet!" said Susa, stalking off.
As he turned off the nightlights, Peter realised he admired Charlotte. She wasn't weak like Emilile (the girl who was currently interested in him), shallow like so many women he knew or politic like Arrianna. And while Peter had no doubt that Edmund enjoyed the crafty ways and delicate diplomacy of the good lady, he himself had enough of the double meanings with the foreign envoys. He enoyed honesty and frankness. And Charlotte was brutally so.
He then came upon an even more astonishing realisation. He realised that he wouldn't mind spending time with Charlotte, a few hours, a few years…..
Peter shook himself back to reality. He knew she hated him, but never before had a woman nott succumbe to his charms. He would woo her eventually.
With this interesting proposition he fell asleep.
Aslan sighed. This wasn't supposed to happen. Arrianna had been sent by His design but He had not presumed that the Ring would bring Charlotte to Narnia. He would have to watch over the Pevensies as they struggled to move on with their lives.
He knew it was cruel. The children did not belong to earth. They might have been born there but their hearts lay in Narnia. They had the First Narnian Song in their veins and the Narnian Pull in their blood. How could they not? Even though they didn't know it, Helen and John Pevensie both were descendants of Morgan Le Fay of Avalon. Her magic had diluted throughout the centuries, but she was powerful enough to travel between two worlds. And the Pevensies, poor Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy were stuck between two worlds.
He hoped He could give them strength. He hoped they would come to love Earth and spread some of the nobility and magnificence of the Golden Age on Earth. For the Earth was His world too and He loved it equally. The people were His, even if they denounced him or forgot Him. And He was there to listen to every prayer and cry of distress.
Aslan felt the change when it happened. He felt Tash stir from his century long sleep. He felt Tash go through the events that had occurred in his absence. And He felt Tash leave for The Other World. And he feared for His Children.
Review please! I would love suggestions to improve the story!