Chapter Thirty-Five: Two Narrow Escapes

Only a few hours after sunrise found Susan and Lucy riding at full gallop through the woods that bordered Narnia and the Western Wilds. As they moved in and out of the early light being filtered through the trees, Susan was able to pick out the old trade route to Dale. Occasionally, they could hear the strained notes of a bird's song, but they mainly heard only the pounding of their horse's hooves over the leaf litter.

"I think he fancies you."

Susan snapped her head back, trying to get a look at her sister. "What?"

Lucy piped up a bit louder. "Caspian, I think he likes you."

Susan had not wanted to even look at the Telmarine Prince that morning as he helped them to saddle up Destrier. He had mumbled words of encouragement. Susan knew from her conversation with him the night before he was regretting his decision to let the two of them go. At the same time, Susan knew Caspian had to learn the whereabouts of his professor, the person closest to him; and she had told him if the fate of one of her siblings was unknown to her, she would risk a great many things to get to her brother or sister. Nevertheless, even with this understanding between them, his eyes looked haunted whenever he stared at her, and Susan had diverted her gaze every time.

"Oh shut up!" she shouted back to Lucy. She knew it was harsh, but she did not want to talk about the handsome prince. She had developed a sickness while in the Shire every time a male Hobbit fell enchanted with her beauty. She loathed the idea of another smiling face, doting on her until he would move onto someone else. Though Caspian was no exception to this, she was aware that her feelings were slightly different this time. She liked him, and that was something she could not condone. After being deprived of Human males for nearly sixty years, she was not about to fall for the very first Man she met.

"Susan!"

The woman ignored her sister's cry, believing it to be only a retort. Nonetheless, a new sense washed over her; the way Lucy had said her name had instinctively instilled something that made her tighten her hold on the reins. Next second, Lucy had continued.

"They've seen us!"

Susan glanced back at the advancing Telmarine horsemen while she kicked Destrier into a run. Refocusing her attention to the front, she hollered to Lucy. "How many are they?"

Lucy held tightly to her sister's shoulders as she looked back to count. "Six…seven, maybe?"

Susan bit her lip. How long would they be able to stay ahead of the Telmarines? If they were overtaken, they would be overpowered before either of them could draw a weapon to defend herself with.

Lucy nearly cried in dismay when she felt the horse beneath her slacken his pace. Then, Susan had brought the animal to a stop and was dismounting. "What are you doing?" Lucy demanded.

"Sorry, Lu, but it looks like you'll be making the journey alone after all." Susan handed Lucy the horse's reins.

"I'm not going to leave you."

"Lucy, you must do this for me. You have to get to Rivendell. If you don't make it, then there was no reason for us to have lived these sixty years."

Lucy knew the future of Middle-Earth rested in her pocket, and that she and her siblings were bound to its Prophecy. She stood to save everyone dear to her in Narnia and the Shire at the cost of her only sister. Although filled with doubt about leaving Susan to face the enemy alone, Lucy took the reins and kicked the horse's sides. She had not ridden far, however, before glancing back. The dark-haired woman planted herself firmly on the forest floor, like the sturdy trees that surrounded her, and brought the bow with nocked arrow up to position: she was ready. And with that final image locked away in her memory, Lucy rode off, praying Aslan would protect them.

{Section Break}

The clinking and clanging of hammers on hot irons reverberated off the stone walls of the inside of Aslan's How. Narnian Dwarves, Satyrs, Centaurs and Fauns were everywhere at once, working on a variety of weapons, all in different stages of completion.

"This is no Erebor – no great forges, storerooms – but it is defensible," Kili concluded as he and Tauriel walked around, surveying the work of the busy Narnians.

The Elf nodded before taking note of Peter and Edmund coming toward them. "I hope you are pleased with the progress, Your Majesties."

Before either King could make a reply, Sigrid had called from the top of a flight of stone steps on the other side of the room. "Peter, you may want to see this."

Bringing a couple torches with them, Peter, Edmund, Tauriel and Kili followed Sigrid into the semi-dark hall that extended beyond the top of the stairs. Sigrid pointed to the markings on the hall's walls, and Peter brought his torch close to be able to make them out better. The first drawing depicted two little girls on the back on a lion, their blue dresses flown back to suggest they were moving at a fast speed. "It's Tilda and Lucy," Sigrid said. "And look here." Next were four people, two boys and two girls, each standing beside a throne. "Your coronation."

"What is this place?" asked Edmund as he examined a cave painting of a Faun standing alongside a lamppost.

"You don't know?" Tauriel gazed at each Human's blank face, then, with her own torch lifted aloft, led the way down the hall where it was blackest. "Watch you step," she cautioned as they began down another set of carved steps.

At last they came to a room devoid of all light except for the flames on the ends of their torches, but even that shed little light on what else was in the chamber. Tauriel walked over to what looked like a table in the dim light, but what was really a deep channel filled with flammable liquid that ran around the perimeter of the room. She brought her torch to kiss the surface of the liquid, and within seconds the antechamber had been illuminated to reveal the Stone Table in the center and a mural depicting the Great Lion himself on the opposite wall.

"This isn't a fortress, it's a tomb," muttered Edmund.

Peter stared at the carving of Aslan while his wife stepped forward to rest her hand on the cracked Table. "He must know what he's doing," she said, looking back at him.

It would be nice to believe that they were not alone, but Aslan had not been seen in Narnia since shortly after their departure. If Aslan had not meant for the Telmarines to take over, he would have stopped them. Therefore, something must have stopped him.

"I think it's up to us now."

"The son of Ilúvatar has not abandoned us," spoke up Tauriel.

"Then he had best come to us." Peter turned his attention to Kili. "Can you locate Glenstorm and Caspian? We need to finalize our plans for the raid."

"Has anyone seen Caspian?" asked Edmund.

"Last I saw of him was just before the three of us entered the How, when we walked underneath the swords the Centaurs held up," Sigrid remarked.

"Surely he followed us in," Edmund speculated. "Wasn't he right behind us?"

Kili spoke up, "He went to look at the Horses."

"But that was hours ago," added Tauriel.

Peter released a deep, frustrated sigh. "We should never have trusted a Telmarine."

{Section Break}

Just breathe, Susan ordered herself, focusing on the Telmarine soldiers as they came into range. She pulled the bowstring taut, and released. The closest rider dropped from his saddle, and each subsequent rider received the same fate until she came to the final one. Unmanned horses bucked about, uncertain what to do without someone to command them. Susan ducked, just barely missing the flailing hooves of one rider-less mount. It was all the distraction the last Telmarine needed to catch her off guard. He rode right up to her, making it so she was unable to shoot from so close a distance. Startled to having him come so close, Susan stumbled backward, falling to the ground. She struggled to a sitting position, backing away as she did so, trying to get out of the way of the Telmarine's sword as he rode at her again.

All at once, there was a shout from behind, and when the Telmarine wheeled back to look, he received the cold steel of a sword through his chest.

Susan stared up at her rescuer – Caspian on horseback. She could not help the smile that crept onto her face. Wasn't this how it went in every fairytale: the damsel in distress gets saved by a knight in shining armor? Quickly, Susan tried to still the butterflies that had escaped her stomach and were flying around her heart. She was not going to fall in love with this man she barely knew.

Getting to her feet, she frowned into Caspian's relieved face. "You couldn't have come ten minutes sooner?"

{Section Break}

Lucy rode for the remainder of the day, only taking few necessary breaks as she cut her way along the nearly forgotten road to Dale. When darkness fell that evening, she slowed her mount's gait to a walk, doing whatever she could to continue on. It was only during the darkest part of the night that she came to a complete stop and waited for enough light to reenter the world so that she might see the old trail. As she sat nestled in the grasp of a tree's upended roots that night, she thought of her siblings, wondering if their raid on Cair Paravel had been successful. It seemed strange and horrid to envision a battle within the confines of their castle – a place that Miraz had more right than they to call home. She looked up at the sky but could not be sure if she looked at it or just the underside of branches, and she hoped with all her might that her siblings had survived this night.

On Destrier once again, Lucy pressed on, watching morning come alive around her, listening to the birds sing sweet melodies to the rising sun that blissfully painted the world with light. She had been up for hours by the time her stomach began to growl for breakfast, and she was silently wishing to be back at Bag End at that moment to be sitting down to second or third breakfast, (possibly fifth, knowing Bilbo), when she noticed the birdsong had ceased. She was riding through a patch of pine, having left the husky rowan, elm and fir behind. Light filtered strangely through the evergreen boughs, and Lucy suddenly found herself growing uneasy.

Scanning around, she spied movement through the pine boughs – riders on black horses trying to outflank her. Urging her horse into a fresh burst of speed, Lucy sped like a dart out of the grove, being whacked across the face by a branch as she went. She stared back as the riders came full into view, their heads swathed with heavy black hoods. These were no Telmarines.

Lucy could feel her heart pounding throughout her entire body, and her breath came quick as she negotiated her way, tugging sharply on the reins to steer her mount away from the screeching Nazgul as they advanced, reaching out their armored hands for her reins. Lucy pressed on, barely alluding them, riding furiously out over a plain and down the rocky embankment of a stream. As Caspian's horse was unafraid of water, he ploughed through the current. An extremely loud and painful shriek came from the other side of the stream where the four Nazgul grouped together. Lucy turned in the saddle to look at them, their mounts acting skittish at the water's edge.

All at once, they began to advance together, their naked swords held above their heads, glinting darkly in the morning light. Lucy drew forth her dagger, though she knew it would probably do her little good. She doubted if she could outrun the Black Riders, and she could tell that Destrier was already spent.

She looked to the water that a moment ago had seemed a threat to the Nazgul. Thinking back to the stories of the Valor that Gandalf and Bilbo had told her, Lucy raised her voice. "In the Name of Aslan and his father, Eru, I summon Ulmo!"

The Nazgul shrieked again, and their dark hoods wiped about in every direction as their heads moved to observe the sudden rising of the stream. All of a sudden, high white waves rolled in from around the bend, and up they reared as they came closer, forming themselves into the likeness of a Man, arms outstretched to shove down the Black Riders. Ulmo, one of the Great Valor, and Lord of Waters, cascaded down over the Nazgul as they tried to bolt back to the opposite bank. Lucy, her horse standing safely to the shallows, watched in awe as the River God swept the Riders away into crashing waves. Then, the waters were still again.

Lucy rode out of the river, and looked upstream to where a large lake spanned the area. A tall mountain stood proudly at its head to the north, and Lucy recalled a tune she had once listened to Bilbo sing on particularly cold nights in the Shire.

"Far over the Misty Mountains cold,

To dungeons deep and caverns old.

We must away, ere break of day

To seek the pale enchanted gold.

The Dwarves of yore made mighty spells,

White hammers fell like ringing bells

In places deep, where dark things sleep,

In hollow halls beneath the fells.

For ancient king and Elvish lord,

There many a gleaming golden hoard.

They shaped and wrought, and light they caught

To hide in gems on hilt of sword.

On silver necklaces they strung

The flowering stars, on crowns they hung

The Dragon-fire, in twisted wire

They meshed the light of moon and sun.

Far over the Misty Mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away, ere break of day

To claim our long-forgotten gold.

Goblets they carved there for themselves

And harps of gold; where no Man delves.

There lay they long, and many a song

Was sung unheard by Men or Elves.

The pines were roaring on the height,

The winds were moaning in the night.

The fire was red, it flaming spread;

The trees like torches blazed with light.

The bells were ringing in the dale

And Men they looked up with faces pale;

The Dragon's ire more fierce than fire

Laid low their towers and houses frail.

The Mountain smoked beneath the moon;

The Dwarves they heard the tramp of doom.

They fled their hall to dying fall

Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.

Far over the Misty Mountains grim

To dungeons deep and caverns dim.

We must away, ere break of day

To win our harps and gold for him!"

Lucy had not been riding for a great length of time along the shores of Long-Lake when she noticed a rider coming toward her. At first, she was nervous, but took comfort in the fact was the horse was white and adorned with tiny bells ringing merrily, which was not at all the trappings of a Nazgul's black stallion. The rider's cloak streamed behind him, and his hood was thrown back; his golden hair flowed shimmering in the wind of his speed. To Lucy, it appeared that a white light was shining through the form and raiment of the rider, as if through a thin veil. And the second he spoke to her with a clear ringing voice, all doubt fled her: the rider was of the Elven-folk.

"By the grace of Ilúvatar, may you find peace, my young traveler."

Lucy smiled as the Elf came closer.

"Am I correct in assuming you are the Valiant One who summoned Ulmo just moments ago upon the Celduin?" he went on. "For surely that is whom I seek."

"And what makes you so sure that it is I?" Lucy returned, intrigued, though she knew she should still remain guarded.

"I am Glorfindel of Rivendell. I have been instructed by my lord Elrond and the Wizard Gandalf to locate the Kings and Queens of Narnia and bring them to Rivendell. And when I reached the ford, Lord Ulmo spoke of Queen Lucy who had just passed by this way."

Lucy carefully circled her horse, making sure there was room for her to bolt, just in case. "How is that your lord knew to send you this way?"

"The Wizard came to us not a fortnight ago, saying you were lost to power unknown – either by Aslan or Sauron. That is when the Trees reported that the Kings and Queens of Old had arrived in Narnia."

"And the Narnians can use all the help they get there," Lucy put in. "Would his lordship be willing to spare a few Elves?"

"It is not that simple, my Queen." Glorfindel looked over his shoulder, then lowered his voice when he addressed the girl once more. "Narnia is not the only country in trouble; you and your siblings are needed elsewhere."

Destrier pranced uneasily at the Elf's tone; there was something quite discomforting about it.

"You are not safe here. Come. We ride to the Elvenkingdom in the Greenwood. I've just come from there this morning, informing His Majesty of the meeting at Elrond's. The Prince rides at dawn; you shall accompany him, and I shall carry on to Narnia to find your Royal brothers and sister."

Turning his mount about, Glorfindel began to ride toward the forest that bordered the west side of Long-Lake. Lucy, despite a feeling of trust toward the Elf, questioned following him, knowing that Susan would have been cautious. He was right, she was not safe, but she was not so sure she would be safe in Mirkwood with him either. Just then she saw something golden running among the trees, and that was all Lucy needed to press on.

Aslan was with her.

A.N.: In the audio commentary on PC, I think I remember hearing Andrew Adamson say that following the scene where Caspian saves Susan, he wanted to go back and reshoot the scene to have Susan say, "You couldn't have come ten minutes sooner." Susan did take out all those soldiers – Caspian killed one.

Celduin – River Running (the river below Long-Lake)

In the book, The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn and the Hobbits are met by Glorfindel on their way to Rivendell, instead of Arwen like in the movie. So, I decided to add him in, in a similar way that Tolkien wrote him. Any thoughts?