Lucy's first surprise was that the water was not all that cold, or at least, it was warmer than the waters of Castle Lake had been. Her second surprise was that she was not swept away right off the bat; instead, she sank down, down for a few moments before slowly heading off towards the gate and picking up speed. She flailed her arms out urgently, trying to hurry the current up, but it took its time, and only after a few seconds did she really pick up speed. She opened her eyes in the blue, and they stung slightly, but now she could tell as she began to speed towards the wall that she was several feet down from the surface and several feet up from the bottom, borne swiftly alongside another larger shape who she guessed might be Edmund.
The third surprise was the nastiest. By now, the current was carrying them quite swiftly, roughly urging them towards the wall, and Lucy had closed her eyes again when with a horrible slam, she found herself shoved up against the iron bars of the grille. Whatever air was left in her lungs was forced out of them immediately, and she choked in the murky blue, trapped for a moment as the current hammered her into the grille. Finally, after what seemed an age of struggling in the dark, she managed to lurch out between two of the bars and twist her shoulders, and the water thrust her through. But it was growing too late for her, and her mind was reeling with want of air, her head pounding and her movements growing weaker and weaker. She knew she ought to struggle up to the surface somehow, now that she was within the city limits, but she couldn't. She didn't have the strength.
Just as Lucy found her sight dimming, the light from above fading in her eyes, someone's arms plunged down from above and wrapped about her, a body sinking swiftly down beside her. She wondered hazily why this person was taking them further down, when suddenly she felt a sudden movement from below and knew that her rescuer had used the river bottom to kick off of. The light from above grew closer, but for Lucy it was still diminishing, and by the time she broke the surface, she was nearly out. She had held out, taken no breath of water, but none of air either, and it wasn't until a hand pushed firmly on her stomach that she finally choked and dared to do so.
The first rush of air was like sugar in her lungs, and she gasped out as she felt herself dragged further up on the bank. When she finally managed to open her eyes, she saw someone staring concernedly at her, but the face was hazy and she could not figure out which of her brothers it was. However, when she rubbed the water from her eyes, still struggling for a decent breath, she found that it was neither of them, but a rather portly man with a bald head and a short beard. He had a rather jovial look about him, but the round glasses perched on his nose gave him some air of knowledge.
"Hello, young miss," he said, adjusting the glasses, which somehow were not wet.
"Hello…" Lucy began distractedly, struggling to sit up looking around desperately for her brothers. To her relief, she could see them across the river, checking one another over and looking her way concernedly – apparently they had washed up there.
"They are quite all right, my dear," said the man comfortingly. "Though I'm quite curious to know how you three came to be outside the Wall, and why you chose to enter through the filtration gate."
"It's ah…a very long story," said Lucy, coughing a little and wringing some water out of her sopping hair. Despite the dip, she felt none the cleaner, just very wet, but the man seemed perfectly dry. "Could you possibly tell me what day the king's wedding is to be?"
"Well, that'd be Wednesday, of course," said the man, helping Lucy to her feet. The river was too wide and deep to wade, and as there was no bridge, she and her brothers were separated at least for the moment.
"And what day is today?" asked Lucy politely, signaling to them that she was safe. They backed off slightly, watching her speak to the man. He gave her a strange look, but shrugged and told her,
"Monday, my dear. Monday afternoon."
"How are you not wet?" Lucy asked perplexedly, now that the important questions were out of the way. The man looked back and forth a little nervously.
"Just a little charm, dearie, please don't tell," he said anxiously, wringing his hands. "I know there are the laws but I do so hate to be wet…"
"Thank you for rescuing me," Lucy said at last, nodding in gratitude. "Don't worry, I won't tell. I think it's silly that your magic is restricted, anyhow. Is that how you do the filtration?" She gestured to the river.
"Yes, yes, but of course that's approved. Just that and the Wrens. And the king's wedding. Dear Lord." The man looked exasperated with the topic and threw up his hands a little. A rather awkward moment of silence passed, with Lucy dripping onto the river and her brothers gesturing for her to hurry things up.
"Well I hate to be a bother," said Lucy finally, smiling to the man and beginning to move off away from the wall. "But my brothers are waiting and we have an awful lot to do in the next few days. Thank you for your kindness, sir, I won't forget it."
He touched the top of his head, which seemed to be some kind of acknowledgement, and Lucy waved back before hurrying away. The river dropped down underground after a little while, and it was here that Lucy finally reunited with her brothers.
"Thank Aslan that chap was there, Lu, we thought…"
"Peter was about to dive back in after you but he…"
" Never mind that, what did you find out from him?" Peter said suddenly, silencing Edmund with a small gesture.
"It's Monday, wedding's Wednesday, and apparently the king is using a lot of magic for his wedding," Lucy shrugged.
"But Susan is here," Edmund suddenly said, his eyes lit up. " Susan is right here in this city and we can find her. We can get her out of here!"
This thought was quite exciting to Lucy as well, and after a brief conversation, the three set out into the city, drawing all manner of strange looks for their state of mess as well as for dripping water and mud all through the streets (Lucy felt very bad about this, but her brothers pointed out that the horses were doing the same thing). Before anything else was done, all three were in desperate need of a wash and a good rest. It had taken a miracle to get them there and it would take a miracle to get them clean.