Full chapter title: It Cannot Be Any More Beautiful (5)
The family then left the inn and headed for the Tashbaan docks, where the Splendor Hyaline was waiting to head home.
"God Almighty, please let us make it."
Kayla was lagging behind on purpose. She knew Rabadash would send men after them. After the others had made it on the boat, Kayla was still on the shore. Soldiers came riding up to take everyone back to the palace, but it was too late for the majority of the family.
"Erdudvyl, get on the ship. I don't want you caught up in this."
"But, my lady-."
"Go, Erdudvyl!"
Erdudvyl walked solemnly onto the ship. Ivar grabbed his axe ready to slaughter the soldiers if necessary.
"By order of Crown Prince Rabadash of the Calormene Empire, you are to come with us back to the palace."
"Ivar, run. Get on the ship now, and tell the captain to cast off. The rest of you need to get home. Don't worry about me."
"I am not leaving you behind, Kayla."
"Ivar, get to running! Go! I told you I'm the one that needs to stay behind! Go!"
Just as Ivar turned to get on board the ship, Kayla grabbed his arm and pulled him down to her face for a kiss. The rest of the family watched in shock, but none of them were really surprised.
"I told you it would happen."
"Shut up, Edmund."
The two of them pulled away from their kiss and Ivar made his way on board. Just as the ship was about to shove off, Rabadash came riding up.
"Halt! No one is leaving!"
"They hell they ain't!"
Kayla lunged at Rabadash atop his horse for a distraction so the family could get away.
"Shove off, captain! Shove off! Get the family out of here! Go!"
The captain of the Splendor Hyaline obeyed, and the ship was under way. Ivar watched Kayla in a fit of rage and horror as the Calormene soldiers and Rabadash beat her. She was right. Someone had to stay behind.
Ivar was almost tempted to jump into the water and swim back to the docks, but Peridan and Edmund held him back from the ship's railing.
"Ivar, you know she wouldn't want you to do this!"
"She can get out of that when she wants!"
"I am not letting her go through that alone!"
"She's doing it for us!"
Edmund and Peridan dragged Ivar into one of the rooms below deck and locked him in there, just until he calmed down.
Back in Tashbaan, Rashbaan himself did the honours of throwing Kayla into a cell.
"You must think your brave, giving yourself up so the others could get away."
"Only compared to some. Believe it or not, my brother doesn't want me dead. Yet. Because if someone somehow puts an end to his immortality spell, I am his heir. So if you kill me, you will have every known army in this world after you. Even the armies of the dark lord Sauron. I can handle anything you throw at me."
Rabadash gave her one of the looks that normally terrified people, but she was not phased at all.
"Rabadash, if I wanted to see a look like that, I'd just assume to tell stories to children and see it that way."
"You're not scared of anything?"
"I'm scared of one thing, and one thing only. And no one knows what it is."
He leaves her in her cell, sending food down to her. He wanted her strength up before she could be tortured.
The Splendor Hyaline made it safe to the docks of Archenland to bring Corin home, then it made haste to Cair Paravel.
"She'll come back, Ivar. You know she will. It's not her time yet."
Ivar hoped and prayed that she would be alive when and if he saw her again.
Once the ship arrived in Cair Paravel, Ivar ran off the ship all the way into his bedchambers and slammed the door. Peter and Lucy were the only ones who dared knock on his door.
"Ivar, it's Peter and Lucy. We're coming in."
Peter opens the door to find Ivar laying face down on his bed, bawling his eyes out. Lucy gets on his bed and pulls him into her lap, caressing his head to calm him down.
"She's gone! She's gone! Rabadash took her from us! Rabadash took her from me! And I can't get her back!"
"Who, Ivar? Who did Rabadash take from us?"
"Who do you think, Peter?"
Peter looked to the doorway to see Edmund, Susan, and Peridan standing there. He closed his eyes in horror at the realization that his sister in bond, his aunt and his cousin by blood, had been taken prisoner by Rabadash.
"She gave herself up willingly so that we could escape. She somehow knew Rabadash would come after us. We had to leave. He was just too cruel. She knew Rabadash would want to keep at least one of us prisoner, so she said better herself than someone we would risk war over."
Everyone looked to Lucy, knowing that Kayla chose her as her Terebinthian heir.
"Lucy, you know what happens if Kayla doesn't make it, don't you?"
She could only nod her head, not knowing what to say. Lucy had willingly accepted Kayla naming her as her heir, but she feared for what might come if Kayla did die.
Back in Tashbaan, Rabadash had begun the torture of Kayla. And to his surprise, she was not giving in. He did not have a reason to torture, he just wanted to.
"Why did they leave?!"
"Why did who leave?!"
"Don't play a prat with me, princess!"
"That's Queen Caoilfhionn to you, Rabadash! I am of higher rank!"
He motioned for his guard to continue to whip her until her back bled like a waterfall, but then she looked Rabadash dead in the eye, and the fires in the torches surrounding them in the dungeon rose to the height of the ceiling, and the torture stopped. The whip marks on her back disappeared, and her blood flowed up back into her body. Rabadash was convinced she was a witch.
"Everyone will stay clear of her cell, except for myself! No one touches her! I will bring her food! Am I understood?!"
"Yes, my prince!"
"She is cursed, no doubt! But I still need her alive to get what I want!"
"And just what is that you want, Rabadash?"
In the corner of the dungeon, a black shadow in the form of a woman with white eyes stared up at him, but he recognized the voice as Kayla's. She had turned into a form she was never to turn into unless it was necessary. She had proved she was a direct descendant of the dark lords.