Sorry this has been a while coming. Christmas was busy and I was trying to finish my other fanfiction and have started writing my own original storey. Also juggling three kids at home over Christmas. I'm back on the case now, so hope you enjoy..

As always. I own nothing of Narnia, not even a mouse

Susan paced the deck of the ship under the ever watchful gaze of her omnipresent guards. She was worried. Scrap that she was more than worried, she was terrified.

Why had she not been rescued?

How had it come to this?

She was onboard the Prince's ship on-route to Tashbaan and, since Caspian had visited the Ambassador's residence and been thrown out forcefully, since she had learnt that he had been dealing in slavery, she had seen no sign of any Narnians.

Were they not going to rescue her?

Susan shook herself. Even if she doubted Caspian she knew better than to doubt her siblings. Peter, Edmund and Lucy would move Heaven and Earth, not to mention Narnia to get her back.

But in the meantime, she would be sure that she was ready! She would not sit passively by and wait to be rescued.

With a backwards glance at her guards, Susan made her way towards her cabin. She needed to think and could not do so under their constant surveillance. Her cabin was the only place where they left her on her own.

As she entered the small room however Susan thought that she saw a quick movement under her bed. Thought that she saw a form that she recognised, a flash of black with scarlet trailing behind.

"I saw you" Susan called. "You can come out!"

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Trumpkin had been left in charge of the Dawn Treader and the crew … and one other, one other who was proving to be more bother than the entire crew combined.

"Crabs and crumpets Son of Adam, will you sit down while I'm trying to concentrate!"

"I will sit down when you promise that you will persuade Caspian to bring me to the British Consulate like I have demanded."

"How many times Eustace?" Trumpkin replied with what, for him was incredible patience. "There is no British Consulate here, it is in Spare Oom and we cannot get you there without magic, which we have no access to."

"You are in Narnia!" Tavros the Minotaur added helpfully from where he stood by the door waiting for any messages that Trumpkin might have for the Kings.

"Will you kindly tell that … creature" Eustace replied icily to Trumpkin. "That he is a figment of my imagination, brought on by extreme sea sickness and dehydration and I will therefore not be speaking to him!"

"Horns and Halibuts I will tell him no such thing!" Trumpkin answered his brows and beard bristling in annoyance.

"Now either sit down or get out. I am trying to work out how best to use our men to rescue your cousin the Queen Susan!"

Eustace snorted.

"Queen? Ha!"

Trumpkin's short fuse had burnt out.

"Out!" he roared, and Eustace quickly left the cabin.

As Eustace slammed the door behind him he heard Tavros mutter.

"I'm not a figment … wait … what's a figment?"

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Peter, Edmund, Caspian and Lucy were on the largest of the slaver's ships which was now docked beside the Dawn Treader and under the command of Captain Drinian.

"We should be easily able to overwhelm the Calormene Prince's one hundred men with the combination of the crew of the Dawn Treader and the former slaves that have agreed to come with us." Edmund was saying. "But we will need some pretext to get on board their ship . If we approach them aggressively they will merely blow us out of the water."

Edmund's eyes drifted towards his little sister.

"Lucy?"

Lucy grinned wickedly at her brother, she knew exactly what he was planning.

"No!"

It was Peter.

Edmund sighed, he had expected this. Peter was fiercely protective of his youngest sister and sometimes forgot that she had grown to an adult when she was in Narnia before. An adult fully capable of making her own decisions.

"Pete" Edmund cajoled. "She will be in no real danger, Lord Bern will be right there with her. She's the only one who can get close enough to Susan and the Prince without raising suspicion."
"No!"

Edmund tried, mostly unsuccessfully to avoid scowling at his brother. By Aslan he was stubborn.

"Peter, the Prince will not be able to resist bringing two Narnian Queens back to his father. We just need to get Lucy on board …"
"No!"

A quite but firm voice interjected, just as things between the two brothers were about to get heated.

"This is all very interesting" Lucy remarked. "But what you are both forgetting is that is it me who will be doing this and so I will make the decision. And I will be going!" a hint of the steel that always lay under the surface with Lucy was evident as she finished.

Peter's eyes flashed.

"Lucy as High King I …'

But Lucy was having none of it.

"As High King you have no say Peter" she told him as gently as she could. "Aslan made you High King, not to order us, not to overrule us, but to lead us to rule and help all Narnians, and that is what I want to do … that is what I will do.

If, as Queen, I cannot even save my own sister, what use is it to be Queen?"

Peter after struggling with himself for some moments, at last smiled defeatedly at his sister and turned to Edmund.

"Queen Lucy the Valiant indeed … fine Ed, Lu, we do it your way."

Edmund smiled.

"Good! Now as I said Lucy, you will not be alone, have you noticed that someone is missing?"

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"I saw you" Susan repeated. "Please come out."
There was a short pause before a rather dusty form emerged from under the bed. He looked rather bedraggled, but the bow he performed before her was fit for an Emperor.

"My Queen, I am at your Service."

Susan threw herself to her knees before him and had to resist gathering him up in her arms and hugging him as his pride would have been mortally offended.

"Reepicheep!"

And so it was, but not Reepicheep as Susan knew him. Reepicheep, despite what Eustace might insinuate, was scrupulously clean and careful of his appearance. But the Reepicheep before her was matted and dirty looking and … there was a distinct odour of him.

Unable to help herself, Susan wrinkled her nose and was chagrined when Reepicheep noticed.

"My Queen" he said in a mortified tone. "I must beg Your Majesty's pardon for appearing before you in such a sorry state!"

"No, no Reepicheep." Susan protested. "It is I who should apologise. I am delighted to see you however you look. I should not have made you self- conscious about it. But Reepicheep … what on earth happened to you?"

Reepicheep looked if anything, even more embarrassed.

"Well Your Majesty, I sneaked on board the ship, before the Calormenes boarded and I needed somewhere to hide … I found what seemed like a convenient box and I was waiting for the coast to clear. But then the lid of the box was opened and I feared that I had been discovered …"
Reepicheep paused and Susan nodded for him to go on.

"Itwasafishbox, theythrewfishinontopofme."

Reepicheep said all this in such a rush that it took Susan some moments before she could decipher the meaning of the words. When she did, she had far too much respect for the noble mouse to laugh. Instead she regarded Reepicheep solemnly.

"Sir Mouse" she said. "I appreciate the lengths you have gone to, in order to reach me, and regret any and all indignities that you have had to suffer in doing so."

Reepicheep straightened, his pride and dignity soothed, but then a thought seemed to occur to him.

"Perhaps, Your Majesty, this could stay just between ourselves?" he asked hopefully.

"Of Course Sir Mouse" Susan agreed solemnly.

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"Ship ahoy!"

The call came from the crow's nest atop the mast of the Calormene Ship. The Captain looked nervously to the horizon.

"Can you tell what ship it is?" he called to the look out.

"Looks like a slaver Captain!" the man called back. "At the speed she is going, she will soon overtake us."

The Captain nodded and made his way to Prince Rasheen's cabin to inform him of the news and ask what course of action he wished to take.

"I care not!" Was the Prince's impatient reply and the captain bowed and made to exit the cabin.

"Wait!"

The captain turned back expectantly.

"It could be that one of the slavers hopes to sell us more slaves, as that fool Caspian closed the slave market down prematurely. We were not able to buy as many slaves as we had intended because of him. It could be that one of the slaver captains hopes to make a quick profit … Captain, turn about to meet the slaver.

But captain …"
The captain looked at his Prince expectantly.

"Ready the canons. If they prove false, we shall be ready!"

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Lord Bern stood respectfully to one side as Prince Rasheen examined the slaves that he had brought on board the Calormene ship.

The Prince's eyes flicked suspiciously towards Lord Bern.

"You say that you are doing this without King Caspian's knowledge?"

"Yes, Your Highness" Lord Bern confirmed. "I thought to make up the profits lost by the premature closing of the market."
"But …" The Prince returned, his tone suspicious. "It is said that you have always been the King's man. He and his father before him."
Lord Bern hesitated.

"I was" he admitted. "But Caspian is young and has allowed himself to be influenced by the returned Monarchs from the Golden age and he has fallen in love with the Queen that you hold! I on the other hand, have enough sense and maturity to realise that it is money, not love that rules the world."

The Prince considered this and then his lips turned up in a pleased smile.

"Well, I am keeping his Queen so he may cure himself of that!"

He looked again at the slaves before him.

"I will take all twenty of these male slaves and the twenty female" he said. "They will make up the numbers I lack. But where are their shackles?"

Bern shrugged uncomfortably.

"I am afraid the Kings removed the shackles from all of the slaves. It was as much as I could do to run these down and return them to the ship after they were released. The shackles were all taken."

Prince Rasheen's eyes narrowed suspiciously. But Lord Bern interjected.

"There is one more matter Your Highness."

"Indeed?" Rasheen asked coolly.

Lord Bern pulled Lucy forward roughly. Prince Rasheen looked between her and Lord Bern with a puzzled frown.

"Allow me to introduce Queen Lucy the Valiant of Narnia. I thought Your Highness might like a second Queen to bring back to Tashbaan. After all Your Highness has many brothers … Consider her a gift."

The Prince's expression turned cruel as he looked Lucy up and down. But then he looked back to Lord Bern, suspicion again crossing his features.

"But why?" he asked.

Lord Bern's expression turned as cruel as the Prince's

"Let us call it revenge. Caspian and the Kings cost me a lot of money when they closed the slave market. This will be my way of repaying them."

"Now that I can understand" the Prince declared approvingly.

Looking around he noticed that the forty slaves were still standing watching them.

"Captain" he barked. "Secure these slaves in the hold with the others."
"But my Prince" Objected the captain. "How can we secure them when there are no chains? We cannot …"

The captain tailed off when he say his Prince's expression.

"I will see it done Your Highness." He finished instead.

Prince Rasheen nodded satisfied.

"And bring Queen Lucy to her sister' he commanded. "I am sure they have been missing each other!"

He turned to Lord Bern.

"I believe Lord Bern" he declared "that we have a lot in common. Will you join me for a drink? Unless of course you are in a hurry to return to Narrowhaven?"
Lord Bern grinned roguishly.

"I am in no hurry your Highness. I think it would do my health good if I avoided Narnian lands for some time."

And with that he followed the Prince to his cabin, casting a meaningful look to Queen Lucy as she was marched to join her sister.