A/N: Well, hello, again. My husband and I bought a house and have been in the very busy process of moving and renovating. Then life just got really, really crazy. But anyway, I have so missed writing, so I'm glad to be back.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Chronicles of Narnia.
Chapter 6
There was the problem of what to do with the bodies.
"The bog," Reepicheep said. "It must have preserved them until…until they were disturbed."
Until I disturbed them, he meant.
None of us knew what to do with them. It felt wrong, cruel even, to leave them as they were. But there was little to be done. The marsh was too treacherous to attempt recovering the bodies to rebury them, and the thought of setting them aflame once more made my stomach turn.
The dryads had simply faded into the ground, leaving vague outlines in the grass by their fallen trees. In the light of day, I could see just how much of the forest had been destroyed. The mark on my throat burned as I looked out over the swamp. It was as though the ground still shook with the violence of it all.
I was glad when we made our way back to the beach, away from the carnage.
"We'll call this Burnt Island, then," Caspian said, scratching it into a boulder.
I thought that "burnt" was a mild way of putting it. We rowed back to the ship in silence, taking only the coracle Reepicheep had found.
I had hoped I would feel better once we set sail. The island was already disappearing into the fog, but I knew that no distance would be enough for the guilt gnawing at my stomach to fade.
Rhea shifted, reminding me that she stood to my left.
"Sometimes I forget why people are so scared of us," she murmured, her eyes still on the island.
"I don't," I said.
We had rough sailing all the next day, and I worried about the shift I felt in the crew. I was sure by now that word had travelled around about what we had found on the island. Now, the turbulent water was making things worse.
"Perhaps the sea has changed its mind about letting us continue East," one of the older sailors said as he walked past the helm where we stood. "Shouldn't we…listen to the warning?"
"Or perhaps we haven't found the right tide, yet," the captain responded.
The sailor headed back to his duties, sparing a glance at me and at Caspian to my right.
"That would be why there are precious few Telmarines on board," Drinian murmured.
Caspian chuckled.
"How lucky for us that you were not raised among us, then," Caspian said.
"You weren't?" I asked.
My own surprise irritated me. I should know our captain better than I did.
"My father was the emissary to Archenland, so I grew up there with no fear of the sea," Drinian explained, his hand loose and sure on the helm. "Though my mother was from Calormen, so I managed to still have my fair share of superstition."
"Oh good," I grinned. "So, you're still scared of fire demons, yes?"
"I certainly heard enough legends not to cross you any time soon," Drinian laughed, then gave me a thoughtful look. "People fear what they don't know and what they cannot control. So it is with fire and the sea."
"Fire and the sea?" I asked with a smile. "That sounds like a song."
Drinian shrugged. "It's all more connected than we know. Most things are."
My gaze settled on Eustace and Rhea playing a game of chess on the deck.
"Yeah," I said absently.
I kept staring at the two as Rhea took Eustace's knight with her queen. Rhea must have felt my gaze as she looked up and smiled at me before furrowing her brow at my expression. The foggy beginnings of an idea swirled in my head, just starting to take a shape.
OoOoO
Lucy closed the door to Drinian's cabin and sat down at the table next to Rhea. Caspian leaned against the wall beside the door, and Edmund and Eustace sat to my left. All of them looked at me and waited for me to speak. I felt suddenly uncomfortable and unsure of how to explain my convoluted thoughts.
"Em?" Edmund prodded.
"I have no idea if this is even…" I released a loud breath. "I think I have a way to…"
I crossed my legs and leaned back in my chair.
"What if I could get into Leandra's head?" I said bluntly.
Almost in unison, everyone leaned toward me in confusion.
"Into her head?" Lucy asked.
"It was something Drinian said, about things being connected," I said. "It reminded me of how I heard your thoughts when you were a dragon, Eustace. Because you were a creature of fire."
I didn't wait for him to confirm it before I looked to Caspian.
"And how I can always find you," I said, then turned to Rhea. "Or how I knew when you and Lika were in trouble in the battle against the giants."
"Like how you and Auren found Maris," Lucy said.
"Yes!" I said.
"But haven't you tried to sense her before now?" Caspian asked. "You said it wasn't clear."
"It isn't," I said. "I can sort of feel her further east. I know she's out there and alive. But what if I wasn't just trying to find her? What if I reached out to her the way I did to Eustace?"
"And what? See her thoughts?" Edmund asked, his voice skeptical.
"Maybe," I said. "What if I could even control her fire for a moment the way I did when I killed that first dragon? What if I could take her out before we even—"
"Slow down," Caspian said, sitting for the first time. "Is it even possible to do that to another Eshwen? An animal is one thing, but—"
"I don't know," I admitted. "But there's no harm in trying, right?"
"I'm not sure that's true," Edmund said quietly.
"Hang on, if this were possible, why wouldn't your mother have already done it?" Lucy asked.
"She sort of did," I said. "Remember when the others brought her back? She turned my own fire against me for a moment. The flame is what connects us all. If she could control mine—if I could control the dragon's, if we can bring our minds together, why shouldn't I be able to get into her head from afar?"
"But she wouldn't be reaching out," Rhea said. "Can you force your way into her head? Does it work that way?"
"I don't know," I said again. "There's so much history we've lost."
I looked around, trying to gauge everyone's response.
"Maybe it could work," Caspian said, his thumb to his lip. "Wasn't Cassia able to reach Miryn before they had even met?"
I nodded.
"That's how we helped her get over the border from Calormen," I said.
"Wait, Cassia?" Lucy asked, sitting up straighter.
She looked at me in confusion.
"Cassia. The one from the woods?" Lucy asked in shock. "Didn't she try to kill you?!"
"Oh yeah, she did, didn't she?" Caspian remembered in amusement.
"Well, just the once," I said with a wave of my hand.
Lucy muttered something about my low standards for friends, but I ignored it.
"We need to know what we're walking into with Leandra," I said. "This could be our way in. We wouldn't have to go in without an army and in the dark."
There was a quiet moment, each of us lost in our own train of thought.
"I don't like it," Edmund said firmly. "It's too risky."
"How?" Eustace asked. "I mean, isn't the worst that could happen that it just doesn't work?"
Edmund shook his head, clearly agitated.
"You've no idea the worst that could happen," Edmund said. "We don't know what this could do. If it was so easy, she would've done this to you years ago, yes? Long before we got this close. Would this be like sending up a flare and announcing ourselves? Would this open a door for her? Could she use this to hurt you? No, there are too many things we just don't know."
He met my eyes for the first time since he started talking.
"You don't want someone like that in your head, Emma," he said. "Trust me."
Pain like I had not seen since we were children clouded his eyes. I knew too well that memories of the White Witch were crowding his mind.
"It wouldn't have to be Emma," Rhea said. "I could try."
Edmund's head shot up, eyes wide with horror.
"No," I said. "No, if anyone can do it, it's me."
"Right," Rhea said, as if remembering. "Because she's…right."
She seemed to be the only one who could actually forget that Leandra was my mother.
"I think it's worth exploring," Caspian said. "But Edmund is right—we don't know enough about what could happen. Let's keep this to ourselves and see what else we can find out. You never know what we might learn out here."
Our informal council naturally dismissed. Eustace was the first to leave, though he spared a strange look back at me first.
"Is Cassia really a friend now?" Lucy asked Rhea on their way out.
"More than that," Rhea said. "She even saved Emma when she was poisoned."
"Poisoned?!" I heard Lucy say as the girls disappeared through the door.
"Not sure how I feel about those two sharing stories," I said.
Edmund chuckled, then stopped.
"Me neither, now that I think on it," Edmund said as he rushed after them.
"It's an interesting idea," Caspian said when we were the only ones left. "But is it safe?"
"No less safe than getting any closer to her without a real plan," I said.
I laid my arms on the table and rested my chin on them.
"I thought Aslan would have sent us a sign by now," I said. "Or some instructions or something. Anything."
"So did I," Caspian said.
"I can't believe we're going into this without the rest of the Eshwen," I said. "That's crazy. That's completely insane. This was a bad, bad idea."
He walked to me and leaned against the table to my left before looking down at me.
"I'd take you over an army any day," Caspian said.
I looked up at him without raising my head and saw him grinning.
"Oh, really?" I asked wryly.
"You wouldn't choose me?" he asked, his hand on his heart.
"Over an army?" I demanded, standing up. "No, sorry, I'll take the numbers."
I couldn't hold back a laugh at the dramatically offended face he made.
"After all we've been through!" he gasped.
"Sorry you had to find out like this," I laughed as I walked out the door.
The next day was clear until midafternoon when it began turning overcast with heavy, dark grey clouds above us. Lucy was beating me at a game of chess when I noticed Rynelf signal down to Drinian from the crow's nest. The captain looked puzzled as he walked over to the upper deck and looked behind the ship. His expression was unreadable.
A few minutes later, Lucy trapped me in a check mate.
"What is he watching?" I mused.
Drinian had barely moved from his spot. Almost as soon as I said it, Caspian, Eustace, and Rhea seemed to notice as well and joined him.
"Let's see about that," Lucy said.
"Everything all right?" I asked as we reached them.
"What is that?" Rhea asked.
She pointed out into the water two ship-lengths behind us where several large, black lumps protruded from the water. They looked very much like the smooth, shiny boulders we had seen along the coast of Dragon Island.
"I don't know," Drinian said, his voice thoughtful and tense. "I've been keeping my eye on them."
"Some sort of rock formation?" Lucy guessed.
"No," Drinian said, his mouth forming a line.
"How do you know?" Edmund said, coming up behind me.
"They weren't there five minutes ago," Drinian said.
As we watched, the lump in the back disappeared, and a new one in the front appeared.
"Is it just me, or—" Eustace began, sounding very nervous.
"Hang it all," Caspian said. "The whole thing is moving this way."
"And moving a great deal quicker than we can sail, Sire," Drinian said. "It'll be up with us in a minute."
We all stared at the unknown something pursuing us. It was coming faster now, the rock-like shapes showing more dimension than they had before. They had a strange, slippery yet sharp texture…Too late, I registered what I was looking at. The moment the word scales crossed my mind, a terrible sound came from the port side.
A head reared up from the sea, giving a screech so loud, I covered my ears without thinking. The head was shaped almost like a giant horse's, though I saw no ears. What I at first thought was the neck I soon realized was the body as more and more of it appeared in a blur of green and purple scales. There were shells and seaweed tangled around the spikes on the top of its massive head. Then its gaze turned to the Dawn Treader, yellow eyes so enormous and unblinking that they seemed to give off a light of their own. It opened its jaw to reveal two rows of teeth that were much thinner but no less sharp and deadly than the dragon's had been.
This was a sea serpent, and we had been watching the folds of its tail as it ran us down. Now it towered above us, ready to swallow us whole.
"To arms!" Caspian shouted, drawing his sword.
The serpent screeched again as the deck exploded in activity. My hand instinctively flew to my back then to my waist before remembering that both my sword and my ax were in my cabin where I had left them this morning when the horizon had been clear. I cursed as everyone drew their swords or grabbed their bows.
A volley of arrows went off, glancing off the thick scales and not even drawing the monster's attention. The serpent did not come closer but continued to rise up out of the water, towering over us until almost the whole deck was in its shadow.
We had moved away from the port side, but now we froze, all clenching different weapons and holding our breath. I raised my hands slowly, wondering if this thing could burn and ready to find out. Then its head shot forward.
"Down!" Caspian shouted.
We fell to the deck as the serpent's head darted across the ship. Its body stretched out until it reached the water on the other side, then its head reappeared on the port side, now nearly at the fighting top.
"It's drawing a loop around us!" Edmund cried. "It's trying to crush the ship!"
As I jumped back up, I could see that he was right. The serpent was wrapping itself around the ship. If we did not free ourselves soon, the Dawn Treader would be little more than splinters floating in the sea.
The archers loosed more arrows that did nothing to injury the serpent.
Something nudged my left arm.
"Emma," came Lander's quiet voice.
He was beside me, gripping his sword in one hand and holding my ax out to me in the other, his eyes on the serpent. I grabbed the ax and slipped the harness onto my back. Lander and I took a step forward but stopped when someone sprinted between us.
"Eustace!" Lucy cried.
Her cousin ran toward the serpent, Caspian's second-best sword raised above his head. He hacked down at the thing, doing nothing but breaking the sword into pieces. He tried to jab at the monster with the shard still attached to the hilt, but the serpent drew its body tighter. The ship rocked enough to knock Eustace off his feet.
"Find a weak point!" Caspian commanded. "It must have one!"
Fire flowed into my ax as I rushed forward where Eustace had been and brought down my weapon with all my strength. Sparks flew into the air and traces of flame ran along the serpent's scales, going out and leaving no trace they had been there. My ax had barely broken the skin at all. No one else was faring any better. Lander's second strike glanced off the serpent. Rhea's fire skittered harmlessly across the scales.
"Don't fight!" Reepicheep's voice cut through the chaos. "Don't fight! Push!"
Even in the fear of that moment, everyone stopped and looked at the mouse in surprise and confusion.
"We have to push!" Reepicheep cried again, shoving his sword into his tiny hilt.
Now, he scampered across the deck and placed his back against the thickest part of the serpent. He began to push against it.
"Yes!" I shouted. "Yes, push!"
Everyone seemed to be understanding at the same time—if we could push the serpent off the end of the boat, the loop it had drawn around us would break. I slammed my back into the monster, sea water leaking through my shirt as the scales dug into me.
"Push!" Reepicheep shouted again.
Soon, the whole crew was there, pushing the sea serpent with all our might.
"The stern!" Caspian strained from somewhere to my right. "The tail!"
"Tail?' Lucy grunted.
I remembered that the stern of the ship had a decorative dragon's tail on it. It would be impossible to get the serpent over that.
"I'll get it!" I called back.
I turned to face the serpent and realized I had no way to climb over its body to get to the stern. I jumped and tried to claw my way over but began to slide back down until someone grabbed my foot and hoisted me up and over. I landed ungracefully on my hip but managed to hold onto my ax. From here, I could see that our efforts were not in vain. The loop of the serpent's body was moving steadily toward the stern. I just had to clear the path.
The first strike of my ax against the wood of the stern gave a satisfying crack. Two more, and it burst into flames as it splintered off.
"Ha!" I cried in triumph.
Then the body of the serpent, shoved forward by everyone else, slammed into me, knocking me off my feet and driving me toward the burned stump where the stern had been.
"Emma, here!"
Edmund was on top of the serpent, reaching his hand out for me. I grabbed on just as my feet went off the edge of the ship. He pulled me back over, and I nearly kicked Drinian in the face on my way down the other side as he had been the one hoisting Edmund up. Edmund and I had not even gotten to our feet when the crew gave one final heave and the body of the serpent disappeared over the stern.
All eyes went to the port rail as we waited for the serpent's next move. It nosed along its body for a moment, almost as though it expected to find the Dawn Treader there. When it didn't, it turned its attention to us again.
"Be ready!" Drinian called.
I planted my feet and gripped my ax, my mind desperately searching for a new plan. The serpent lowered its head to dart toward us again, then stopped quite suddenly. It froze, its gaze just beyond the ship. Without another sound, it turned away from us and dove under the water. Its tail flicked up twice, each time further away from us, until it disappeared altogether.
A great cheer went up from the crew.
"Scared him right off, didn't we!" A sailor shouted.
"Three cheers for Reepicheep!" another sailor cried. "And three for Eustace, leading the charge!"
The cheers went on, but I did not join in. I jogged over to the bow to look out at the sea. It was calm, the only disturbance the soft rain that had begun to fall. Still, my stomach was tight. One look at Caspian as he walked up confirmed he was thinking the same thing I was.
"What would have scared that thing off?" Caspian murmured.
I shook my head.
"Luck?" I ventured.
Then the ship hit something so violently, Caspian and I grabbed each other's arms to keep from flying forward.
"We must've hit a reef!" the helmsman cried out.
"A reef?" Drinian echoed in confusion.
He and Caspian rushed off to the helm. The rain came harder now, the ship not moving forward at all. I could vaguely hear Drinian barking orders and the crew running about the ship, all trying to move us off the reef, but I could not focus on any of it. In the pit of my stomach was a tightening knot of dread. Now alone at the bow, I looked out at the water, seeing no glimpse of this supposed reef.
Then something beneath us rumbled so deeply that I felt it vibrate through me more than I heard it. It was more of an earthquake than a sound. The water around the ship rippled out so dramatically that the waves changed course around it. It was as though the entire ocean were shuddering. I stepped back from the rail.
"Nobody move!" Drinian suddenly shouted. "Every man, hold fast! Eyes to starboard but dare not breathe!"
Everyone froze in place. I followed Drinian's eyeline, and my mouth dropped open. Drinian's command was hardly necessary—I could not have moved even had I needed to. My legs went cold, my mouth suddenly dry.
Rising slowly out of the water against the starboard rail was a huge, grey tentacle thicker than my waist. The rubbery thing dripped seawater, suction cups rimmed with short, claw-like teeth dotting the side facing us, each one bigger than my head. An illustration I had not seen in years flashed before my eyes. It was from a book Edmund loved as a child. Norse mythology. A grey drawing of a great, octopus-like leviathan wrapping around a ship. As the tentacle raised even higher above us, I remembered the name.
The Kraken.
I looked back to the helm where Drinian stood with a controlled expression, his right hand raised to hold us, his eyes calculating our next move. Caspian, who had been brave and determined against the sea serpent, stared up at the tentacle with his face so pale that even his lips had gone white.
The tentacle climbed higher until it towered over us.
"It hunts by movement!" Drinian called out. "Hold fast until—"
A scream from the port side cut him off.
"Tiran!" a crewmember shouted.
Then I saw that one of the older men was being dragged off the deck, a tentacle wrapped around his leg. The deck exploded into chaos. The tentacle to starboard pressed in on the ship, the rail breaking apart like a child's tower of blocks. Half a dozen more tentacles sprang out of the ocean. I tried to run to where Tiran had gone down to see if I could help, but something tightened on my ankle and yanked me back. I hit the deck so quickly, I had no time to break my fall, but I somehow avoided biting my tongue off as my chin smacked against the wood. I barely kept hold of my ax as I was dragged along the deck.
I rolled onto my back and finally got a glimpse of what had me—a smaller tentacle no thicker than my arm had a firm, painful grip on my right ankle. The deck skidded by underneath me as the splintered rail grew closer. I grabbed my right thigh with my left hand and used the monster's momentum to pull myself up enough to bring my ax down next to my foot. There was a squelching sound as the blade met the tentacle. The severed end held fast to my ankle, but the other flopped around in panic before disappearing over the side. I pried off what was left around my ankle.
I stood up and swung my ax above my head in one motion, slicing off another thick tentacle. It fell to my feet, and I brought the spike of my ax down. It burst into flames on contact, the burned remains slowly dragging itself away.
So this monster could burn.
I gripped my ax as I spun around in a circle and fought to keep my balance as the ship rocked unnaturally from one side to the other. There was too much going on to have any idea where to go or what to do. There were dozens of tentacles now, everyone fighting their own battles to stay on the ship and not be dragged into the sea. There was too much shouting to distinguish any one voice, but I frantically looked around for my family.
Caspian was defending Drinian who still stood at the helm trying to regain control of the ship. Lucy and Edmund were holding their own on the port side, Eustace to their right with Reepicheep fighting from his shoulder. Rhea was with a few archers at the stern. Everyone was divided up, the tentacles crowding the ship and stopping us from rallying together.
There was a sharp cry above me, and Lander fell flat on his back at my feet. He shouted a curse that reminded me he had grown up as a soldier and kicked at the severed tentacle still wrapped around his leg, shouting in alarm and anger the whole time.
"You're fine!" I snapped at him as I grabbed his hand and ripped him up to his feet.
"Can't you set the bastard on fire?" he said, having to shout over the noise even so close to me.
"Not if we want to keep the ship!" I shot back.
A fire on the ship could out of control too quickly. I couldn't start lighting thrashing things on fire only for them to wrap around the Dawn Treader. More tentacles sprang out around us. I turned and felt Lander put his back to mine. I sliced off another one bigger than I was.
"I was hoping you'd have a plan!" Lander said.
I pressed into his back a little harder as the ship pitched to the port side. I didn't have a plan. But I knew who might.
"To the helm!" I shouted. "Cut off anything that moves!"
We slowly turned, keeping our backs together and slicing off any tentacle that came near us. Most of them split open with a single, albeit extremely forceful blow, but some of the thicker ones took several swings. No matter how many we cut through, there seemed to be no fewer appendages darting over the deck. I hoped this thing really was the Norse myth I remembered, not the Greek hydra growing back more limbs than we cut off.
"Drinian!" I shouted as we reached the helm. "What do we do? I can burn it, but the ship—"
He ducked down as a tentacle swept over his head. Caspian knocked it away with the flat of his sword before slicing it off.
"We have to go for the head!" Drinian called to me.
"Where's the bloody head?" I shouted.
"Down!" Lander warned.
We went to our knees as one, our backs still together. I heard something big sweep over my head.
"That's all that will kill it!" Drinian said.
"It can burn!" I said. "Rhea and I can—"
I felt Lander swing his sword and blood sprayed across my left side. A tentacle thudded to the deck.
"Be ready," Drinian warned. "I suspect we won't have long once the head is on us."
I nodded. I looked over the ship, then up at the foremast.
"What do you need?" Lander shouted behind me.
I turned to face him and grabbed his shoulder as the ship rocked.
"Get Rhea to the base of the crow's nest!" I told him. "I need to see where the thing will surface!"
He put his arm around me and pulled me to the right, a tentacle barely missing us as he did.
"Go!" he shouted.
There was a small opening through the middle of the deck, and I sprinted through it. I slid under two tentacles and kept running until I reached the foremast. Normally, I avoided the crow's nest as the height and movement of the ship made me dizzy, but now I snapped my ax into the harness and leapt onto the ladder without hesitation.
"Your Majesty?" Rynelf seemed surprised and not exactly pleased when he saw me climbing up.
He stood with an empty quiver, gripping his knife in one hand and his bow in the other.
"Can you see it?" I demanded, swinging under the rail. "Can you see where it is?"
"No," Rynelf said. "But it's pulling us to port."
I noticed the rain again now that I was up here. The wind had picked up enough that it felt like tiny needles against my cheek.
The damage looked worse from above, the tentacles somehow even more powerful. The railing was scattered over the deck mixed in with pieces of the monster. I had hoped that from here I would see progress from all the fighting, but there were dozens of tentacles engulfing the ship. I saw that Edmund and Lucy had moved in closer to Drinian, covering the captain as he tried to keep us upright. I clenched my jaw when I saw that Caspian had migrated toward the port side where the worst of the action was.
Then I looked harder at the water just beyond him. It was so faint that I had to blink several times to convince myself of what I was looking at, but there was the vague, pale shape of something under the surface.
"It'll come up over there," I said to Rynelf. "We'll—"
My mistake was focusing too long on what was below. I registered movement from the corner of my eye, but it was too late to react. Luckily, I was already gripping the rail, so I managed to keep my footing even as I lurched to the side.
"Unholy gods," Rynelf gasped behind me.
The biggest tentacle I had seen yet—thicker even than Eustace's dragon tail had been—had hit the crow's nest on the starboard side. I thought it would rise above us and crash down again, but instead it coiled around the outside of the rail then slipped down below us. I looked over the rail just in time to see it wind itself around the foremast and constrict. The sound of splitting wood was deafening.
The crow's nest whipped to starboard, slamming me flat on my back, then swayed back to port. For a few heartbeats, we did not move at all. Then there came a resounding crack from the mast. The handle of my ax dug into my spine as I slid feet-first toward the rail, unable to slow down. Rynelf was shouting from below me as we plummeted toward the main deck. He clawed at the wood, trying to catch hold of something. He was headed straight for the broken section of railing—there would be nothing to stop him from falling off the edge. I rolled to fall sideways instead of straight down and caught his flailing hand. I reached out my left hand in a desperate attempt to grab something as my body went over the edge. I just barely wrapped my fingers around a jagged point of the rail before we jerked to a painful stop.
The foremast was horizontal to the deck. From here, I could see the splintered wood in the middle of the mast, but somehow it had not completely snapped in half. About one-fifth of the mast had bent instead of breaking, but judging by the sound of the wood, it would not stay that way long.
Rynelf was clinging to my right hand as we both dangled from the rail. My arm was already shaking. I looked down and realized we weren't over the ship anymore. All I could see under Rynelf was more tentacles in a black sea.
"Don't let go!" Rynelf gasped.
I knew it was hopeless, but I still tried to pull us up. We didn't budge. My left hand was going numb. I could barely feel the wood of the rail. I couldn't hold us both for long. I wasn't even sure I could get myself back up.
"Help!" Rynelf shouted.
I blinked away the rain in my eyes to see the deck clearly. I could hear a few people shouting my name. Lucy was desperately trying to fight her way toward us, Edmund at her back, but I knew they could not reach us, especially before my strength gave out.
"Queen Emma!"
Reepicheep's head appeared above me.
"Reepicheep!" I gasped out.
But my relief quickly evaporated. What could he do? Tears of desperation stung my eyes. The mast let out a groan and brought us a few feet closer to the water. The mouse kept his balance.
"What do—" Reepicheep began.
"You cant—you can't get us up. Rhea. The head. Burn the head. Tell her!" I hissed.
"Your Majest—"
"Ropes," I gasped out. "Be ready. When we fall. Try to get us out. Go. Off the mast. Go!"
"But—"
"That's an order!" I shouted with strength I didn't have. "Go!"
His face fell, but I did not have it in me to keep my head at the angle to look at him. I dropped my head as he disappeared back down the mast. I was shaking. I screamed in frustration as I tried once more to pull us up. I looked at the deck again, praying someone had thought of a plan I couldn't, but there was just as much panic and chaos as before. That's when my eyes locked on a figure nearest to me at the port rail. A tentacle had wrapped around his entire torso, pinning his arms to his sides as his face twisted in pain.
Caspian.
I watched in horror as his feet left the deck, writhing in the Kraken's grip in the air. No one was rushing to his aid. The fighting was too dense. I saw Eustace pointing up at Caspian, trying to move through the tentacles to him, but it was no use. The king was now several feet off the deck, moments away from being dragged into the sea.
I looked down at Rynelf, his eyes huge. He looked younger than he had before. Below him, the ocean churned with tentacles. A chunk of railing fell from above us into the sea, snapping into splinters on contact.
I looked back to Caspian. He was almost over the rail.
May Aslan forgive me.
I did not look back down as I opened my right hand and let Rynelf slip through my fingers. If he screamed as he fell, I did not hear it. I barely kept hold of the rail above me as the ship pitched sharply to starboard.
I raised my right hand toward Caspian and shot a column of fire directly at him. The tentacle holding him burst into flames, spasming as it broke away and whipped back into the sea. Caspian landed hard on the deck, still wrapped in burning tentacle, his clothes smoking. But he was alive. My left hand convulsed. I grunted in pain as I raised my right hand up above me and used the rungs of the crow's nest as a ladder. I climbed up until I was on top of the now-sideways mast and stayed there on my hands and knees to keep balance. I frantically scanned the water below. There was no sign of Rynelf anywhere.
"Rynelf!" I screamed, knowing it was useless.
I could not even tell where he might have landed. If I jumped, was there a chance I might find him?
Just then, a pale grey mass broke the surface of the water below me. The head. Even now, I knew I was not seeing all of the creature. So much of it was still submerged, an impossible size to be as quick as it was. It was pulling the ship toward itself, toward its head. Toward its mouth. I could not see it yet, and I did not want to.
The mast creaked loudly as it fell a foot closer to the monster.
I scanned the deck until I found Rhea to my left, just reaching the rail herself. When she met my gaze, she nodded. I drew my ax and raised three fingers above my head, counting down. She notched an already flaming arrow, her eyes glowing as they watched me. I exhaled, letting the beat of fear that crept in escape. When I lowered my third finger, I leapt off the foremast. I did not have far to fall anymore as the beast was rising even further out of the water.
Rhea's arrow hit the Kraken at the same moment I did.
I led with my ax, flames rippling over the spongy head on impact. The Kraken roared out a deep, shuddering sound. It was like standing on a thick layer of moss on top of a swamp. The head was not flat, but shaped like a dome, which made holding my ground even harder. I fought to find any traction at all under my feet, but there was no way to keep my balance for more than a few seconds. I pulled my ax out, then drove it back in even deeper. More flaming arrows landed around me. The smell of burning flesh filled my nose.
The beast threw its head to the side. My feet flew out from under me, but I kept a grip of my ax. As I slid down the head, I left a huge, flaming gash in my wake. The Kraken's roar came even louder, this time coupled with hot breath bellowing out from below me. The smell of rot enveloped me. My insides squeezed as the smell smothered me.
I landed on a ridge of the monster. Only then did I realize I was standing between its eyes. They were bigger than my head and somehow completely black but glowing at the same time. I stared into the one on my right as it focused on me. I had been in this world a thousand years before, but I knew that these eyes had existed long before that.
A wall of Rhea's fire ripped into the Kraken. While it was focused on that, I drove my ax into its eye. The sound it made this time was even louder—more of the mouth was out of the water. It jerked away from the ship slightly. I poured more heat into my ax, then I felt something tighten around my left thigh. The tentacle flipped me upside down and whipped me away from the head, teeth digging into my skin. I tried to burn it away, but I missed. Another, smaller tentacle took the hit and fell past me, blazing.
"Rhea!" I shouted. "The eyes! Go for—"
I slapped into the water face-first, all the wind knocked out of me and my nose exploding in pain. I was only underwater for a moment before the tentacle pulled me back up again. I sliced blindly with my ax, but missed, unable to aim as it shook me. Something streaked over me, and the Kraken gave a sound that sounded like pain for the first time. That's when I saw Rhea standing on the head, searing its eyes out. Her strawberry hair looked yellow as it glowed with fire. She threw her body forward with a battle cry, and fire roared out of her.
Even with my head dangling, I could see that the tentacles were loosening around the ship. Then I hit the water again. The Kraken tossed me around before I broke through the surface again. I gasped in a deep breath and saw that the head was slowly going back under water, fire hissing out. The tentacle around my thigh stopped moving, tightened until I screamed in pain, then let go.
I grabbed onto a broken plank to float and clicked my ax onto my back to free up my hands. The sinking Kraken was creating a whirlpool. Everything was being sucked down after the monster. Including me. I lost the wood to the current. I tried to tread water, but the suction was dragging me down. Just as my head went under, I heard something hit the water in front of me. Rhea grabbed my arm and pulled me back to the surface. For the first time, I noticed a rope tied around her waist. We floated above the water.
"Are you oka—"
We slammed into the side of the ship so hard that Rhea's sentence ended with a grunt.
"No," I groaned.
The crew hauled us up and over the rail. I probably would have collapsed if Caspian and Lucy had not been waiting to catch me and lower me down gently. Manically, I grabbed my thigh where the beast had sunk its teeth into me and clenched my jaw. I pressed into the wound and gritted my teeth against the pain. I poured heat into my hands, keeping my breathing as steady as I could. Slowly, the pain lessened as the bleeding slowed. The wound was only partially closed when I stopped.
"Full speed to the east!" Drinian cried as he rushed past us. "Up with the main sail!"
I looked up and saw Lucy first, a cut along her temple and her lip bloody.
"Is it dead?" I asked.
"We aren't waiting to find out," Lucy said.
I glanced out at the water over my shoulder. The Kraken had disappeared, though I doubted something so ancient was truly dead. The only remains of our battle were a few pieces of broken wood floating along the surface.
A wind kicked up, blowing more rain onto the deck. I could feel the Dawn Treader gliding along the water again.
"I'll help get the wounded to the galley," Lucy said before rushing off.
I saw several hurt sailors, but none of the injuries seemed more serious than broken bones. Lucy and her cordial could handle that.
"Are you okay?" Edmund asked.
I raised my head to answer but saw that he was looking at Rhea, his hand on her arm to steady her. The entire left side of her face was bruised, and her left sleeve was torn and bloody.
She nodded, but her face was losing even more color. I could feel her exhaustion.
"Edmund!" I shouted just as Rhea's eyes rolled back in her head.
Edmund caught her and lowered her to the deck beside me. Rain ran down her pale face. Her eyes were already fluttering back open.
"Sorry," Rhea murmured.
I grabbed her arm, the only place I could see blood. It was a shallow cut. I pressed my hand over her heart.
"She just needs rest," I said to calm the fear in Edmund's face. "She's okay."
"Okay?!" Edmund hissed.
"That kind of power is draining, Ed," I said. "She'll be fine. Just take her to our cabin."
I noticed as Edmund swung Rhea into his arms that he was favoring his left leg. But his balance was steady as he carried her off. I grunted as I got up with Caspian's help.
"You're bleeding," Caspian said.
I nodded toward the blood seeping through the fabric on his chest.
"So are you," I said.
I leaned on Caspian as we left the deck, my left leg burning with pain from the other wounds I had not healed. My face felt fuzzy, my nose unnaturally hot where I had hit the water.
Reepicheep scampered up behind us as we reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Your Majesty!" he said.
We stopped and turned.
"Everyone on the ship is accounted for," he said. "We have many injuries, but we lost no men today."
"We didn't—but Rynelf—" I began.
But before I could say anything else, Lucy came down the stairs. She was supporting a man with a short beard and a clearly injured right leg. The way he was holding his right arm made me wonder if he had a dislocated shoulder as well. But I did not linger on these things as I stared at his face in shock.
"Queen Emma," Rynelf said, bowing his head.
"Took quite a tumble onto the deck, he did," Lucy said. "You couldn't have dropped him a little softer?"
"I thought I was done for," Rynelf said, his eyes soft. "But you timed it just as the ship turned. I could've…"
He shook his head and cleared his throat.
"Thank you, Your Highness," he finished.
He ducked his head as Lucy helped him to the galley. If Caspian had not already had a hold of me, I would've sunk to the floor, possibly through it, but he and I made it to Drinian's cabin.
I lit the hearth to add to the grey light coming in through the window.
"You first," I said.
His shirt was torn, burned, and bloodied. I could see his wounds through the holes.
"No, I'm okay, really," Caspian said. "Yours looks wor—"
"Just let me see," I snapped.
I looked away to avoid his look of surprise at my tone. He pulled his shirt off and sat down on the small round table by the hearth. I stayed standing in front of him, though I leaned heavily on my right leg. There were three bloody circles on his chest where the teeth had been, another on his back. My eyes burned as I stared at them. Rain tapped at the window.
"It had quite a grip," Caspian said, breaking the silence.
"Looks like it," I said quietly.
I laid my hand on the first wound by his shoulder. He winced when my hand glowed. It was not as deep as I had thought, and soon enough, it closed and faded to a scar. I was already working on the second when Caspian spoke.
"You didn't know, did you?" he asked.
"Know what?" I asked, not looking up.
The second wound closed. My hand shook as I placed it on the third.
"About Rynelf," he said. "You didn't know he would land on the ship. You let him go to save me."
My hand stilled.
"You could have killed him," Caspian said. "You thought you did."
The third wound closed. I slowly looked up at him.
"Yeah, I did," I said.
There was a beat of silence. His eyes clouded, and his nostrils flared in irritation.
"You're really going to act like this doesn't bother you?" he challenged. "I know it does."
I did not answer but reached for the cloth on the table beside him. He grabbed it before I could and held it in between us in a clenched fist.
"Say something!" he rumbled.
I snatched the cloth from him.
"You are my king, Caspian," I said, my voice low. "Why are you so shocked that I would—"
"I saw him fall, Emma!" Caspian raised his voice, standing up. "I saw you drop him without a second thought."
I did not move back.
"You are the king," I repeated, my throat growing tighter. "Every person on this damn ship would die to protect you. How can you not know that by now?"
His expression was pained, guilt flashing in his dark eyes.
"And I'm supposed to be okay with that? I'm supposed to let people just die around me?" he asked.
"It doesn't have to be okay with you," I said. "It was my decision, and I chose you."
"I never asked you to do that!" he shouted.
"You didn't have to!" I shot back.
There was a tremor in my voice that I hoped he didn't hear.
"And you don't think for a second that it was wrong to condemn a man to save me?" he demanded.
"It kept you alive," I said. "If that's wrong, I can live with that."
He clenched his jaw.
"What if that had been Lucy?" Caspian asked.
I could feel my pulse in my face, my nose stinging more by the second.
"What if it had been Lucy?" Caspian demanded once more.
He leaned even closer to me.
"What then, Emma?!" he shouted.
I grabbed his shoulders and shoved him back roughly.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" I screamed.
He caught himself as he stumbled away, but I could barely see him through the hot tears in my eyes.
"I thought you were going to die!" I sobbed. "But I saved you, and now you're angry at me?"
"You can't just—"
"Shut up!" I cried. "Just shut up! How the hell could you ask me that?"
I took in a ragged breath. His expression was shifting away from anger as his eyes watered.
"Was I supposed to let you just—" a sob cut me off. "Just disappear? Was I supposed to let you go?"
I angrily wiped away my tears and felt blood drip onto my mouth. I pressed the cloth I was still holding below my nose.
"God, my nose hurts," I shouted the last word in rage.
Caspian took a step toward me, his arm outstretched. I tried to shove him back again, but my injured left leg gave out as I did. I knocked over a chair but managed to catch myself against the wall as the chair loudly clanged to the floor. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I pressed my back to the wall and slowly lowered myself down.
I heard the door bang open as Caspian knelt beside me.
"What is going on?" a deep voice demanded.
I looked up to see Lander towering over me. Caspian ignored his presence and his question.
"Let me help you, I—" Caspian began.
"Leave me alone," I hissed, pushing his hands away.
Some small part of my mind told me I was being unreasonable, but anger and hurt washed over it until it was quiet.
I reached my hand toward Lander. He ignored Caspin and took my hand, helping me to my feet with more gentleness than I had expected.
"Can you take me to my cabin, please?" I asked, trying to control my voice even as I hiccupped through more tears.
Lander put my arm around his shoulders.
"Emma, please, can—" Caspian began.
"Not now," I said without looking at him. "I can't."
Lander helped me into the hall before I could barely walk anymore. I was breathing heavily when Lander stopped.
"May I carry you, Your Highness?" he asked, his tone soft and polite.
"If you insist," I whispered before collapsing into his arms.
He carried me down the hall and over the threshold into my cabin. Rhea was asleep on the bed, though she seemed less pale than she had before. I expected Lander to set me down beside her or even take me to one of the chairs, but he grabbed a few blankets from the foot of the bed and threw them on the floor before putting me on top of them.
Without saying a word, he fetched the water basin and several clean cloths before sitting down on the floor beside me. Lander dipped the cloth in the water, then nodded toward my leg.
"May I?" he whispered.
I covered my thigh with my hand.
"You don't have to do that," I said. "I can heal myself, I'm just a bit…"
I shook my head and wiped the last of my tears from my face.
"Drained?" Lander offered.
"Yeah," I whispered. "Rhea can help me when she wakes up. I'll be okay."
"I know," Lander said, wringing the rag out over the basin. "But you don't really expect me to leave a queen bleeding alone on the floor, do you?"
He raised his eyebrows and waited. I let out a breath and moved my hand. He took out his knife and cut away the tattered left leg of my breeches. Caspian's wounds had had a clear shape of where each tentacle had been, but my leg was a mangled maze of torn and cut flesh. I looked at Lander and tensed, becoming suddenly more aware of my bare thigh. But Lander did not seem to notice. He set to work cleaning the blood away. I looked him over for any sign of injury. His knuckles looked raw, and there was a dark bruise forming on his left cheekbone. My gaze landed on a cut just below his bottom lip.
"Does that hurt?" I asked quietly.
He saw where I was looking and dabbed at the blood with his hand.
"I didn't even notice it," he said.
I leaned my head back against the bed and felt my eyelids getting heavy. I must have dozed off. The next thing I knew, there was a wet cloth was against my face. When I opened my eyes, I saw that my leg was bandaged. Lander was kneeling in front of me wiping the blood off my face while carefully avoiding my throbbing nose. It crossed my mind to be embarrassed, but the cool cloth felt so good that I pressed my cheek into it.
He picked me up and put me in bed beside Rhea, then placed a few pillows under my leg to keep it elevated and pulled a thin blanket over me. I vaguely heard him mumble something, but I was asleep before I even heard the door shut.
OoOoO
"I'm so glad you're better at this than I am," I said. "You didn't even leave a scar."
Rhea bundled up the rest of my discarded bandages as I stared down at my leg. I could not even tell where the wound had been.
"Well, it's not due to my teacher," Rhea said. "She was not much of a healer."
I chuckled as I stood and walked over to my trunk to pull out a clean set of clothes.
"We've both broken our noses on this voyage, now," Rhea pointed out.
"It just seemed like such fun when you did it, I thought I would give it a try," I said, pulling a shirt over my head. "I'm not sure I recommend it."
I dressed quickly, anxious to be on deck. I wanted to see the damage to the ship and assess any other harm there had been last night. Rhea headed to the galley to see if Lucy needed any help, but I went straight up the stairs.
I was surprised when I walked out on deck to see that the ship did not seem to have taken the beating I had thought. The main damage seemed to be to the railings and the foremast. The crew had already cleaned up all the broken wood. There was much less wreckage than there had been after the storm. Everything seemed fixable.
Caspian and Drinian stood beside the fallen foremast, talking. Only a moment passed before Caspian felt my gaze and looked at me. He said something else to Drinian, then walked my way. He had changed into clean clothes, but I could still see dried blood on his neck and hands. His eyes had dark circles beneath them.
"You look better," Caspian said as he reached me.
"I feel better," I agreed. "How are you?"
Caspian glanced around as if to check that our conversation was private.
"About last night…" he began.
I was not surprised that he had brought it up so quickly. Neither one of us could stand to leave things unspoken. That worked for and against us.
"You didn't deserve that," he said. "I wasn't being fair, and I took out my feelings on you."
"I don't think either of us were very stable," I said.
"You were until I started talking," Caspian corrected me. "You don't have to excuse me."
"Then I won't," I said.
I let out a breath and tilted my head.
"You need to know, Caspian," I said. "No one died for you last night, but many have. And many more will. You need to learn how to live with that."
He looked even more tired than before. I squeezed his shoulder and offered a small smile.
"Just remember I'm on your side," I said.
"Land in sight!" a sailor cried from across the deck.
I moved beside Caspian to see better. In the distance, I could see the foggy tops of tall trees and the grey outline of an island.
"Further East, it is, then," Caspian said.
He put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed before walking to the helm with me.
It was not long before we came into a small harbor of the island. From there, we could see a lone mountain in the middle of it and several streams coming down into the sea. It was not a dense, forest isle the way Dragon Island had been, but there were sections of tall oak trees amidst the brush and sand.
With the exception of a few men to keep the ship, everyone loaded into the landing boats and went ashore. A cold wind was blowing in the harbor, but there was something invigorating about it instead of assaulting, though it made my cloak whip around behind me.
"I'll be blue in a minute. Is there anything worse than cold and wind?" Eustace mumbled under his breath, though not in the same horrible, whiny voice he had used so often in the past.
He had clearly borrowed his cloak from Caspian and was practically drowning in all the fabric.
"Should we explore further inland?" Lucy asked. "We might be out of the wind a bit, at least."
"I'll make sure Drinian doesn't need our help," Caspian said, then looked out over the land. "If not, I have a feeling there is something to discover here."
I heard Drinian tell Caspian that the crew would be focused on repairing the foremast and that we were free to explore as I helped the men move the empty water casks to the closest stream.
"Waltzing off to explore, I hear," Lander said.
He set down an empty water cask beside me.
"You know, I haven't seen you chop down a single tree with that ax," he said. "This could be your chance."
"It's not for chopping," I said. "I just carry it around because it's so pretty."
Lander laughed as he bent down and opened the cask.
"How is your leg today?" he asked. "And your nose?"
"They're fine," I said. "Perfect, really."
He turned his head, now at the same level as my thigh, and looked at my leg for a long moment. The water cask between us suddenly seemed inconsequential. Warmth pooled in my stomach and spread as he slowly looked up at my face.
"I won't argue with that," he said.
I crouched down to his level and raised an eyebrow. I tried to look serious, but a smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.
"If I did not know better, I'd say you were a scoundrel," I said.
Lander crossed his arms and rested them on the cask between us.
"Oh, I hope you don't know better, Your Majesty," he said. "Because I like the way it sounds when you say it."
I leaned closer and narrowed my eyes.
"Scoundrel," I whispered.
The left side of his mouth raised into a grin.
"Poetry," he whispered back.
My eyes drifted down to the scratch below his lips. I wondered if it hurt.
"Emma, are you ready?" Rhea called.
The Pevensies and Caspian were standing with her a few yards away. I shot to my feet.
"Yes!" I shouted.
"Try not to fight any dragons without me," Lander called as I jogged away.
I reached the group just as Eustace and Reepicheep joined them as well. We set off into the island. Though we did not find anything of interest for a good while, simply walking on land was invigorating. Well, it was some land, anyway.
"Another stream?" Edmund exclaimed as we came upon the fourth.
It was no secret how the island had such a lush fauna. There were clear, cool streams everywhere, cutting through the bright flowers and green bushes. There was something fresh about this island, something truly alive.
In the foothills of the mountain, we stumbled on a system of caves. Eustace hesitated at the entrance.
"I…I don't think I'd like to explore more caves any time soon," he said. "I'll just…uh…"
The poor boy looked pale. To everyone's surprise, Reepicheep climbed up to his shoulder.
"It's only wise to have someone stand guard," Reepicheep declared. "We will keep the perimeter safe."
The idea of the mouse passing up on an adventure to stand guard seemed impossible, but his face was resolute. So the Pevensies, Caspian, Rhea, and I continued in. It was a huge cave with holes along the ceiling so that plenty of sunlight still found its way in.
We kept a straight path, holding to the right wall of the cave. It was no maze, but we all knew how quickly caves could turn you around if you were not careful. There was a small but steady trickle of water along the floor. Eventually, the floor sloped down dramatically. The water ran into a pool on the far side of the cave.
"Are these paintings?" Lucy pondered, walking over to the right. "They look like the ones in the How."
But they looked even older than those, more faded.
"Are those humans?" Edmund asked, moving aside some vines growing over the cave wall.
"Here," I offered.
I drew my ax and cut away some of the growth so that we could see more clearly.
"They have tails, I think," Caspian said. "Or at the least some of them do."
The figures on the wall seemed to be some form of mermaids, but the paintings were too ancient to tell much more. The wall sloped away from us and formed a narrow shelf above our heads. I slipped off my harness and cloak and set them on the ground with my ax.
"Let's have a look, then," I said.
I grabbed onto the ledge, and Rhea boosted me up from below.
"Anything?" she asked as I pulled myself up.
"Not really," I said.
There were no more paintings this high, only dirt and more ivy.
"I wonder who drew them," Lucy said. "And how long ago."
I jumped down just as Edmund wandered over to the pool.
"Now, here's something worth seeing!" he exclaimed.
The pool was round and only about ten feet wide, but it looked at least fifteen feet deep, cool and clear as glass. When I looked down into it, I saw what Edmund was talking about. At the very bottom rested the gold statue of a man. The sculpture was fully clothed with golden robes billowing out behind where it lay face-down. The arms were splayed out as though they had been frozen as he tried to regain his balance. Even from beneath the water, the detail of the statue was impeccable. There was even a shield and sword beside it. How strange…
"Get back!" Edmund cried out suddenly. "Everybody, back! Get back from the water!"
Edmund grabbed Lucy with his left hand and me with his right and yanked us both back from the edge of the water so violently that all three of us fell into the dirt.
"What's the panic, Edmund?" Caspian said as he, too, rushed back.
"My boots!" Edmund shouted, pointing down at his shoes. "They were just there with the water lapping up at them and now look!"
"Gold," Rhea gasped.
The toes of his boots where the water had touched them were yellow and glinted in the sun. There were even gold splatter marks higher up. Caspian leaned toward the water to look but stayed a safe distance back. I slowly stood and moved next to Caspian, gazing into the water.
"That's not a statue…" I spoke what everyone was realizing.
"He must've fallen in," Lucy said. "Poor man."
I knelt beside the water to look more closely at the shield shimmering on the bottom.
"Poor lord, it looks like," I said. "I'm afraid we've found another one. Can you tell which crest that is, Caspian?"
Caspian tilted his head, looking as closely as he dared to, then his face fell. He looked at me somberly.
"Restimar," he said.
My stomach dropped.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
He nodded.
I rubbed my hand down my face. Is this really where Lander's search ended?
"Is he really gold?" Rhea wondered. "Could it just be the light somehow?"
I grabbed some of the ivy I had cut away from the cave wall and dipped it into the water. It was already turning to gold when I dropped it in the sand. Caspian picked it up.
"Incredible," he said. "The perfect image of ivy, but it's pure gold."
Something in his face shifted.
Edmund picked up a shell beside the pool and dipped it into the water. He stared in awe as it, too, turned to gold. He picked it up, the light reflecting onto his face.
"Whoever had access to this pool could be the most powerful person in the world," Edmund said, his voice strange.
"So he would," Caspian said, gazing at the ivy.
Lucy, Rhea, and I all shared a look.
Caspian stood.
"I hereby claim this island and this pool as a Narnian possession," Caspian declared. "I shall name it Goldwater Island. May it be the conquest of Caspian the Tenth and all his descendants."
"Who are you talking to?" Edmund demanded, standing and dropping the shell. "I'm no subject of yours. If anything, it's the other way around."
"So, it's come to this, has it, Edmund?" Caspian laughed humorlessly. "You've been waiting for the chance to challenge me, haven't you?"
"Now, wait just—" Lucy began, but Edmund cut her off with a dry laugh.
"I don't have to challenge you!" Edmund said. "I am one of the four ancient sovereigns of Narnia, and you are under allegiance to my brother, the High King."
"Edmund, calm—" I tried.
"I have had enough of the ancient sovereigns, I think!" Caspian spat.
"You Telmarines will never have any real loyalty to Narnia," Edmund hissed. "You don't deserve it!"
"And you do?" Caspian said mockingly. "You're a child! You speak of loyalty? I know the tale of your first time in Narnia, Edmund."
Caspian leaned toward him.
"Once a traitor, always a traitor," he said.
"Caspian!" I gasped, my mouth open in shock.
Edmund drew his sword with a cry of rage.
"You know nothing!" Edmund screamed. "I'm tired of playing second fiddle! First to Peter, now to you. I claim this island in my name! King Edmund the Just, Duke of—"
"What is wrong with you?" Lucy shouted. "Both of you, stop it!"
But neither of them answered. There eyes were shining as though they were still looking at the gold. Caspian drew his sword and pointed it at Edmund.
"You dare to—" Caspian thundered.
"You dare to draw Peter's sword on me?" Edmund shouted. "I deserve that sword, not you!"
"Stop!" Rhea screamed.
She grabbed Edmund's arm, but he knocked her away.
"If you think you're so brave," Caspian growled. "Prove it!"
Edmund swung his sword, but Caspian knocked it away.
Caspian and Edmund attacked each other again, the clanging of their swords echoing in the cave. I raised my hand to force them apart with fire, but they were moving too quickly. I could hit Edmund. They were fighting between me and where my ax lay against the wall, the pool at my back.
Rhea tried to jump in between them to break them apart, but was almost cut in half before staggering back again.
"Caspian!" I shouted.
I tried to grab his shoulder, but he shoved me away. I barely registered that I was falling before I realized how far back their fight had driven me. I hardly knew I had touched it before the water closed over my head, shattering the rays of sun coming through the ceiling of the cave. Cold enveloped me even as heat from within me shot out to every part of my body. I stared at my arms stretched out in front of me, knowing that the last thing I would see would be them turning into lifeless statues.
Gold raced down my arms but stopped at my wrists. I got heavier and heavier as I sank further down. Bubbles burst out of my mouth as I slammed into the gold statue already at the bottom of the pool. I slid down the side and landed in the sand. My hands were still flesh in front of me. I could bend my fingers easily.
I looked down and realized that only my clothing had changed, but I was now trapped in it, weighted down and unable to move. My lungs were already screaming for air, but I tried to shove my panic down. I pulled on the heat I could feel in my chest and let fear fuel the fire. My gold clothes began to glow, my sleeves feeling slowly more malleable. I bent my arms with all my might, some of the gold cracking, other parts simply bending under the heat and pressure. I grabbed at the neckline of my shirt and undershirt and pulled it down over my shoulders. When my arms were free of the gold cloth, I pushed the cloth down to my waist. The now-sharp edge of the gold scraped my hipbones as they went down. My blood mixed with what I now knew was salt water.
Even free of my shirt, my solid gold breeches and boots still weighed me down too much to be able to swim back up. I managed to get my glowing breeches down to my knees before my vision began to blur. My body started to jerk, and I was losing control of my hands. I stretched out the metal of my pants over my boots before the last of my air bubbled out of me.
Then a current suddenly ripped me from my place into an opening in the rock to my right. It was barely big enough for me to fit through as I rushed through the water. Everything went pitch black. My boots caught on the jagged rocks and ripped from my feet painfully. Then I came out of the tunnel into a huge body of water. I saw dim, blue lights everywhere, but before I could see anything else, my body jerked and forced me to breathe in. Water flooded into my lungs.
Something sharp grabbed my face, and I saw a dim, green light before something soft pressed against my mouth. Oxygen rushed into me. I floated through the water, then landed on something hard as I coughed and sputtered out the water I had breathed in. I dragged in more desperate, ragged breaths before I looked up.
That's when I realized I was still underwater.
I was laying on a stone floor with columns stretching above me with a beautifully painted ceiling. My hair floated around me. I waved my hand in front of me and saw the small bubbles around it. I was breathing just fine, but I could feel the water even against my lips. I was naked, having stripped off my golden clothes, so I covered my chest as I stood.
Before me, sprawled a vast, golden, underwater city. It all glowed with green light. What I stood in seemed to be some kind of watch tower as it was well above the rest of the buildings.
Suddenly, seaweed sprang up through the cracks of the stone. They wrapped around me while dragging me back until I hit one of the columns. The seaweed kept coming until I was covered from the neck down and trapped against the column.
"Why are you here?"
The voice was clear, but somehow also muffled through the water. I looked toward where it had come from. Three women floated only a few feet away from me. Mermaids, I realized when I saw their scaly green tails. I had seen mermaids in Narnia before. Naiads often took that form in the water, but I had never been this close when they did and certainly not at the bottom of the ocean. Their lips and eyebrows were green, their eyes completely black. Their hair was long behind them but braided together with shells and teeth. They wore ornaments of shells and vines around their waists, but their torsos were completely bare otherwise. They each held sharp spears.
"Speak quickly or die faster," the mermaid in front said.
My head felt light, and I wondered if it was the remnants of nearly drowning or the strange sensation of somehow breathing underwater. Perhaps I had actually died, and this was my strange entrance into the afterlife.
"I…fell…" I said.
I stared in disbelief upon hearing my own voice. The mermaid in front narrowed her eyes.
"I can see that," she said. "A human would have turned to gold."
"My lucky day to not be human, then," I murmured.
"I know what you are, Eshwen," she sneered. "I can smell the smoke of a thousand villages on you. I want to know why you are here and how many more of you there are."
The gills on her neck flared.
"Or will I have to ask you differently?" she asked.
Her webbed fingers fiddled with the point of her spear. My temperature spiked involuntarily in response to the threat. My hair around me glowed yellow, but before I could burn away the vines entangling me, the mermaid jerked her hand toward me like a claw. Water burned into my nose and open mouth. I screamed uselessly, my voice stifled by the sea filling my lungs. I flailed against the seaweed, but more appeared and tightened their grip. Before I could fall deeper into my panic, the mermaid put her hand on the side of my face and blew into my mouth.
Once again, I coughed out what felt like a whole ocean of water as oxygen washed over me.
"Try that again, and I will not restore my air to your lungs," she growled, gripping my face with her sharp nails.
She flung my head to the side and took a step back.
"Now. How many of your kind are here?" she demanded.
I swung my head back around to look at her, my aching chest still heaving to catch my breath.
"As you can see, I am alone," I snapped.
"We have seen your ship in harbor," she said. "I ask again, how many Eshwen are with you?"
She raised her spear and pressed the point into my neck. I felt my skin break under the pressure, but I set my jaw and held her gaze. I realized that none of them had blinked the entire time.
"So then," I said. "You have fallen to blind hatred of us? How very human of you."
"You dare call it blind?" she shouted. "After what Leandra has—"
"Leandra?" I cut her off in shock. "How do you know that name?"
The mermaid's brow furrowed.
"What trick is this?" she asked.
"I am no agent of hers," I said. "She is my enemy the same as yours."
Her furrow deepened, but the point of her spear eased away.
"You see the scar on my throat? That is what happened when last I saw her," I said. "She is no friend of mine, and I am trying to stop her."
The mermaid said nothing but straightened and placed the bottom of her spear on the ground once more.
I took a deep breath.
"We mean you no harm," I said. "We are aligned against a common enemy."
There was a long silence. Then she shook her head.
"The Eshwen are not as clever as they think they are," she said. "You should have learned to stay out of the water by now."
She bared her teeth and raised her spear, but before she could release it, a bright light shone from behind me. Water rushed past me in a huge, powerful wave. A roar shook the very stone column I stood against. The mermaids stared in awe, then bowed low to the floor. The light died as quickly as it had appeared.
The leader looked up at me slowly, her face changing.
"It seems you are telling the truth," she said.
She waved her hand, and the vines loosened.
"Oh, naked," I stammered.
I caught the seaweed against me, trying to keep myself covered, though the mermaids did not seem to care.
"I never thought an Eshwen could bear the blessing of Aslan," she said.
"Yes, I am very fortunate," I said sarcastically as I struggled to keep seaweed over my body.
"You land-dwellers and your modesties," the leader sighed.
She waved her hand, and I was instantly covered in a thick layer of bubbles.
"Ah, thank you," I said.
Even in the middle of such strange circumstances, I had to curl my hands into fists to keep from popping the bubbles.
The lead mermaid made a strange clicking noise, and the other two swam out.
"I am Quell, the leader of this clan," she said once they had gone. "What do they call you?"
"Emma," I said. "I sailed here from Narnia with King Caspian in pursuit of Leandra and in search of seven missing lords."
I looked back at the tunnel I had come through. Quell followed my eyeline.
"We found one of them at the bottom of your pool," I said.
"The curse of gold has protected us for generations from humans who sought our city," Quell said. "Madness seeps into the minds of men there until they become what they hungered for."
As much as I understood it, I still recoiled at the cruelty of such a fate. I swallowed.
"You are the first person on our travels to know of Leandra," I said.
"We patrol the islands to the west," Quell said. "We first heard of her arrival three years ago. She made her way east…slowly. We came against her on Wera Isle, but we were too late. The whole village was gone. The dryads and river naiads…"
Her voice trailed off.
"We saw the aftermath," I said.
"Then you know it was a slaughter," Quell said, an edge in her voice again. "They tried to land here, but we gave them such a fight that they left before they even made it to shore. We've wondered if they would return."
"She won't if we make it to her first," I said.
"How many Eshwen did you bring to fight her?" Quell asked.
"One," I said. "Aslan—"
Quell cut me off with a disbelieving laugh.
"One?! She's going to destroy you," she said.
"Aslan told me to only bring one," I explained. "He said I only needed one. He…"
I stared at her, remembering what he had said in my dream. I looked out over the city, the image of fire burning along water in my head.
"He said I was a part of something bigger," I said softly, then turned back to Quell. "We're supposed to do this together."
Something close to disgust shimmered across her face.
"Don't you see?" I said. "That's how we could defeat her. She would never expect us to work together, to be attacked with fire and water, on land and sea. We have to—"
"My people do not have to do anything," Quell snapped. "We have already lost many to fighting her. I will not seek her out to do so again."
I stepped forward.
"There is a reason I am not a statue at the bottom of that pool," I shot back. "We are bound together by—"
"Nothing," she said. "Go on and fight your wars on land. We will stay here where fire cannot touch us."
"Yet here I am," I said. "Do not mistake her absence for your safety. If she goes unchecked, she will come back. You know she will. She could swing the very balance of nature."
"We only have two sacred laws," she said. "We hold to our own nature, meaning we do not align ourselves with the opposite of us, the fire spirits who seek to destroy us. And we do not break the curse of gold on anyone. Do you truly expect me to break one of those?"
I felt as though a jolt went through me.
"You can break the curse?" I asked. "You could turn him back from gold?"
"I could, but I will not," Quell said.
"I am no longer asking you to break one of you sacred laws," I said. "I'm asking you to break both."
Quell laughed sardonically.
"You make very free," she said.
"Aslan himself appeared to you, Quell," I said. "How can you say that we were not meant to join forces?"
For the first time, it looked like my argument gave her pause.
"Neither of us can do this alone," I said.
She was quiet.
"And you would have me restore the lord?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "He and the others were sent away by the last king because they were good men who would have stood against him. They deserve to come home at last."
I waited, deciding whether or not I should say what came to my mind.
"His son is searching for him," I said. "He has waited all these years to find his father. Do not make me tell him that he will lie as a statue for the rest of time."
Quell looked out at her city, then at me.
"If I broke both of our laws today, they would follow me no longer," she said. "I would be overturning everything we—"
She stopped and shook her head.
"I'm sorry, I can't," she said firmly.
I clenched my jaw to hold back my frustration.
"But I can break one," Quell said.
"What?"
"Choose," Quell said. "We can fight with you, or I will turn back the curse of gold on the lord."
"Quell, you can't—"
"Choose. One," she said. "And do so quickly before I change my mind."
Is this the choice Aslan would want me to make? Was I to leave behind one man to possibly save many? An image of Rynelf dangling below burned in my brain, the picture of Lander's face telling me about his father close behind it.
"What if it had been Lucy?" I heard Caspian's voice from the night before. "You don't think it was wrong to condemn a man to save me?"
I thought back to my dream of Aslan—was I wrong? Did it not mean that the water spirits were to join us? I had misunderstood him before.
"I'm supposed to just let people die around me?" Caspian had asked me the night before.
"Lift the curse," I said.
She regarded me carefully.
"I hope you do survive Leandra," Quell said. "I'd like to meet you again."
She glided through the water to the tunnel I had come through, and I swam after her. She touched her hand to her chest. It began to glow green. She slowly pulled her hand away, the light growing stronger. Quell let out a strange, high-pitched shriek and thrusted her hand forward into the tunnel. The light shot through.
"I'd get him to the surface in a hurry," she said. "Goodbye, Emma."
She swam away before I could say anything. I was loathe to go back into the small opening in the rock, but I wriggled through back into the pool. There, I could see the gold receding from Lord Restimar's clothes. By the time I reached him, he was light enough to lift. I put my hands under his arms and kicked as hard as I could. As we ascended, his face turned from gold to flesh. I worried that he would wake up and panic, but his head lolled to the side, his eyes still closed.
Finally, I broke the surface of the water, dragging Lord Restimar up with me.