Thanks you guys, for your patience. And thank you to the ones who took the time to review. To answer a question someone asked, Aoife's name is pronounced ee-fah...it's an Irish name, I believe. If there are anymore questions, email me at and let me know.

This chapter is dedicated to the Lunch Crew. Thanks for a great year.

Disclaimer: Narnia is the property of C.S. Lewis.

Chapter 10

Aoife sped off into the night, urging the horse on quicker than absolutely necessary until Galian cautioned her to slow down, that the horse would have a long enough journey without her pushing him on so hard. In truth, Aoife wanted to get out of Calormen before she changed her mind and returned to Pericles. She knew the hardships she had faced in Calormen were by far worse than any person could have ever faced, but she had left her heart with Pericles. Galian, meanwhile, was sitting behind her with eyes shut and teeth clenched. As a boy in Narnia, he had never had much love for horses, ones that didn't talk that is, and as a young man, he hated riding them even more. By the time they reached the Tombs of the Ancient Kings, he was sore and irritable and dreading another several miles or so on horseback.

Aoife led the horse down to the river so that it could get one last good drink before the journey, which wouldn't bring them to any water for some time. She rejoined Galian a few minutes later, who was studying the northern mountains as if they held some great secret. Standing beside him, she said awkwardly, "Pericles and I decided the northwest route would be the best to take."

He faced her, asking incredulously, "What on earth for? It takes twice as long."

"It is still a secret to most of the Tarkaans, and we'll have a river to go by,"Aoife argued, "Going north is the most predictable route we could take. Besides, I've heard some horrible stories about the oasis. They say thieves and criminals live there."

Galian snorted, "All you Tarkaans think slaves are criminals. Like your friend back there."

"Galian, you've killed ten people that I know of,"Aoife shot back icily.

"I did what I had to do to stay alive,"he snapped, "as did you."

The pair stood, fuming at each other, until Galian said, "Listen, I swore the Captain that I would make sure nothing happened to you. I know my word doesn't mean much to you, but in all my life I've never broken a promise, as hard as that may be to believe. If there are any thieves in the oasis, which I believe there aren't, I'll make sure no harm comes to either one of us. If we travel due north, we'll be there by this afternoon, and be in Anvard before the Calormenes even leave Tashbaan. If we travel northwest, it gives them that much more time to catch up to us, and I'm not keen on returning to slavery, are you?"

As much as she didn't want to go against the plans she and Pericles had made, she had to admit Galian was making sense. If she had to go, she wanted to get there quickly, and the prospect of being there by the afternoon appealed to her. Eventually, she relented to Galian's proposal, and in the gray hours of the early morning, the two set off from the tombs.

The first thing Aoife noticed as she traveled was how bitterly tired she was. She had experienced quite an exciting day, to say the least, and had little sleep in the past day or so. Now, lethargy settled on her so slowly she was almost unaware that she was falling asleep, until she shook herself sometime later. She fought a warrior's battle to stay awake, and vowed with each miserable passing minute that the moment she reached Archenland and safety, she would find a place, however uncomfortable, to sleep in. The next thing she noticed, which was the only thing keeping her from falling completely asleep, was how badly her hands and face hurt. The cold wind and sand bit at her fingers and nose, and she wished with all her heart now that she had brought something to cover them. She finally voiced her complaints to Galian, who rolled his eyes behind her, and thought of telling her that her fatigue and pain were nothing next to the eleven years of hell he had endured, but instead suggested they dismount and walk a bit to keep themselves warm and to keep her awake, for as much as he despised her weakness, she was the only one who could pilot that cursed horse, and she needed to be alert.

After so many hours of alternately walking and riding, hours that passed like a dream to Aoife, the lush greenness of the oasis greeted them with the morning sunshine. It was several miles long, and looked out of place in the dry sand that surrounded them. The travelers gave no thought to this, however, but urged on forward as if their lives depended on it. In no time at all, three dry throats were sucking down the lukewarm, sandy water as if it were water from the spring of Aslan himself. When her thirst was finally quenched, Aoife looked up to take in her surroundings. Rough patches of grass grew here and there, grass that had not yet withered under the immense heat. Palm trees dotted the landscape for several miles, casting much needed shade from the already overbearing sun.

"It's a beautiful place, isn't it?"she asked Galian, who had crawled from the pool, wet from head to toe.

"I daresay,"he agreed, "but I'd rather we get moving."

"Why the hurry? You said we had a good start on the Tarkaans."

"I said we'd be there by afternoon if we hurry. That means we can't waste time admiring the view."

Aoife would have had a sharp reply, except that something caught her eye somewhere to the right. It had just enough time to duck into a thicket before Aoife could recognize what it was. Noticing her frightened face, Galian looked to where her gaze traveled, but saw nothing.

"Perhaps we'd better get moving,"he suggested cautiously.

"Yes, perhaps your right,"she agreed distantly, starting towards the horse, not taking her gaze off the spot she had seen the thing disappear. She was so concentrated on that particular spot that she didn't have time to duck when something large and hard collided with her head.

It took her several minutes to realize what was going on; the blow to her head combined with the exhaustion she already felt made it hard to focus. By the time she had come to her senses, it was too late. She was already bound from head to toe and lying face down in the corse grass. She could hear Galian's fruitless attempts to escape, and before he was finally subdued he had killed at least three of their assailants. But in the end it really did him no good. There were at least twenty more of the biggest, dirtiest, and meanest looking men Aoife had ever seen. After they had moved their captives out of the way, the thieves proceeded to strip the horse of all it had, including the money and food Aoife had brought for the journey. When they had taken anything that would be of any use, they began moving northward, forcing Aoife and Galian to move along with them.

They moved at a pace entirely too quick for weary travelers such as Galian and Aoife, and time and time again suffered the bite of a whip for their inadequate speed. To take her mind off of her exhaustion, Aoife racked her brain with possible escape tactics, each one as ludicrous as the first. Then again, her mind wasn't working properly, as she had never known a moment when she had been as frightened as she was at this one. Galian was almost as afraid, but was much better at looking intimidating rather than scared, and hoped his demeanor would bully the thieves into submission as it had his opponents. The thieves, on the other hand, seemed not to notice, and were having a grand old time, laughing and jeering in the stupidest of manners. They would answer no questions as to where the prisoners were being taken. They really did not address the prisoners at all, so absorbed were they in their revelry and their catch.

Finally the convoy stopped. Galian and Aoife were once again cast aside, and Aoife's horse, which the assailants had pulled along with them, was pushed into a makeshift corral with a dozen or so other horses. A fire was lit, and a stew that smelled horrible and yet made the hunger that had been growing in Aoife for the past hour even worse. As the clan ate, she whispered to Galian,

"Galian? What do we do? How do we get out of this?"

Which was the very question Galian had been asking himself ever since they had gotten themselves in this mess. His pride was taking an enormous beating at the moment; he had truly assumed the stories of thieves and criminals were nothing but tales told to frighten the general population from wanting to travel north. Not to mention, the fights he had won in the past had inadvertently given him a larger-than-life image of himself, and it was major damage to his ego to have been overtaken by the dirtiest and most ignorant group of people he had ever seen, which is saying a lot, given his position.

"Galian? What do we do?"Aoife repeated.

"How tight are your ropes?"

She wiggled about a bit, then reported, "With a little work, I might just be able to untie myself."

"Hurry. If they don't kill us, the Tarkaans that catch up with us will."

He worked at his as well, but by the end of an hour they had blistered wrists and little progress. The thieves continued to ignore them for some time, finishing up their meal and telling stories lazily as if they hadn't a care in the world.

A piercing scream interrupted their joy. They all looked to the owner of the scream, who had a large, black arrow in his chest and dark red blood oozing down his chest. Without warning, that single shot turned into a volley, and the once cheerful band of thieves was thrown into utter chaos as the onslaught continued.

"Tarkaans!"Galian exclaimed, "how did they get here so quickly?"

Noticing Aoife and Galian, a soldier raced to where they were, and proceeded to untie them.

"We really haven't the time to take you back,"he informed them as he was cutting, "we're searching for a missing Tarkheena. She ran away early this morning."

"How do you know?"Galian asked.

"One of the Captains told us. Pericles, I think was his name."

The common mention of that name barely registered with Aoife. When it did, horror ten times worse than it had ever been before attacked her, followed by a maddening rage. As soon as she was free, she snatched the sword from an unsuspecting and surprised soldier, and before she quite knew what she was doing, his body lay before her in a puddle of blood. Galian eyed her with awe and almost respect as she came to her senses and cut his bonds.

"We need to go, now,"he told Aoife, who, despite the shock of killing a man for the first time in her life, reacted surprisingly quickly, catching the reins of a passing horse and waiting with remarkable patience as Galian scrambled up behind her. They galloped through the battle, trying their hardest not to be shot. Around them, the trees were burning, and the bodies of thieves and even a few soldiers lay here and there. By the time order was restored, Aoife and Galian could be seen topping the next sand dune.

"Never mind them,"the commander said, "we're not here to capture thieves. The Tarkheena can't have gotten much further..."

Meanwhile, Aoife was pushing the horse as hard as she could, not daring to slow down or look back. Twilight fell upon them when the horse stopped out of mere stubbornness, and the two agreed it might be safe to walk for now. The excitement had given them an energy boost, but now they could feel that energy slowly draining from their bodies. They were so bone-weary they could barely move their legs, but they knew they couldn't stop.

A time finally came when they could travel no longer without a rest. They sat with their faces to the south, watching cautiously for the first signs of enemy movement. Neither said anything for a long time until Aoife muttered,

"He can't have."

"What?"Galian asked.

"He can't have betrayed me. He wouldn't. We cared so much for each other. He just can't have."

"He was the only one who knew, Aoife. He pointed those soldiers in the precise direction we were going. I didn't want to say anything before, but he had an untrustworthy look about him."

"You only say that because he's a Calormene,"she snapped fiercely, in a voice no one expected to come out of a girl so beautiful, "you're as bad as he is, making generalizations and judging people like that."

"Aoife, I know it's a blow, but it's the truth. He was the only one who knew which way we were going. He had to have told him."

Aoife was silent for a moment, then said faintly, "No, he didn't know which route we were taking."

"Of course he did."

"No, Galian, don't you see? Our original plan was to go northwest, through the stony valley and along the Winding Arrow. We weren't supposed to go north. He sent the soldiers north, because he knew Suruv would expect him to have a hand in this, and if he gave a show of not wanting to tell him and then giving them the wrong directions, Suruv would take as much time as he needed searching this entire area. Pericles was trying to help us, but he inadvertently sent them straight to us. It's not his fault, he didn't know the plan had changed."

Galian thought on it for a moment. It made perfect sense.

"So, if we had gone northwest like originally planned, we wouldn't have had to worry about either the thieves or the Tarkaans."

"Well, yes."

Galian may have been stubborn at times and overestimated his abilities, but he was man enough to know when he had made a mistake, "I'm sorry, Aoife. This is all my fault. I suggested we come this way."

Ten hours earlier, she might have either said "I told you so," or else not have accepted Galian's apology. Call it fatigue, or maybe something in the past ten hours had changed her views towards Galian's character, or else the fact that he knew when he was wrong and was willing to admit it made him that much more human in her eyes. Whatever it was, Aoife only replied sincerely, "It's alright, Galian. We're on our way now, that's all that matters."