Chapter 2: Sailing New Seas

They were several days out of the Lone Islands, and the weather was fine and fair. Caspian was still flush with his victory over Gumpas and pleased that they had already found one of the seven lords. All in all, the trip was going well.

One afternoon he had come up from the cabins where he had just been discussing their course with Drinian and Rhince. The sun was warm on him even as he climbed up the hatch, and the wind was fresh when it struck his face. He took a stroll around the main deck, and as he made his way aft, he saw Lucy's golden hair billowing in the breeze on the poop deck above him. He went to join her.

She was playing chess with Reepicheep, who was in one of his rash moods and playing poorly. She looked up from the board and gave him a smile, but Reepicheep was too busy seeing battles play themselves across the squares to notice him until he had moved his piece. When this was done, he drew a breath and bowed his head. "Sire."

"Hello, Reepicheep," Caspian said genially. He then saw Lucy reaching for her bishop out of the corner of his eye. He bent close to her ear and whispered "If you take his knight with your castle, you'll have the game in fewer moves."

"Thanks," Lucy said, turning to him. She moved her castle accordingly and asked "Won't you sit down, Caspian? Without your help I think I'll lose another game to Reepicheep."

This wasn't at all true as Lucy was winning handily, but she was trying not to make Reepicheep feel bad, and Caspian liked her the better for it. He obligingly sat down and helped her win the game. Reepicheep was gracious about it as always, but he quickly excused himself to the forecastle. Caspian moved across from Lucy and began to set the pieces up for another game.

"I'm afraid I won't be much of a match for you," she said modestly.

"Nonsense. I'm not terribly good at chess, and you are a fair player yourself. Battle strategy is one thing, but chess is another. Your brother has beaten me handily several times already."

"Edmund beats everyone at chess. I would love to see him play Reepicheep."

Caspian chuckled. "I would like to see that myself. We'll have to see if we can coax them to it."

Lucy's eyes sparkled merrily, and she moved her center pawn.

Caspian was supposed to be thinking of his next move, but he was studying Lucy instead.

"Caspian! Aren't you going to play?" Lucy asked.

"Hm? Oh! Yes, sorry." Caspian's cheeks turned a very little bit red as he moved his own pawn.

"What were you thinking about?" Lucy asked presently.

He looked up from the board and squinted at her, debating whether to tell her or not. Finally he made up his mind that he would tell her, and he said "To tell the truth, Lucy, I was thinking about you."

"About me!"

He smiled at her surprise. "Indeed. And you cannot imagine what I might have been thinking?"

Lucy's cheeks flushed quite crimson. "No, I can't imagine."

Though it was fun to see her blush so furiously, Caspian decided not to prolong teasing her. "It occurred to me that you are not like other Queens." He moved his queen's pawn.

"I suppose not," Lucy said thoughtfully, leaning her chin on one hand and twirling a chess piece with another. "I never was." She moved the piece forward and frowned. "Come to think of it, I'm not very much like other girls, either. Girls in my world, I mean."

"But is Peter like other boys? Is Edmund? It seems to me you would have to be extraordinary to journey into another world. Even Eustace is extraordinary—in his way," Caspian reasoned, planting his piece with a click of certainty. He looked at her with merry eyes. "Besides, from what I've seen so far, other Queens and other girls don't make nearly as good shipmates."

"Caspian! Are you mocking me?" Lucy chided.

"No! I tell you the truth. When I was in Galma the princess there told me 'My lord, you are a brave soul, but I can't imagine spending so long at sea!'"

Now the laughter shone in Lucy's eyes. "This was the girl that squints?"

Caspian snickered. "Yes. There was that too." He folded his arms and examined her face while she chewed her lip and thought about her next move. "So what is it, Lucy? Why are you not worried about the state of your dresses and your toilet? Don't you miss the comforts of a soft bed and solid land? I haven't heard you breathe a single word of complaint since you came on board."

"Complain! How could I? I'm back in Narnia. I'm home." She looked about her with bright, happy eyes. "This is all I could ask for. My dresses don't matter, not now that I'm on an adventure."

"That's Lucy," said a third voice. Both turned to see Edmund surveying the game with a flagon of wine in his hand. "She was always the adventurer. If Susan had found the lamppost first, I don't know if any of us would have gotten into Narnia."

"Where's Eustace?" Lucy asked at once.

"Ugh. Don't talk to me about him. He's in another one of his foul tempers, blithering on about how nothing's done right in Narnia. It was all I could do not to throttle him, so I came to find some civilized company." He drew up a stool to watch the chess game and nodded to Lucy. "We should talk of pleasanter things. Tell Caspian about when you first came through the wardrobe, Lucy. Lantern Waste."

Caspian turned to Lucy, who said in a quiet whisper. "I went to look in the wardrobe and I found myself not among coats, but among trees. It was alarming, but it was the most excited thing that ever happened to me. Once I knew I could get back all right, I couldn't simply leave the country undiscovered. I had to go and see."

Caspian turned his face to the east and looked hard at the horizon and felt the sun shining on him. "Of course," he murmured. "Any sensible person would."

The storm came then next day, rocking the ship with waves and creaking the very frame of the Dawn Treader. Eventually Drinian sent even Caspian below decks with a curt "The last thing I need to worry about in this storm is the King of Narnia getting washed overboard."

He tried to lie in his hammock but the pitch of the ship made it swing so much it made his stomach lurch. Moreover, both Eustace and Edmund were in there and the weather and close quarters put them more at each other's throats then ever. Caspian longed to tell them both to shut up, but he was too courteous for that. Instead he jumped out of the hammock and went upstairs.

Lucy was curled on the bunk with her knees drawn up to her chest, staring at the painted panels with a rather dulled expression. "Hello, Caspian," she said, making an essay at cheerfulness. "What brings you up here?"

"Drinian sent me below and I couldn't abide Edmund and Eustace sniping at each other, so…here I am."

"Do sit down then. It was getting dreary down here all by myself."

There really wasn't anyplace else to sit, so Caspian climbed onto the bunk with Lucy. "Still no complaints?" he asked with an arch of his eyebrows.

Lucy graced him with a "look" that he knew only a lady could pull off. Then she sighed and the moment of coquetry vanished. "This storm is one of the worst I've seen at sea."

"Well, it had to come sometime, I suppose. We've had such fair weather up until now."

A crack of lightning cut through the room, illuminating everything in eerie relief. "Still, I could have called myself happy without it." She turned to Caspian and seemed on the point of saying something else when she exclaimed, "Why, Caspian! You're white as a sheet! Don't tell me you're scared?"

"It's—well, the Telmarines have their superstitions, and—" he stammered.

Lucy slipped her hand in his. "It's a bad storm. I think even Drinian's scared."

As if to confirm this, there was a terrific crash on the deck above. Both of them jumped, and Lucy shied against Caspian. He put his arm around her shoulders as an automatic move of protection. "I can't go on listening to those noises. It's bad enough to see this storm, but to be here below imagining is so much worse. Let's take our minds off this. Tell me of happier times. Tell me about Narnia," Lucy said.

Caspian smiled down at her and tightened his arm around her shoulders. "We'll trade stories and pass the time that way."

She nodded and leaned against him. Lucy's trust and confiding spirit made him feel a little bit braver and a little bit better. He settled back and started telling her about the longstanding debate between Trufflehunter and Trumpkin which had begun the day after his coronation.

The rain continued, and they passed several days in this manner. It wasn't exactly what you could call pleasant, but it was calming to think of other things. Sometimes Lucy would come down to his cabin and start Edmund going on a good battle story. Once he made Caspian laugh so hard about Rabadash dangling from a hook that the king forgot about the storm altogether for a moment. Of course Caspian's peals of laughter made Eustace, who was down with a terrible bout of seasickness, complain, and that put an end to the lovely time. It had been nice for a moment, though.

One day Caspian and Lucy were alone again, and Lucy was talking about another of Susan's suitors.

"She seemed to have a good many paramours," Caspian remarked.

"Oh, yes! It seemed there was an ambassador every month asking for her hand. And Susan would get so turned by the flattery she'd forget to look at the man who was asking. That's how she got so involved with Rabadash. I wouldn't have looked at him twice. I could see that his mouth had a cruel turn and his eyes were hard. But she loved the poetry he recited to her and his beautiful manners."

Caspian smiled. "So you think there's more to love than pretty words?"

"Of course. When it was finally my turn and the emissaries came to ask for my hand, I wouldn't even look at them unless the man came himself." She giggled. "Honestly, I think that Peter and Edmund were relieved: they had so many troubles with Susan."

"No one ever caught your interest?" Caspian asked.

"Not really. The good ones, the sincere ones, they were nice enough, but—"

"They were just nice," Caspian offered. "Nothing more."

Lucy nodded. He sighed. "I found out on Galma that Narnia is very anxious I should get married."

"You don't look very enthusiastic about the idea."

"I'm not. Not if the girls are all so…delicate. If I marry it should be someone who can be my partner. Who can come on adventures with me."

"Who can understand you," Lucy added.

"Who makes me feel something real."

They fell silent. The rain lashed against the windows, and it was a sound that they were so used to they hardly noticed it anymore.

Then there came the night where Caspian heard an almighty crash. He knew this was more than just the normal groans of a ship, and he was out of his hammock in an instant, staring with wide eyes at Edmund. He was not surprised to see Drinian burst into the cabin and cry "Quick, we've lost the mast! We've got to get every last man on deck, my liege!"

Caspian nodded, and he was not too gentle with Eustace as he shook him awake.

"I'm ill! Leave me alone, you brute!" Eustace whined from the bunk.

"Oh get up, you great prat. We've lost the mast and you've got to get up and help," Edmund said shortly.

"I tell you I'm ill!" Eustace snarled.

"It doesn't matter," Caspian said. "There's no time to lose; we've all got to do it or the ship might well sink."

"I don't care if it does." With this pronouncement, Eustace rolled over.

Edmund's eyes sparked with anger and Caspian set his jaw. He yanked the blankets off Eustace and Edmund pulled him bodily out of bed. "Get out there now," he said in a quiet but commanding voice.

Even Eustace did not dare disobey him, though he grumbled under his breath the whole way. Caspian was feeling more impatient and more worried by the second, and the delay was wrenching his stomach into knots.

They met Lucy on the deck of the ship. She was not pretty or gay, but though her face was gray there was determination in it. She and Edmund nodded to each other and they both followed Rhince together. Caspian followed them with Eustace, who was still grumbling.

"Making a sick man work like this," he said disgustedly as they set to, "I doubt my life would have been much worse if I had been sold as a slave."

"Nobody would buy you," Edmund retorted shortly but wryly. Though the comment was cruel, Caspian almost wanted to laugh.

"We've all got to do our part tonight," Lucy put in. "Look at Reepicheep over there. Right now he would give up his whiskers and his fur and his very tail just to be large enough to help. Do stop complaining, Eustace. It only makes things worse."

All the while she by Edmund's side and never breathed a word of complaint.


A/N: I'm not usually so prolific; I just had these two chapters already. I wrote them while stalemated on The Way to Narnia, so I figured I might as well post.