It was nearing sunset when the company reached their destination.
Lydia hadn't said much, she'd been carried along almost in a dream after the incident with the talking horse (who she now knew was called Arabella and preferred to direct rather than be directed).
Susan had occasionally pointed out various rivers and points in the road as they went along, but after receiving no response, she too fell into silence. The other three were also similarly quiet, the only noises being from the still-conscious prisoner's struggles who Lucy had now re-gagged using a strip of her own dress, an action which had shocked Susan - "Honestly Lucy, you have no regard for your clothes."- whilst the other two were still out cold.
Lydia's head was close to bursting. She had no real idea where she was, no idea on how to get back and being sat on a horse for the last couple of hours had not done anything to raise her spirits. It was with some relief when they arrived at what Lydia could only assume was their destination.
However the relief soon turned to shock.
It just wasn't possible. She was stood in front of a full on medieval castle with drawbridges and turrets, as if she had been flung back into the past.
She looked at the four siblings, who couldn't have been any older than her, and watched as they looked at the castle in front of them as though it were home. It seemed almost surreal to Lydia for anyone to think of this place like that.
An entourage had come to meet them and a very tall solemn looking man with long hair and a beard came up behind Susan to take the reins off her. It wasn't until he moved away with the horse in tow that Lydia realised he didn't have any feet. Where his feet should have been there was a gleaming chestnut body of a horse with four legs to match. Lydia let out a gasp.
"You're a centaur!" she said and the being in question turned round.
"Indeed. May I ask who this is your majesty?" he asked Susan, indicating to Lydia.
Susan looked between the two "Yes of course, Oreius this is Lydia. We believe she came from the same land we did. She will be staying with us until we work out why she has been sent."
Oreius nodded. "As your Majesty wills. I will go and see to it that there is a guest room set up." He bowed his head to Susan then took her horse and the others and left the five of them standing there, Edmund, Peter and Lucy still holding the captives.
Peter looked down at the three Calormen sat on the floor; one of them was feebly stirring while the other two, including the one Lydia had knocked out, were unconscious.
"We need to get answers out of these three." he said and him and Edmund exchanged dark looks which made Lydia's stomach flip.
"Do you three want to go inside whilst me and Ed takes these three to the dungeons?" he said and Lucy rolled her eyes.
"How many times Peter?" she said in an exasperated tone, "You don't need to protect us from the more unpleasant aspects of ruling. We're well aware of what goes on down there."
Peter grinned at her, "I know, I'm just aware that you girls have a more delicate disposition."
Lucy huffed and playfully shoved her brother, who promptly burst out laughing.
She scowled and grabbed Lydia and Susan by the hand leaving the two boys behind. Lydia heard Edmund let out a low whistle "I expect you'll come to regret that Pete." she could hear him say but then Lucy took her round a corner and their voices faded.
"And this is our Grand Hall!" Lucy said, her arms spread wide as Lydia and Susan followed in behind her. After everything she'd seen, Lydia thought that walking through a castle would be the most underwhelming thing she'd done so far. Having lived with her grandparents, she knew what wealth looked like.
Or at least she thought she did.
Lucy had led them into a vast hallway that vaguely reminded Lydia of her local church in England, except on a much grander scale. Down the huge aisle there sat four thrones of equal grandeur and behind that a balcony which showed the entire island.
Lucy was beaming. "Do you like it?" she asked, practically bouncing on the soles of her feet and Lydia nodded, incapable of words. To her own surprise she did like it, in a way, but she liked it in the way you liked a nice picture out of a book, something that you can admire and then move on, knowing that it doesn't actually real.
Nothing more than a story.
Susan watched Lydia stare at the balcony then gently placed a hand on her arm making the younger girl jump.
"It's a lot to take in, I know. How about you go and lie down for a bit and then we can discuss everything in the morning?" she said and Lydia saw Lucy visibly wilt.
"But she hasn't seen everything yet!" she started to protest but a stern glance from her sister forced her into silence.
"The castle will still be here tomorrow morning." Susan said, ignoring her sister's scowl and Lydia mustered up a smile.
"Thank you" she said. "I think a rest would do me some good. But we do need to discuss how I'm going to get home."
"All in good time" Susan said gently. "We'll all feel better after some well deserved sleep."
#
As it turned out Lydia couldn't sleep.
Susan had led Lydia up through the castle into a large bedroom, not dissimilar to the one that she'd been in before she'd been caught up in that painting. Now she was laying in a huge four poster bed staring at the ceiling. Perhaps it was a lot to ask for her mind to simply switch off after all she'd seen; the painting, the fight, the talking horse…
No wonder she was still awake.
At least the whispers had stopped, she thought as she tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable position. She hadn't heard a single "Aslan" since arriving at the castle and not for the first time, she wished she'd just ignored the voices last night at her grandparents. She wondered what time it was back there, whether her grandmother had gone into her room to check on her and found the bed empty with no note.
Would they phone the police? Start a search for her? Or, Lydia realised with a sinking feeling, would they phone her mother to tell her that she'd gone missing?
It was a hot night, much hotter than back in England and her sheets were becoming damp with sweat. It would be impossible to sleep like this. She kicked them off and went to open one of the windows, thinking that she it might help to get some cooler air into the room.
A couple of leaves blew into the room and landed at the bottom of the bed, but now she'd cooled down a little, Lydia found that she couldn't be bothered to clean them up and so allowed them to swirl around her ankles as she got back into bed. But even when she'd settled down again, the leaves continued to spin round and more flew in through the window to join them, twisting upwards until they formed a figure. It wasn't particularly dark in the room so Lydia could make out the features of this figure made from leaves; arms, legs, even a face. Thinking that nothing could surprise her after this, she simply allowed the figure to walk through the room towards her. A soft music started to fill the room and Lydia found that eyes were suddenly very heavy. The leaf figure was still floating through the room and Lydia wanted to ask its name but her exhausted mind was starting to shut down so instead she closed her eyes and allowed herself to finally drift off to sleep.
When she woke again, the window was shut and the leaves were gone.
#
"I think someone needs to tell me exactly what is going on here." Lydia said after Susan had barely got out a good morning. "Where am I and how am I going to get back?"
The siblings looked at each other uneasily. They were all sat around the table and had been halfway through breakfast when Lydia had come in. She would have come sooner but it took her a while to actually find the Pevensie's main dining hall even after asking for directions from a passing faun. Fauns, it seemed, were a normal occurrence here in Narnia and they seemed nice enough, if a little enthusiastic. She had been startled awake by one this morning who had also had to help her get into the dress she'd been given to wear, one of Lucy's. It was a far cry from the shirt and jeans she'd been wearing only yesterday.
"Where do you want us to start?" Peter asked setting down his knife and fork.
"At the beginning, preferably."
"You might want to sit down then." he said indicating to a chair. He waited for her to do so before saying.
"The land you're in now is Narnia, which is a completely different world to Earth but can be reached through it. We came through a wardrobe several years ago." he gestured to his three siblings who were all sat on the other side of the large oak table to Lydia, watching her. The whole thing felt a little bit like an interrogation.
"After helping Narnia free itself from a tyrant queen, we were installed as rulers of Narnia and have been here in Cair Pavarel ever since." Peter said and Lydia frowned at his simple tone. He acted like this was all so normal.
"And are you going to go back?" she asked and there was a moments pause, long enough for it to become slightly awkward and for Lydia to realise that perhaps she'd touched upon a sensitive topic.
"We're needed here." Peter said finally and Lydia frowned but said nothing.
"Why am I here then?" she asked and Peter shrugged. "Your guess is as good as ours. We can only assume that you are also needed here. You've already been incredibly helpful in helping us catch those Calormen spies."
"We need to talk to you about that, actually." Susan said, leaning forward in her chair.
"What you told us yesterday about Lucy or I marrying the Prince of Calormen was deeply disturbing. Can you remember anything else that was said, anything at all?"
Lydia thought for a moment. "I think I told you everything I could remember." she said eventually. "They had been sent by that prince to come and claim his "betrothed" and that the queen of Narnia "belonged" to him. I think they fancied themselves as heroes."
Susan frowned, "How are we only hearing about this now? We've had no messages or delegates from Calormen for several months. I've only met the prince once."
"Yes but I haven't met him at all." Lucy said "You're the eldest Susan; it would make sense for him to want you."
"It doesn't matter who he wants." Peter said, his cheeks colouring, "If he thinks he can waltz in here and take one of the queens of Narnia, then he is sorely mistaken. I think I'm going to go and have a word with these Calormen spies again." He rose from his chair and almost jogged out the room, leaving the other four, sitting in silence staring at the forgotten breakfast.
"Lydia you should really eat something." Susan said pushing a bowl of fruit towards her. "I'm sorry about that. Peter is incredibly protective of those he loves and sometimes has quite a temper on him." She sighed and picked up a spoon to resume eating.
"Personally, I think everyone is taking this to an extremity." Edmund said leaning across the table to grab the marmalade and almost elbowing Lucy in the face. "Sorry"
He grinned at her, not sounding the least bit apologetic and laughed when she pulled a face at him.
"What do you mean?" Susan asked, still staring thoughtfully into her bowl.
"We've all received plenty of marriage proposals before, I don't see how this will turn out to be any different, especially since we caught the perpetrators." He paused to spoon some of the marmalade onto his bread. "You've never been fond of any of your suitors, Susan. It shouldn't be any harder to refuse this one, even if he is a little more stubborn." He'd turned back to his plate by this point so Lydia was only one to see Susan blush. She chose to say nothing and merely took a sip of her water.
The rest of the meal was finished in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts until Lucy eventually put her plate away and looked at Lydia with a gleam in her eyes.
"Come on, we can show you the rest of the castle. There's so much that you haven't seen." she said and started to rise out of her seat.
Lydia frowned. "Hang on, we never talked about how I'm going to get back home." Susan stood up to start clearing the table and two badgers (Lydia did her best to hide her shock), appeared from nowhere to help her.
"There's plenty of time, we can talk about that later." she said over the clattering plates. "From the look on your face, I think you need to see a bit more of Narnia. Do you want to come with us Edmund?" she turned to her brother who hastily drained his goblet before standing up.
"I have sword practice." he muttered before rushing out the door and down the hallway.
"We could start there too." Lucy said as they listened to the sound of Edmund's retreating footsteps, Susan shaking her head. "We could go and see some of the tree spirits."
"I think I may have seen one already" Lydia said slowly thinking of the unexpected guest in her room last night. "I couldn't sleep and it sang to me."
"No it must have been a dryad." Lucy said as the three of them walked down the hallway. "Although that is an awfully long way for a dryad to go away from her tree, especially for a stranger." Her eyebrows narrowed in concentration and Lydia wasn't sure how to respond to that; it wasn't her fault that this dryad had left its tree.
By now they'd reached the main entrance hall that she'd come in through last night and Lucy and Susan led Lydia out of the castle and into the grounds that lay before them.
"There'll be some tree spirits in the forest over there." Lucy said pointing a mass of dark green trees. "Then we can go and see some of the soldiers train if you like. I think it might help you to get your head around everything that goes on here." She stopped to pick a flower. "The wildlife here is quite similar to Earth only with talking animals and some creatures that you will associate with mythology." She pressed the flower into Lydia's hand and grinned. "You'll soon get used to it."
Lydia looked down at the flower in her hand; a daisy. 'I don't want to get used to it' she thought but chose not to say anything and instead sped up to catch up to Susan and Lucy, crushing the flower with her shoe as she went past.
When she caught up to them, Lucy and Susan were stood at the edge of the forest. Lucy was laughing and as Lydia got nearer, she saw that one of the trees on the edge of the forest had a face carved into it. It was a tall oak tree and the face had a large round face with a bulbous nose and bushy eyebrows; to Lydia it looked a little bit like a carving of Father Christmas, only without the white beard.
"This is a wood spirit." Lucy said indicating to the tree, "They can't leave their trees, you see."
Lydia nodded moved closer to examine the intricate carving but to her shock, the mouth lifted upwards and the face smiled at her, seemingly moving on its own away from the rest of the tree.
"You are a Daughter of Eve!" he (she'd decided it was a he) said in a deep booming voice. It was more of a statement than a question.
Lydia shook her head. "I don't know an Eve." she said looking round at the others for help.
"No dear it's the Narnian term for humans." Susan leant over to whisper as the tree, or rather the face, Lydia wasn't entirely sure of the correct term, began to speak again.
"You hear the voices." it said and Lydia nodded quickly. She couldn't actually hear anything at the moment, despite being so near trees but she somehow knew he was referring to the whispers of "Aslan" that's she'd been hearing from the painting in her grandparents house and now some of the trees in Narnia.
"You have been chosen." the tree said and then before Lydia could respond, his eyes closed and his face slid round the other side of the trunk.
Lydia walked round the other side of the trunk. "What do you mean?" she said sharply but the face refused to answer, its eyes still closed. She put her hands on the rough bark and for one small moment was tempted to hit it, to try and get a response.
There were so many questions she had that no one was willing to answer. All she wanted was to go home and be left in relative peace..
"Lydia, is everything alright?" Susan came round and saw Lydia staring at the face in the tree, its eyes still firmly shut.
"I wouldn't worry too much about what he said. Wood spirits tend to be quite vague." Susan said as they walked back round to where Lucy was waiting.
"Do you know what he meant by hearing voices?" Lucy asked. "It's alright if you do" she added hastily, "We can fix that."
Lydia looked at her and at Susan who was pretending not to listen yet still had the same look of excitement written on her face that Lucy had. To them, this was an adventure, a mystery to be solved.
"No I didn't have clue what any of it meant, that's why I was so confused." she lied smoothly. "I don't think I've been here long enough to hear voices."
Susan smiled and nodded but Lucy didn't look entirely convinced, giving Lydia a strange look. She opened her mouth to ask Lydia something else but suddenly Susan stuck her hand in the air and waved "Edmund, we're over here!" making both Lucy and Lydia turn round to watch the youngest brother jog over to meet them.
"I wondered where you three got to." he said as he came to a stop in front of them. He was still carrying a sword and his face was flushed and his hair damp from sweat. Lydia briefly wondered if his hair was natural, it was the deepest ebony black she'd ever seen and seemed to take on a life of its own.
Edmund met Lydia's eyes and she felt her face flame up as she quickly looked down.
"I've just been practicing with Oreius." he said, eyes still on Lydia. "Do you want to have a go? We could make a mini tournament out of it."
His question was more directed at Susan but it was Lucy who answered.
"Maybe another time Edmund, there are still lots of things I want to show Lydia."
She grabbed Lydia's arm forcing her to look up again, "You have to see the mer-people. They're so beautiful and really friendly."
Lydia shrugged her off. "Well I thought maybe you could show me how to get home, so I could leave tomorrow morning perhaps. My folks at home will be tearing their hair out by now "
The statement sounded more like a question and not for the first time that day, the siblings exchanged uneasy glances.
"Actually I think I'll accept your offer Edmund." Susan said suddenly, "I could do with some practice in hand to hand combat." Edmund nodded quickly and the three siblings started to walk over to where several animals were fighting with an assortment of weapons.
Lydia watched the three of them go and felt her temper rising at their avoidance of her question again.
She ran up and turned to face the three of them
"I can cope with the centaurs and the dwarves, I can cope with tree spirits or dryads or whatever they are claiming that I am somehow different to everyone else visiting me, I can cope with living in a castle with royals no older than myself! But what I cannot come to terms with is how nobody seems to be willing to help me get home. You all change the subject the minute I try and bring it up."
Lydia said, her voice rising and causing some of the animals to stop their training and look up.
Susan, Lucy and Edmund looked at each other for a moment, none of them daring to make eye contact with Lydia whose eyes were flashing furiously, her mouth set in a determined grimace. She'd played their little games, answered their questions about those three spies, gone on a tour of the grounds. She'd even spent time talking to trees. Precious time had been wasted, time that she could've used to get back safely before anyone told her mother she was missing.
No, Narnia had definitely been an experience, an interesting one at that but now it was time for her to go home.
"Lydia, we're terribly sorry to have avoided you're question all day. It wasn't fair of us." Susan said sounding genuinely upset.
"It doesn't matter now." Lydia said. "I just need you to tell how I can go home to my family where I'm needed."
Lucy's shoe scuffed against the ground, her and Edmund still not looking directly at Lydia and Susan's voice began to shake:
"I'm sorry, I should have told you straight away, I just didn't want to hurt you."
"Tell me what?"
Susan looked up at her sadly. "I don't think you can go home."