DRINIAN AND HIS MEN filter into the town square one by one, donned in hooded blue robes to hide among the buyers. From my perch upon the bordering wall, I can see the governor lounging on his golden throne below and the traders as they line up the chained slaves like meat for sale at a market.
When I returned with news of their capture, Drinian called for immediate backup from the crew aboard the Dawn Treader, then began framing a plan. He and a handful of other men would hide amongst the slave buyers during the auction while the rest of the crew snuck around Narrowhaven dispatching any pirates or traders they encountered. When Edmund and Caspian are taken from their cell, they'll attack the traders in the square and create the distraction they need to free themselves.
Everyone is in place, and with the auction starting any second now, all we're waiting for is Edmund and Caspian to put our rescue into motion.
"Good afternoon," one of the traders announces to the crowd. "Governor Gumpas would like to thank you all for your support today; your purchases continue to keep the Islands prosperous and rich for years to come."
"Here here!" The buyers cheer and applaud themselves heartily.
"We'll now start the bidding with this strapping young man." At his request, the first slave is brought forth onto a wooden pedestal and the bidding commences.
"Thirty!"
"I've got thirty-five!"
"Thirty-five! Anyone for forty?"
"Aye, forty here!"
"Fifty!"
The auction goes on, money passed around and slaves moving between owners until Lucy is dragged forward as the next sale.
"This one's a pretty lass," the trader grins, urging her onto the wooden pedestal like a prize goat. "We'll start her off at fifty."
"Here!"
"I bid sixty!"
My heart starts to pound furiously. Those men are looking at her with something awful in their eyes. They haven't looked at any of the boys like that, and I'm not blind as to the reason why. Already, the bidding is high and only climbing still.
"One-hundred for the little lady!"
"One-hundred and twenty!"
"One-hundred and fifty!"
Silence fills the square.
"Any more bids?" When he receives no response, the trader places a 'sold' sign around Lucy's neck and pushes her off the pedestal for Eustace to take her place. That's when I feel a pull from Edmund. I can't mistake it for anything else — they're finally being taken from the dungeon.
I spread my falcon wings and leap from my perch, making sure to meet Drinian's gaze as I glide over the square. That's my signal. He and the others will be preparing to engage any second.
I alight on top of a tower where Edmund and Caspian's weapons are stored away. While reinforcements were arriving from the ship earlier, I had snuck into the bell tower and stolen their confiscated belongings before they could be sold off. Edmund and Lucy would have been devastated to lose their few possessions from the Golden Age. I knew I had to find them before it was too late.
While the traders attempt to pawn Eustace at any possible price, I see a handful of pirates emerge from the dungeon entrance with the Narnian kings in tow, along with a terribly old man I can't recognize.
My wings beat anxiously against the warm air and a sharp cry escapes my throat, prompting Drinian and his men to throw off their disguises and draw their weapons. I hear children scream and citizens furiously race inside their houses for safety, Governor Gumpas shouting for his men to attack. Battle ensues in the town square below. By the time I look back at their pirate guards, Edmund and Caspian have already begun to overpower them.
Closing my talons around the satchel of reclaimed weapons, I take off toward them with another screeching cry.
Edmund looks up at me, grins, and drives his elbow into his captor's jaw so he crumples to the ground. Another is upon him with a sword and he quickly uses the chains of his shackles as a shield.
Caspian is fending off two guards at a time so I dive low on my approach, releasing the satchel to skid along the floor toward Edmund and taking on my panther form. My speed lets me slide across the stone to knock out the legs of a pirate, leaving Caspian to take out the other.
Ed retrieves his sword and advances on the pirate holding the keys while another emerges from the dungeon behind him. Snarling, I launch myself at his legs, tackling the pirate into the wall and knocking him unconscious.
"A little help!"
I spin back around to help Caspian with a guard that's rushed up the stairs from the town square. He raises his hands to deflect the sword with his shackles, keeping his attacker at bay while I race along the gallery to leap upon the pirate's chest and send him down, head cracking against the stone.
"Thanks," he says breathlessly, turns to Edmund, "keys."
Ed tosses them through the portico and grabs the bag of weapons. The old man is with him, unshackled and stricken with shock. I resolve to ask about it later and climb atop the gallery's ledge, prowling for a target.
The square is amass with fallen slave traders and both the crew and Narrowhaven citizens fighting off the last few of them together. Among them is Lucy, alive and well, helping to free the other slaves. The Governor, however, I catch creeping from the battle and toward the dock with bags of money clutched in his hands. Coward.
I leap down onto a low roof below me and gallop after him, determined to hold the pig accountable for selling and sacrificing innocent people.
Gumpas hears me coming and turns around, shrieking in fear. He runs, but with four legs I'm faster and quickly overtake him, leaping onto his back and sending him to the ground. Gold coins scatter in all directions.
"Get off! Wretched beast!" He struggles under my weight and I can't help but sink my claws into his arm the tiniest bit, making him cry out.
"You're a pig," I snarl.
As if a dagger to his throat, the words cease his squirming immediately. "Narnian," he spits after a moment. "Come to claim my riches?"
I splay my paw against the side of his head. "I'm here for the mother you fed to the green mist," I tell him, striking his head against the ground. The governor falls limp beneath me and I climb off him, spotting Eustace scrambling toward the port ahead.
"Eustace!"
The boy whirls around, tripping on his feet as he does so. His panicked eyes land on me. "You just– Leave me alone!" He cries, taking off again toward the longboats.
I consider going after him but I'm confident he doesn't know how to operate a longboat anyways. Still, I shout after him, "Don't lay a hand on those boats!"
When I return to the town square to help with the fight, I find that it's already over; the traders have been defeated and the citizens of Narrowhaven are cheering. I scan for casualties among my friends, but the Narnians have only suffered a few injuries of which Lucy is already tending to.
Edmund and I find each other at the same time, a relieved smile lifting the corner of his mouth when our eyes meet. A moment later, he starts searching for something amid the crowd and I turn toward Tavros and Rithar, who are busy putting the slave traders in chains.
Rithar spots me approaching them and stops what he's doing out of shock. "Witchslayer?" He asks, uncertainty lining his voice.
I dip my head in answer. "Do you have another set of shackles?"
Frowning, he locks a pair of cuffs around the wrists of an unconscious trader and nods. "Sure."
"Good. The Governor is in need of some." I lift my paw to point down the street Gumpas is still lying in. "He's waiting just down there."
Tavros grunts a laugh, retrieving a set of shackles. "I'll take care of him," he says, striding past me.
I mutter my thanks, turning back to the square in search of Edmund. Where did he go?
A loud wave of applause rises from the crowd of gathered people, their cheers echoing off the surrounding stone walls and gathering in the air above. Caspian emerges, smiling broadly as he steps onto the wooden pedestal before Gumpas's throne.
"People of Narrowhaven!" He begins. "I am King Caspian the Tenth of Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Islands. I have come to mend our broken union and restore the Narnian Empire."
Surprised murmurs arise. Families cautiously emerge from their homes to hear what Caspian has to say, holding their children close as if something lurking in the shadows might snatch them away.
"Your governor has permitted the Lone Islands to fall into disrepair and become a centre of slavery and fear, feeding you to the mist rather than protecting you from it. Today, this abominable corruption comes to an end."
"He better hurry up before it comes back and takes all of us," Rithar grumbles, glancing around the square anxiously. He wants to be back on the ship and sailing far away from here — from the mist — as soon as possible.
While Caspian continues his speech and promises of prosperity, Edmund appears, weaving his way between everyone with a blue robe in his arms — one of the disguises Drinian's men used earlier. My heart soars, remembering all the times he'd taken the shirt off his back for me. How I still have the tunic he gave me when we first met on that beach, wearing it anytime I couldn't sleep or missed him so much the hole in my chest felt cavernous and ever-reaching.
"I thought you might want to change back," he says, unfurling the robe in the air.
I look only at him, radiant warmth surging through my bones as a dazzling smile grows on his face. In answer, I pad forward so he can kneel down and throw it over my back.
Even though no one but Rithar is paying attention to us, Edmund still stands close to me, his body a shield while I return to my human form and stick my arms through the sleeves. Instantly, he pulls the front closed for me and smirks.
"You look like an old lady going to a cult meeting."
I snort, reining in the urge to give myself the wrinkles and wiry grey hair of an old hag. "You wanna see old?"
Ed pulls a face, feigning disgust. "Definitely not," he chuckles, placing a hand on his sword pommel and returning his focus to Caspian's speech.
I look up at him for a second longer, admiring the sun in his tousled hair and the freckles on his skin. I wonder if one day I'll forget this moment like I have so many others. So I make sure to take in as much as I can and rise onto my toes to gently kiss his cheek.
Edmund turns his head and grins, blushing the slightest bit.
"Thank you," I tell him.
━━━༻❁༺━━━
On this day, the Governorship of the Lone Islands is abolished. Caspian appoints Bern, the old man from the dungeon, as its first Duke, allowing Gumpas one day to vacate Narrowhaven and imprisoning the rest of the slave traders. The King of Narnia then declares every slave upon the soil of the Lone Islands a free person, expunging the illegal market of slavery for good.
Bern, as Edmund tells me at the feast that night, is one of the seven lost lords we've been searching for. He and Caspian had met him earlier in the day while locked in the dungeons. Apparently, years ago, the seven lords had made port at Narrowhaven on their voyage and learned of the mist, vowing to destroy it. Bern, however, was imprisoned before he could set sail, leaving the six other lords to continue east without him. For sixteen years, he was kept in the dungeon. I do wonder whether it was a good idea to appoint him as Duke of the Islands, but in the end, I trust Caspian's judgement.
For the next three days, while the Dawn Treader is inspected and repaired and stocked with provisions and fresh water, Caspian questions the local sailors about the mist and any rumours of land to the east. On the first day, I accompany him to inquire as well about any chimæra sightings. When this proves hopeless and without merit, Lucy and Edmund coerce me to join them on a grand tour of the Islands as they remember them, travelling all across Doorn and Avra.
We visit Felimath on our third and final day.
"Always save the best for last!" Lucy sings, retreiving a basket of food from the beached longboat.
"The best?" Eustace repeats indignantly. "This island looks like it hasn't a single person on it!"
Edmund shoots me a pained look. "I can't imagine why anyone would want to go someplace without any people," he mutters sarcastically.
I snort into my hand, grabbing a second basket from the boat before we begin our trek inland. Of course, Lucy had insisted that their cousin come with us today rather than pester the crew and get himself into trouble in Narrowhaven. Spending the day with Eustace Scrubb complaining about the abominable lack of decent lavatories has so far been awful, as expected. But I'm hopeful he'll find some bugs to chase around and leave us to ourselves (Edmund had told me his cousin liked to collect insects).
When we reach the soft grass Lucy has been gushing to me about all morning, she kicks off her shoes and walks barefoot the rest of the way.
"Ugh," Eustace says in disgust. "That is outrageously unhygienic! Do you've any idea the germs you're letting all over yourself?"
As if in silent agreement to irritate him further, Edmund and I stoop down simultaneously to take our shoes off. The complaints intensify but Lucy and I laugh loudly and pawn our baskets onto Ed so we can race each other up the nearest hill. We reach the top where the rest of Felimath and the grazing sheep can be seen and the glittering eastern ocean stretches to the horizon in all directions, we catch our breath through our dying laughter.
I glance back at the boys, receiving a vengeful glare from the Pevensie boy that only makes me laugh again.
"Why is he so awful all the time?" Lucy murmurs tiredly.
I'm surprised to hear her admitting such a thing. Lucy is never the one to say outright how dreadful Eustace is, or even think it for that matter.
She lowers herself to the grass, chewing on her lip in thought. "He must have some good in him right?" Her blue eyes fall on mine. "Aslan wouldn't have brought him here if he was bad all the way through."
I think for a moment, even though I'm convinced it was just poor timing that brought him here. "I guess so."
We watch the boys climb the hill to reach us, Eustace's squawking complaints reaching our ears and shattering the silence of Felimath.
A loud sigh falls from Lucy's lips. "I hope he finds it soon," she says.
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author's note
yeesh this chapter took me forever I'm sorry. but i did spend a lot of time planning/plotting the finer details of this book so at least there's that! lots of stuff happening soon!
Q: do you guys like the parts of the book where nothing plot-driving happens and it's just, like, the characters hanging out? or 'a day in the life of arryn on the voyage'? because most novels generally cut out any scenes that don't drive the plot forward, and I feel like I write a lot of scenes that don't drive the plot at all. so should I get rid of them/reduce them from now on and use more timeskips? or do y'all really really like them?
because here's the thing: if i get rid of everything that doesn't drive the plot, we're left with just the movie plus a handful of original scenes to follow the chimæra subplot. but (correct me if I'm wrong) y'all aren't here to read a novelization of the movie, you're here for edryn…right?
there's a fine line fanfiction authors must walk in these circumstances and i am questioning my choices atm. pls help a girl out and lmk what you are reading chimæra for :)
thank you a ton for all the follows/favorites/reviews! y'all make me so happy!