Ummm...hi...it's been almost two months and I am incredibly sorry! I was finishing up exams at Uni, moving back home for the summer, then I was visiting my grandparents, and starting my summer job back up and completely lost track of time and didn't have much chance to write or read. Anyway, I am back with this chapter and will try to get the next on up in a more reasonable amount of time as well.
Inna: Sorry for the heartbreak! So sorry it has taken me so long to update as well, I hope you are still interested in finding out who has been killed and what is going on with Edmund. :-) Thanks for reading!
Aslan's Daughter: The Tarkheena is very silly...more on her to come. So glad you liked Gale! I am immensely enjoying building his character and there is definitely more to come for him as well. As for Edmund the Bard...that's actually part of the prequel to this story that goes into more detail on the events in Tashbaan, Emreth and Obridesh's backstory, and a tournament where Ed does some spying while disguised as a bard. And yes, I am already working on it, so am planning to post it after this story is complete. :-)
Kaladin: Wow! Thank you so much for your kind words! That is an impressive compliment :-). I hope you enjoy these upcoming chapters as well.
Susan knelt in one of the broad hallways of Cair Paravel, her skirt billowing out around her in a perfect circle on the stone floor, and her head bowed over a crumpled figure before her. Her hands were clenched into fists, fingers clutching the fabric of her dress, and Lucy could see her shoulders shaking with silent, nearly stifled sobs.
Peter and Edmund stood together in a dimly lit corridor, Brickle barely visible in the shadows behind Peter. Rhindon gleamed in Peter's hand and Edmund carried a torch and an unfamiliar blade, curved like a Calormene scimitar. They both looked pale and worn, and as Lucy watched Edmund staggered suddenly, as if struck, and the torch dropped from his hand and went out as it struck the floor. Lucy stumbled in the sudden darkness and tried to call out to her brothers, but already she felt the scene fading, rushing away from her as if it were being pulled away at a great speed.
Suddenly she was running through the dust and noise of a crowded marketplace, and it was only then that she realised the other visions had been silent and insubstantial. Noise seemed to assault her from every side. Wind, warm and smelling of the sea, brushed past her face as she ran, and she realised that she was barefoot, the warmth of the cobblestones solid and comforting beneath the calloused soles of her feet. Her hair tore free from the loose braid that had held it and flew free around her face as she dodged between merchant stalls and ducked around heavily laden donkey carts.
Glancing over, Lucy saw that Rhegus was running next to her, but he was far younger than she had ever seen him, and far wilder. His hair was long, pulled back from his face and secured with a thin strip of leather, and bright red—untouched by the streaks of grey she was familiar with. His face was unlined and youthful, though currently strained with the effort of evading pursuit and Lucy could hear his uneven, gasping breaths.
He ducked around a corner, with Lucy following, and she heard him curse breathlessly and realised that he could not see her—she was dreaming as she had been before when she had seen her family, though this dream felt far more real.
The alleyway ended abruptly in a tall, brick wall, that must have been the reason for Rhegus' muttered curse, and he skidded to a stop, nearly crashing into the barrier. He threw a desperate look over his shoulder and when Lucy followed the direction of his gaze she could see the gleaming helmets of soldiers bobbing above the market crowd, parting the people effortlessly as they advanced.
The alleyway was narrow, lined with abandoned merchant's stalls, but there did not seem to be other pathways branching out from it. Rhegus was trapped and Lucy felt a flutter of fear for her friend. It was just a dream, she knew that, but the reality and clarity of it was startling. She could feel the grit on the stones beneath her feet, the stir of the breeze through her tangled hair, and every detail of Rhegus' face was thrown into sharp relief by the midday sun—exactly as it would be if the scene before her were real.
Rhegus turned, his face set in an expression of grim resolve, back pressed against the bricks of the wall and feet planted firmly. He was unarmed, Lucy saw then, and remembered what he had told her of his time as a pirate. He had not been a killer, he had not been the type to carry weapons and to use them without thought to the lives he took. Somehow the dream had become a nightmare, Lucy realised as she stood frozen, watching her friend about to meet his death.
A hand appeared from the tattered silks that draped one of the abandoned stalls and closed over Rhegus' wrist, pulling at him. Rhegus spun, his eyes wild and Lucy was again struck by how young he looked, and how frightened. This was not the experienced, weathered sea captain she knew—this was a boy, alone and frightened, hemmed in by enemies, and defenceless.
"This way!" called a voice, low, urgent, and undeniably that of a girl. Rhegus relaxed visibly, though his eyes remained wary, and he pushed through the silks, following the slight figure whose hand was still clamped around his wrist. It was dark behind the stall, but Lucy could see the faint outline of an opening in the brick wall of the alleyway. It wasn't a doorway exactly, it looked more like a section of the wall had collapsed unevenly, making a small gap in the barrier that led back out into the sunlight and bustle of the marketplace.
Rhegus hesitated, pulling away from the girl's grip slightly, and Lucy knew what he was wondering. Could he trust her? How was he to know if she was not merely leading him back towards another troupe of guards? Lucy could hear the tramp of the other guards' booted feet behind them and knew that they were close. The stall would not hide them if the guards searched, and surely they would search—they would see at once that the wall was too high for Rhegus to have scaled it. The only chance of escape lay with the shadowed figure of the girl, and Lucy could see the moment when Rhegus realised that too. His shoulders straightened, as if he were bracing himself for the inevitable moment of his death, and he let the girl pull him forward, through the gap in the wall, and back into the blinding sunlight of the street beyond.
Lucy followed and caught a clear glimpse of the girl for the first time. She was slender, dressed in the bright, flowing garments of the Island nobility, and there was a scarf of pale gold silk wrapped around her head, hiding her hair and her face beneath it. She hurried on, pulling Rhegus after her urgently, and Lucy was about to follow when a hand descended on her shoulder, shaking her.
15th. of Greenroof, 1012—Second-day
She opened her eyes to the pale light of dawn and saw Rhegus bending over her, his hand on her shoulder. His face was lined and weathered, his hair shorter, wild, and streaked with grey, but she could still see the striking resemblance to the young man he had been in her dream. How odd, she thought, still clinging to the threads of the vivid images that spun behind her eyes, to have dreamed something that seemed so real.
"Queen Lucy, it's the pirates, your majesty. They 'ave come back." He said it in the same resigned, unhappy tone as someone might have said "It's a horde of locusts, your majesty, and they've come to eat all of our crops, and possibly us as well." Lucy, however, had never been happier to have someone announce the arrival of pirates.
She was fully awake in a moment, and had leapt to her feet almost before Rhegus finished speaking. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, appearing fondly resigned to her high spirits.
"Where are they?" Lucy asked, restraining herself from bouncing on her toes like an excited three-year-old with some difficulty. Really, Lucy! Susan's voice scolded from somewhere in her memory. You must learn to be poised. Lucy sometimes spared a moment to despair that she would ever be poised, but currently counted it a small victory that her feet remained firmly planted on the sandy beach—even if her feet were bare and her hair was gritty with sand.
Rhegus regarded her with the same fondly indulgent look that often graced the features of her older brothers, and pointed across the expanse of water, glimmering faintly in the dawn light, to where a triple-masted ship with golden sails was just visible in the distance. Lucy squinted at it, rubbing the last of the sleep from her eyes, and frowned.
"How can you tell it's the pirates? I can't see a standard or anything to indicate what banner they sail under." In fact, the ship was still so far away that it was rather difficult to tell anything about it, except its size and the unusual colour of its sails. Rhegus would have needed truly remarkable eyesight to have spotted something she had not.
Rhegus sighed, and ran his hands through his hair again, standing it on end as if he had just been dragged backwards through a hedge. "The captain, your majesty, 'e always sails wi' no banner an' golden sails on 'is ships. Balthasar's uncommon vain, even for a pirate," he added, a hint of disdain colouring his voice.
Lucy was surprised by his tone. She knew Rhegus had broken with the pirates to become an honest sailor, but she had supposed he might still harbour some fondness for the captain who had saved him from begging in the streets all those years ago.
"Is he so bad?" she asked, still squinting at the distant sails, though they seemed much closer now than they had a few moments before—the ship was sailing fast, driven by a strong morning wind.
"'E's not so bad, Queen Lucy," Rhegus allowed with another sigh, "But ye 'ave to understand, 'e's lost a lot in 'is life, an 'e doesn't much care for royals. 'E may not hate ye as such, but I wouldn't set much store by 'is being 'elpful."
Lucy considered for a moment, but even Rhegus' continued warning could not lessen the hope sight of the sails had stirred within her. After three days stranded on the Island tempers were running high, and Lucy had begun to fear that, if the pirates did not return soon, at least some of the ongoing disagreements were likely to come to blows.
There was little food—a few stringy rabbits caught in makeshift traps, berries and roots gathered from the distant grove of trees, and a handful of stale loaves smuggled from the Hyaline in the general confusion following the pirates' attack. There was plenty of water, but it had to be carried from the distant grove as well, and many of the quarrels the sprang up concerned who ought to be responsible for making the journey to the grove.
Most troubling of all to Lucy was the continuing tension between Merton, the Faun captain of the guard, and Rhegus. Merton had always been loyal and capable, but Lucy could see that he was struggling with the realisation that Rhegus had been a pirate, had lied to his sovereigns about his identity for years, and was now relying on his connections with his questionably moral former shipmates to help his Queen.
Lucy could see the validity of his concerns, but she could not bring herself to share them. Rhegus was loyal, he was her friend, and she trusted him entirely. It was concerning however, that Merton seemed unable to understand any of this and had resorted to sulking most of the time and barely speaking unless giving distinctly cross sounding orders to his soldiers. It was endlessly frustrating to Lucy that she was unable to stop the whispers questioning Rhegus' motives and loyalty that were constantly spreading through the makeshift camp and she found herself sighing, not for the first time, as she eagerly watched the approaching sail.
At last! Being inactive had never suited Lucy and here, finally, was the opportunity for useful action she had been waiting for.
"How are we to know that this...this pirate is trustworthy, your majesty?" Lucy had not heard Captain Merton approach and his voice startled her more than she would have liked. The Faun was standing behind them, arms crossed over his chest and face set in an unmistakably hostile expression as he watched Rhegus. Lucy could not doubt that the guard was not speaking of the approaching pirate captain, but rather of Rhegus, and she felt the tall sea captain tense beside her, as if expecting a blow.
"Perhaps," the Faun continued stubbornly, his voice tight with barely controlled rage, "He is simply turning us over to be killed or ransomed now that our identities are known."
Lucy gritted her teeth, holding back a scathing comment with difficulty. How dare he! Her hands were shaking, and she clenched them into fists at her sides. Few Narnians had ever seen her truly furious and Susan had always counseled her that it was better this way.
"Take a breath, keep your face calm; think before you speak and say something that cannot be unsaid." Lucy took a shaky breath and forced her hands to relax. Susan always knew what to do, even when she wasn't there, and Lucy spared a moment to be grateful for her years of counsel.
"Captain Merton, I can assure you that Captain Rhegus is not plotting to turn us over for ransom. It was my idea to speak with the pirates and request passage from them and I am certain it will reassure you to hear that the good Captain was very opposed to the idea and has done all in his power to dissuade me from such a course of action." She kept her voice even with difficulty, but knew there was little she could do about her expression—her face had always betrayed her moods, no matter how hard she had tried to force it to remain blank and neutral.
Merton shifted his hooves uneasily and glanced from Lucy to Rhegus, and back again. Lucy thought his expression, half disbelief and half horrified fear, would likely have been amusing to her brothers, perhaps even to Susan, but she felt her anger fade at the sight of it, replaced by grudging sympathy. She knew he had meant to challenge Rhegus, not her, and was now horrified to discover that the plan he had openly spoken out against had been his Queen's plan all along. A few of the other guards, those newest to Cair Paravel and most unfamiliar with the ways of their rulers, edged away from the unfortunate Faun, as if expecting him to be struck down for his blunder.
Lucy sighed. This was what she hated most about ruling, this fear that she would suddenly strike out against those who served her, those who had her best interests at heart, however misguided they might be.
"I do beg your pardon, your majesty," Merton said, a little unsteadily. He had been at Cair Paravel for years, and Lucy supposed he knew that she wasn't about to have him exiled or executed, but he did seem to realise that he had gone too far. "I meant no offence." The implied "to you" hung so heavily in the air that Lucy wondered if everyone was aware of it, but she let the statement stand and nodded.
Already her anger had faded to a faint annoyance, and she felt her fists unclench and let her shoulders relax. "Gather the others," she told him, smiling to ease the remaining tension that ran through the small cluster of guards around her and the two captains.
Merton nodded, saluted smartly, and hurried away, the cluster of guards trailing after him, already beginning to talk of other things with the air of men who were desperately trying to change the subject from something unpleasant to something slightly less dangerous. Lucy watched them go with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach—she hated to be the cause for their discomfort.
Rhegus whistled between his teeth, patted his pockets distractedly as if searching for his pipe, and then shook his grizzled head. "Ye 'aven't 'eard the last o' 'im, Queen Lucy," he said wearily, and Lucy nodded.
"I know, and I know he means well, I just wish—" she trailed off and shrugged, turning her gaze back to the ocean. She might not have been angry anymore, but her previous good spirits had yet to return. She felt tired and irritable—her skin seemed to crawl with a nervous foreboding. Something was wrong, not here, not now on the beach with the sun rising, golden above the water, but somewhere and urgently.
She fixed her eyes on the golden sails, plainly visible now, nearly close enough that the ship would have to drop anchor and send out a landing party in the boats. Illogically she remembered her dream, the younger Rhegus running through the streets of an island city and the girl who had caught his hand. She wanted to ask, heard Susan's ever-present warning not to pry into other peoples' business, and bit her lip to keep the question from tumbling out anyway.
Rhegus pulled out his pipe and clamped the stem between his teeth, frowning over at her, brows furrowed in thought. "Wha' is i', Queen Lucy?"
Lucy sighed—Rhegus always knew when she had a question she wanted to ask and was forcing herself not to and she couldn't help wondering how he knew. She had to ask her question now—he didn't mind, or he wouldn't have said anything, of course, he couldn't know what she was going to ask yet. Maybe he will mind, maybe he'll be angry. She glanced over quickly. Rhegus didn't look like someone who was about to fly into a rage over a potentially troublesome question.
"Was Estelle wearing gold when you met her?"
Rhegus raised a hand, very slowly, and took the pipe from between his teeth. Lucy watched as he turned it in his hands, examining every detail of the stem and bowl before slipping it back into his pocket. After another long moment he nodded slowly, and ran a hand through his hair. "How did ye know, if ye don't mind my askin'?" He didn't sound angry, or sad, but his accent had thickened perceptibly, and Lucy felt as if she had done something terribly cruel by asking him.
"I—" Lucy paused, considering what she should say. If what she had seen was real then it must be like the visions Aslan had shown her a few days before, and if Aslan had seen fit to show her then there must have been a reason. "Aslan came to me, my first day here," she said at last, making up her mind to tell him the whole story. "He showed me things, in the water of that pool I found, and then last night I dreamed that I was running through a marketplace on one of the islands, and you were there. There were guards chasing you and you ran into an alleyway that ended in a wall—there was no way out. I thought you were going to be caught and killed," she admitted, shuddering slightly at the memory. Of course, her fear didn't make much sense to her now that she was awake and knew Rhegus had survived and was standing beside her, but at the time it had been a terrible thing to contemplate.
Rhegus was watching her with a very strange expression, half wariness and half amazement, on his sun-browned face, and Lucy wished she knew what he was thinking. He still didn't seem angry and she hoped that she wasn't making him sad either. He raised a curious eyebrow at her sudden silence, obviously encouraging her to go on, and after a moment Lucy took a deep breath and continued her tale—watching his face carefully.
"Just as I was sure the guards were about to catch you, a girl pulled you through a gap in the stalls and through a broken bit of wall, back into the other street. I didn't see her face, but I thought—well, from your story, I though it must have been her," Lucy finished speaking in a rush, the words tumbling out quickly as if speed could lessen the power the must hold to remind her friend of his lost love.
Rhegus nodded slowly, eyes fixed on the ship and jaw set in a grim line. "Aye, Queen Lucy, ye saw Estelle. Ye said Aslan showed ye these things?" He turned back to her, expression unreadable, and Lucy nodded silently. "Then 'E must 'ave 'ad a reason," Rhegus continued quietly. "Ye've seen other things as well?" He was obviously eager to change the subject and Lucy did not try to stop him.
"Yes," she said instead, scuffing her bare toes through the damp sand and uncovering a few, small sea shells. "I saw my family, Cair Paravel in mourning, Su—Queen Susan, that is—kneeling by a body, and my brothers in a strange corridor. I don't know what it all means, but I think something is dreadfully wrong, Captain," Lucy admitted, remembering her visions in the wood as well. "We have to get to Narrowhaven."
"Well," Captain Rhegus tipped his head towards the rowboats that were being lowered from the pirate ship, now anchored in the deep water some distance out from the beach. "This is our chance, Queen Lucy, may Aslan 'elp us."
Lucy nodded, squinting to make out the figures climbing into the boats and settling at the oars. There were three row boats, with about ten men in each, and from what Lucy could see they were all heavily armed. An old man stood at the front of the lead boat, leaning on what appeared to be a walking staff, but might just as easily have been a long spear. Rhegus pointed to him, his face twisting into a frown, as he ran his other hand through his hair.
"Tha's Captain Balthasar," he told her, speaking softly. "'E'll likely make 'imself unpleasant, but, 'e's not likely to mean us 'arm until 'e's 'eard what ye 'ave to say."
Lucy had no time to reply as Captain Merton returned just then with the rest of the guards and sailors trailing after him. Their faces were grim and drawn as they stood, shoulder to shoulder, in a protective line behind Lucy and she was glad of their presence.
They stood in tense silence, broken only by the sound of waves breaking against the sand at their feet and a few shouts from the men in the boats, until the landing party splashed into the surf and dragged the rowboats up onto the beach. They were a rough looking lot, Islanders and a few Calormenes, all with brown, weathered faces and long hair pulled back and held by strips of leather. Most were nearing middle age, though the man Rhegus had pointed out as Balthasar must have been nearly seventy and was undoubtedly the oldest person present.
Lucy suddenly felt both very young and very short when faced with the group of towering, heavily armed men, and she dug her toes into the sand as a reminder not to take a step back.
Balthasar stepped forward, leaning heavily on the staff, which did not appear to be a staff after all, and looked the bedraggled group before him over with a critical eye. As he took another step forward Lucy could see that his spine was twisted unnaturally, making his gait uneven, and she could not help wondering if he had been born crippled or if it was the result of some injury.
Balthasar did not seem particularly interested in her, the sailors, or the guards, but when his eyes fell on Rhegus his lined face split into a brilliant smile. "Red!" the old man called jovially, leaning on his staff in a way that made his shoulders appear even more twisted.
Lucy frowned, there was something familiar in his face, in the way he stood, and in the expression on Rhegus' face, but she couldn't quite place it. However, before she could devote further thought to the matter Captain Balthasar was speaking again.
"It's a merry band o' misfits ye've found yerself now, ain't i'?" He stopped just short of where Rhegus stood and peered up at the younger man.
His accent, Lucy noted, was like Rhegus' but thicker, his voice was rougher, and rather than good natured roguishness she saw something cold and calculating in his sharp eyes as he studied his old apprentice's face. Still, she wasn't quite afraid of him, and he hadn't said or done anything particularly unpleasant yet. She looked quickly to Rhegus, curious to see his reaction, but his expression was as stony and distant as it would have been if Balthasar had not spoken to him at all.
He said nothing, gave no indication that he had anything to say, and Balthasar shook his head and clucked his tongue in a vaguely reprimanding manner. "Yer manner's 'aven't improved, Red." The old captain shook his head again and turned his gaze on Lucy, taking an uneven step towards her as if noticing her presence for the first time.
In a flash that nearly stole her breath and sent her mind spinning dizzily, she recognised him. He was the hunched, old man she had seen in the pool of water when Aslan had been with her. And, suddenly, it made sense, the pieces falling together into a glimmering tapestry of realised truth. Aslan had shown her the future, in flashes and pieces she did not yet understand, but they had been true predictions nonetheless.
Somewhere in the future Susan would stand in mourning atop a parapet draped in black and a stranger would reach to comfort her. Somewhere Peter would sit beside a foreign hearth with his head in his hands and his companions unable to comfort him. Sometime, most likely soon, Rhegus and Balthasar would stand together talking. Edmund's face, pale and bruised, flashed across her mind and she wondered how near that future was and wondered if it was before or after she had seen Peter and Edmund together in the corridor. Perhaps all of it it was already happening, perhaps it already had happened, and she had been meant to do something and had not realised soon enough.
No, she told herself sharply. Aslan would not have shown her something that she was meant to stop, knowing that she would be too slow. If she was meant to change things then she would, and if she wasn't then there must be another reason, another plan that Aslan could see, and she could not.
The rest of what she had seen still made no sense—the Sea, the sound of glass breaking and the brief flash of something dark, and evil, shattering against stone. She shook her head. I'll understand when it's time.
"Well?" Balthasar asked, looking at her intently—even with his stooped shoulders and twisted spine he was taller than she was and had to look down at her.
Lucy blinked at him for a moment, her mind blank. She realised he must have been speaking to her, but, as so often happened, she had been lost in her own thoughts and missed hearing his words. Before her lapse of concentration could become fully apparent, however, Captain Rhegus had stepped forward to speak with Balthasar and she recognised the scene immediately.
Rhegus looked worried as he leaned down to speak with his former captain and his voice was too low for Lucy to catch his words, but she could see from the derisive line of Balthasar's mouth that whatever Rhegus was saying was not being well received.
She stood indecisively for a moment, realising, not for the first time, how unsuited her temperament was for negotiation, before she squared her shoulders, pushed the hair back from her face, and stepped forward to speak with the pirate herself.
"An' I don' see why I should wan' 'o listen to ye," Balthasar was saying, sounding distinctly bored.
Rhegus pushed a hand through his hair and shook his head—more in frustration than despair, Lucy thought—and looked as though her were about to strike his former mentor. Lucy really couldn't see what good a fist fight would do, and cleared her throat loudly—hoping that the pirate would at least acknowledge her presence. He did, and turned to her with raised eyebrows and an expression of mild disdain.
This was not a particularly promising start to a negotiation, but Lucy supposed it was the best she could hope for after staring vacantly at the fellow when he had first spoken to her. Still, she needed to at least try.
"Good morrow, Captain," she greeted him, with as much dignity as she could muster while barefoot and dressed in the rags of a gown that had not been particularly stately even before she had fallen off a ship and been stranded on an island. She could only imagine Susan's horror if her older sister could see her now.
Balthasar's bushy grey eyebrows drew together in an expression that might have been annoyance, but was more likely derisive amusement. "I' speaks! He exclaimed, sounding jovial and looking more dangerous than the tone of his voice suggested should be possible. Out of the corner of her eye Lucy saw Rhegus tense, his expression bordering on murderous.
Lucy, for her part, chose to ignore the obviously pointed comment, and forced herself to smile in as charming a manner as she could. "I am so very glad to meet you, Captain Balthasar, and I do so hope you will be able to help us."
Balthasar's eyebrows descended until they seemed nearly on a level with his eyes. "'Elp ye? Why should I? Red's 'old me wha' i' is ye wan', but I canno' see why I should care. I 'ave yer ship already, an all I could wan' from i'." The other pirates behind him, who had been silent up to this point nodded their agreement and a few scattered cheers of approval rose from them.
Lucy had never wanted to run quite as much as she did in that moment. I can't do this! She thought desperately, wondering how quickly she could make the journey back to the trees where she had seen Aslan. Perhaps He would be there again, perhaps He would tell her what she ought to do. But she knew it wouldn't be like that this time—there were things she had to do for herself, though she knew she was never truly alone, and this was one of them. Aslan had made her a queen, and this was part of being a queen—however difficult it might prove to be.
What would the others do? she wondered desperately, aware that Captain Balthasar was still watching her expectantly—waiting for her response with confidence that whatever she said it would hold no power to convince him, or his crew.
Susan would try charming him with grace and good manners—she would know precisely what to say to flatter him into helping her. Edmund would find something clever to say, a strategy that Balthasar could not hope to argue and a way of presenting it that made it seem like it had been the captain's plan all along, or that made it impossible for Balthasar to refuse without losing face. Peter would most likely just challenge him to a duel and win with just enough effort to not embarrass his opponent too badly. Lucy usually invited troublesome subjects to tea and talked with them, but she highly doubted that strategy would work with the pirates.
I know what to do, she realised, feeling somewhat shocked by that fact. For years she had watched her siblings deal with similar situations, she knew how each of them would have dealt with it, and she knew just how to combine all of their methods into one of her own which she was certain would not fail.
"Captain Balthasar," she began, giving him her brightest smile. "Perhaps we can come to an understanding. I need a ship and you have many, including the one you took from me and my crew. I am certain you know that attacking a Narnian queen is an act of war, but I am perfectly willing to forgive this action—which I am sure you committed in ignorance of my identity—if you will agree to take my crew and me to Narrowhaven at once, and will return my ship and its cargo to me. Indeed, I would be so very grateful, and I am certain that, once they hear of your kindness, my royal siblings will reward you most richly." Lucy felt a momentary flash of satisfaction—surely even Susan could scarcely have seemed more gracious.
Balthasar narrowed his eyes and peered down at her, obviously trying to decide if she was serious about him being richly rewarded.
"You have nothing to lose by helping us, Captain," Lucy continued, trying to mirror Edmund's most reasonable tone. "And surely you do not wish to be at war with Narnia. We have many more ships and an army great enough to give the Calormene Tisroc pause." She wasn't actually sure how many ships they had, or whether the Tisroc would actually pause because of their army, but it sounded like the sort of thing Peter would say.
Still, Balthasar seemed undecided, which left her with only her own strategy of offering friendship. Ignoring Rhegus' warning look she stepped forward and slid her arm through Balthasar's, as if he were escorting her to dinner. "Oh do say yes, Captain! I'm certain we shall be the best of friends! I so love to sail and hear tales of far off places and sea monsters, and I am certain you have seen many of both."
For a moment the pirate looked genuinely startled and bewildered, and then, very slowly, he smiled—a real, open smile, without a hint of derision.
"Well now," he said, then paused to clear his throat. "Don' know about all tha', yer majesty, but if ye're certain abou' the reward, then I may know a few wild tales o' the 'igh seas. Narrowhaven, did ye say ye wanted to reach?"
I'm not sure about the ending to the chapter...it seems a but rushed to me, but I did desperately want to post! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, the introduction of Balthasar, who will be developed as a character more in future chapters, and the added details of Lucy's visions. Do let me know what you think! I love reviews, and I know it's been awhile since I updated, but I hope some of you are still reading. Please let me know!
Cheers,
A
