3 years ago

The girl opened her eyes the second she felt the tip of the cold blade touch her chest. The once princess of Narnia had barely slept in the last months afraid of waking up to situations such as the one she was facing right now.

She lifted her head off of the fay she used as pillow and held up both of her arms in sign of redemption,looking at the man who was still holding the sword against her.

"What do ya think ya're doing in my barn?" The old man asked in anger, though Syrena could tell he wasn't as mad as he looked. He was mad because someone invaded his property, not because he was one of Eedrel's men who were after her. This old man probably didn't know who she was...He wasn't even a soldier for that matter, she could tell by the way he held his sword.

"Sorry" Syrena mumbled "I just wanted a shelter for the night."

The man withdrew the sword from her skin and gazed down at her with a softer look.

"Shelter from what?" He asked,still a little suspicious.

"The city is a little dangerous for a lonely girl at night" She prayed her tone was convincing enough. She wasn't lying, anywhere in the world was a dangerous place for a girl traveling alone.

"Ladar is miles away from here. How did ya find this place?" The man interrogated again.

"I walked" Syrena awnsered daring to sit down.

"What does yer family think of this behaviour?" He asked again. Syrena was starting to get annoyed by the questionary but she understood his reasons.

"I don't think the dead would care" Her response seemes to stir something in the old man's heart. He put the sword down after finally concluding that the woman in front of him wasn't a threat.

"What is yer name, lass?" He asked and Syrena noticed the empathy in his voice.

"Costia" She lied for the first time.

"Filve Drador" The old man introduced himself with a soft smile "Fancy some breakfest, Costia?"

She smiled for the first time in months to the sound of the word breakfest. Syrena shyly nodded, accepting Filve's hand to get up on her feet.

The girl in front of him would rather chew and swallow the food in front of her than breath, Filve concluded.

"The meat is coocked already. It won't run away from your plate" He joked and Syrena smiled slightly.

"I might have a stomacache later but right now I don't care" She awnsered, after swallowing.

"You have an eastern accent" Filve observed outloud "Are you from Narnia?"

"Archenland" Syrena replied faster than intended.

"And what brings ya to Velaris?"

"Am I on a trial?" Syrena asked humorously.

"No, but ya were on my barn" Filve responded with a bitter humor.

"Fair enough" She thought for a second while taking a sip of her drink "I've spent the last year in Asatus, living with a distant cousin after my parents died. This cousin of mine died last week too. I was on my way back to Archenland but... I was robbed while traveling through Ladar" She finished her made up story, hoping that she woudn't be caught on the lie.

"Ladar is west of Asatus, Archeland is east" of course her story would've made more sense if she knew Velaris's geography better.

"I was hoping to catch a ship sailing east. Ladar is the biggest western city, so the chances were better... Until I found myself with no money, so I decide to walk to the docs by myself" That part was true. She needed to sail as far from the northen kingdoms as possible.

"And what do ya plan to do once ya reach the docs, since you have no money?" Filve's question was actually important for Syrena to start thinking about the little hole on her plot again.

She just shrugged in response.

The old man looked at her for a while, as if he was pondering something.

"My son died not so long ago too" He blurted out. Syrena raised her eyes to the man, a little startled by his sudden confession "He used to help me around the farm. Actually he would do all the hard work... until the plague of kallir took him away from me"

"I am sorry" Syrena responded, wholeheartly.

"Since his death, it's been harder and harder to make money, for I can't do all the work by myself" Filve explained "ya seem young and determined. If you work on the farm, I will give you a place to sleep, food, and ten percent of my winnings" He proposed.

Syrena was suspicious in the beginning, but she felt like she could trust him. Or she just need someone to trust on at this point. "What do you say?"

She thought for a second. She needed the money to run away from Eedrel as far as she could. She could settle for a while. And if she needed to leave, she would leave. No strings attached.

"Deal" she agreed


Present

Syrena was holding onto the elf stone that was glimmering on her hand.

Everytime she put her hand on it, the stone would shine, and blue fluorecent circles would appear on the ground in front of them, showing the way where the bearer was supposed to go in order to find the person desired.

Though the trotting sound of the horse was all Edmund wanted to focous on, he couldn't help but feel admired by the magic of it.

He was aways quieter than talkative Lucy, bossy Susan and knows-it-all Peter, but the thing that was bothering the older Pevensie about his brother was how he had intentionaly said something obvious three bloody times, and Edmund hadn't yet adressed him any sarcastic comment.

Peter had noticed since the day before how silent he was...more than usual. He reminded himself again of asking Ed what was wrong with him, once they were in a more seclueded situation.

"...and now that I am finally twenty, I don't need to worry about school or house chores...I have the the time to write that book I've been wanting to work on for a long time, right Pete?" Lucy was telling the two narnians about her life in England. It was obvious that Syrena and Banriel were having a hard time picturing a compleatly diferent realm, just by what Lucy was telling them, though it was a funny dialogue to follow.

"Lucy wants to write books about our adventures here in Narnia" Peter confirmed his sister's story "She belived it will sell a lot as a fantasy book"

"Fantasy?" Syrena wondered out loud.

"Stories that aren't real" Lucy explained.

"Why woudn't they be real?" Syrena was puzzled and confused by that conversation.

"Our world isn't as...exciting as Narnia. Magical adventures are the sort of things you only can find in books" Peter explained.

"Well...cars that can ride themselves without horses sound pretty exciting to me" Syrena said, still trying to fathom how such thing was possible without the work of magic...objects usually can't move by themselves.

"What about you, King Edmund?" Banriel caught Edmund's atention for the first time, since they started their travel. Edmund turned his head to the elf, but he ended up facing Syrena, who was right behind him and right in front of Banriel, instead.

He immediatly looked past her and gazed at the elf. "Pardon me, what is it?" He asked Ban, since he was not paying attention to the conversation.

"What does your majesty do in this Londer place? If your majesty don't mind me asking" Edmund chuckled under his breath at the mispronuntiation of 'London'.

What could he tell him that would be more interesting than being a king of a foreign magical land? He could tell that since the war was over, his time was divided between college and a cheap job to save every shilling he earned and move out of his parents house, like Peter did last year -So much for a king-. But he knew deep down that it wasn't Banriel who he wanted to impress; and he didn't undestand why.

"I am studing to be a lawyer" He awsered politelty.

"Must you study for everything in your world?" Syrena directed the question to him. Edmund averted his eyes from Banriel to face the girl whom he have had an embarassing and not so plesant way things between them were left of. Since she seemed to be in a much better mood this time, he felt eager to talk to her, even if it was about his boring life back home...or was Narnia his home?

"Unfortunatly, yes." He told her "if you want to make money."

"And you can choose to study anything you want? Even if you are not noble?" Syrena seemed interested by that part of the life on earth.

"Why, It's not as easy as it sounds but it is possible to raise status, yes..." Edmund was about to continue the conversation, when they heard a noise coming from amonge the trees. Syrena immediatly drew her sword off and got down the horse.

"Show yourself!" Peter, with his sword in hands, screamed to the trees.

"Syrena!!" Edmund screamed when he saw the girl walking towards the noise.

"Syri, get back!" Banriel also called for her when he saw his friend dissapearing into woods. "Shite...she aways does that" the muttered under his breath, going after her, reading and arrow. Edmund took liberty to follow the elf after Syrena, though his brother was whispering behind him for him to hold back.

Syrena was running to get to the shadow that was quickly moving away form her. The figure started to climb one of the trees with an impressive speed. The girl started climbing as well, but when she realized she wasn't as fast, she simply reached for the creature's leg pulling them both to the ground.

Edmund and Banriel reached Syrena right at the moment she found herself hitting the ground with a young elf on top of her. His scream just confirmed Syrena's suspicious.

"By the gods, Syri. Why would you do that?!" Erlan pouted, getting up and rubbing his arm. "I am not fully healed from the arrow from yesterday"

"You can come out Yralissa!" Syrena shouted to the trees, waiting for the girl to step behind of some tree.

"Lissa! they've found us!" Erlan said right after.

Yralissa started climbing down of a tree behind Syrena, sheepshily.

"What are you both doing here?" Banriel finaly spoke, after contemplating the scene.

"It wasn't my idea" Erlan defended himself "Yralissa was gone and I knew it would be my fault if something happened to her-"

"So your father doesn't know you are here??" Ban asked angrily.

"and you wouldn't know either, if Erlan wasn't so noisy..." Yralissa mumbled.

"Enough." Syrena said, glancing at the twins "You are going back right now." She quickly gazed at Edmund, who was watching everything from affar, with a smile on his face, amuzed by their interaction with the twins. Banriel and Syrena's behaviour towards the siblings in front of him ressembled a lot his eldest siblings interacting with him and Lucy.

"How are we going back? We were following you. We don't know how to get back" Erlan questioned.

Syrena closed her eyes, and breathed deeply.

"Honestly, Erlan... "

"Edmund!?" Lucy's voice interupted their discution "what is happening?" She appeared on their field of vision, followed by Peter, who was holding his sword.

"We heard screams" Peter said, looking at the twins with a puzzled look.

"Looks like these two are joining in" Edmund replied.

Yralissa's eyes lit up after hearing the King's awnser, but Syrena cut her joy short.

"They wish" said the princess. "They need to go back home, before Arathorn realize their missing"

"They don't know their way back, Syrena" Banriel remembered "We're quite far from Rivenorm already"

"They can use the stone" She sugested.

"I thought we were using it to find your brother" Lucy mentioned, genuinely confused.

Syrena realized that the best thing to do at that point was to let the twins join the trip. If they couldn't get back home, they would be safer under the protection of the party.

"Fine" She gazed at the siblings who looked like they would explode from excitement. "But you are not my responsibility, and If you're father die of worry, you can tell him It was your idea when I kill you two as well" Syrena explained and started to go back to where the horses were.

Peter and Banriel followed her, leaving Edmund, Lucy, Yralissa and Erlan a little behind.

"She is actually really nice once you get to know her, I promisse" Erlan passed through Edmund and Lucy, patting both of their shoulders.


3 years ago

The girl was up on the celling of the barn, fixing the gutter that was getting the hay wet. It had been two weeks since Filve had asked her to do so.

Though she thought It was so much easier to simply move the hay away from the gutter, Filve was a perfectionist, as she had learned after their little argument about gutters and hay.

She was shaking, trying to steady herself on top of the wooden ladder, when she felt a hand pushing her leg down and holdinf her one their arms before she could fall, coveringe her mouth with the other free hand.

Syrena immediatly started to panic. "They finaly got me" "did they do something to Filve?" "Will they kill me quickly or will they have their fun torturing me first". She started kicking and scrating the person's arms, punching the stomach with the embow, and that made the person back off.

"What the fuck, Costia!" the braided hair man shouted, curled up in a fetus position to absorb the pain in his stomach.

"Tarvik!" She exclaimed in a mix of suprise and relif.

"Of course it's me!" The man shouted angrily .

"Well, I'm sorry, but it's almost dark and you got me by suprise, it could be anyone!" She explained herself, helping Tarvik get up.

"Remember me to never do that to ya again" He mumbled "for my own sake"

"Sure I will" she now had a playfull smile on her lips. The man reached for her waist, pulling her closer to him. "What are you doing? Filve can show up at any moment" Syrena said trying to escape his embrace.

"The old man is probably snoring by now, I want to know what are ya beauty doing out here so late?" Tarvik asked, with his eyebrows lifted.

"Being punished for not fixing the gutter sooner." She pointing at the celling.

Tarvik looked up and then back at the woman in front of him.

"Oh, this can wait. Come with me" He pushed her arms, making his way out of the barn, running at the direction of his horse that was tied to a tree, a couple of meters out of the property. Maybe the reason why she didn't hear him aproaching.

The sun was setting on the horizont, filling Syrena with nostalgia. She missed being on the skies, free and independent. But here she was, stuck on the ground, running away and hiding, without even being able to trust people with her own name.

Tarvik had already lit up a small fire next to his horse. That was probably the place where he would set up camp for the night

She sat next to him and he passed her a bottle of Ale. While she swallowed the bitter liquid, Tarvik broke the silence.

"I wanna show ya something" He reached for the side of the saddle, pulling out a huge and beautifuly smithed sword.

The sharp sound of the blade sliding throughout the sheath made her remember war, the last battle she ever had to fight and what it had cost her, and the ones she loved.

"What is that?" She asked, visibly unconfortable.

"It's a sword" the man replied matter of factly.

"I know it's a sword." She rolled her eyes "do you even know how to use one?" Syrena asked ironicaly.

"Of course I do," Tarvik seemed a little offended by the question "do ya? Of course you don't, you are a girl" He answered his own question before Syrena could open her mouth.

"Pardon?!" She asked offended.

"This is not just a sword, Costia" He ignored her reaction. "It's the sword King Tedezos l used to defeat the Elves...those fucken elves. Ya' know the story, don't ya?"

"I do...but what are you doing with a seven hundred year old sword? And from Evengard?" She asked, confused.

"I stole It." He answered with a proud smile.

"What?!" Syrena narrowed her eyes. "Why?! How?!"

"Calm down, sweetheart!" Tarvik mocked her reaction. "Ya should know by now that I'm a fine thief, and I'm also friends with Prince Brenvik" Syrena tried to conecte the strings, but she couldn't understand why being friends with the Prince of Velaris would have anything to do with the old sword of an Evengardian King. "After many visits to the castle, I memorized where everything is. I maneged to steal this sword and replace it with mine" He flashed a victorious smile.

"And how long before they know it's gone? It's one of their biggest trophies of victory." The girl asked, genuinely concerned about his recklessness.

"The sword won't be with me anymore by then...and we won't be here either." He said, putting the sword back in the saddle.

"What are you talking about?" Syrena narrowed her eyes at him.

"I am gonna sell it, for good money" He said sitting back on the other side of the fire "and then we'll leave this country"

" You are gonna sell it?" She voiced It, but It came out as a sarcastic question.

"Do ya really think ya can travel to the other side of the world working for Filve for some cheap coins every now and then? Ya gonn' be here foreva" Syrena faced the man in front of her through the fire.

"This sword is a relic, Costia. Do ya know how much an evengardian would pay to have it back? Especially now that their capital is destroyed, thanks to that Narnian princess " He continued mumbling as she played with the grass the dirty ground, trying to fight the heat from coming to her face, her breath caught in her throat. "Ya could return to Archenland as a welthy woman and I could buy ships and sail west"

"Why would you want to go west anyway?" Syrena quickly tried to change subject.

"Curiosity. Ambicioussness. The world can't be just this, ya know? There has to be more." Tarvik was right on that, she thought.

" My people belive that if you sail east until the end of the world you will reach Aslan's Country..." She said with a distant look "but they never said anything about the west"

"Come with me" Tarvik blurted out.

"What?" Syrena asked humorously.

"Why not? What's holding you back in Archenland? Ya can come with me and explore the world" He offered.

"I-I'm not sure..." The truth is there was nothing holding her back anywhere, and even if she wanted to go home, she couldn't. So she considered it. She actually considered it. "Maybe..."

"Ya can think about it, yes? I'm gonn' meet with an evengardian treader next week in Ladar, I'm gonn' offer him the sword. If we get the money, we can go right away." Tarvik started to settle the plan. "Ya gonn' have a week to think about it"

"Sounds like you have it all figured out already" she mocked him.

I may have gone about asking ya to come along a couple of times in my head" He smiled shyly. She smiled back and pinched his blushed cheeks. "I'm gonn' need a favor though" He said."I need you to hide the sword in the barn until next week"

"Why?!" She narrowed at him again.

"I can't have her on me while I travel around. I am a wanderer, sweetheart. People will see it" He justified.

She pondered for a while and agreed that he was right.

"Alright!" Syrena gave in, playing with the fire with a piece of wood "but no evengardian in Filve's property...I don't..trust them" She was still a little frighneted to be part of a deal that envolved people of Evengard, but she also trusted Tarvik.

"They won't be near here, or Filve, I promise." He said cupping her cheek.

"Alright then" She awnsered, smiling sugestivly.

"Alright then" He repeated, kissing her lips, laying on the ground and bringing her to lay on top of him.

Syrena kissed him back, locking her fingers on his hair, after throwing the piece of wood she was holding on the fire.


Present

The fire was burning high, keeping Edmund warm from the cold narnian night. His eyes were closed but he was faintly awake. The ground was unconfortable, and he was uneased, and he had been in and out out of sleep for hours.

"I will bring them to him, and that's it. I'll stay away" Edmund heard Syrena's voice and assuming she was talking about them, he fully awoke.

The king started to eavesdrop their conversation as best as he could, controling his breath so they wouldn't notice.

"I understand your reasons, but I think you should wait until we see what's really happening. If the calormenes captured the King, that means the country is fragile." Banriel said.

"You think we are going to war..." She stated.

"War is inevitable, Syri." Banriel continued.

"Well, I don't want to be part of it." She cut him off before he could answer "After we find Rilian, I'll go back home, tell the elves to evacuate to Ettins, where they will be safe" Syrena said convicted. "I'll protect them if it comes to it, for sure. It's the least I can do... But I'm not going to war." She finished, exaling deeply.

"What about Verzandil and Raxian?" Banriel asked.

There was silence for a moment. Edmund narrowed his eyes, and thanked Aslan his back was facing them, allowing him to express his reactions freely.

"What about them?" Her voice again.

"They could be in danger." Ban replied. "Woudn't you want to help them?"

Silence again. This time longer. Edmund did his best to listen to even their breaths during the conversation, and he heard when she exaled deeply...again.

"They probably don't even remember me" they girl responded in a sad tone "and perhaps that's for the best"

The silence fell over them again. All Edmund could hear was cricketts on the distance and the crackling of the flames.

He heard the leaves move and Banriel talking right after "Well, If you're not going to sleep, I will." The elf told his friend, and chuckled briefly.

"Alright" she answered "I'll keep watch"

"Good night" He said, and Edmund heard his footsteps aproaching.

He quickly closed his eyes again and tried to fall asleep one more time. But but five minutes passed, and the ten. Fifteen minutes of Edmund sttiffing around, trying to rest for a while.

"Can't sleep?" Syrena's voice made him froze and open his eyes instantly. For how long did she know he was awake?

"I'm afraid not" He awnsered, looking at her, but then he sat up and moved his eyes to the bonfire. Edmund couldn't tell why, but something about her was so intimidating.

Perhaps it was the way she talked to him last night, but that kind of behaviour had never bothered him before, and right now, here she was, looking at him with a tender look and a hint of a smile in her face. He also thought that perhaps it was because she was a princess, but the again, he was a king.

Maybe it is because she is the daughter of his friend? Yes, that's probably it.

"Care to join me?" She interupted his thoughts, and he again looked at her " Perhaps if you are lucky, I will bore you to sleep with my terrible conversation" Syrena said moving aside a little making room for him next to her.

He carefully made his way towards the woman, taking his sit in front of the fire.

They stood silent until she finaly open her mouth

"Look, I'm sorry...about yesterday" She apologized, and Edmund looked at her to find her hazel green eyes already on him "you must think I am a bitter bitch, wich probably I am" She mumbled the last bit and Edmund chuckled while his eyes grew wild at her confession. "I was having a terrible day of a terrible week of a terrible year," She continued. "But that's no excuse to treat you that way. You have been nothing but nice, and I... I'm aways so dramatic about everything"

At that moment it felt like she was talking more to herself than to him, and it felt good to listen to her. It was like she needed someone to just hear her out, someone she wasn't close to. Someone who wouldn't judge her for they didn't know anything about her. And Edmund was glad that on that very moment, he got to be this person. "And also...my father really liked you, you know?" She faced him again, with a nostalgic look, as if she had known him for years just by the stories Caspian used to tell her.

"I forgive you, with one condition" Edmund responded and he had to fight the urge to laugh when he saw her face drop "Allow me to have a rematch. Our little duel back in Rivenorm was far from being fair" It was Syrena's time to chuckle.

"But you won!" She half whispered, controling the tone of her voice, so she wouldn't awake the others.

"Precisely why I want a rematch" He answered.

"Oh, so you want me to beat your arse?" Syrena asked ironicaly. Edmund wilded his eyes again, but this time, a bigger smile played on his lips, as if he had just heard a joke. She did have a dirty mouth for a princess, but that wasn't what had suprised him.

"Who said you would beat me?" Now he had joined in the game of ironic questions. "You attacked me first and I knocked you to the ground with a piece of wood" Edmund stated with a smug smile.

"You stole my sword before knocking me to the ground" she corrected him.

"Exactly, I stole your weapon" Edmund answered "on the battlefield that can mean your death"

"Not if you also have a kitchen knife on you" She replied and he laughed a little, remembering of the cut on his arm that she hahd inflicted with a small, but sharp, knife that was on top of her table.

"I was rusty, that's why you won" Syrena justified.

"So was I... I hadn't had touched a sword since I was seventeen" He stated, and she bit her lip looking down.

"I suppose we'll have plenty of time to work on our skills until our rematch" Syrena awnsered sugestivly.

Edmund smiled a her as she accepted his challenge. Syrena gazed at him for a moment and recipocrate the smile. The girl would never know that, but she had never smiled that much in one day since she was fifteen.

As for king Edmund, he liked her smile, It was tender and shy, as if it was afraid of someone seing it, afraid that if someone saw it, they would try to destroy it.

And so they kept gazing contest, trying to decode each others story with their eyes.

When Syrena realized that they were still staring at each other, she thought about looking away, as if the situation was unconfortable. But It wasn't. Even now that she was fully aware of the moment they were sharing, she actually noticed she liked to look at him. He was pleasent looking, that was obvious to her, but there was more to it. Syrena felt safe staring at his brown orbes, and she hadn't felt safe in a very long time.

The girl saw when he broke eye contact with her and moved his gaze a little down. She felt confused, and the inevitable thought came 'is he looking at my...breasts?'. Then it hit her. Her neck scar. Syrena's hands immediatly reached for her braid, pulling It in front of her, hidding the skin of her neck that was exposed.

Edmund looked away unconfortably and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry" He mumbled. 'This would've been so much less embarrasing if he was actually looking at my breasts' Syrena though closing her eyes and lifted her head. "I shouldn't be starin-"

"I was hanged" She blurted out, suprised by how the words came out so easily when she was around him. "Three years ago, maybe four."

He froze, blinking a couple of times "Oh." Was all he maneged to say.

"I hid the mark for a while, but then I gave up. I kind of... deserved it, so it was part of the punishment" She confessed, and then silence was all she could hear for a couple of minutes.

Syrena thought she had destroyed the image he had of her, right after she had fixed it.

But then, she felt the man aproaching, his breath touching her face.

"Well, I for one aways thought we shouldn't hide our battle scars" Edmund said, gently putting her braid back on her back, revealing the mark of the rope around her neck.


Three years ago

Syrena was fetching some eggs for breakfest, Filve had woken up with a cold, and she wanted to prepare a nice soup for him.

"There you are!" Syrena heard Tarvik calling her at the entrance of the barn. She looked at the direction of his voice.

" What are you doing here again?" She asked him, concerned.

Tarvik was uneased, as if he had done something he wasn't supposed to, afraid that he would get caught at any moment.

"This is Galdod" Tarvik moved aside and a blonde tall old man got in. Syrena's eyes grew wide, first because a man she didny know had entered Filve's property, and secondly because that man wore a pin on his cloak that carried the emblem of Seznor, the once capital of Evengard. She let go of the bucket full of eggs and got up instantly.

"Is he here for the deal?" Syrena asked with her voice shaking. The girl reached her arms slowly to where the Sword of Tedezos was hidden. She would either have to delivery it to the man who was willing to pay for it, or she might have to use it herself. Thank Aslan she was close to it before they entered "You told me you wouldn't bring anyone in the property" She kept talking trying to distract them from looking where her arms where going.

Tarvik didn't answer her. He just blantly starred at the girl while Galdod aproached her, grabbing her face and liftint her chin abruptaly. He then put one of his hands around her neck, and with the other hand, he traced fingers around the scar where the rope around her neck once was.

Syrena gasped for air, and looked at Tarvik, begging for help with her expression, but the man didn't move.

"Princess Syrena." The blonde old man laughed as if she was a court jester. He let go of her neck, and she immediatly drew the sword to his neck. It was quite havier than she expected. "Oh. That's her alright" Galdod mocked once again, drewing his sword too.

Syrena looked at Tarvik who was still at the door.

"Did you bring them here?" Syrena asked with her eyes full of tears. No. She wouldn't cry now.

Galdod whistle, and two other men entered the barn. Syrena walked back, until her body meet the wodden wall.

"I belive this sword belongs to our people, princess" Galdod said while the two men unarmed her easily. She had already give up by that point "and so does your fate now" He concluded, analising the craftsmith of the sword and them pulling It down.

While one of his men tied her arms around her back, the other made his way to the boy who was still watching the scene from affar, his mouth slightly opened.

The man got Syrena up and made her walk with them, still holding her arms.

"Tarvik, the wanderer!" Galdod called out for the man Syrena once trusted and looked at the general, trying to avoid Syrena's gaze. Galdod pulled out two bags that made a tingling sound. "The price of the sword" He informed, delivering him the smaller of the bags "and... This one is the price for the princess head" Syrena gasped at that last sentence, While the old man delivered the other bag to Tarvik.

Tarvik hesitated, quickly glancing at her. "You said she wouldn't be executed" His voice came out muffled as he speaked for the first time since his betrayal nas revialed.

Galdod rolled his eyes "Price on her head is just a way of saying it, lad" The man answered" Will you take the money?" He swang the bag of coins in front of Tarvik again. The boy reached for it, taking the payment.

"How did you know?" Was all Syrena maneged to say, though she knew that his answer woudn't change anything.

Tarvik looked at her, a hint of guilt on his grey orbes.

"He didn't" Galdod answered for him "Not until he met up with us and we happened to say we would pay the person who brought us the princess of Narnia alive" He turned to her and caressed her cheek "and that she had the mark of a rope around her neck" he concluded chuckling. "Today is your Lucky day, boy" He said turning to Tarvik again "You got to learn you've been fucking a princess and also got payed for it" Galdod concluded laughing, his men so laughed, taking Syrena away to their horses, but not before she could give Tarvik one last glance.

She was disgusted. By these men, and for what she knew they would do to her body during the trip to Evengard. By Tarvik, for betraying her. And especially by herself, for trusting someone so easily, for accepting to travel the world with him...for not hidding her battle scars from some habdsome boy she had met for only two months.

She didn't even get to made Filve her tastless soup.