"So let him come." He replied weakly,
"No! I will not let him do that to you again!" She cried,
"Then what? Then what are we supposed to do? I can't move Susan!" He snarled, waving his left hand furiously. He was so angry! Not at Susan, at that- that- man!
"Then I will help you, first let me check your legs, I didn't see them earlier." Caspian fell silent and nodded. She gently slid him of her lap and ran her arm down his right knee. She could tell that he was in pain from the slight winces and groans that left his mouth as she checked for broken bones. Nothing on his right leg, she moved on to his left and the same thing happened, he would occasionally wince in pain but she felt no broken bones.
"Alright, no broken bones in either of your legs. I am going to see if there is some sort of a barrier that will hold us back when we try to escape. I will be right back, don't move love." Susan stood up and wandered through the trees in no particular direction, after she took about 150 or so steps she still hadn't felt any barriers so she ran back to Caspian,
"It doesn't look like there is anything to stop up, we need to go now so we can get back to the Dawn Treader and get a head start on Fajad." Caspian nodded,
"Yes, ok. Can you please help me up?" She took a shaky breath and nodded,
"Sure, but please be careful, you already have more then a few broken bones." He made a small noise of agreement and she moved closer to him. Susan crouched down beside Caspian and slowly moved him up into a sitting position, then she put one arm around his shoulders and the other on his chest and lifted him up slowly. The second he was on his feet he let out a cry of pain, and stumbled forward.
She quickly stepped in front of him and braced her hands on his chest, pushing him back to his feet. Then she looked down and saw what had caused that, his left ankle was twisted at a horrible angle, How did I miss that? She thought, still holding him up, she turned and tears started to flow from her eyes, How did I miss that? This is all my fault, his pain is on my hands. I shouldn't have let him stand, I should have seen that. She thought over and over in a jagged rhythm. She felt Caspian roughly sit down behind her and call for her to sit as well. She silently sat down and carefully leaned into his chest, careful not to hurt him even more.
He quietly put his arm on her shoulder and she started sobbing into his warm embrace.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry Caspian! All of this is my fault, I should never have insisted to stop at this island. Now your in pain, and we are captured my some psycho magician or whatever! I am so sorry!" She sobbed.
"No Susan. I am sorry, I shouldn't have let you come along with me. You should have stayed on the ship and now because I let you come you are forced to deal with me and my stupid ass. I should have told you about the pain in my leg, I just didn't want you to worry even more."
"Your not stupid. I am, I should have noticed anyways. I am just so stressed out! We need to get you out of here now. Lets try again, this time try not to put weight on your leg." He nodded and she helped him up again, this time Caspian made sure to not put weight on his left ankle. He limped forward putting most of his weight on Susan. He felt horrible for doing this to her, he knew that she was struggling to continue to hold him up and walk at the same time.
"Susan, just go. Get yourself out of here. I can't go any further." He gasped, after taking a wrong step and pain jolted through his body then he glanced behind them. His heart sunk, they had hardly moved 25 steps.
"You can and you will. I am not leaving without you." She demanded. Never before had he seen her so determined and he nodded. However it was only another 10 or so steps later when he actually couldn't go any farther.
"Susan, I can't go further. Literally I can't. There is some sort of barrier." He said,
"What are you talking about? There is nothing there." She replied, waving her hand in front of them. Then he came to a conclusion, Fajad had done this on purpose. He didn't want Caspian to escape. Limply he raised his hand and pushed it forward against the barrier. No luck.
"Susan you need to go. Leave me here, Fajad obviously did this on purpose. He want's to keep me here. There is nothing we can do about it unless you have any magic." Then it hit her But what if I do have magic? It will make me take his place but that is a choice I am willing to take. Then she pulled out her neckless. I wish for Caspian to be able to exit this area and for me to be trapped in. Only his arms and legs will be able to enter only if he tries to touch me. Other he that he will not be able to enter this area and I will not be able to exit. Restore him to full health and give me his injuries. The sorcerer Fajad should not be able to harm anyone outside this circle and will never be able to harm him. The faintest noise came from the coin. It is done. Her neckless dulled and disappeared. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light. She blinked and it was gone, Caspian was also gone. He was on the other side of the barrier looking very confused. Then there was an overwhelming pain in her leg, ribs, back and arm. With a cry she collapsed.
"NO!" Caspian shouted, he jumped forward and his body slammed into the barrier. "Susan! Susan!" He cried, pounding on the stupid invisible wall, keeping them apart. Then he sat on the ground behind her, and tenderly reached out as if to touch her face. He expected the barrier to stop him as it had earlier but to his joy it didn't. However his joy didn't last long. He touched her face gently and she looked at him with love in her eyes.
"I love you Caspian." She whispered.
"I love you too." She closed her eyes and leaned into his palm. His calloused fingers traced over her ear and tucked a strand of her luscious brown hair behind her ear.
"Why?" Was all he could ask, his voice cracking. He was about to remove his hand from her face but weakly she put her hand on top of it, securing it in place.
"Because I love you and I couldn't bear to see you hurting. I don't regret what I did, and no matter how much he will hurt me and I would do it again, and again and again." He said nothing to this and tried to move closer to her, only for the barrier to stop him again. So he leaned on it, with her head in his lap and his fingers running through her hair. Then there was a whoosh and a gust of wind. The sorcerer was back.
