A/N: Updating early because it's Halloween and I felt like it. Happy Halloween everyone!

Thanks so much for all the lovely review on the last chapter!

Chapter 3:

Previously:

Lucy glanced from Susan - who still stood rooted to the spot - to Caspian, who seemed to be unable to look away from the elder Queen. "Of course! I forgot to tell Susan about your mission, Caspian, I hope you don't mind enlightening her?" she asked. If Susan hadn't been her sister - and therefore having known her all her life - she would thought the question to be completely innocent. As if was, she wasn't fooled.

"Of course, Lucy," Caspian assured. The younger Queen grinned, cast one more glance at both other royals, and departed from the room, leaving them alone.

Susan felt herself blush for the hundredth time that day. This should be interesting.

Lucy had closed the door behind her, and Susan had the irrational urge to open it, or to open a window if nothing else. How had the air become so stuffy in just a few seconds?

Caspian opened his mouth to say something, before promptly closing it again, and Susan was acutely aware that this was the first time they'd been alone together since before she'd last left Narnia. There was so much left unsaid between them - their kiss had been on the forefront of Susan's mind ever since finding out whose ship she was on, exactly - but Caspian didn't seem to know where to start.

Susan had somewhat more experience keeping her thoughts and feelings hidden, and decided to save him. "So, you're on a mission?" she asked, making sure to sound politely interested and nothing more.

Caspian grasped at the opening. "Yes. Edmund pointed out that since there are no wars or conflicts in all of Narnia, it was odd that you came here at this time." Caspian took a few steps forwards, stepping further into the room.

"But for your mission, I assume?" Susan, unable to stand looking at him anymore, slowly turned and focussed her gaze out the small windows behind her, watching the waves churned up by the ship.

"Indeed. Before I took back the throne from my uncle, he tried to kill some members of the council; my father's closest friends and supporters. The last reports I could find suggest they fled to the Lone Islands, but no one has heard from them since," Caspian explained, sounding a little more sure of himself now that they had found a safe topic to discuss. She turned back around to face him.

"If there are no other causes of strife in Narnia, it stands to reason that your mission is what brought us here. Perhaps Aslan felt that you could use some help?"

Caspian smiled wryly as he muttered something under his breath. With the creaking of the ship and the constant sounds of movement coming from the deck, she couldn't be sure she'd heard him correctly, but… she was sure he'd said something about company?

"In any case," she went on, pretending to be oblivious, " we're here, so we might as well help," she said with a small smile.

Caspian readily returned it, which caused her belly to tingle pleasantly again. "I'm glad to have it."

They continued to simply look at each other for a moment, and Susan took the opportunity to study him. He did look a little older, and the beard was certainly new, but… he had the same, kind eyes she remembered. The same eyes she'd stared into as she'd said her goodbye…

The smile melted off her face as she remembered that day, and she quickly averted her eyes, for fear that he'd see the pain in them. "I never thought I'd return here. Aslan said I wouldn't…" she mused, her gaze once again on the waves.

She heard Caspian step closer, and felt his presence at her back, but didn't turn. "Perhaps he was mistaken? Or perhaps there was some other cryptic meaning to his words," he suggested.

Susan let out a breathy chuckle. "He does have a way with words. And He's not a tame lion, after all. It would be silly of us to think that he'd tell us everything up front."

There was a pause, one which Susan was sure Caspian wanted to fill, but didn't. She waited a little longer. "I… I am glad that, for whatever reason, you are back," he said softly.

Oh, how Susan wanted to turn around, throw her arms around his neck and just let him hold her. She so longed to just touch him, but she knew she couldn't. She couldn't expose her heart as she had done the last time, only for it to shatter once she was forced to go back to England.

She took a deep breath and stepped aside, around Caspian. "I should go see that Lucy and Edmund aren't in the crew's way," she said and made her way to the door. Caspian remained by the window.

As she reached the door, though, Susan paused, knowing it wasn't entirely fair of her. She was under no illusion that Caspian felt the same for her as she did for him. But he did care for her. "Caspian?" she said, before she could change her mind.

He turned around, his eyebrows raised and his expression guardedly hopeful. "I'm happy too," she said, before quickly dashing out the door and toward the upper deck. Had she stayed to see the reaction her words had on him, she might not have been able to control herself. And control was the only thing left to her right now.

/*/

Lucy watched as Susan emerged from below decks and made her way to the aft, where she sat down on the railing, overlooking the sea. Several dryads jumped up to wave, but Susan didn't seem to notice them.

"Reep, have you noticed something about my sister?" Lucy asked curiously.

The mouse in question looked up and followed the younger Queen's gaze. "Not in particular, your majesty. But you know your sister better than I."

Lucy regarded her sister for a moment longer before she replied. "I thought she'd be happy to be back, ecstatic, even, but she just seems… closed off. I don't understand."

Reep seemed to think her question over as he lightly bounded over from where he'd been perched on the ship's figurehead. "I can't speak to her motives, my Queen, but perhaps it is the shock? After all, we'd all thought King Peter and Queen Susan weren't to return to Narnia," he suggested.

Sighing, Lucy finally looked back to her friend. "It seems more than that, but I can't figure it out. And I doubt Edmund's even noticed. Susan's always so stoic, it's hard to know when something's bothering her."

"Then there is only one recourse left to you," Reep said, putting a small paw on the Queen's hand. "Ask her."

Lucy resolved to do just that, but then Edmund showed up on deck with Caspian, both with a sword in hand. Before the young Queen could make her way over to her sister, the deck was packed with crew members itching to watch the practise duel. Lucy sighed. She'd have to find another moment to get her sister alone.

/*/

Susan had been staring into the distance, not really focussing on anything, reliving their last adventure in Narnia when the clash of swords drew her out of her reverie.

Glancing over, she noticed Edmund and Caspian, both grinning and circling one another, the swords they had occasionally lashing out. But every blow was parried quickly.

Despite herself, and her desire to distance herself, Susan was drawn in as she watched her brother and her… Caspian trading blows, each one coming faster than the previous. The crew constantly had to back off and duck out of the way as the two swordsmen made their way across the deck.

The fight was brief and ended in a draw. Susan couldn't help the smile that broke out at seeing the two men grinning and out of breath as they congratulated one another. It was heartening to see that the two Kings could get along as well as brothers, despite their original distrust.

As she looked up, Susan caught Lucy's eyes, who had apparently been looking at her instead of the duel. For some reason, the elder Queen felt herself blush, like she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't have. She quickly turned away and resumed her position on the aft deck, staring at the waves.

Susan had no idea what she was going to do now. She couldn't keep to herself for the duration of their stay in Narnia - however long that would be. She'd just have to keep her distance without being too obvious about it.

"Care to share those heavy thoughts, or are they a burden to be borne only by your own shoulders?"

Susan looked up to find Caspian standing beside her, smiling ever so gently. His breath was still the tiniest bit laboured from his sparring session with Edmund, and Susan did her best not to be too distracted by that.

"Where I come from we simply say 'penny for your thoughts'," she said, in lieu of a proper answer.

Caspian frowned in confusion as he took a seat next to her. "Penny?"

That did draw a smile out of her. "It's a coin, from England," she explained.

"You land does sound strange."

"Narnia was strange to us when we first came here," she countered, turning a little in her seat to properly look at him. She shrugged. "I suppose it all depends on what you're used to."

"I suppose it does," Caspian replied, his eyes on the door that led to the hold below decks.

Susan sighed. "You can't blame Eustace. I know he's a bit of a… well, a prat, really, but he's simply using whatever is at his disposal to deal with an unfamiliar situation. He's not making any friends, and it's not the best tactic, but he's scared and confused, so he falls back on what he knows."

Caspian regarded her with a light in his eyes that Susan was scared to put a name to. "Ever the Gentle Queen," he murmured.

Susan grimaced. "And this is where I remind you that I'm a better shot than you and that I have led armies into battle before," she teased.

He chuckled. "True enough." Then he sighed "If you decide you want to talk…" he trailed off, glancing over the deck. "I won't be far," he said, grinning.

Offering her practiced polite smile, Susan watched at he got up. "I'll keep that in mind."

/*/

"Land ho!"

Susan could hear the call even down below decks as she was. She'd been attempting to distract herself by reading one of the volumes she'd found in Caspian's quarters, a tale of adventure that had been written long after she and her siblings had reigned. It was a bit silly, but the characters were compelling enough to keep the young Queen from dwelling on her sombre thoughts too much.

She closed the book and followed the sound of boots and hooves on wood until she stood at the railing on the starboard side of the ship, between a man and a faun. It was dusk, and Susan couldn't make out much of the port of Narrowhaven - the city they were currently watching - and wished she had a spyglass.

A moment later, Caspian and Edmund came down from the foredeck, and Tavros - an imposing minotaur and helmsman on the ship - called out for longboats to be lowered down.

Lucy suddenly appeared at Susan's elbow and grabbed her hand. "Come on, I want to be on the first boat!" she said excitedly, pulling her sister along.

"Well, I'm coming along too!" Eustace proclaimed from behind the sisters.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Aren't you afraid you'll run across more 'unhygienic animals' if you come along?" she asked, a tad sarcastically. Susan frowned, clearly hearing the quotation marks in her sister's voice, but unsure to what she was referring.

Eustace made a face. "That place is as good as any to find a British consulate. And then I'll finally be able to wake up from this nightmare and go home!"

"Because being home in Cambridge was so much fun?" Susan asked, amused more than anything at her cousin's insistence that nothing here was real.

He muttered something she couldn't quite hear, but she thought she heard the word 'safe'... Perhaps she ought to go a little easier on him…

/*/

After a quick stop for Lucy and Susan to gather their dagger and bow respectively, they descended into the longboats and were on their way to the island.

"What do you think we'll find there?" Lucy asked quietly.

"Hopefully some answers, but…" she trailed off and then grinned at her sister. "Given our track record, it'll certainly be an adventure."

Lucy grinned right back before turning her eyes back to the steadily approaching land. The excited energy was coming off the younger Queen in waves, and Susan couldn't help her own smile. After a year of school and responsibilities and acting like a respectable young woman her age should act, getting to go on another adventure was just as exhilarating for her.

Before long, they reached land, and got out of the boats. Susan was both relieved and disappointed when Edmund, and not Caspian, leaned down to help her disembark.

It was quiet. So much so that Susan was focussed on that far more than on Eustace making a fool of himself once more.

"Where is everyone?" Lucy asked, summing up her sister's thoughts.

"Maybe they're all asleep?" Edmund suggested, but it was clear that wasn't the case.

Susan shook her head. "It's too quiet for that. Even in a small town in the middle of the night, there would be some noise; a dog barking or a cat knocking something over, people stumbling home from the pub… This…"

"This isn't natural," Caspian finished, gripping his crossbow even as he made eye contact with Susan. For once, the interaction wasn't awkward or stilted; they were both warning the other to be on guard, that something wasn't right. For the first time since she'd come back to Narnia, she felt like she and Caspian understood each other implicitly.

They were all wound so tightly that when the bell sounded, they all jumped. Susan instinctively nocked an arrow and started scanning the closest buildings. But there was nothing to see.

After another minute of tense watching, everyone reluctantly relaxed a little. Caspian ordered Reep to stay with Drinian's men and secure the place while he and the others moved on.

"If we don't return by Dawn, send a party," he said, chilling Susan to the bones as they headed deeper into the city.

The sun quickly set, making the party feel even less at ease. Edmund had his sword out and ready, and Caspian kept his crossbow up at all times. The only ones not brandishing weapons were Lucy - because she only had a dagger and that was only good in close quarters - and Eustace, because no one felt comfortable giving him one.

As they made their way through the winding streets of the port city, everything remained deserted. Susan idly noted that it would probably be a beautiful city if it were not nighttime and deserted.

A shiver climbed up Susan's spine. Something was not right here. And she had a feeling they'd find out what it was before the night was out.

/*/

A/N: Please leave me a review and tell me your thoughts!