A/N: A little late, sorry. This past weekend has been a little crazy. But here's the chapter, and I'll update again tomorrow!

Chapter 4:

Previously:

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.

They wandered further into the silent city, until they came upon a large building.

"Yeah, looks like nobody's in, so you think we should head back?" Eustace said suddenly, breaking the silence and grating Susan's nerves. She was a hunter by nature; walking silently and not announcing one's presence was what came naturally to her. But of course, her cousin had no experience with these types of situations, so he could be forgiven. Or so she kept telling herself.

Glancing at him, she noted that he did look very tense, and was for once not arrogantly bragging or complaining. It did speak to how frightened he must be.

"Do you want to come here and… guard something?" Edmund asked, showing Susan that he was as observant as ever and had noticed their cousin's discomfort as well.

"Ah, yes!" Eustace replied, obviously relieved as he ran over to them. "Good idea cousin. Very, uh… logical."

Susan turned her attention back to the building they had reached. It stood taller than its neighbours and had a large entrance. She had never personally been to the Lone Islands - That was Peter's territory - but she could recognize a gathering place as well as anyone.

But, as always, she was painfully aware of where Caspian was in relation to herself, so when he turned around and walked away, she noticed. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him pulling out a long knife and handing it to Eustace.

"I don't want to leave him here by himself," Susan muttered.

"He'll be fine," Lucy whispered back dismissively. "What harm could he come to out here?"

Susan raised an eyebrow but didn't reply. She supposed he wouldn't be in much more danger out here than in there with them. Still, she sent up a silent prayer to Aslan to watch over the idiot boy all the same.

Caspian and Edmund then pushed open the doors and the four Kings and Queens cautiously stepped inside.

Large bells hung from the ceiling, and statues lined the walls. Susan wondered if this was a house of worship, as it reminded her somewhat of a church, but then what religion could it be? Everyone in Narnia swore by Aslan's name, though the Calormenes had their own cruel God. Could it be that in the last thousand years more religions had cropped up?

Or perhaps she was reading too much into this. It could just be a meeting place as she'd originally assumed.

In the centre of the room stood a table - Susan refused to call it an altar - upon which piles of books lay. The closest one was open, and Edmund, ever the scholar, stepped forward to take a look. Lucy and Caspian flanked him, while Susan wandered over to the statues.

"Who are all these people?" Lucy asked. "Why have they been crossed out?"

"Looks like some kind of… fee," Edmund said, an uneasy tone in his voice.

"Slave traders," Caspian said gravely. Susan turned around to join them, but was distracted by movement in the rafters.

"Look out!" she had time to shout before the bells started ringing and men came swinging down from the ropes that held them.

Susan let off a shot and felled one of the men before he'd even reached the ground. She was vaguely aware of Lucy stabbing a man and taking his sword, and Edmund using his torch as much as his blade. Caspian, too, had shot down one man, before he'd had to abandon his crossbow in favor of his sword. She'd have to remind herself to tease him about the problematic weapon.

Susan herself was using her bow as often to club men over the head as she was to shoot arrows. The former was much less deadly, and the strange men quickly realized this. They swarmed her, trying to make her abandon her weapon, but they were foolish to think a bow was needed to fight with arrows. She swiftly drew an arrow, but instead of nocking it, she stabbed a man in the eye. Perhaps somewhat less lethal, but definitely painful, and enough to put a man out of commission.

A scream tore through the air, and for a second, Susan feared it was Lucy. When she looked up, though, Lucy was still where she had been last, surrounded by 3 men and gripping her sword fast. Edmund was in a similar position, except that he only had 2 opponents left, and Caspian had seemingly dodged all over the room, leaving wounded men in his wake.

At the door, though, stood Eustace with the knife Caspian had given him pressed to his throat.

"Unless you want to hear this one squeal like a girl again, I'd say you should drop your weapons," the man holding the blade said as he slowly walked Eustace forwards.

"Like a girl?" the blonde boy complained. Susan had to fight not to roll her eyes.

"Now!" The man shouted, prompting all of them to put down their weapons.

"Eustace," Edmund growled under his breath. Susan was annoyed as well, but then again… Eustace couldn't fight, had probably never held anything sharper than a kitchen knife before. Was it any wonder the boy had been caught?

"Put them in irons!" the man said, and Susan had to fight back the urge to claw his eyes out.

Lucy didn't have such compunctions and struggled as much as she could, shouting at the men to let her go. Susan didn't bother. As long as Eustace had a knife to his throat, fighting would be useless and would only be a waste of energy.

"Put those two in the dungeons," the lead man said, gesturing to Edmund and Caspian as he shoved Eustace into the hands of one of his men. "These three however, will fetch a nice prize at market." The man came to a stop in front of Susan. She glared at him, but made no move to attack. "This one especially," the man said softly, grabbing her chin and lifting it up to inspect her. Like she was some kind of prize animal.

There was lust in his eyes, something Susan had seen often enough on strange men, but she kept her revulsion in check. When he loosened his grip to look her up and down, Susan suddenly pulled her chin free and headbutted him square across the face.

There was a satisfying cracking noise, and she knew she'd broken his nose. The man stumbled back, crying out, and his men grabbed her by the arms painfully. The leader spat something in a language Susan didn't recognize, but the meaning was unmistakable. He turned his glare on her and roughly grabbed her chin again. She could hear her siblings and Caspian struggle against their captors. "If your face wasn't so pretty I'd enjoy cutting it up," he hissed. "Fortunately for you, you're worth more to me in one piece." Then he let her go and stepped back. "Take them away."

"Listen to me, you insolent fool!" Caspian shouted. "I am you King!"

One of the men holding him backhanded him, and Susan struggled against her binds, trying to get to him.

"You're going to pay for that!" Edmund shouted, trying to wrench himself away from his captors as well.

"Actually," the leader said, smirking darkly at them. "Someone else is going to pay. For all of you."

/*/

"Susan, wake up! You can't sleep!"

Lucy's voice made Susan jerk awake again.

"You shouldn't have done that, now you're hurt," Lucy muttered, her hands fisted in her elder sister's shirt.

Susan managed a wry smile as she closed her eyes against the sun. "A mild concussion was worth it to break that foul creature's nose."

She could almost feel Lucy rolling her eyes at her. "It still didn't do us any good. You're in no condition to escape, should the opportunity arise," Lucy said, lowering her voice.

Sending her sister a reassuring look, she leaned back against the stone wall in front of which they were seated. "It's only a mild concussion; I'm not nauseous or dizzy, and the light is only slightly irritating my eyes. And to be fair, I didn't think I'd get a concussion, just a headache."

"What even made you think to do that?"

"I saw Peter do it once when he was being restrained by those Calormen guards who didn't know who we were," Susan replied, smiling at the memory.

Lucy scoffed. "There was your first mistake then; doing something Peter thought was a good idea. And besides, you should know by now that our brothers have thicker skulls than we do," she joked, surprising a laugh out of the elder Queen.

"I don't know why you're so cheerful," Eustace muttered darkly. "We're going to be sold like pigs and who knows what'll happen after that."

Susan turned to the boy sitting on her other side. "It's not quite as bad as all that," she said gently. "We didn't come alone, remember?" she added in a whisper.

Eustace opened his mouth - most likely to argue - when a cart rolled by. A man chased it, calling out to one of the women who sat on the back. "Helaine!" he cried out, trying to catch up, but was shoved back by a guard.

"Mummy!" A little girl came barrelling through the streets behind the man, her eyes clearly focussed on the woman as well. "Mummy!"

"Stay with daddy!" the woman shouted.

"Don't worry! I'll find you!" the man shouted as he picked himself up off the ground. The little girl reached him and would have kept chasing after the wagon had her father not held her back. "Mummy!" she screamed.

Susan winced at the sound, but more so at the heartbreak in the little girl's voice. Soon, the wagon was out of sight. A little while later they heard screams and then… silence. "What happened?" Susan asked of the faun sitting next to Eustace.

He didn't dare to look at her. "They were sacrificed to the Mist," he muttered.

"The Mist? What is it? What happened to them?" she questioned, but the faun didn't seem to want to say anything else.

Then, they came for them. One by one, the people they'd been chained up with were sold. The faun went for 80, and Lucy fetched 150. Susan kept her eyes on her sister, willing some of her courage into her. But, while Lucy did seem apprehensive and nervous, she didn't seem afraid. Good girl.

Then came her turn.

"And now this exotic beauty," the auctioneer called out. "Ain't she the finest specimen you've ever seen? Come on, gents, bidding starts at 100!"

"110!" someone shouted.

"130!"

Susan regarded them all with the same amount of disdain. If any of these men thought they could lay a finger on her, they were sorely mistaken.

"Come on gentlemen, I think we can do better than that!" the auctioneer encouraged.

"200!" a bearded man shouted, looking far too enthusiastic. She commited his face to memory as she did of all the other men who looked a little too interested, especially the man who had bought Lucy. That's when she noticed Drinian's face half-hidden by a blue hood. She took special care to let her gaze slide over him, like he meant nothing to her, but on the inside she was cheering.

She lifted her head higher as one of the men bid 400, a whole 70 higher than the previous bidder. There was some muttering, but no one could top that amount.

"Sold to the lucky gent in the back!" the auctioneer shouted, looking positively gleeful. He reached out to grab her arm, but she quickly sidestepped him to join Lucy again.

"They're here," she whispered under her breath as she scanned the square again. On one of the parapet walkways above the square, she caught a glimpse of Caspian and Edmund as they were led away by two guards.

In her distraction, she'd missed the initial bidding on Eustace until the laughter of the crowd interrupted her train of thought. As she tuned back in, her cousin was complaining that he had excellent hygiene.

"I'll take them off your hands," a familiar voice called out from under Drinian's hood. The man in question pulled back said hood, revealing Reep on his shoulder. "I'll take them all off your hands! For Narnia!" the mouse shouted, rallying the hidden troops.

Susan wasted no time in using her manacles as a club to hit the man guarding her and Lucy. Eustace quickly jumped off the auctioneer's block and joined them.

"I don't suppose either of you know how to pick a lock?" Lucy asked, a moment before Reep showed up and used his floret to unlock the chains.

"Thanks, Reep, we knew you'd come!" Lucy said, before dashing off and joining the fight. Before Reep could free her or Eustace, though, a man lashed out with his sword, causing Reep to have to defend himself, rather than focus on them.

"We'll be fine, Reep, go!" Susan shouted, and pulled Eustace along as she searched for anyone carrying keys. Soon enough, a guard was thrown their way by one of the minotaurs, and Susan was grateful to note that he had a ring of keys on his back. She quickly unlocked Eustace's hands, before awkwardly trying to undo her own manacles.

But, once again, she was interrupted. She noticed the sword just in time, caught it on her chains and deflected it. "Hello, little lady," the man sneered, grinning lewdly.

She kicked out - grateful that her feet weren't bound - and shoved the man to the ground. As quickly as she could, she searched the ground for the fallen keys, but just as she reached for them, the man got back up and brandished his blade. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" she muttered, stepping into his swing, and disarming him. She then grabbed a hold of the weapon and used the butt to knock him unconscious.

"Need some help with that?"

She whirled around, ready to use the weapon properly this time, before the voice registered in her mind. Caspian. Of course.

"Saving a damsel in distress?" she asked, perhaps a little more harshly than was strictly necessary.

Caspian just grinned, picked up the keys and started unlocking her manacles. "I think we all know you're about as far from a damsel in distress as one can get. I believe your cousin falls more neatly under that heading," he joked.

His touch sent shivers up her spine, but Susan ignored that as she noticed that Eustace was no longer with her. "Where is he?"

"Gone to the boats, most likely," Caspian replied. "Are you alright?" he asked, looking at her with concern.

She was still squinting against the light, and her head was pounding, but adrenaline was a wonderful thing in these situations, so she was able to ignore her concussion for the most part. "I'll be alright in a bit," she replied.

Now that she had time to take stock, she noticed that the fighting had died down, and that many of the townspeople had apparently joined in. She just caught a woman breaking a clay vase over a guard's head while another man used a heavy wooden spoon as a club. She smiled in amusement at the sight.

"I believe we won the day, your majesties," Drinian said as he joined them, as poised as ever.

"That we did, Drinian," Caspian replied with a grin. He surveyed the square for a moment. "We should gather everyone at the docks and see what we can do for these people. We'll also need more provisions, if they can spare them."

The First Mate nodded. "I'll see to it, Sire," he said, and strode off.

Before they could lapse into an uncomfortable silence, Susan spoke. "To the docks then?"

Caspian nodded and fell into step beside her. As they passed, the crew of the Dawn Treader fell in behind them - Susan was happy to see that Lucy seemed unscathed - and people cheered. It was perhaps a little vain, but Susan enjoyed this. She liked being able to help people, and these people were now free. They were cheering their liberators as much as the fact itself.

As they neared the seaside, a man came running up to them, the same man who had chased the wagon earlier. A few of Caspian's men help him back, and everyone reached for their weapon. Susan missed her bow fiercely.

But all the man wanted was to join their mission, and Caspian agreed. Susan, however couldn't help but feel sorry for the little girl the man was leaving behind. She'd lost her mother that morning, and now her father was leaving her, too.

Susan had felt the same way when her mother had put them all on the train bound for the country while London was being bombed. Her father was fighting off in the war somewhere, and her mother would be left in a ravaged city, in fear of being killed every day. Lucy and Edmund had been just a little too young to fear for their mother's life, but she and Peter had known. Her heart went out to the little girl, but there was nothing she could do. They could hardly take her with them on what was surely to be a dangerous voyage.

Lord Bern - whom Caspian and Edmund had found in the dungeons during their imprisonment - presented Caspian with a sword, an old Narnian sword, seven of which had been entrusted to the seven Lord they sought.

Meanwhile, Drinian and another sailor walked up and presented Lucy with her dagger and Susan with her beloved bow. She gratefully took it from them and immediately slung it over her shoulders.

A/N: I hope you liked it! Leave me a review!