A/N: Hi everyone! Another day, another update. Enjoy!
Chapter 7:
"Where's Lucy?" she asked, pushing down on her rising panic.
By now, Edmund was up and looking around as well as he drew his sword. "Lucy?" he called out, waking at least some of the men.
"Lucy!" Susan shouted, her eyes frantically scanning the surroundings.
"Everybody up!" Drinian ordered, as he pulled a half-asleep sailor from his bedroll.
As soon as everyone was on their feet, they ran for the trees. There was no other way for Lucy to have gone. Only a few minutes later, they arrived at what appeared to be a garden, with bushes, pruned into lovely shapes. But Susan could hardly enjoy it.
"Lucy!" Susan called out as they slowed to a stop. If someone had taken her, perhaps this was their destination.
"We'll find her," Caspian told her quietly.
"How did this even happen? We set a watch for just this reason!" Susan replied, heedless of her volume.
"I was on watch your majesty," one of the men said, his face red and a guilty look on his face. "I must have fallen asleep…"
Susan resisted the urge to hit him. But if Lucy had been hurt due to his negligence, she couldn't make any promises. So she settled for glaring at him. Luckily for the man, Drinian stepped in. "He'll be punished properly when we've recovered your sister, your majesty," he appeased.
Nodding curtly, Susan went back to scanning their surroundings.
"Su, it's Lucy's dagger!" Edmund said. Susan turned around to see him picking it up gingerly.
"Look out!" The call came right before a pair of spears were planted into the ground at Edmund's feet. Everyone jumped to attention, raising their weapons… but there was nothing to aim for.
"Stop right there," a gravelly voice called from thin air. "Or perish!"
Caspian's sword was slammed from his hands and sent flying, and then the same happened with Ed. Susan raised her bow to fire, but it, too was torn from her hands.
When Caspian was knocked down and his sword held menacingly above him, Susan froze, as did most of the men. "What sort of creatures are you?" Caspian asked, and Susan mentally commended him for his bravery.
"Big ones! With the head of a tiger and the body of a…"
"Different tiger!" another voice chimed in.
Susan frowned. For all that an invisible enemy was hard to fight, they didn't sound very intelligent. Nor very truthful.
"You don't want to mess with us!" the first voice said.
"Why not?" Edmund asked.
The various voices - Susan counted at least 4 or 5 - went on to threaten the group with all sorts of ridiculous threats as they slowly became visible. They were short, one-legged creatures with huge feet, standing on top of each other to appear bigger.
"You mean squash us with your fat bellies?" Caspian asked, deadpan.
"Yes! No, wait," the one with the longest beard said.
"Tickle us with your toes?"
It didn't take long for all the creatures to be toppled and held at sword point.
"What have you done with my sister, you little pipsqueak?" Edmund asked, stepping closer to the long-bearded one, as he appeared to be the leader. Susan quickly fetched her bow and nocked an arrow as she joined her brother.
"Now… calm down," the creature said as he nervously looked at the blade.
"Where is she?" Susan snapped, drawing the string back and aiming at the little man's head.
Some of the other creatures started muttering that the 'chief' should tell them. "In the mansion," the chief replied, looking a little scared.
"What mansion?" Edmund asked before Susan had a chance to do so.
The chief glanced to his left from the corner of his eye, and Susan automatically followed his gaze. She was about to say that there was nothing there, but then she heard a soft sound, like wind rustling leaves and a mansion appeared.
"Oh, that mansion," Edmund said dryly.
Eustace chose that moment to catch up with the group and provided a much needed distraction. Although for some reason, the creatures called him a pig. They must've heard his snoring. "This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder," he commented, and Susan couldn't help but agree. Never had she come across such creatures. It seemed Narnia could still find ways to surprise her. Though, on a positive note, Eustace seemed to take the sight of small, one-footed people in a stride as he stepped further into the clearing.
"The oppressor!" some of the creatures called, and started hopping away. Susan lowered her bow when Caspian gave his men the sign to let them go.
Turning around, they finally laid eyes on Lucy, who was accompanied by an older gentleman dressed in robes. "Lucy!" Susan called out, putting her arrow back in her quiver and pulling her sister in for a quick hug.
"I'm alright," Lucy assured her as they stepped back. The man bowed, and Lucy made introductions. "Edmund, Caspian, and Susan, this is Coriakin. It's his island."
The creatures protested mildly, and the man - Coriakin - seemed only mildly exasperated as he explained that he hadn't oppressed them, but made them invisible for their own safety. Then, he threw something at them, scaring the creatures away.
"What was that?" Lucy asked.
"Lint. But don't tell them that," Coriaking replied with a wink.
"What were those things?" Eustace asked, voicing a question Susan had been asking herself for some time now.
"Dufflepuds," the magician replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Right, of course, silly me," Eustace muttered, and Susan had to suppress a smile.
After that, they were all invited inside. The men were left in a chamber with a table set with delicious foods they were welcome to try. And after more than a week at sea and rationing their stores, they were more than happy to do so.
But alas, Susan and her friends were not meant to join them. It seemed Coriakin wanted to speak to them in private, so he invited Susan, Lucy, Edmund, Caspian and Drinian back to his library.
On the way there, Lucy asked some more about the Dufflepuds, whom, it turned out, had been made invisible to protect from the mist. Or 'what lies behind the mist', as Coriakin explained. At least they knew they were on the right track.
The library was gorgeous. Parts of the starry sky were showing, moving around, as though they were clouds of outer space trapped inside. Books hovered around on their own, and the 2 floors spoke to the sheer volume of Coriakin's collection. It made Susan long for her own library back at Cair Paravel. Had their situation not been so dire, she might have asked permission to peruse the shelves for a while.
Coriakin picked up a scroll and swiftly unrolled it, letting it unspool onto the floor. It was a map that instantly came alive, more colorful and realistic than any photograph. "It's quite beautiful," Eustace commented as they all gathered around. The edges of the map held drawings of Narnia's history, and Susan could see the battle against the White Witch being played out.
Lucy shot Eustace an amused look. "I mean for a make-belief map in a make-belief world," he quickly amended.
"There is the source of your troubles," Coriakin said, ignoring the interaction. The surface of the map seemed to move, as though it was viewed through a bird's eye as it travelled across the sea. "Dark Island." The place in question looked as ominous as it sounded. "A place where evil lurks. It can take any form, it can make your darkest dreams come true," the magician warned as he looked each of them in the eye. Though he seemed to linger on Edmund. "It seeks to corrupt all goodness, to steal all light from this world."
"How do we stop it?" Lucy asked determinedly. Susan admired her bravery and determination, and worked to suppress the dread she felt building in her stomach.
"You must break its spell," Coriakin replied. "That sword you carry," he said, gesturing to Edmund's newly cleaned blade. "There are 6 others."
"You've seen them?" Edmund asked.
Susan quickly looked at Caspian and saw his eyes fill with hope. "The 6 lords, they passed through here?" he asked urgently.
The magician admitted that they had, and that he had sent them to end the spell. Now, he told their group that they must follow the blue star to Ramandu's island where they had to place the 7 swords on Aslan's table.
"But beware," he warned. "You will all be tested. Until you lay down the 7th sword, evil has the upper hand. It will do everything in its power to tempt you. Be strong. Don't fall to temptation," Coriakin said gravely. "To defeat the darkness out there, you must defeat the darkness inside yourself."
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They spent another day on Coriakin's island, gathering supplies and just enjoying being off the ship for a little while. Lucy and Susan spent a lot of that time together, and while they still had some issues to work through, Susan was just glad they were spending time together again.
Edmund, though, had some trouble ceding to Caspian's authority. He was used to being in charge, second only to his siblings. But even back in the Golden Age, they'd always been equals. Susan understood why Edmund disliked having to defer to someone else after having grown up in Peter's shadow. She supposed it wasn't much different than what Lucy was going through, and she hoped her siblings could find some support in one another.
Caspian, however, didn't seem to notice much of the tension. He adored Ed like a brother, but he'd never grown up with one, so seeing those signs was harder for him. Then again, Susan mused, hadn't she herself failed to see them in Lucy?
"What was that saying again? Penny for your thoughts?"
Susan looked down. She'd climbed into a tree with low-hanging limbs to read a book, but had quickly become lost in her own thoughts. And now, it seemed, Caspian had found her.
"I'm afraid I'd be overcharging you," she replied as she closed her book and tossed it at him gently.
He caught it easily, and then, like a perfect gentleman, looked away as she made her way down. "I came to tell you we'll be weighing anchor soon," he said as she landed lightly behind him.
She nodded to herself and came to stand beside him. "I'll go over the provisions and make a list," she said, her mind already calculating how much the hold could store, and how much Drinian would have thought to gather.
Caspian turned to face her. "Ready to go on?"
She smirked. "Don't misunderstand me, I much prefer to be on steady ground, but it does have a certain charm. Up to a point," she said, shooting him a look.
"I wish I could promise we'll set foot on land before we get to that point, but Coriakin's directions were… vague at best," he replied, and gestured for her to precede him down the path back to the beach.
"I suppose we'll just have to hope for the best, then," she replied, feeling oddly cheerful.
He grinned at her. "When did you become such an optimist?"
"Just now," she replied cheekily. "I have a good feeling."
A/N: Please leave a review and tell me what you think!