Lasaraleen's Man Slave

Peter and Saedra pulled away from each other, both looking in the direction that the voice had come from. The only light in the dark hallway was coming from a passage that led back to the party, and the owner of the voice stepped into the beam of light.

Saedra had been sure the voice was Edmund's, but the form in the light sure didn't look like his. The man appeared to be bald, very tan, and was wearing plain clothes like the kind that the peasants wore back in Harden.

Peter and Saedra walked over slowly, still unsure if it really was Edmund. When they were close enough to see his grinning face, they shouted for joy and Peter embraced him.

"Can't even recognize your own brother, hm?" Edmund laughed, slapping his back.

"Under the circumstances, I think I can be pardoned," Peter replied. "I was expecting a King of Narnia, not a Calormene in Archenlander clothing!"

Peter rubbed the very short fuzz of hair on Edmund's head before pulling back so Saedra could hug him.

Saedra smiled and hugged Edmund. "By the Lion, it's good to see you! We've all been so worried."

"Nice to know I was missed!" Edmund said teasingly.

Saedra pulled back and studied him. He seemed so different, and it wasn't just his appearance. He was genuinely happy—nay, he was beaming. He didn't have the pained look he used to have when he was pining for Saedra. He looked at Saedra with a happy expression that had no hidden meaning behind it, other than he was pleased to see her and Peter and thrilled be home. There was a fire in him that she hadn't seen in him ever before, a secret joy that lit a fire in his eyes.

As Peter and Edmund teased each other about nothing, Saedra didn't pay attention. She was trying to gauge how she felt about this new Edmund who looked at her in such a different way. True, she didn't think she could ever love Edmund the way that she had come to love Peter, but it felt like a chapter had closed in her life. It had been flattering to know that she had the love of Edmund, and now she could plainly see that his affection for her was simply the love of a brother for a sister—or very close to it. She felt a sense of loss, but also a sense of great relief. It was over. The question was, why?

"Are you coming, Sae?" Peter asked. He and Edmund had moved to the entrance to the hallway leading back to the party, while she was still standing back in the same place.

"Oh—of course!" she said and caught up to them. "Su has been praying that you would come back by tonight, Ed. This will make her night."

"What's so special to Su about tonight?" Edmund asked. "Besides the fact that it's Christmas Eve."

"It's her engagement party," Peter explained. "She held it off as long as she could, but she and Peridan are having a terrible time waiting to be married."

Edmund laughed. "Poor Su. She's been wanting to get married since last spring!"

When Edmund, Peter, and Saedra entered the party hall, there was no reaction because no one recognized Edmund in his strange getup. But as they walked onto the dance floor to intercept Susan and Peridan, Susan spotted them and squealed at the top of her lungs, "Edmund!" She threw her arms around her younger brother's neck.

"Su!" Edmund gasped in a raspy voice. "Do let me have some air!"

Lucy and Talia came running over and greeted Edmund when Susan finally released him. The music had stopped, and the Narnians gathered around to see their King. There were a lot of murmurings and jokes about Edmund's appearance.

"When do we get to hear your tale, Ed?" Lucy asked loudly over all of the conversations.

"Yes!" Talia exclaimed. "Tell us everything, Uncle!"

Edmund laughed and said, "Father Christmas will be here before I get halfway done with it!"

"So?" Talia pressed, hopping up and down excitedly.

Edmund sighed dramatically and took Talia's hand in his. "You win, little Princess. Let's go sit down and I'll tell you everything."

Peter, Saedra, Susan, Peridan, and Lucy followed him to a table and sat down around him. As the party continued, he began his tale.

Finding out what happened to the Lone Island's rogue taxes had been an excuse, not a reason to stay behind in Narrowhaven. Edmund had been deeply hurt by Saedra's rejection of his love, but he couldn't help but love her even more for being so noble. Though he put up a front of "just friends" for Saedra's peace of mind, he was still in turmoil more than ever.

He had come to terms with two things on the trip that had been haunting him, however. The first was that he and Saedra would never, ever be together. The other was that Saedra still loved Peter—no matter how much she tried to hide it. There had been a change in her after the night in which Lucy had wrongly accused them of having an affair; she was more pleasant and made fewer biting comments towards Peter. Something had definitely changed between Edmund's brother and his wife, and it had nothing to do with Edmund.

So even though he was thoroughly miserable, he now knew that he had accomplished his original goal: Saedra was married to the man she loved. How she and Peter ran their marriage was their business, not his.

Edmund wasn't a stupid enough man to expect that ignoring his pain would make it go away. He couldn't ignore it no matter what he did, anyway, but he did hope that by throwing himself into doing something useful he wouldn't become melancholy. Thus as soon as the Splendor Hyaline left Narrowhaven's port, he had a conference with Cedric and his advisors.

"Now that we are all here, kindly explain to me how the taxes are transported from here to Narnia. I know a little of it, but not enough to help me," Edmund said.

One of the advisors lifted his hand to indicate that he would like to speak, and Cedric nodded at him.

The advisor stood up and said, "As your Majesty knows, there's no direct trading between the Lone Islands and Narnia. For this reason, it is much safer and efficient to take advantage of the established trading routes between us and the mainland to transport currency. The closest port to Narnia is Tashbaan's, and so it is brought there and transferred to another company's charge. That company brings goods along the coast of the Bight of Calormen up to the Harden Province in Anvard by boat. There it makes a stop and is transferred to another carrier which continues up the coast to Cair Paravel."

"And so it could be along any of these stops that the taxes could have been stolen," Edmund surmised. "How many people know of this route?"

"Very few," another advisor replied. "Only the highest people in each company know what they are really transporting among their other goods, to reduce the chance of theft. The taxes are well-hidden among the other things being transferred."

"Do you suspect the owners of the companies then?" Edmund asked.

"They have already been investigated," Cedric said. "As soon as your Majesty arrived and told me of the problem, I had them watched and questioned. The owners know nothing of the shipment other than it was shipped out this past summer. The boats it was loaded onto have yet to return, and the owners are just beginning to suspect foul play now."

"So someone aboard must have discovered the money," Edmund said.

"That would have been our best guess," Cedric replied, "but I've just learned that the ships did indeed dock at Tashbaan. We suspect that it is somewhere up the chain that the money was stolen."

"It could have been stopped on the way to Harden…or even there…" Edmund thought aloud. "I wonder if Lady Saedra would know." It would be a good place to start to narrow down the options, though it would slow down the investigation to write to her.

"She wouldn't," an advisor said. "None of the rulers in the countries we go through know of this arrangement."

With that option shot down, Edmund decided, "I'd like to meet with the shipping company owners."

And he did the next day. The three owners of were extremely obliging, and it was apparent to Edmund that they were innocent. There was no reason for them to risk their well-to-do trading company, Reliable's Royal Relays, by getting between the Narnian and Lone Island governments.

Edmund decided that he could learn no more unless he travelled to Tashbaan, and he asked them for a post on a ship that was due to leave for Tashbaan. At first they were shocked that a King of Narnia would stoop so low as to want to work on a ship incognito, but then they realized that he must have some master plan that they were unaware of. They put him on the next ship to Tashbaan as a sailor.

At first it was very strange to Edmund to change his name and serve under another person, but soon he became accustomed to it. Weeks passed as he worked on the ship as the Lone Islander "Jarid" and got to know the other sailors and their stories. The manual labor hardened his muscles in ways they hadn't been used before, and he became very tan. He became grimy, grew out his beard, and wore rough clothes, and soon he was indistinguishable from any other sailor.

Thus when the ship he was on was attacked by pirates the day before it was to make port in Tashbaan, no one ever guessed that he was King Edmund.

The pirate ship came upon Edmund's ship at dinnertime, headed in the opposite direction. They simply cut off their path, sidled up next to them, swarmed the ship, and took over. There were enough of them that Edmund's shipmates knew better than to fight, and since Edmund didn't want to stand out as an exceptional swordsman and still couldn't have held off the pirates single-handedly, he didn't fight either.

When the ship was fully in the possession of the pirates, they lined up their new prisoners and looked them over one by one. Arriving at Edmund, the captain commented, "Fine one, this. Filthy, of course, but look at how he stands. Well-bred. This one we can take to the Grand Vizier."

The first mate said, "He's handsome, to be sure. But the posture's too haughty for the Grand Vizier."

"We could break him," the captain replied.

"But wouldn't it be better just to sell him than to damage the wares?" the other asked shrewdly. "We'd get a fair price for him in the market. The Grand Vizier likes his slaves to be meek, but some Tarkaans like their slaves well brought-up."

"Aye, true that. He'll bring in a good price. We could give this other fellow to the Grand Vizier."

The new captives were rounded up and chained below decks for a miserably uncomfortable night. The next day they were brought back out on the deck to find that their ship had been docked at Tashbaan. They were cleaned, shaved from head to toe, and given loincloths to wear. Their hands were chained together and they were paraded off the ship with their necks chained to each other's, forming a line.

The whole spectacle was humiliating, but Edmund was strangely detached. He hadn't been chained since he had been in the clutches of the White Witch, and his mind kept wandering back to that time as they walked over the splintery dock.

The captives were paraded through the city gates and to the slave marketplace. As they went, people hardly gave them a second glance.

The slave marketplace was the largest open area Edmund had ever seen outside of the Tisroc's palace walls. Off to one side attached to a building was a high wooden platform used to show off the wares. Even though it was early in the day, there were already slaves being auctioned off by an obese man with a loud voice. A crowd stood around the platform, made up of finely dressed slaves who were there on behalf of their masters, and Tarkaans sitting in their litters held up by slaves.

Edmund and the crew were led up the stairs and to the back of the platform, where they stood waiting until the other batch of slaves was gone. Then one by one their neck shackles were unlocked and they were brought up to the center of the stage to be bidded on.

When they got to Edmund, the slave auctioneer said, "Look at this fine young man. In the prime of life! Look at that handsome face and toned chest! Teeth are as perfect as can be! A bit lofty, but nothing that a little work won't cure. Strong enough for manual labor and pretty enough for housework. Shall we start the bidding at…?"

The bidding started and climbed higher than it had all morning. Eventually he was sold to a Tarkaan who had been bidding from a litter. One of the Tarkaan's attendants came up to get Edmund, and he was brought back to the Tarkaan.

The Tarkaan was a middle-aged man, very fat as rich men in Calormen generally were, and had a dull, bored look on his face. He looked Edmund up and down and said, "Yes, he will do very nicely. My wife has wanted a man slave for some time. Yes, he will do. Take me home."

The last order was so indistinguishable from his assessment of his new slave that Edmund didn't catch it until the slaves—who must have learned to listen very closely to catch orders from their master—went into action. Edmund was tied to the litter along with a short woman and a white-haired man that had been bought earlier, and followed along as they went back to the Tarkaan's house.

They travelled to the nicer area of Tashbaan higher up by the Tisroc's palace, and eventually arrived at the Tarkaan's estate. The Tarkaan was let out of the litter at the doorway, and the three slaves were untied and left standing there, uncertain what to do. The Tarkaan ignored them and went into the house.

Edmund was just deciding whether he should make a break for it or not when someone came out; it was a well-dressed male slave.

He went to them and said, "Follow me. And welcome to the household. You are very lucky that you have been brought here. Master is kind as long as you do what you are told and don't attract attention of the mistress."

They went through the smaller side passages of the building, ones that the members of the family would never have gone through. Edmund had never noticed such passages in the Tisroc's palace but guessed that slaves must have come and gone unnoticed through them there as well.

"Here's the kitchen where you," he pointed to the woman, "will be working. The last cook was beaten to death under the orders of the mistress, so mind that you're careful what you make. You'll be under the head cook's charge."

The head cook came over and steered the now-terrified woman away. Edmund wasn't sure whether the head slave had been joking or not.

"Follow me," the head slave said to the remaining two men.

They went through some more passages, up some stairs, and entered a bright, spacious hallway that was lined with pictures and plants. They stopped at a door, and the head slave knocked.

"Come in," a faint female voice said.

The slave motioned for Edmund to follow him into the room, and he did so. The other slave stayed outside.

Lounging in bed was a girl in her late teens wearing a very colorful dress that exposed her soft stomach. She wore a lot of jewelry, and the room reeked of perfume. She was sitting and munching on a snack, looking bored. She looked up eagerly when the slave and Edmund came in, as if she wanted something—anything—to distract herself from her boredom.

When Edmund saw her face, he recognized her instantly. He had seen her many times with Saedra and Rahai the last time he had been in Tashbaan, and she had also been at Peter and Saedra's wedding with Saedra's family. It was the Tarkheena Lasaraleen.

"Mistress, I bring you a gift from your husband," the slave said after bowing and gestured towards Edmund. "This man slave for your enjoyment."

Lasaraleen sat up and looked Edmund up and down. One can hardly blame her for not realizing that he was the King of Narnia; he was very tan, shirtless, crownless, and hairless. Only his posture could give away his royalty, and that wasn't enough to reveal him as a person that she was merely acquaintances with.

A sly smile crept onto her face as she examined him. Yes, he would do.

"Tell my husband that I'm very grateful for his present," she said.

The head slave bowed and backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Lasaraleen got up from the bed and sauntered around Edmund in a circle, examining him.

"So, you are to be my toy, ah?" She squeezed his muscular arm playfully. "What's your name, slave?"

"Edmund" was on the tip of his tongue, but he checked himself just in time.

He knew she was Saedra and Rahai's friend, but it didn't mean she was trustworthy. As he thought this, he realized that there was only one person in Tashbaan that he could trust, and it was Saedra's cousin Rahai. Even though Saedra had disliked her once, he knew that she would trust Rahai with her life now. He saw the guidance of Aslan in his journey, for since Lasaraleen and Rahai were good friends, Rahai was bound to come over.

"Jarid," he replied.

"Mm," she hummed. "Nice, strong northern name. I like it!" She went back to the bed and lounged in what she thought was a seductive pose. "So Jarid, how experienced are you? Have you received the proper training?"

"Um, no," Edmund said confusedly.

A smirk spread over Lasarleen's mouth. "Then I get to break you in, so to speak." She giggled delightedly. "Have you ever been with a woman?"

Edmund blinked. "What?"

"You know, have you ever slept with a woman?" More giggles.

Edmund's cheeks burned and he cursed himself for ever thinking it was a good idea to come to Tashbaan. "No," he admitted.

"Delightful!" she snickered.

It finally clicked in his mind what kind of job he was expected to perform. All he knew was he certainly was not going to be the play thing of Saedra's friend!

"Um, there may be a problem, Mistress."

Lasaraleen blinked and took in Edmund's bright red face. She studied him for a moment. "Oh I see, I see! You are unable…I see…"

Edmund could die from embarrassment, but it was the only way he could think of getting out of the situation without compromising his mission.

Lasaraleen looked disappointed for a moment, but snapped out of it quickly.

"Well, at least you'll be good company. And my husband will be relieved when I tell him. It took me a long time to convince him to get me a man slave. He said he didn't care that they're in fashion, he just wasn't comfortable…"

She prattled on and on, but Edmund didn't care. He was ready to faint from relief that he had gotten out of that horrific situation with such ease.