Author's Note: Oh my God, you guys, I am SOO SORRY I haven't gotten another chapter in for so long!! I've been incredibly busy lately, what with the start of school and everything. This chapter might seem sort of boring to you, and yes, not much happens in this, but this chapter had to happen in order for the next chapter to take place. And I promise, I'll try to get the next chapter in MUCH sooner! But, anyway, here you go! The newest installment of Eternity!
Chapter Five
There was a long table.
It wasn't just any long table. It was carved from the finest wood and painted gold, with carvings in Old Narnian. The table was not very old, but it was not new. It was created for Caspian on the day of his birth. The gift giver said that it would be his work space for when he became King.
But now that he was King, it was much more than that. It was a table for many uses- work, thinking, sitting, talking.
"Sire, if I may, we should question them. They could be spies," a knight said. Lucy snorted and rolled her eyes. Caspian gave her an appraising look, and she shrugged.
"What?" she said nonchalantly. "It's MINNI, for crying out loud! I doubt she's a spy."
"There were two others, Your Highness," the knight continued, causing Lucy and Edmund to both raise their eyebrows in surprise, and exchange odd looks. This did not faze Caspian.
"What did they look like?" Caspian asked slowly, brushing brown hair from his eyes. The knight seemed nervous and shuffled his fingers.
"We… we don't know, my King. The guards did not get a good look at them. All they managed to distinguish was that one was a man, and one was a woman. Both about your age, actually- one, the woman, was very rough and difficult to control."
Lucy rolled her eyes, and Edmund groaned at the knight's incompetence. "Did you happen to see any characteristics about them at all?" Edmund asked, feeling very frustrated with the knight.
"Well… the man had blond hair, and the woman had black hair with some brown in it. The man was very tall and deep-chested, and the woman was petite and curvy. That's about all we know," the knight answered, looking very sheepish.
Lucy froze. Yes, the description wasn't much. But her older brother and sister had those characteristics that the knight described. Edmund and Caspian seemed to realize this too, because they turned to her with surprise and awe on their faces.
However, many different thoughts were running through each person's mind.
Edmund felt angry and confused. Didn't Aslan ban them? Hadn't they learned all they could learn from Narnia? It was finally Edmund's turn to experience Narnia the way he wanted, without being overshadowed by his siblings, and they just had to come swooping in to save the day YET AGAIN?
Lucy felt warm inside, but also worried. She loved being with Peter and Susan, but they weren't supposed to be here. IF they even were here. What would happen if Aslan found out? Would he punish them? Would he make SURE that they couldn't get back? More importantly, how did they even get here?
Caspian felt elated. What else was to be expected of him- having someone you love, or at least like very much, to be stripped from your grasp at the last minute, only to return later? But he felt nervous as well- was this for real? Would she be taken from Narnia again? And then, there was the pessimistic voice inside his head saying, They could be talking about someone else.
Suddenly, a door slammed, and Rylyn came bounding through the hall, causing everyone to jump in surprise, and Caspian to groan quietly. Couldn't that girl stay out of other people's business for one moment?
"Sorry I'm late, what did I miss?" she asked boisterously, her accent thick on her tongue. Caspian stood up in surprise and annoyance.
"Who invited you here?" he asked rudely, thinking, I surely didn't.
Rylyn snorted and rolled her eyes, making Caspian's heart jump with a start. She looked almost exactly like Susan when she did that, which surprised him- he didn't think he could find anything about the girl that he remotely liked.
"Edmund invited me, actually," she said, equally rudely. Caspian whirled around, his eyes wide in astonishment. Edmund shrugged sheepishly.
"I thought she'd be a good advisor. And besides, the girl's got nothing to do," Edmund whispered. Rylyn sighed, hearing. She was always that girl to them. Why couldn't she be herself? Rylyn Asterwood?
She sighed and put her hands on her hips. "Listen, I'll go if you want. But you could in fact use my help. I saw the people. I know who they are- they're High King Peter and Queen Susan, plus one."
Suddenly, there was shouting everywhere. The knights present had burst into sound, shouting about how absurd Rylyn was, about how she didn't know what she was talking about, that the two eldest Kings and Queens of Old had been banished from Narnia after learning everything they could. But Rylyn only shook her head nonchalantly and smirked.
In fact, she HADN'T seen the King and Queen up close. Only far away, right as they were being roughly taken. But she had heard them, and that was enough for her.
Caspian cleared his throat loudly. When they still did not cease their shouting, he stood up calmly, slammed his fist down on the table, and shouted, "BE! QUIET!"
Immediately, the shouting stopped, and all the knights stared up at their king, scared. Caspian did not get angry often, but, being raised in the harsh Telmarine environment, when he was angry, he was almost lethal in fury.
"Thank you," he said gruffly, sitting back down and running a hand through his brown hair worriedly. He sat up straight and looked Rylyn square in the eye- so hard, that it made her flinch.
"Are you sure, Rylyn?" he breathed, his eyes speaking paragraphs. But they also spoke a sentence so clearly that Rylyn didn't need to learn the other words: You better not be playing us. This is incredibly serious.
She didn't have to ask questions, either, to know why he was taking this so seriously. She nodded her head meekly, feeling small and shy for the first time since she arrived.
"Yes," she said quietly, willing for her usual bravado to come creeping back up.
Caspian leaned back in his chair, thinking for a moment. Then, abruptly, he said,
"Everyone go. I want to talk with Rylyn ALONE."
No one moved. They were all too shocked by his words. The king glared at them and hissed, "Now!"
All you could hear was the scrape of chairs being moved and the scuffle of feet as the knights, Edmund, and Lucy, flowed out of the room. Lucy gave him a withered, worried look as she passed, and Caspian gave her a small smile, letting her know that everything was okay. And it was. He just wanted to talk to Rylyn without the prying eyes of the knights.
He cleared his throat, and said quietly, "You are sure this is what you saw?"
Rylyn nodded, thankful as she felt her bravado slowly sink back in. "Yes," she said, her retort snappy and rude, reminding Caspian of her normal exterior.
Caspian sucked in a deep breath, biting his lip and rocking back and forth on his heels. He closed his eyes, and then opened them, crossing his legs various times before he finally uttered one sentence:
"Show me."
* * * * *
"Ouch," Susan croaked, feeling Peter's fingers work through her tender skin. Peter winced, as if feeling her pain as well.
"Hold on, it's almost over. Just one more… ah! There we go. All done!"
Susan flinched and looked down at the fabric wrapped tightly around her arm, and went over her shoulder into a sling. She felt bruised and battered, even though she had just been bleeding. But Peter and Minni, together, had taken control of her injuries, and now she looked very clean, and most of her scratches had healed. Except for the wound in her arm. Ugh.
"You okay?" Peter asked gently. Susan nodded, feeling amazed at the sudden tenderness Peter exerted toward her. She missed this- this feeling they had for each other. It had been lost in their fight, but now it was back, and she fully realized how much she missed being true brother and sister.
Susan glanced over to the corner, where Minni sat, gazing out the tiny window. Susan sighed.
"Are you okay, Min?"
Minni turned her head quickly, and nodded. "Yes, fine," she said, waving her hand around in a blasé manner that made Susan sure that she wasn't.
Susan crawled over to the tiny space Minni occupied, and plopped herself down next to her, pushing back her dark hair with her good arm.
"Minni, what's going on?" she asked gently. "You don't seem fine."
Minni shook her head. "It's nothing. Really," she whispered, but Susan saw something. Minni's head hung low, so her strawberry blond hair covered her face, but Minni's bright green eyes would always be noticed, and so Susan could see them through her mass of blond hair. And she saw them peek out through her strawberry blond curtain, and glance quickly over at Peter, before averting her eyes and staring back down at her hands.
Susan frowned. What had happened while she was asleep, and they were tending to her wounds?
"Minni?" she prompted, but Minni was through talking.
Susan sighed, glancing up toward the window and looking out. She froze, her legs stiffening, her heart thrashing wildly in her chest. She couldn't see very much through the tiny window, but she could see enough. She could see a smooth, tanned forehead, framed by brown locks of hair, and warm, inviting, chocolate brown eyes that pierced her soul and made her stomach churn in anticipation and longing.
* * * * *
He couldn't see her very well, but he knew who she was. The little window did nothing to minimize the beauty of those cerulean eyes and cloud of dark hair that hung down to her waist. He turned, staring at Rylyn with awe. For the first time, he didn't despise her and feel irritated by her. She smirked proudly.
'What did I tell you?" she said cockily. "It's them, isn't it?"
Caspian nodded, vaguely aware of what she was saying. He wasn't thinking of a "them", really. He was thinking of a "her".
* * * * *
She wanted to go to him. Oh, she wanted to. She needed to, with every fiber of her being to streak out of the room and throw herself at him, pressing herself against his warm body, wishing that they could be together in the way she always dreamt of- but they couldn't. Not now. Not until this was straightened out, until everything was right. And Susan knew, right then, that Peter could not know that Caspian knew they were here. He couldn't.
* * * * *
"Well? Don't just stand there- open the door and grab your woman!" Rylyn prompted, laughing to herself at her own boisterousness. Caspian sighed, wishing that he could do exactly what Rylyn said. But he couldn't- right? He glanced back at the window, where Susan still sat, staring up at him, her blue eyes bright with anticipation, hope, and longing. They stared at each other for a long moment, drinking each other's appearance in. But she did not stray from her spot- she did not go to the door and open it, either stepping out or inviting him in. He could tell then, that he wasn't supposed to know she was here. But how could he live with that?
He turned to Rylyn, amazed with himself that he was turning to HER for guidance. Rylyn snorted and rolled her eyes, pressing against Caspian's heart when she did that. God, how she looked like Susan in that instance.
"What are you doing at midnight tonight?" she asked. Caspian fought the urge to roll his eyes. Sleeping, what else?
He was about to open his mouth to say just that, but she cut him off. "Wrong," she snapped. "You're going to be here, 12:00 SHARP. I'll take care of everything from there. You need this, I can tell."
Rylyn shoved Caspian out of the way, and pressed her fingers against the window, signing crudely to Susan, saying, "12:00."
Susan cocked her head to the side and frowned. Caspian watched her with a wistful eye. She hadn't changed at all- he remembered her doing that exact pose all the time- when she was confused, she would cock her head to the side, push her eyebrows down and her plump bottom lip would slip into a slight frown. He secretly found her most attractive this way.
Rylyn sighed and turned back to Caspian in annoyance. "She is really dumb," she said bluntly. Caspian opened his mouth to immediately object, but she had already turned back and signed furiously. After a few more moments, Susan finally understood, and grinned, sitting straight up like a dog who had just heard his food being rattled around in a bowl.
But then she shook her head, causing Caspian's heart to, yet again, shatter into thousands of pieces. She inclined her head toward Peter's back, where he was talking to Minni, and thankfully, could not see Susan. Rylyn shook her head, and mimed "sleeping." Caspian nodded his head enthusiastically, feeling like an idiot, doing all this crude miming just because they were separated by a wall. Sort of.
Susan bit her lip, and nodded slowly, nervous butterflies flitting around her stomach. She was afraid that someone would discover them- Peter, Minni, or worse, Aslan. But she would risk it. She would risk it, to once against join someone she loved.
