Oh my good golly gosh I am so sorry! I am a horrible person, making you all wait that long! I feel so terrible, so hopefully this slightly longish chapter will help make up for it. Please excuse grammatical errors and such, I just wanted to post as soon as it was finished. Enjoy and review!
The thundering of hoof beats shook the ground and all beneath it.
The ceiling of the dark prison the Telmarine princesses had been trapped in for three days now crumbled onto the delicate finery of their dresses, centuries of dust and damp mold and rocks falling mechanically from the earthen ceiling of the prison.
The armies were setting out. Ten thousand horses black as death and riders cold as the grave pounded across the deserts of Telmar, swords blazing, preparing for the sacking of a century. When they were through with Narnian, shelter of cowardly forefathers unfitting of the title of Telmarines, there would be nothing left. Every mother of every child would ride shackled in the wagon of the true Telmarines back to Telmar where they would serve short miserable lives as servants and wives to the murderers of their husbands. Every child of every soldier would stand in the charred remains of hometowns wailing for fathers who would never come home and calling for mothers whom they never see again. And every cry of every frightened babe crying for his father would be the prisoners of war's to cherish.
Telmarines did not just defeat, Telmarines conquered.
And there was absolutely nothing Arianna could do about it. At least, not without Mariella, and not locked up in here. But, if she could get out, get all three of them out, perhaps she could finally prove to world Queen Daria had not died in vain by giving birth to her.
If, if is good.
"King Caspian! My lord, there is a problem with some of the artillery, sire it's not—"
"Your Highness! King Caspian, King Caspian I must speak to you immediately sire, two of the leopards have sprained a paw and now we only have a thirteen to carry thirty—"
"My liege! The armor is missing, sire! Almost an entire regiments worth! No one has seen it since it was put in the storage rooms yesterday and—"
"Oi! Where in the blazes is that wife o'yours? I need to see her about the archers pretty bloody fast!—"
"Help me, Your Majesty!"
"I need help!"
"This is a disaster!"
"We need more medal!"
"What are we going to do!"
"You Majesty something must be done about all of this! The Telmarines are approaching and they're practically at our gates and here we are all running amuck like chicken with our heads cut off and—"
"ENOUGH!"
"ENOUGH ENOUGH ENOUGH! Look, Lord Adrian ,if you are here to tell me that all of our swords are defective and the shields are falling apart and the armor is missing and the Telmarines are miles away and we have no sort of defense whatsoever, then just stop! I cannot possibly handle one more piece of bad news right now. If you are not going to be part of the solution, PLEASE do not add to the problem. Now all of you just shut up for one second and let me figure this out!" the Restorer of Old Ways growled, rubbing his temples as he paced briskly, his armor squeaking and creaking with every move.
"But Sire-!"
"Don't. Even. Think. About it," the king snarled through clenched teeth, not daring to even glance at the flustered belligerent lord scurrying after the armor clad king.
The double doors opened once more as yet another hoard of panicking men rushed through to alert the king of a million other things that had gone wrong. Caspian was just preparing to hurl his shield at the man closest to him when he realized that the blonde man leading the group was none other than his brother, and he looked scared as hell.
"Caspian, Caspian where is Susan? And Lucy? I can't find them anywhere, have you seen them?" the High King asked in a very out of breath, very puzzled voice.
The king ran a hand through his messy hair, wishing he had just stayed in bed this morning.
"No, I have not seen either of them since….late late last night, perhaps." He said slowly, his eyebrows pulling together in confusion as he did so.
Peter cocked his head. "How is that possible? You are bloody married to Susan—you sleep with her every night," he said a tad ruefully and making an awful face," you had to have seen her at some point this morning…"
Despite the very serious situation he was currently in, Caspian could not resist the opportunity to make his brother uncomfortable and dipped his head. "Aye. I am married to your sister, and I do see her in the morning," his serious face split into a cheeky grin, "but we do not actually sleep most nights."
The golden haired king's face turned a fascinating shade of purple, then green, then cherry red before he rolled his eyes. "If my sister was not so in love with you, I would so have killed you before now.
The king chuckled darkly," Indeed, love me she does. Most every night."
To his delight Peter actually growled at Caspian a moment "Would you cut that out please? We are in the middle of another bloody war, and I do not think the entire regiment needs to hear about your physical relationship with my sister, and I sure as hell don't!"
Caspian looked guilty for a second but then a small smile tugged at his lips. "I am sorry brother. You know I cannot resist making you so uncomfortable."
Miserably, "I know."
The kings were silent for a long moment.
"How late is late at night? And why did no one tell me of this?" Peter asked.
Caspian sighed wearily, "Well…I don't know, Susan was not in bed when I woke up this morning and I just figured she had gotten up early. And I had not realized Lucy was gone as well."
Griffin, one of the stable boys who had insisted on being suited up for war, took a shy but strong step forward and cleared his throat. "The Queens were saddled up around dusk, Your Highnesses. They told me not where they were going, nor when they were planning on being back.I suppose it was more late night—hours before the sun was even up. There is no way they could have seen the Telmarines…it would have been much too dark, and I just assumed that Your Majesties already knew..." the boy looked anxious, "perhaps I should have insisted on knowing their destination, Sire."
Caspian shook his head numbly, absently, and waved a hand at the young boy to gesture he was forgiven. "The horses. Which horses did they take? Lyric? Destrier? I can catch them if they left Destrier, we still have time.'' He said, looking around at Edmund and the soldiers then to Peter who had an uneasy look in his eyes.
"The last time you said that we lost half our men," the King of Old said in a quiet steady voice.
Caspian looked quite hurt by that and everyone in the room grew deadly silent, even Lord Adrian, who seemed to never stop talking.
A dark head pushed through the crowd of men behind Peter, and it took a stunned and hurt Caspian several moments to process the man as a fully armored Edmund, who looked as calm as ever though the fear in his eyes was painfully apparent.
"Are you SURE they have not returned yet? I mean, they would have heard the Telmarines approaching in the dead of night and surely they would have come back here to warn everyone."
Lord Adrian snorted. "Well this is just perfect, now we have to go trailing after the queens who decided to go gallivanting through the woods in the dead of night during a war. Perfect, bloody perfect. See, this is what happens when women are given too much freedom! Now, if they would just stick to party planning and producing heirs and pretty dresses, none of this would have happened! But because of that bloody woman and her big blue eyes'' he paused, making a rude gesture to mimic her," we are in another bloody war! And another thing umph…!"
The sexist lord's rant was cut off by the rather strong hand he suddenly found at his throat and the black as night intense eyes of King Caspian inches from his own pale yellow ones. The next moment, he felt the icy blade of Caspian's sword at his chest, pushing him backward.
"You pompous old windbag! I am sick and tired of hearing your bile! When she was gone, you would not quit badgering me about getting married, and then when she came back you did not like her, and then when we got MARRIED you continue to disrespect her and I will not tolerate any ill words of my love ANYMORE! I am DONE, do you hear me DONE with the likes of you! All this time you have been ranting about the evils of women and I will not stand idly by! She is Queen of Narnia and I love her, and you will treat her as such!"
The lord opened his mouth and was greeted with increasing pressure to his chest with the flat blade of his sword." Choose your words carefully milord. They could very well be your last."
"I thought no one need fear speak their mind before the Telmarine Who Saved Narnia? Or was that another lie?"
"You arrogant little-"
"Yes, Lord Adrian. Speak your mind. But you will show respect to those who deserve it. Caspian is your King and Susan is your Queen. And not because he is the son of those tyrants before you. He is not king because it is his place by birth, he is king because Aslan made it so. It is the will of Aslan that King Caspian the Tenth sit on the throne by his queen. And she is back because Aslan made it so. And you will respect them or leave, Lord. Do not be so eager to challenge a man worth ten of you. I can personally guarantee it will be your undoing," Edmund's smirking voice echoed through the hall. Peter, forever the picture of kingliness, tried to hide his smirk behind his hand and even Caspian, who was thoroughly touched and choked up about Edmund's odd spasm of brotherly affection towards him, was smiling at the resemblance of the lord's bumpy old face to a deflated balloon.
The lord continued spluttering and gasping and trying to form coherent words. "You-serious! Troops…warriors…ridiculous….few miles….ten times our size…bloody boys and their silly little wives…crazy lion…oh why did I not go through the damn tree to the magical world when I had the chance!" those final muttering and curses were the only thing to be heard in the silent hallway as the crusty old lord stomped angrily down the hallway and out of their lives, flailing his hands over his head to match his ridiculous ramblings.
Edmund turned to his brothers and the rest of the flustered men in the hallway. "After all this is over, remind me to buy you all a drink to celebrate. Goodbye and good riddance!"
Even if the queens had been concentrating, they never would have seen them coming.
It came out of nowhere, like a thunderstorm on a cloudless day. And in all honesty, they should have heard it coming from miles and miles around. But when your brother has just appeared out of nowhere after being gone for what felt like a thousand years, your husband has been very recently poisoned, you were almost snatched right out of you home in the dead of night by the country responsible for all of the above, you almost saw your love murdered before your very eyes and your older brother was almost assassinated as well, things like listening for approaching horses and riders tend to slip your mind.
Especially if you are sinking deep into the waters of the sparkling water of the river and feeling, if only for a moment, that there is not an enormous threat of everything falling apart hanging over your head. As Susan peeled off her lavender dress, staying in her thin chemise, and helped Lucy with her buttons before the pair of them allowed themselves a few moments of peace to float in the water, as if they were just two normal sisters and everything was not hanging by a thread.
Susan ran a finger through her semi wet curls before allowing the cool water to trickle over her face, her chest, her bloated stomach, and completely through the half wet curls. And if she closed her eyes, she could picture everything being alright again so clearly. She could pretend all she wanted that things in Narnia were perfect, that things with her family were perfect, and that things with her in general were perfect, but then she would catch a glimpse of the scars on her body or see a picture of Caspian trying to smile up at her through his agony and the fantasy was shattered like the many pieces of her crumbling life.
"What are you thinking of, Susan?" Lucy asked in her innocent little way, breaking Susan out of her gloom.
The Gentle queen pushed herself through the water, "Nothing. Everything. Mostly everything," she answered cryptically and the younger girl flung water at her.
"You know what I mean," she teased as her older sister splashed pathetically back at her.
"Yes, that is why I answered you," Susan responded with a half hearted grin, not being able to resist teasing just a little. What are big sisters for, right?
After a moment, "It's all going to be okay, right Lu?" Susan knew that those sorts of things were not what she should be saying, but somehow at that moment it just seemed the right thing to say.
Lucy gasped and turned her wet head to look at her sister, "Of course it is Su, you have to believe that! You believe in Aslan, don't you?" she asked, much quieter this time.
Susan pushed through the water and sighed, "Of course I do Lucy, you know that. I'm just….," she sighed again, " I don't understand why all of this has been happening or if this is really what was supposed to happen."
"What do you mean?"
"I just don't see what all this means…Caspian almost DIED Lucy; maybe he would have been better off if we had not come back….maybe things would have been better for him if I had just stayed away."
At that, the younger queen gasped and stood up in the water. Shocked, "Susan Pevensie! How can you even think that? Caspian is SO in love with you….how can you even think his life would be better if you were not in it? Do you not understand his love for you at all?" she asked in a puzzled voice.
Susan shifter herself in the water uncomfortably. "I do, Lucy. I know that he loves me-"
"Is in love with you. Madly. Hopelessly. " Lucy corrected. Susan gave her a look before continuing. "He has been hurt so many times because of me. And it simply is not fair to him to have to go through all that he does for me. I just want him to be safe, Lucy, and being with me is not keeping him safe. I'm scared for him, Lu."
Lucy gave her sister a sympathetic look before swimming to her sister's side and looked her straight in the eye, knowing that Susan had to be looking into someone's eyes to trust them, and lead her sister to a slippery rock jutting out of the merry river. "And you don't think the rest of them us are? Susan, Caspian is my best friend, no he's more than that he's my brother and I love him. And yeah, I am scared. I am so scared for him. But…I know that he is going to be alright. He'll be fine, we all will. Just keep your faith and all will be well. Everyone thought it was hopeless when the White Witch ruled, but look where we are now thirteen hundred years later. We came along and we defeated her, and we had no idea what we were doing back then! Aslan did will never forsake us. We are his children and he loves us. He will keep us safe."
Feeling like a lost little girl cowering in a bomb shelter in Finchley England, Susan smiled and wrapped her arms around her baby sister, wondering if perhaps she needed Lucy's wisdom too much. The was a loud splash in the water just a few yards away, in Susan and Lucy's blind spot. Just wanting to spend a few moments like this, holding her sister, Susan paid no attention to the splash and murmured to Lucy that it was just a fish. But when three or four much louder, very rapid splashes split the air again, the sister's broke apart. Four more behind them. When the sister's whipped their heads around, more sounded to their left. And then more and more until the sister's were gripping onto each other and turning and glancing and gasping in every which way. The sisters could not see anything or anyone, but the slap of heavy boots against the serene water was an unmistakable sound to both girls, and they knew that whoever belonged in those boots had them surrounded.
"Who's there?" the Gentle Queen called out, followed by Lucy's brave "We are not afraid of you."
Splash, thump, splash splash thump. Whisper. Whisper. Splash Thump . Closer and closer and closer, louder and louder.
Susan cast a fearful glance towards the shore, hoping to see sign of the strangely invisible captures, and caught the glare of the sun on her horn, uselessly laying meters away.
Together, "Show yourselves!"
The footsteps were only spitting distance away from the queens, who were now huddled up on the slippery rock, each holding a sharp stone and pointing them at the water. Lucy screamed when the closest footstep send droplets of water careening into her face, and she could practically feel the invisible figure slinking up onto the rock.
And what occured next Lucy was never quite sure of; all she remembered was a loud noise, a muttered
Telmarine curse, and throbbing pain in her left temple.
And through the haze of being thrown on a horse, shouting of voices and wondering where her sister was and if she was alright, or if she had escaped, Queen Lucy the Valiant heard an angry roar.
Annabelle huffed and set down her rock, resting her hands on her knees and croaked like a frog."It's…no…use….walls…too thick…must…..stop…." the ragged princess whined, staring at her little sister who was pounding a rock into a the hole made by a few loose stones in the prison wall, her big brown eyes gleaming with fierce determination as her small fist pounded again and again.
"It…won't ….work" her exhausted sisters gasped between the rhythm of the three rocks beating against the damp earth in perfect harmony.
Arianna fixed her eyes on the problem in front of her and saw King Caspian and Queen Susan holding hands and laughing. "It has to."
For the first time in his entire life, Tristan was in charge.
And, it is to be noted, he was not particularly good at it.
There had come a point, shortly after the home of the Narnian royals was in sight, where all ten thousand of the troops had all abruptly stopped in their tracks and looked at Tristan , the awkward and whiny, gangly teenage boy forever hiding behind his father, who was on a very secret mission of his own and had left Tristan in charge. Kasim's general stopped as well, clearing his throat in signal to the hot headed Prince who looked around at all the men. "What? Why is everybody stopping! I never said stop! I'm the boss around here, nobody said stop did you say stop? I didn't say stop! Why is everybody stopping! Stop stopping" he squawked loudly, flailing wildly with his hands as if that would make the troops resume their exhausting march.
The prince had just opened his wide mouth when the general clearing his throat and scooted his horse closer to Tristan's. "They are waiting for you to give a speech, my lord." He whispered in a low and mildly amused voice.
Tristan looked utterly terrified for a moment and then drew himself up and puffed out his chest. "Oh. Naturally. Of course they would want to hear from the genius behind this mastermind plan." He said arrogantly.
The general held back a snicker. "Well, yes, but your father is elsewhere at the moment. "
Tristan very wisely choose not to respond to that particular comment, but the Telmarine general would never forget the way his chest deflated and the long look on Tristan's smug little face.
"Of course,er," he turned to the ten thousand men staring expectantly at him, " so, um, men. Let's ah, let's, go out there and….kill some Narnians…and,like…win. And….um, er…just, ah…go out there and do your thing…so uh, let's bring this castle down…and like, kill some kings and stuff. So, er, yeah. Go team Telmarine!"
Ok so I know the ending with the queens getting captured was a little out of place and awkward, but I hope it wasn't too off. And again, please forgive grammatical errors—I was just kind of desperate to post something since I haven't posted in months. And PLEASE PLEASE review and let me know what you think, I am losing motivation for this story like you wouldn't believe so please, please don't be shy and let me know whatcha think. I won't bite, I promise!