For anyone interested, a picture of Ava's sailing outfit from Princess Tianna is on my profile. This is basically what she will be wearing for the rest of the voyage.

The Naiad Trilogy

Part 2: The Naiad and Her King

Chapter 12

Ava stood on the high deck looking over the port side. The eastern horizon was just beginning to glow with the early morning sun, casting the island before the Dawn Treader into a dim grey light. After healing Rynelf from his high temperature, Ava had slept for the rest of the day recovering. Ava was beginning to worry. It was becoming harder for her to access and use her magic, and it took more out of her to do even the simplest of tasks. Healing was not an easy thing to do, but it had never taken her a whole day to recover from a single treatment. What was wrong?

After waking, very early mind you, Ava tried to remain in bed so as not to disturb Lucy, but as she lay there she began to feel a strange pull. She could not describe the sensation. She slowly and carefully climbed out of the bed and made her way outside. As she walked she realized that the ship didn't have its usual rock; they were standing still. Ava followed the strange pull all the way to the high deck, where she now stood, and saw the reason for their stillness: an island.

Ava had no idea how long she had been standing there nor how long she continued to stand there, but when she had begun the sun had yet to begin its rise and when she was drawn from her trance like gaze the sun had fully risen.

XOXOX

"Yes, Drinian? What is it you needed to tell us?" Caspian asked as he and Edmund joined the Captain on the main deck.

"This is really something you have to see for yourselves," Drinian said before leading them up to the high deck.

"Ava! I see you're feeling better," Edmund said upon seeing the Princess. Ava did not respond but continued to stare, unblinking, upon the island.

"Ava?" Caspian questioned.

"She's been like that since I got up here," Drinian said. "I've tried calling to her several times; I've even touched her shoulder once or twice, but she's been completely unresponsive."

"Ava, what's wrong?" Caspian asked, stepping forward. Ava continued to just stare. "Ava?"

Caspian reached out and placed a hand on Ava's shoulder. She suddenly jumped at his touch and looked around, as if confused. Then she saw Caspian and smiled warmly.

"Good morning, Caspian." When none of the guys responded, Ava continued. "What are you all staring at?"

"What were you staring at?" Edmund asked.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Are you feeling alright, Ava?" Caspian asked.

"Yes. I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"You were just staring at that island. Drinian says you've been at it for awhile," Edmund answered.

"Island? What island?" While she had been speaking with them, Ava had turned away from the island, but now that Edmund mentioned it she looked over her shoulder at the island and fell silent once more.

"Ava?" Caspian once more had to reach out and touch Ava's shoulder to get her attention. "Ava?"

"Caspian," she whispered. Ava looked back and forth between Caspian and the island and blinked several times; she was trying to fight off the pull. "That island…there's something strange about it. Caspian, have any of the crew been on it yet?"

"No. We were going to explore it this morning."

"Good. I would like to be among the party that goes."

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"I'm fine, Caspian, I promise. It's just…I can't explain it. There's just something about that island. I must go to it. Please, let me go with the party."

"If that is what you want, and you are certain you are fine, then of course you may go."

XOXOX

Two long boats with an exploring party rowed quietly to the strange island with rolling green hills. The party had left after everyone had breakfast, and after Drinian had tried to warn them against going once more. After Ava's curious behavior that morning, Drinian was even more suspicious about what awaited them on the island. Caspian had grown suspicious as well, but in the end, the need to replenish their supplies outweighed their concerns for the island.

As they neared the island, Ava could feel the strange pull grow stronger, but it wasn't until she was standing on the beach that she truly felt the effects of the pull. Ava gasped and nearly toppled over as the pull overwhelmed her. Drinian was nearest to her and caught her by the arms.

"Princess?"

"Ava!" Caspian rushed over.

"It's alright. I'm fine. I just need to get my bearings." Ava said as she regained her footing.

"What happened?" Edmund asked.

"It's just this island, a great Magician lives here and his magic overwhelmed me."

"Magician? I don't like the sound of that," Drinian said.

"Oh, he is not a bad Magician. There is not a trace of ill will in his magic anywhere," Ava explained.

"You can sense things like that?" Edmund asked.

"Oh, yes. Can you not?" Ava asked and they all shook their heads no. "I do not know how I could not have realized it before. The Lone Islands were full of ill boding, I felt it the moment we arrived, but this place, though it is as quiet, could not be more different. Come, we must find the Magician at once."

Ava had begun to sprint into the woods, but Caspian quickly grabbed her hand and stopped her. "Ava, wait," he pleaded. He was unsure of what to do. He had never seen her act so strange before. He looked to Drinian for advice.

"With all due respect, Princess, I fear this may be a trap. We should head back to the ship at once," Drinian replied.

"A trap?" Ava's spirit sounded crushed and her face displayed the hurt she felt at the Captain's words. She turned her watery blue eyes to Caspian. "Caspian, you must trust me. I would not lead my people into danger. The Magician will not harm us."

"Sire, you know where I stand on the issue," Drinian said as Caspian looked back at him once more.

Caspian nodded. "Thank you for your input, Drinian, but we both must accept that there will be some things that the Princess will know that we do not. We will continue onward."

Ava beamed and turned to head into the woods again, her excitement taking over. Caspian, though, was still grasping her hand and he pulled her back once more.

"But," he said. "You will stay behind me." Ava sighed at his protectiveness, but allowed him to take the lead.

XOXOX

Ava followed closely and eagerly behind Caspian pointing the way as he led with his sword out before him. Ava could barely contain her excitement. She had never felt something so wonderful before, magically speaking of course. Her kiss with Caspian was still the best thing she had ever experienced, but for once she wasn't thinking of that moment. They had made it through the small bit of wood and they were now walking through what appeared to be a garden. The grass was perfectly mowed, and the shrubs were all well trimmed and shaped. It was a garden that looked like it would take a hundred gardeners to maintain, and yet they saw no one about. No homes. No buildings. No anything.

"I have a very peculiar feeling," Lucy said softly. "I could almost swear that someone was watching us. Does anyone else feel that way?"

A couple of the crew murmured their agreement and Ava paused to think this through. Suddenly she felt it too!

"Stop!" she whispered harshly as she grabbed Caspian's shoulder. "Lucy's right. Something's watching us. Shh, everyone stop," she whispered to the rest of the party.

"What is it, Ava?" Caspian whispered.

The only response Ava gave was a finger over her lips to silence him. She stepped in front of him, shaking his hand off her shoulder as he tried to stop her, while her hand went to a small canteen of water that she'd decided to carry on her hip. Her fingers silently twisted the canteen cap off as she continued to walk forwards. She could feel another presence around them, and she was almost certain it wasn't the Magician.

"Who's there?" she called out. There was no response. "I know you're there." There was still no response. Ava held the canteen cap in one hand and with the other she was going to throw a stream of water onto the presence, but it noticed the movement of her hand and thought she was going for her sword.

"Take her now!"

"Take her weapon!"

Two voices suddenly cried out from the empty silence, and before anybody could do anything four hands grabbed Ava's arms and yanked her away from the rest of the party. Another set of hands grabbed her sword and tossed it aside. Ava landed hard on her back on the ground. She quickly tried getting back up but the hands shoved her down and held her there in a sitting position.

"Ava!" Caspian immediately tried running to her but he too was thrown backwards to the ground while his sword was pulled from his hands. Out of nowhere spears flew into the ground in a circle around the Narnian party, narrowly missing some.

"Stay right there! Do as we say and no one gets hurt!" one of the mysterious voices said.

"Well put, Chief!" a chorus echoed.

"I order you to show yourselves!" Caspian commanded.

"If you could see us we wouldn't be here."

"We couldn't have said it better, Chief."

"What are you?" Lucy asked what everybody wanted to know.

"We are terrifying beasts, we are!"

"With huge fangs!"

"And sharp claws!"

"And we are very large!" Many of the voices tried growling as if to prove their point.

"If you could see us now you would be very frightened."

Ava thought the voices hardly sounded threatening at all. "I thought you said if we could see you then you wouldn't be here?"

"Right you are. Right you are!"

"Well put lass!"

Ava couldn't help but roll her eyes; these invisible creatures were making no sense.

"What do you want?" Edmund asked.

"We want the girl!"

"No!" Caspian said quickly, his eyes focusing only on Ava.

"What do you want me for?" Ava asked at the same time.

"Not you. We want the other girl."

"Well said, Chief."

"That's right, the other girl."

"What? Why do you want me then?" Lucy asked.

"Uh, well… it's kind of a long story. Perhaps we should all sit down?"

"Well put, Chief."

Ava was already growing tired of the echoing voices, and hearing their story only made her displeasure worse. The chief voice could not say more than a few sentences without the chorus interrupting with their praise.

By the end of the chief's story the Narnians, who had remained standing, had learned that these invisible creatures were once beautiful beings who were made to work and tend to the garden around them. Then one day the Magician, or as they called him the Oppressor, became very angry with them for not doing something that they didn't want to do and so he "uglified" them. These creatures couldn't stand the sight of themselves so one afternoon they snuck into the Oppressor's library and read a spell from his book to make themselves invisible. Now, they were tired of being invisible.

"Well, why do you need me?" Lucy asked when the story was finished.

"Don't you see? Didn't you hear? It must be a young girl who reads the spell or the Oppressor himself, else wise it will not work."

"Well said, Chief."

"That's right. That's right."

"Don't you have any daughters that could do it?" Lucy asked.

"Well sure we do. But we dare not send them in there again!"

"In other words, you ask Lucy to do something that you are too cowardly to do yourselves!" Ava exclaimed.

"That's right. That's right."

"Well said."

"Now hand the young girl over and we will give you this one back," the chief voice said.

"But that makes no sense," Ava said before Lucy could say anything. Ava already knew what Lucy was going to do, because Ava would do the same thing. "If it's a girl you need to read the spell then send me and leave the rest of them out of this."

"No, it won't work that way."

"Weren't you listening?"

"It must be a young girl."

"You're too old."

"Well said, Chief; well said."

"Old?" Ava thought. "Old?" She was not old! She wasn't even twenty yet. She was far from old! Ava became so furious and flustered at the age comment that she could not speak. So, she pulled her arms out of their grasp and crossed them over her chest. She held her mouth closed tightly.

"Alright, fine," Lucy said. "But if I agree to do this, then you must promise to release my friends at once, or else there is no deal."

"Uh…can we do that?"

"I don't see why not?"

"We won't need them if she does what we want."

While the invisible creatures were discussing whether or not they could let the rest of the Narnians go after Lucy went inside, Edmund turned and whispered quietly to Lucy and Caspian.

"Lucy you can't go in there. You don't know what the Oppressor is capable of."

"You sound like them, Ed," Lucy argued back. "Ava said that she can't sense any ill intent from the Magician."

"What if she was wrong and Drinian was right? What if this is just a trap? We seem to be pretty trapped right now."

"Nonsense, Edmund. You believe Ava don't you, Caspian?"

"Well, yes, but…Ed's got a point. We don't know what's waiting inside this mansion they speak of. Ava's never done anything like this before," Caspian replied.

Little did they know, but Ava had heard everything they had said and now she was even more upset.

"That's because I've never come across another Magician before, Your Highness," Ava said bitterly.

"Ava, I…"

"Do you still stand by what you said on the beach, Ava? That the Magician will not hurt us?" Lucy asked, cutting off Caspian's reply.

"I do, Lucy. The only ill will I feel at the present time is my own."

"Then it's settled. I'll go. No, Edmund, I must go. I will not stand here and watch you all fight invisible creatures when you do not know how many there are nor what sort of weapons they may have. Not when I can prevent it by stepping into a house and reading a little spell. Don't you get the feeling that these creatures aren't very brave? And besides, I trust Ava."

"Have you made a decision then?" the chief voice asked.

"I have if you have. I will go, but only if you release my friends."

"Yes, yes we will do that. We have no need for them."

"Up you go then, little lass."

Once more four hands grabbed Ava by the arms and hoisted her up to her feet. As Lucy stepped forward, the creatures walked with Ava towards the party. Ava and Lucy walked by each other with hesitant yet grateful smiles. Then, suddenly, Ava was pushed forward and stumbled into Caspian, who caught her in his arms and held her securely against his chest.

"Alright now, just step inside the mansion here," the chief voice said. The Narnians could all hear the squeaking of a door being pulled open and before their eyes a doorway appeared leading into a great foyer of an ancient manor.

"Upstairs in the library is where you'll find the book. Read the spell that makes the unseen seen."

"Got it?"

"Don't forget it now."

"Alright, alright. I've got it. And what about my friends?" Lucy asked before she stepped inside.

"Yeah, yeah. They're all free to go now if they want. We won't hold 'em or harm 'em."

"We'll be waiting right here, Lu," Edmund called out to his sister. She nodded before stepping inside. The door squeaked again as it closed, and Lucy vanished from sight.

I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter because I don't know when the next update will be. It may be a week or more. I am going out of town tomorrow for a job interview and won't be back until late Monday night. On top of that, I have been very busy this week preparing for this interview and helping to set up/plan a 50th anniversary for my Grandparents (in-laws) which is tonight, and attending funeral services for another in-law relative. So, I haven't done any writing this week except like two paragraphs (how awful!)

Good news though, I have about a four hour drive in a car (in which my husband will be driving and I will be riding) to write! So hopefully I'll get most of the next chapter written out so ya'll won't have to wait too long! Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck (if you want to that is!)

And thanks so much to all of you for reading, reviewing, alerting, and favoriting my stories. It means so much to me! It really, really does! As a special treat to show you how grateful I am, here is a sneak peak at chapter 13.

"They're gone," Ava said curiously when she could no longer feel the presence of the voices.

"Are you certain?" Caspian asked, his chest vibrating against Ava's body; she was still wrapped in his arms, but not for long. She could hear the doubt in his voice and she pushed away from him.

"I am most certain!" she said angrily. "I am glad to see that those who have sworn their friendship trust me so little! At least I can say that Lucy trusts me fully!"

"Well, you did lead us into this mess," Drinian replied; he was being a little nastier than usual because everyone was beginning to feel the stress of the voyage.

Ava had begun to walk away, but at Drinian's comment she turned back around with tears in her eyes. She wanted so desperately to unleash all her anger and all her hurt upon him, and maybe three years ago she would have. But she remembered the last time she voiced her anger before thinking, and she remembered how disappointed Aslan had been with her for it. She never wanted to disappoint the Great Lion again. So, she took a minute or two to think things through before responding.

"My magic led us here, Captain," Ava said at last, slowly. "My magic is all I am. If I cannot trust my magic, then what can I trust?" Ava felt a few tears fall and she quickly wiped them away.

"Ava," Caspian said softly as he stepped forward and reached out for her. Ava shook her head and cringed away from him; she did not want his comfort now.

"Where are you going?" Caspian asked as she began to walk away once more.

"I prefer to spend my time waiting for Lucy in the company of those who respect me."