Yay! I've been good, and have written another chapter!

I know since I've been really inactive lately some people have probably given up on me, but I will finish this story!

Please review!

PS: The part in italics is the original text from The Silver Chair. I wanted to include the original version of the story as well as my own.

Chapter Twenty-Two

~Eustace~

I was woken what felt like minutes later by a noise. At first when I was roused, I wasn't sure what had woken me, and I sat very still, eyes and ears straining in the dark to see or hear what it was.

A flurry of motion and a loud tap outside my window made me jump. I went to the window and saw the Owl that had first come to us—Glimfeather- wheeling about in the darkness outside my window. I opened it and he came swooping inside with a gust of cool, damp air.

I opened my mouth to say something, but he cut me off. "Hush, hush, don't make noise," he hooted softly. "Come with me now, if you really want to find the Prince, and I'll tell you what you've got to do."

"How am I supposed to do that?" I whispered fiercely. "I don't know how to get downstairs and out of the castle!"

Glimfeather puffed his feathers and said, "No, not through the castle!" He turned around on the windowsill with his back to me and then twisted his head all the way around to say, "You'll have to ride on my back!"

Seeing as how he wasn't even as big as I was, I didn't see how this was going to be possible. After all, birds have hollow bones to make them lighter. I had read numerous books on ornithology at home.

I told this to Glimfeather, who tutted and admonished me for taking too long and told me to pack some things, and then I hesitantly wrapped my legs around his round little body.

He dove off the windowsill at once, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out as my stomach swooped. But then we were rising through the air, moonlight peaking through the clouds that promised rain above us. Glimfeather glided nearly silently, his wide wings hardly making a sound.

We flew over farms and fields and a forest, and then the Owl began to fly lower towards a taller black structure. As we closed in, I saw it was a ruin of an old guard tower, covered in vines and crumbling stone. We sailed through the arched, broken window and I rolled off of Glimfeather's back.

There was a lot of shuffling and hooting and ruffling of feathers, and I deduced that the little room was crowded with other Owls. Glimfeather took off again nearly at once, and left me with the other birds.

After a few minutes of hooting and being questioned by the Owls, Glimfeather arrived again with Jill.

"Is that you, Pole?" I asked.

"Is that you, Scrubb?" she answered. She scooted over to sit next to me with our backs against the crumbling stone wall.

Glimfeather spoke up, silencing the other Owls. "Now, I think we're all here. Let us begin a parliament of Owls."

The others hooted their agreement.

I was struck with a sudden realization that I had no idea what they were doing here. They could be plotting something, and I didn't know where their loyalties lay.

"Half a moment," I interrupted. "There's something I want to say first."

I was given permission to continue.

"I suppose all you chaps- er- Owls- know that King Caspian the Tenth, in his younger days, sailed to the eastern end of the world. Well, I was with him on that journey: with him and Reepicheep the Mouse, and the Lord Drinian and Lady Rose and all of them. I know it sounds hard to believe, but people don't age the same in our world as yours. And what I want to say is that I'm the King's man, and if this gathering of owls is any sort of plot against the King, I'm having nothing to do with it." I ended with my arms crossed and gave a nod to emphasize my point.

The Owls all hooted vehemently that they were "all the King's Owls too," and that it was no plot against him.

Appeased, I sat back against the wall. "Right. What's all this about then?"

"It's only that if the Lord Regent, Trumpkin, hears that you are going to look for the lost Prince, he won't let you start. He'd lock you away if he had too," said Glimfeather.

I was shocked. "Great Scott! You don't mean Trumpkin's a traitor? I used to hear a lot about him in the old days, and from my cousin Lucy! Caspian—the King, I mean—trusted him completely!"

"Oh no," said a voice from somewhere else. "Trumpkin is no traitor. But more than thirty champions—knights, centaurs, fauns, all sorts—have at one time or another set out to look for the Prince and none have ever returned! And at last the King said he wasn't going to let all of the bravest Narnians be killed in searching for his son. So now no one is allowed to go."

"But surely he'd let us go. When he knew who I was and who'd sent me," I protested.

"Sent both of us," Jill interjected with a small pout.

"Yes, I think he would," agreed Glimfeather. "But the king's away, and Trumpkin will stick to the rules."

An Owl imitated Trumpkin's croaking voice, and Jill and I were surrounded for a moment by Owlish laughter.

"How long will the King be away?" I asked.

Glimfeather explained that none of them knew, and that there were rumours Aslan was in the islands. Caspian wanted to see Him one more time to find who should succeed him as king.

"But we're all afraid that, if he doesn't meet Aslan in Terebinthia, he'll go on east. He never talks about it, but we all know he's never forgotten that voyage to the world's end. I'm sure that in his heart he wants to go there again," Glimfeather finished.

"So there's no use waiting for him to come back?" Jill asked, covering a yawn.

"No, no good. If only you two had known and spoken to him at once! He'd have arranged everything—probably have given you an army to go with you in search of the Prince."

Jill was very still and quiet all of a sudden, and I thought bitterly that she must be thinking about why we hadn't.

"Well, it wasn't my fault," I muttered under my breath. Then I louder, I said, "Very well. We'll have to manage without. Now tell us all about the lost Prince."

Then an old owl in the back cleared his throat and told the story.

"Well, a several years ago, when Rilian, the son of Caspian, was a very young knight, he rode with the Queen his mother on a May morning in the north parts of Narnia. They had many squires and ladies with them and all wore garlands of fresh leaves on their heads and horns at their sides; but they had no hounds with them, for they were maying, not hunting. In the warm part of the day they came to a pleasant glade where a fountain flowed freshly out of the earth, and there they dismounted and ate and drank and were merry.

"After a time the Queen felt sleepy, and they spread their cloaks for her on the grassy bank, and Prince Rilian with the rest of the party went a little way from her, so that their tales and laughter might not wake her.

"And so, presently, a great serpent came out of the thick wood and stung the Queen in her hand. All heard her cry out and rushed toward her, and Rilian was first at her side. He saw the worm gliding away from her and made after it with his sword drawn. It was great, shining, and green as poison, so that he could see it well. But it glided away into thick bushes and he could not come at it.

"So he returned to his mother, and found them all busy about her. But they were busy in van, for at the first glance of her face Rilian knew that no physic in the world would do her good. As long as the life was in her she seemed to be trying hard to tell him something. But she could not speak clearly and, whatever her message was, she died without delivering it. It was then hardly ten minutes since they had first heard her cry.

"They carried the dead Queen back to Cair Paravel, and she was bitterly mourned by Rilian and by the King, and by all of Narnia. She had been a great lady, wise and gracious and happy, who aided the King in defeating the Telmarines and restoring the Narnians.

"The Prince took his mother's death very hardly, as well he might. After that, he was always riding on the northern marches of Narnia, hunting for that venomous worm, to kill it and be avenged. No one remarked much on this, though the Prince came home from these wanderings looking tired and distraught.

"But about a month after the Queen's death, some said they could see a change in him. There was a look in his eyes as of a man who has seen visions, and though he would be out all day, his horse showed no signs of hard riding. His chief friend among the older courtiers was the Lord Drinian, he who had been his father's captain on that great voyage to the east parts of the world."

"I knew him well," I interrupted. "He was a good, honest fellow, though he did like to tell fanciful tales."

The Owls nodded and hooted their agreement, and then the old one continued.

"One evening Drinian said to the Prince, "Your Highness must soon give over seeking the worm. There is no true vengeance on a witless brute as there might be on a man. You weary yourself in vain."

The Prince answered him, "My Lord, I have almost forgotten the worm these seven days."

Drinian asked him why, if that were so, he rode so continually in the northern woods.

"My lord," said the Prince, "I have seen there the most beautiful thing that was ever made."

"Fair Prince," said Drinian, "of your courtesy let me ride with you tomorrow, that I may also see this fair thing."

"With a good will," said Rilian.

"Then in good time on the next day they saddled their horses and rode a great gallop into the northern woods and alighted at the same fountain where the Queen got her death. Drinian thought it strange that the Prince should choose that place of all places, to linger in. and there they rested till it came to high noon: and at noon Drinian looked up and saw the most beautiful lady he had ever seen; and she stood at the north side of the fountain and said no word but beckoned to the Prince with her hand as if she bade him come to her. And she was tall and great, shining, and wrapped in a thin garment as green as poison. And the Prince stared at her like a man out of his wits. But suddenly the lady was gone, Drinian knew not where; and the two returned to Cair Paravel. It stuck in Drinian's mind that this shining green woman was evil.

"Drinian doubted very much whether he ought not to tell this adventure to the king, but he had little wish to be a tale-bearer and a blab and so he held his tongue. But afterward he wished he had spoken. For next day Rilian rode out alone. That night he came not back, and from that hour no trace of him was ever found in Narnia nor any neighboring land, and neither his horse nor his hat nor his cloak nor anything else was ever found.

"Then Drinian in the bitterness of his heart went to Caspian and said, "Lord King, slay me speedily as a great traitor: for by my silence I have destroyed your son." And he told him the story. Then Caspian caught up a battle-axe and rushed upon the Lord Drinian to kill him, and Drinian stood still as a stock for the death blow. But when the axe was raised Caspian suddenly threw it away and cried out, "I have lost my queen and my son: shall I lose my friend also?" and he fell upon the Lord Drinian's neck and embraced him and both wept, and their friendship was not broken.

"And such is the story of Prince Rilian."

The old owl finished his tale, and we were quiet for a few moments, letting it all sink in.

At last Jill broke the silence. "I bet that serpent and that woman were the same person."

The owls hooted their agreement. "But we don't think she killed the Prince," Glimfeather said, "because no bones—"

I interrupted. "We know she didn't. Aslan told Pole he was still alive somewhere."

At this point I was feeling very tired and my brain was fuzzy. I rubbed at my temples, wishing I could just go back to bed. The tale of Prince Rilian had only made me feel like our whole quest was hopeless. After all, if all the best champions of Narnia had been destroyed looking for him, how the blazes were we supposed to find him?

"That almost makes it worse," the old owl was saying. "It means she's got some use for him, and some deep scheme against Narnia. Long, long ago, at the very beginning, a White Witch came out of the North and bound our land in snow and ice for a hundred years. And we think this may be some of the same crew."

I nodded. I'd heard all about the Witch Jadis and the great battle to end her reign from my cousins, many times.

I sighed. "Very well, then. Pole and I have got to find this Prince. Can you help us?"

"Have you any clue what to do, you two?" asked Glimfeather.

"Yes. We know we've got to go north. And we know we've got to reach the ruins of a giant city," I told them.

There was a great ruffling of feathers, and it suddenly seemed as if the Owls had plenty of reasons why they couldn't help us. Apparently, the idea of the giant city wasn't an appealing one.

But Glimfeather at least said, "If they want to go that way—into Ettinsmoor—we must take them to one of the Marsh-wiggles. They're the only people who can help them much."

So he and another Owl volunteered to fly Jill and I to these Marsh-wiggle people.

As Glimfeather was talking to Jill, who had fallen asleep, I turned to the old Owl.

"What was the name of Caspian's queen, again?" I asked, not being able to remember. It seemed like I should know.

"Why, Lady Rosaline, or Rose as she liked to be called. And a fine queen she was, bold and wise and kind, and with that fiery hair. I can even remember her engagement announcement..." the Owl continued, but it all faded away.

Rose. It couldn't be anyone else. My stomach churned and my heart began to race. I even felt tears pricking at my eyes as I remembered her, strong and young and alive, standing on the deck of the Dawn Treader kissing Edmund goodbye as we rowed off across the sea of lilies.

Edmund. God, what would I tell him? I dug the heels of my hands into my temples. How the bloody hell would I tell him that the woman he loved had married Caspian, become mother of his child, and then been murdered senselessly by some witch?

"Eustace, are you ready to go?" asked a sleepy Jill.

I looked up at her, momentarily confused. We were leaving somewhere? I looked around the room at the others. No one seemed to grasp the profound effect this news had had on me, or how much had changed in the few seconds that had passed.

I took a breath and stood up. If I had been uncertain and hopeless about finding Prince Rilian before, my doubts and reservations were gone now.

One thing I was certain of—I had to find Rose's son, for Narnia and for Caspian, but also for her.

XXX

A/N: So that part about the queen dying without saying something—when I first read that, I wondered what she'd been trying to say. I guess Lewis implied she was trying to tell Rilian who'd killed her, but it sparked my imagination.

And that's where the whole Rilian-is-really-Edmund's-son plot thing came from, in case you ever wondered. I did have a plan.