And lost she was, in more than one way. On entering, their goals had been rather vague, because they hadn't known much. Ignorance had made them hesitant to make any real plans. But now, loaded with a quantity of information her brain could scarcely hold, she had no one with whom to share it, and no idea how to put anything into action. As she descended the stairs, she made a mental list of the things that somehow had to be accomplished: rescue Susan, rescue Ed and Peter, expose King Valin, rescue Narnia.
It was a big list.
However, some things seemed more important at the moment. For instance, Susan was in no immediate danger, while Lucy had good reason to believe her brothers were. And if she could somehow delay Valin, then she had a better chance of finding help and saving her country. After all, she was only a little girl, and there was only so much she could do.
Lucy frowned. Only a little girl? No. She was a queen, and a queen of Narnia at that. The valiant queen of Narnia, even. And it was time to start thinking like it. Who was she to make excuses? Also to her advantage, Lucy remembered that she had a bit of advice dealing with tyrannical despots – or at least, with one of them, who had also been quite a bit scarier than Valin, less stupid and more evil. And the best way to deal with them was from the bottom up.
She remembered Mr. Tumnus – afraid, repressed, but at heart still set on defeating Jadis. And she remembered the children throwing rocks into the statue's crown. She remembered Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, passively resistant until she and her family came along, and then leaping at their chance to help. And she thought of the disgruntled magicians and the abundance of undoubtedly mistreated servants in the castle…
She did not want to return to the tavern tonight, not alone, and not when it would add hours and hours to the time it would take to do what she had to do. She needed to find people she could trust. She remembered a few of Edmund's warning words from the past; that she trusted too easily, that she could not see the darker side of human motivation, but right now, she had no choice. Lucy could not act alone to single-handedly defeat Valin, but she could act alone to rally others and bring about his downfall. And so she descended through the castle as far as she could, and followed her nose to the kitchens.
The moment she entered, she was needed.
"Oh, please, be a dear," said one plump lady hurriedly, dressed in a long and singed apron as she thrust a huge basket of steaming bread into Lucy's arms. "There's a lady up in the southeast tower who keeps demanding more fresh bread and cheese for her party but me old knee is acting up and I'm so dreadfully slow, if you could just…"
But Lucy had already given her a small smile, curtsied and headed back for the door. She found the party in the tower by the shrieking laughter of the young and spoiled, and when she silently bent to place the basket on their table, she received no recognition but a snide comment from one of the ladies on the state of her hair. Then she returned to the kitchens and set to working. The best way to find out what people thought was not, in fact, to ask them about it.
"I haven't seen you around before," said one dull-eyed young maid as she rolled up her sleeves and pushed her hands down into the hot water to help with the dishes. "Are you new here?"
"Yes, I am," smiled Lucy quietly. "I've been called in for the wedding, you see."
The other girl nodded mutely and turned her eyes back to the dishes.
"What's your name?" asked Lucy curiously, picking up a dish from the dirty stack and beginning to scrub it beneath the surface of the water.
"Danya," said the girl. She handed the cleaned dish off to another quiet maid next to her. Both looked tired, as though they had not slept properly in quite some time.
"Have you worked here long?" asked Lucy.
"Three years," said Danya, keeping her eyes to her task. Behind them, Lucy felt someone approach and turned to see a stern-lipped woman watching them closely. Knowing it was prudent to keep a low profile at the moment, Lucy obediently tipped her head down and handed off the clean dish to the other maid who was drying them.
"Be careful with those," said the overseer. And to Lucy's surprise she didn't sound harsh or condescending but merely worried. And not for the dish either. "His Majesty is particularly fond of that set."
Lucy nodded and picked up the next one with tenderness. When the overseer was gone, she leaned over to her companion and whispered,
"What would that mean?"
"Don't drop it," said the other maid, who was listening in.
"Arla was caned and let go for dropping one a few days ago," whispered Danya, biting her lip nervously as she handled the dishes with trembling hands.
"That's awful," Lucy frowned very softly. "It sounds as if they cared more for the dish than for her!"
The maids shrugged and continued to work. Lucy, deciding silence was now best, did so with them, and soon the job was done and they drifted off to find new tasks.
For a moment, Lucy's mind drifted back to the kitchens of Cair Paravel. There, windows to the outside let the pulsing heat of the oven escape to warm the small gardens just outside, producing something of a greenhouse, and the room itself was always full of laughter and playfulness. People chatted eagerly with one another as they worked and always, someone would be singing – usually off key. It was a place of community and good work, where nearly every person in the castle would appear at least once in a while to help out.
But this kitchen was quite different. Here, maids – and Lucy noticed that with the abundance of palace guards had come a shortage in male kitchen attendants – worked in near-silence, carefully and seemingly in fear of doing something wrong. No windows let out the oppressive heat of the giant wood-fueled oven, and so it washed over them all in waves. There was no singing and a great deal more hurrying, with messages from lords and ladies spilling out of the servants' lips. The people working all looked tired and worn. And Lucy didn't like it.
It was time to stir up some trouble.