I don't own Narnia or the Pevensies.
She found the maid alongside whom she'd been working before. Though she knew it was risky to openly ask the kind of questions she needed to ask, she had a feeling most people in this kitchen would be keen to work against the king in any way possible. And so she slipped back in beside Danya and asked her first dangerous question.
"Where are the dungeons?" she whispered, taking up a fresh batch of dishes. Danya looked startled.
"In the cellar, obviously, but why?" she replied quietly. She seemed to sense Lucy's desire for secrecy; her voice was low so they wouldn't be overheard,
"Can you keep a secret?" Lucy asked. She glanced around subtly.
"When it matters," Danya replied, continuing to rub her hands through the suds and rinse the dishes, though she was going slowly as not to make noise that would cover up Lucy's speaking. The young queen sighed softly.
"I'm not a maid," she confessed in a whisper. When Danya seemed unimpressed by that particular secret, Lucy continued. "King Valin's bride to be…she is my sister. She doesn't want to marry him. My brothers and I are here to rescue her."
The maid's lack of a real reaction led Lucy to believe she wasn't taking this very seriously, so she tried again.
"I know it's hard to believe. But please, even if you don't believe me…I need to find a way to rescue my brothers. They've been captured by Valin's men. Do you know how to get to the dungeons?" Lucy begged softly.
Danya shook her head slowly, her eyes cast down into the dishes. "That's…risky. I'm not sure how to get down there safely…I hear the cells are well-guarded right now, because of the wedding and all that."
Lucy bit her lip in quiet despair. Then the maid spoke again.
"But," she said hesitantly. Lucy looked up. "I might know of someone who can help you."
Immediately, Lucy seized onto those words, and followed Danya's subtly pointed finger to another woman working at the bread table, a buxom young lady who smacked down the dough as if it had personally affronted her.
"Merre," Danya informed her softly, looking back down into the suds. "And…be careful. I don't know who are who you say you are, but no matter what…I wish you luck."
"Thank you," Lucy breathed sincerely. She finished drying the last dish and straightened out, walking with measured stride towards the other woman. She didn't want to attract attention to herself. When she reached the side of the table she hung back, knowing she shouldn't put her soapy hands into the dough.
Twenty minutes later, after some quick explaining, Lucy found herself on Merre's arm, heading through a back passageway that sloped slightly downward. As the older girl had explained, one of the dungeon guards was a flame of hers; he would usually let her get away with bringing people down into the area, with the right kind of persuasion. Glad she didn't have to do so herself, Lucy hurried to keep up with her guide's long stride. She didn't know quite what she was going to do once she found her brothers, but finding them was a first step. And the wedding – the wedding was tomorrow. She had to get them out of there and get them to Susan, in far less time than she had.
"Now I can probably buy you a half hour or so," Merre told her. She seemed to think this was a good game, and Lucy suspected she was deriving serious pleasure from the idea of messing with Valin's wedding. He was not a very popular man with his servants.
"Who keeps the keys in the dungeon?" asked Lucy, checking to be sure she had her dagger.
"All the guards have the keys to the cells in their block," said Merre. "There's one entrance to the dungeons, then several cell blocks. I couldn't tell you which your brothers will be in; you'll have to check them all until you find them. The guards to the individual blocks are posted at the entrances, but they patrol. It's dark enough down there that if you're careful, you might be able to sneak by unnoticed."
"I see," said Lucy. She bit her lip, nervous.
They slowed as they approached the last spiraling staircase down; at the bottom, several hallways branched towards what Lucy guessed were wine cellars based on the smell. Another, a darker hallway, was guarded by a single man whose eyes lit up at the sight of Merre.
After some wheedling – Lucy used the word delicately – he was rather too distracted with her and her comely body to even notice when the young queen of Narnia slipped through and into the dark. A smell she hadn't noticed over the wine began to filter into her nose; a foul mix of old blood and rot that made the bile rise in her throat. These were not the well-kept cells of Cair Paravel.
A single torch lit the way into a room that split again into four hallways – a guard stood at each. Lucy hung back in the shadows, trying to devise a way to get past just one of them. Crouching down, she pulled a button off her dress, a heavy metallic one, and carefully lobbed it behind the back of one of the guards and down his hallway. It skittered loudly, echoing in the silent, dank stone hallway, and immediately the guards turned to look towards it. With the agility of a cat, Lucy shifted around the corner and into the first hallway.
To her dismay, the first block contained empty cells. It seemed Valin didn't have much use for his dungeons – at least, not for common criminals. Lucy suspected there was another prison somewhere in the city, and that this must be for offenses committed within the castle.
In the near-dark, she crept as quickly and quietly as she could, searching for a way into the next block without using the hallway again. She couldn't risk that; they wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. As it was, they were probably on the lookout for someone anyway, since that button had been a foolish clue. Fortunately, she found a small, barred door in one wall and was able to quietly slide back the latch and let herself through. Though it was nearly too dark to see, she felt her way into a small tunnel whose stone walls felt slimy and unpleasant. Hoping she wouldn't have to explain what was inevitably about to get on her dress, Lucy got on her hands and knees and began to crawl.
The light soon disappeared behind her, but she carried on, until at last she saw another glimmer ahead. Shuffling along, she ignored the bumps on her head as it struck the stone above, then finally emerged into another room – in fact, she found that she had emerged into a cell. However, to her good fortune, its door was unlocked and it seemed unoccupied.
But as Lucy's eyes grew accustomed to the dark, she realized that she had been mistaken – it was occupied, after all.