Hey everyone, so, love me, I'm updating after only 2 weeks! I have to say, the support for this story has been phenomenal! I mean...I knew I Couldn't Leave Her was popular and had a lot of followers, but this is by far my most successful story to date. 30 reviews after just 4 chapters! That doesn't mean I want you to stop my oh-so-wonderful-reviewers! I get a little tingle of happiness every time I see that this story has a new review, and so far I've had no criticism! This is brilliant! So thank you everyone, please enjoy this new chapter!
Esha, Lucy and Eustace were kept in a small, dirty house overnight along with over three others who'd been captured. They all remained in one room, their hands linked to each other by long chains that allowed them a little movement each.
Only Lucy was asleep; everyone else was being kept awake by Eustace as he moaned and complained none stop. Directly in front of Esha sat a young man, exhausted after his earlier attempts to escape. His frail wife lay with her head resting on his shoulder; she looked thin and gaunt and his skin too had taken on an unhealthy pallor.
To Esha's left and beyond Lucy was an older man with notably tired eyes. Esha had not been reassured by the other captives; they remained largely silent and offered no words of comfort to the three, and the general unhealthy air around them alerted Esha that there was something seriously wrong with the way the island was being run.
She could feel her eyes closing, but all the while she was constantly kept awake by Eustace's grumbling and threats of reporting this to the British Consul. She was trying to focus instead on making sure Lucy's breathing stayed even and steady. She had woken up briefly just after the sun had set, but her exhausted body was in pain from the blow to the head she'd received and so she quickly fell unconscious again, leaning against the watchful Esha.
" - Consul will do something about this. I expect they'll jail them for a long time for committing crimes against an excellent British citizen - " Eustace grumbled on and on.
"Would you shut up!" Esha finally hissed at him angrily. "There is no British Consul here and no-one to help us! Now, as this is your fault, I suggest you stop complaining and start thinking of ways to escape and find Caspian and Edmund!"
There was a short silence interrupted only by the other awake slaves-in-waiting, who quietly declared things like – "Hurrah!" and "Thank goodness she's shut him up!"
"How on earth is this my fault?" He suddenly demanded. He'd only taken so long with his reply because he was unused to Esha berating him; it had come as quite a shock.
"If you'd been more of a man and helped Lucy in fighting off the trader we'd all still be together and free!" Esha hissed; quietening her voice as Lucy moved beside her.
"Oh, you mean if I'd been more like Edmund and - "
"Edmund is 10 times the man you are!" She shot back quickly, unwilling to listen to him criticising Edmund.
He fell silent, though she could practically hear him still grumbling and complaining in his mind.
Finally Esha relaxed her own head against the top of Lucy's, being careful to avoid the patch where she'd been hit heavily with the hilt of a sword.
She'd spent hours straining her eyes in the gloom to try and find a sharp stone or anything that may help her break through her chains, but the traders had been thorough in their selection of prison; the room was completely bare; not even a stone littered the floor.
Almost instantly she found herself being woken by a trader banging a wooden spoon against a saucepan a few metres in front of her, yelling at all of the captives to wake up and look lively, for today was the start of their new lives.
Lucy still looked a little dazed, but she struggled to her feet along with the rest of them and followed the others out of the rough door and into the bright sunlight of the morning.
Eustace was the last of all the slaves to be pushed out of the door, and even now he was complaining about the lack of food and water they'd been given and how it was an absolute disgrace.
Standing at the market Esha began to lose hope; there was no sign of Edmund and Caspian or even Drinian and his crew. Caspian had even ordered them to send a party if they hadn't returned by dawn, but as the line of slaves being sold shortened in front of them she lost hope; realising that they had run out of time.
She bit her lip fearfully as Lucy was hauled up onto the square stone that served as a platform, the small crowd assessing her worth.
"I bid 60!" Came as the cry as Edmund and Caspian were led out of the dungeons where they'd been kept as a precaution (all the young, strong males were kept safely in the dungeons whilst the weaker were taken to the house the other three had been kept in).
"80!"
"100 for the little lady!" The men were calling out, their eyes upon the dazed Lucy who looked like she didn't understand what was going on.
"200 for the big lady!" Someone else cried out, eliciting laughter from the crowd.
The slave trader smiled and lifted Lucy off the stone; bring up a protesting Esha instead.
"250!" Someone else called, making several men stop their bidding plans in their tracks as the price went too high for them. Edmund and Caspian looked down onto the grounds, only allowed to stop and stare because the guards were interested in what was going on too.
It took the two only a moment to realise what was happening, and when Edmund did he was rendered speechless, unable to breathe properly at the thought of Esha being sold like an object. Within moments she would become the possession of another man and for one split second an irrational part of his brain suggested he jump over the side of the building and save her, but the rational in him persuaded him that he would not survive the fall and then he would be no help to anyone, least of all Esha.
"I think we can go even higher...she's feisty, this one.." The trader said; his voice heavy with suggestion as he grasped Esha's shoulders and shook her body slightly as though she was dancing.
She whirled on him, punching him clean in the cheek with both of her manacled hands. The force of it sent him reeling and she quickly jumped down, screaming to Eustace and Lucy to run.
But the two had not even taken one step before they were held back by more slave traders, and a struggling Esha was caught by laughing members of the crowd and handed straight back to the trader who was flexing his jaw.
"You see? Very, very feisty...she'll need a real man to tame her..." He said, his voice once again full of innuendo as he held firmly onto each of her arms, making sure she didn't hit him again.
"300." The bidding started again, with Edmund and Caspian's guards leaning over the balustrade to watch one of the most expensive slaves to ever be sold.
"500." There was a shocked awe as the new voice rang out, offering enough money to pay for four good slaves.
"Sold!" The trader declared gleefully, pushing Esha over to the table to have her manacles removed.
"No! Don't remove her chains; I think I should lock her up securely at home first before I risk releasing something so wild." Her buyer said with a smile that was met with laughter from the rest of the crowd.
"I am Narnian nobility." Esha said, tossing her hair back and raising her chin defiantly. "The King himself is my protector; just try and lock me up!"
"You are lucky my friend; you've got yourself a slave worthy of a King." The trader said, completely missing the point and already pulling Lucy back up.
Esha's buyer was tall and beginning to age but still well-built, managing to control her on his own without the help of his attendants who rushed to his aid when she began to struggle.
Edmund lost his head as he saw Esha's buyer manhandling her, turning to his right he attacked the nearest guard, feeling satisfaction wash through him when his face immediately became bloody from the force of Edmund's blow.
"Now, we were at 100 for this little lady. Come on, don't be shy; she may not look like much now but she'll grow up to be just like her big sister..." Esha heard the trader say, restarting his sale of Lucy.
One of her buyer's slaves jumped up into a cart and held out his arms, ready to grab Esha at his master's command. Her buyer lifted the fighting girl up, only managing to half get her in the cart just as Esha heard a familiar voice.
"I'll take her off your hands; I'll take them all off your hands!" Her head snapped up and she frantically searched the crowd at Reepicheep's distinctive voice. Relief swept through her body like a huge wave as Narnian cry came from all around the crowd and the Narnians threw their cloaks off, revealing their uniform and drawing their swords.
Esha kicked her buyer in the groin before he had a chance to swivel her legs into the cart. He doubled over with an oof of pain and Esha ducked, avoiding his attendants as they swung for her.
High up above them all she caught sight of Edmund and Caspian having their own battle with their guards and was saved from the grasp of one of the slave traders by Tavros who pushed him away so forcefully he flew several metres through the air.
Tavros guided Esha to a nearby wall where she held her arms out in front of her and as far away from each other as possible, pulling the chains taunt. With a single swing of his mighty axe the minotaur broke the chain in half, leaving Esha's wrists still manacled but she was now able to defend herself.
Tavros turned to help a struggling faun whilst Esha began to find herself a weapon, but her buyer had recovered, and with the aid of his attendants he captured the struggling Esha again, one wrapping his arms around her torso and the other around her legs, pinning her limbs to her body.
With much screaming and wriggling the two attendants climbed up into the cart with her whilst her buyer took the driving seat, whipping the horses up into a canter almost immediately.
"Help!" Esha screamed as they passed Tavros, but the minotaur was surrounded by fighting men.
She wriggled again, fighting to free herself with every ounce of strength she had, but the two slaves were strong and she finally stopped, panting hard. She realised she was now this man's slave and she suddenly began fighting again, screaming for help as loudly as she could as everything she had experienced with Miraz swamped her.
But the cart turned a corner amidst a flurry of dust and Esha completely lost sight of the brawl and anyone who had seen her disappear lost sight of her too.
She began fighting yet again and at one point managed to get one of her legs free and kick the slave in the face as she flailed it around at random, hoping to hit something. Within a second he had both of her legs trapped again and was staunching the blood flowing from his nose with one hand.
They met more and more crossroads and eventually Esha accepted the inevitable; it had become impossible for anyone to find her.
She struggled to stay calm as she felt the cold arms of fear starting to embrace her.