Sorry, I think it's been about 2 weeks since my last update, this isn't a particularly exciting chapter, however it is a very long one! (for me, anyway). Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, please do so again! The reviews for this make me sooooo happy because they're always so positive! Enjoy!
"Are you alright?" Caspian asked a little worriedly as he strolled over, sensing that Edmund was not happy.
There was such a long pause between the two that at first Caspian thought Edmund had not heard him, that he was so absorbed by the passing sea he was watching far below them that he had blotted out the noise of everything that was happening on deck.
"Something has been bothering me, and I am ashamed of what it is." Edmund finally replied.
"Well please say it. We all worry about things we should not." Caspian urged, squinting in the sunlight. There was another lengthy pause, Edmund's gaze never flickering from the sea and Caspian's gaze never moving from the profile of Edmund's face.
"That day when the girls and Eustace were taken from us by the slave traders, Esha cried your name, not mine." Edmund explained hesitantly, still refusing to meet Caspian's eyes.
"And it bothers you?" Caspian checked a little incredulously.
"Yes. But I am ashamed of it." Edmund stated, finally turning to look at Caspian, his cheeks aflame with embarrassment. "Instead of thinking of how to escape our dungeon, I sat and thought it through over and over again in my head."
"But did you not hear her call your name? I know she did."
"She did, but only once. She called yours far more and yours was the last name she called." Edmund replied immediately, leaving Caspian in no doubt that the event had been replayed over and over in Edmund's mind.
"You must remember, Edmund that you have not been here for a year." Caspian explained, putting all of his practise as king to use as he tried to diplomatically comfort Edmund and extinguish his insecurities. "When you left it was I who comforted her and dried her tears. It does not mean she loves you any less."
Edmund was silent, looking out at the sea again and Caspian gave a little sigh. "Her face lights up when she sees you, not me." There was a long pause between the two whilst they each stared back down the ship, able to see Esha whilst she helped Lucy sew up the dress she had given her. "How is the sword coming along?"
Recognising that Caspian had nothing more to say on the matter Edmund grasped gratefully at the conversation lifeline he had been thrown. "Well, I've cleaned the entire blade now, though I'm expecting the hilt to take considerably longer...I should probably get back to it..." He said, making an indication down the deck with his hand uncomfortably, desperate to get away and think about Caspian's words; to analyse them and the way Caspian had said them until he was satisfied.
Caspian nodded his understanding, his gaze following Edmund down the ship towards Esha.
Sure enough, when she looked up and saw him headed her way a bright smile appeared on her face, visible even from the other end of the ship. The two were distracted by Eustace who ran quickly past, upsetting a pile of newly coiled rope and bumping into several members of the crew.
"Why doesn't it surprise me that he's been stealing food?" Edmund asked tiredly as Reepicheep drew an orange from inside Eustace's shirt.
"Reep'll give him his comeuppance." Lucy commented a little less wearily than Edmund. Casting the dress aside she jumped up and leapt eagerly forward, watching the ensuing shambles of a duel.
"Come on, I want to see this." Edmund said with a smile, helping Esha up.
"Focus, focus!" Reepicheep was instructing Eustace helpfully.
Everyone laughed at Eustace's attempts to fight back. "You look a lot like that when you fight.." Edmund remarked cheekily to Esha.
She shoved him and he stumbled away slightly, laughing gleefully. "Now who looks like that?" She asked back, her hands on her hips indignantly.
"All right, all right, I do." He replied, holding his hands up in defeat as he strolled back to her, placing an arm around her shoulders nonchantly as they went back to watching the duel. Whilst outwardly laughing, inside he was memorising Caspian's words and remembering how Esha's face had brightened when she saw him. Looking down at her nestle beneath his arm he gave her a kiss on her head, feeling her silky hair stroke his cheek as he pulled away.
She smiled back up at him before he had to remove his arm in order to applaud as Reepicheep bested Eustace, but then started forward worriedly as he noticed a few crew members and Lucy clustering around something with uncertain eyes.
"My goodness, it's a girl!" He heard Esha commented quietly, her eyes wide with surprise.
"Gael? What are you doing here?" They heard Rhince demand, striding forwards and comforting his frightened daughter, worried about what to do with her.
Drinian strode forwards menacingly but surprised them all by holding out the stolen orange to the young girl. "Looks like we have an extra crew member." He commented in his gruff voice. There were smiles all around as Drinian displayed his soft side and the young girl took the orange silently from him before retreating to the safety of her father's side.
"Welcome aboard." Lucy said with a smile, striding forward confidently.
"Your majesty." Gael bobbed down in a curtsey respectfully.
"Call me Lucy...come on!" She said with a smile, putting her arm around the girls shoulders and leading her across the deck and into the girls' cabin.
"Oh, I should go too." Esha said, giving a little start and hurrying away over the deck after them.
Edmund watched her go for a moment before returning to his sword.
Esha walked in quickly after Lucy and Gael and gave the girl a big, reassuring smile as soon as their eyes met.
"Hello, I'm Esha." She said, unsure what to do now. "I'm afraid I'm not as famous as Lucy, but I like to think I'm just as nice." She ventured uncertainly, trying to act confidently. In her previous life with her family she had never really been exposed to young children; she had no siblings of her own and had only come into contact with a few of the servants children once they were older and had begun working in her house with their parents.
"I know who you are." Gael said in her little-girl's voice, bobbing in a curtsey just as she had for Lucy. "You're Lady Esha and you live with the new king in his castle."
"That's right, I do." Esha said with a smile, more than a little perplexed as to how Gael knew these things when her island was populated by people who didn't follow their king and hadn't been in touch with the mainland in years. "But pleas, call me Esha. I hope you weren't looking forward to sleeping in a hammock; I'm afraid we've just been given a plain old bed." She said playfully."
"Yes, it'll be a bit of a squeeze with the three of us in it..." Lucy mused, looking at it with a raised eyebrow.
"That's ok, we'll sleep head-to-toe. You two sleep with your heads at the headboard and I'll go the other way."
"Sure?" Lucy asked shortly. "That ok with you, Gael?" The little girl nodded, some of her fear and shyness beginning to disappear.
The two girls showed Gael over the ship and laid down the ground rules for her such as mealtimes, what she should do if there was a storm, where she couldn't go and who not to annoy. By the time they were done the ship had almost reached the next island.
Esha stopped brushing Gael's tangled curls and the three stood on their balcony, straining their eyes to see anything on the shore in the gloom.
"Which island is this?" Esha asked Lucy.
"I'm not sure. None of the islands look at all recognisable to me." Lucy said sadly, giving a little smile when Gael slipped her hand comfortingly into hers.
"I'll go and find out what the plan is." Esha decided, making her way back up on deck.
"Rhince? What's going on?" She asked the passing sailor who carried a large coil of rope over one shoulder.
"We're all going ashore for the night and searching the island in the morning."
"Is that wise?" She asked, thinking about the last island and wondering if there were any hidden secrets on the island that may not end as well as they had last time.
Rhince shrugged in response, clearly not quite happy with it either. "Orders from the top." He hurried off and Esha returned to her cabin, joining the other two girls on the balcony. "We're sleeping on the island and then exploring it tomorrow." She explained. "What should we take?"
"We don't want to inconvenience ourselves with unnecessary baggage; I don't think I'll take anything – having unbrushed hair won't matter for one day.." Lucy shrugged, leading the way back into their cabin as a blast of cool air made Gael shiver.
"All the necessary supplies will be taken down by the crew; perhaps we should take a reading book..." Esha mused, shutting and locking the doors behind them.
"That's an idea! Gael, do you want to choose it? Come on, I'll take you to Caspian's study."
Esha left the cabin with them but went back up on deck, checking that she could be of no use to anyone. "Everything's under control." Tavros told her, heaving a barrel of water into one of the longboats; they would not be able to search for new supplies until the morning. "Orders are to eat your evening meal before we go ashore though."
"Ok." Esha called out gratefully, disappearing into the gallery and eating her meal quickly with a few of the crew who were there doing the same. Dinner would normally be eaten on deck or in cabins if the weather was bad, but with all the bustle currently going on it was easier for the crew to take it in turns to eat in the small gallery.
"Why've we stopped here?" She asked the present crew who were also eating their dinner, Nausus and Ocosto.
"The water's too shallow and full of rocks to risk going any closer to shore." Ocosto replied before quickly shovelling a spoonful of stew into his mouth hungrily.
"You've finished it!" She suddenly remarked, spying the newly cleaned sword hanging by Edmunds side when he too came into the gallery for his meal.
"Yes, finally!" He replied, clearly pleased with himself. "It took me long enough."
"What are you talking about; you only got it two days ago!" She retorted incredulously. "May I?" She asked, putting down her fork and rubbing her hands together as though to remove dirt from them.
"Of course." He said, sitting down at the table opposite her and handing her the sword, now completely preoccupied with his food.
Holding it up to her face she examined every detail of it, especially the intricate hilt which Edmund had diligently cleaned. It was very light, lighter than any sword she had ever held and she said so, resisting the urge to swish it around when she was in such a small place.
"Because it's dwarf-made, and even by their high standards it's a masterpiece!"
"It's a very fine sword, your majesty." Nausus commented, casting an admiring eye over it as Esha handed it back to Edmund.
"Oh well that's just great." They were all distracted by Eustace's whining voice from the doorway. "There isn't even anywhere for me to sit to eat my own dinner! I'm telling you, the conditions on this boat are absolutely - "
"You can sit here, I'm done." Esha cut in quickly, standing up and picking up her plate.
"Don't leave me with him." Edmund muttered under his breath, his eyes pleading with her.
She gave a devious little smile and walked off anyway, giving her plate to Cook.
Seeing Edmund's sword had reminded her that she'd need to take her own swords ashore and so she went to the armoury, hoping that her swords would prove to be more useful this time.
Knowing that they wouldn't be exploring the island until the next day she didn't strap them about her but simply carried them in her hand, unable to see the point in struggling to get them on when she'd simply be taking them off to sleep anyway.
"Did you find one?" She called out across the deck to the emerging Lucy and Gael.
"We did indeed. The tale of the wandering farmer. We thought it appropriate because we're wandering too." Lucy explained, looking down at Gael who was nodding enthusiastically.
"Ladies." Tavros called out.
"Oh, you both need to go and eat in the gallery, quickly!" Esha urged as the minotaur waited by the longboat for them.
The two ran off and Esha made her way to Tavros, allowing him to help her into the longboat that already had two crew members in it. Edmund quickly climbed in too, sitting down next to Esha.
"You're mean." He jokingly whispered in her ear.
"My goodness, how quickly did you eat your food?" She asked incredulously, looking at him with a little alarm.
"I had an incentive to finish quickly." Edmund replied, wrinkling his nose at the mere thought of Eustace. "Why were you being so nice to him?" He asked, staring hard at her face.
"All I did was give him a seat I was about to vacate anyway..." She explained, raising her eyebrows questioningly at him in response.
"But why...?" He pressed.
"I think I may have been a little too harsh on him on the last island." She said simply, unwilling to elaborate on something she was not particularly proud of.
"What happened?" He pressed further, unable to believe anyone could be too harsh on Eustace.
"When the three of us were imprisoned I told him that if he'd been a proper man like you we wouldn't be in that situation, but during his duel with Reepicheep I realised I'd been unfair to him."
"You do realise that it's impossible to be unfair to Eustace...I've just left him moaning and complaining to Lucy about the state of the gallery and the disgraceful excuse for food that we're all forcing him to eat..." Edmund protested as Lucy and Gael were helped into the longboat. Finally Eustace too climbed in, sending the whole thing wobbling as he tripped slightly and almost fell into the sea.
Edmund rolled his eyes and looked away, staring at the side of the ship as though it had become the most fascinating thing in all of Narnia. Eustace finally settled down and when Tavros believed the boat had stopped rocking enough he began to lower it with the same initial jolt as last time. Lucy and Esha now knew to hold on and Lucy also kept hold of Gael, only Eustace didn't have the foresight to prepare himself.
With a very unmanly scream he righted himself. "A little warning wouldn't go amiss." He shouted up at Tavros.
"Just keeping you on your toes." The huge minotaur called back, lowering the boat of 8 people by himself.
Their short journey was uneventful with even Eustace quiet, seemingly tired out after his duel with Reepicheep. They were the first boat to reach the shore and Edmund and the two crew members helped everyone out of the boat whilst Edmund took a quick look around to ensure the beach was safe before they all settled.
After dinner everyone simply lounged around, enjoying for once not having to bustle about preparing and checking ropes.
"Will you read to me?" Gael asked Esha quickly, leaning over Lucy and holding the book out to her with an angelic little smile.
"Yes, of course." Esha quickly replied, taking the book and sitting up straight so that the firelight fell on the pages of the book and she could see the words. She began to read with Gael leaning against Lucy's side on the other end of the rug, even trying to do different voices for the different characters.
Anyone who was still awake began to listen to her too; everyone enjoyed a good story. The crew were dotted all around, in and out of the numerous large rocks that were stuck in the sand and many had already fallen asleep, perfectly content now that they had a full stomach and a fire to keep them warm.
Eustace was the one who fell asleep the most obviously with hi continuously loud snoring. After making a big fuss about insects crawling over him in the night he'd finally settled down away from the rest of the crew, in a huff after they'd laughed at his panic attack at what he thought had been a large spider (but had in fact been a leaf).
Esha read until the end of the story, despite Gael falling asleep halfway through.
"Very well read, Esha." Caspian commented lazily from his languid pose on the blanket he was sharing with Edmund that lay on the other side of Esha.
"So well read even Lucy's fallen asleep!" Edmund commented and all three laughed very quietly.
"Eustace too...it's a wonder anyone sleeping near Eustace heard the second half of the story!" Caspian joked, drawing louder laughter. "I haven't heard that tale in a very long time." Caspian said when the laughter subsided, clearly remembering the last time he had. "Not since I was a little boy."
"I don't think I've ever heard that story." Edmund remarked.
"No, you wouldn't have, it's an old Telmarine one." Caspian replied, gazing at the stars with his arms behind his head.
There was no reply to his words and one by one the three fell asleep.