A/N. Wow, thank you sooo much for all your amazing reviews, my lovelies))) Here I am with a nice big new chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 4.

Edelle heard Drinian's voice and hurried to the upper deck. Edmund and Caspian were already there and she quickly went to them. From there she saw a rather big island that was still far away, but clearly visible.

"Are these the Lone Islands?" she asked both of them.

"Yes." Caspian passed her the telescope. "The last place the lords have been seen."

"I say, we prepare a landing party. –Edmund said and looked at the captain.- Drinian?"

Drinian shrugged and said with an apologetic look

"Forgive me, Your Majesty, but the commands start from King Caspian on this ship."

Edmund was silent for a moment, then muttered "Right." The look on his face could only be described as "Ouch" and Edelle couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him. After all, he was the High King! Oh well, at least she was a free person to choose who was her king. And she will show them all that it was not Caspian.

She put a comforting hand on Edmund's shoulder and looked at him, warmly. He smiled at her and put his hand on top of her's, as if saying "I'm fine, thank you."

There was still fifteen-twenty minutes until they could get the boats down and head ashore, so they went down and relaxed against the bark of the ship next to Lucy. She saw Edmund and Edelle approaching and smiled. "I was just talking to Reepicheep. Do you think we will keep sailing till the End of the World, which is…a tip off the edge…"

"Don't worry Lu, -Edmund said, drinking water- We're a long way from there."

That moment they saw the Eustace finally coming out from under the deck.

"I see you're still talking nonsense, the three of you."

Lucy smiled at him, ignoring his remark "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, no thanks to you." He crossed his arms. "Simply getting over the shock of things."

Edmund shot him a pathetic look, which could be described as "Quit moaning already…".

Eustace then looked at Edelle. "And how have you been?"

"Perfectly fine. I think this is a wonderful place with amazing people…and other creatures."- she sympathetically looked at Reepicheep, who was busy polishing his sword. "And you? Found your sea legs?"

"Never lost 'em! It's like I have an iron constitution. I have an acuteness position, due to my intelligence."

Edmund, who had been drinking water, choked on it.

Edelle and Lucy laughed, which didn't please Eustace.

"I'll have you know that the moment we get back to England, I'm contacting the British council and have you all arrested for kidnapping!" Eustace began to walk away and bumped into Caspian.

"Kidnapping, is it? That's funny; I thought we saved your life."

"You've had me against my will! I'm being kept in unhygienic conditions; it's like a zoo down there! "

"He's quite the complainer, isn't he?" came Reepicheep's small voice.

"He's just warming up." Edmund said in a careless tone.

Moments later Drinian called everyone on the boats to head ashore. The land was getting closer and closer and finally they reached it and tied the boat to a column. Everyone got off successfully, except Eustace, who was struggling with his balance. Reepicheep decided to have mercy and offered his little paw. "Here, let me help."

"I'm capable of doing it myself- Eustace grumbled and the next second, with an "OW!" stumbled on the stone stair steps.

Caspian looked at him, pitifully. "And you're certain he's related by blood?"

Everyone looked around and Lucy noticed something weird- it was so quiet, it seemed as if the Island hadno life on it. "Where is everybody?"

Caspian took out his sword "I don't know, but we're about to find out. Drinian, stay with your men here and secure the place. Edmund, Edelle and Lucy, come with me."

"Hey, what about me?" Eustace once again reminded of himself.

"Fine. You can come too. Drinian, if we don't get back by dawn, send the party."

The captain nodded and the five of them headed into the empty city. They walked through it and then something that looked like an old cathedral attracted their attention. They decided to check it. Eustace looked around and saw a small hole in one of the closed windows. He curiously looked in it and saw people in there. A family of five or six sitting on the ground, looking very frightened. He turned around.

"Yeah, looks like nobody's in. Do you think we could head back now?"

Edmund sighed. "Do you want to come here and…guard…something?"

"Oh, yes!- Eustace ran to them.- Good idea, cousin. Very, um, logical."

Edelle rolled her eyes and Caspian handed him a dagger.

"I've got it, I've got it. Don't worry!" Eustace turned around and got into the "guarding position", which looked quite funny.

They gave him one last weird look before stepping in the cathedral. It sure looked very old and dark. The only thing not covered in spider web was an open book in the middle. They all came close to it and looked at the pages. All it had was people's names, their gender and numbers. Most of them were crossed out.

Edelle ran her fingertips through the page. "Who are these people?"

Edmund looks confused too."Why have they been crossed out?"

"It looks like some sort of…fee." Lucy studied it more closely.

"Slave traders." Caspian breathed and the next moment they heard shouting and saw many pirate-looking men coming from nowhere, surrounding them. Caspian tried to fight back with his sword, and Edmund just punched and threw around the men, while Lucy and Edelle where doing the same. Then suddenly, they heard someone scream and everything stopped when the saw Eustace being led in by one of the men, with a knife at his throat.

"Unless you want to hear the squirt squeal like a girl again, I'd say you drop your weapons."

"Eustace!" Edmund hissed and the next thing they knew, they were seized.

"Those three- the man gestured to Edelle, Lucy and Eustace.- to the market. And those two, take them to the dungeon."

Caspian shouted, trying to get out from the grasp. "You idiots, I am your king!"

"You are going to pay for that!" Edmund snapped.

"Actually, someone else is going to pay. For all of you." said the man that apparently was in charge of all this and with that they were dragged away in different directions.

Caspian and Edmund were thrown into a cell .They had spent the entire night in here and Edmund couldn't think of anything, but Edelle and Lucy. Who knew what could happen to them? Caspian had been trying to break the door with his kicking for quite some time now. Suddenly they heard a voice from the dark corner of the cell.

"It's hopeless. You'll never get out."

Caspian turned his head and walked towards the corner. "Who's there?"

"Nobody, just a voice in my head."

Caspian came closer and the light fell upon the speaker. In was an old man with grey hair and beard. Caspian kneeled down to him and studied his face.

"Lord Berne?"

The man looked up at him and twitched. "Was once. But I'm no longer deserving of that title. Your face reminds me of a king I once loved well."

"That man was my father. "

The man looked up and his eyes had grown bigger.

"Caspian? Oh, forgive me, My Lord…" The man tried to get on his knees, but Caspian halted him. "No, please."

"Caspian! Listen!" Edmund said and everyone stood still. They heard noises and shouting from the outside and Edmund and Caspian climbed the wall to look out the small barred window. The sight was not pleasing. A man was chasing a carriage, which has been taking away a dozen of people. He was running after his wife that was being taken. One of the guards punched him in the face and he fell down. "Don't worry, I'll find you!" he cried, as his nine or ten year-old daughter and her aunt helped him on his feet. The carriage stopped near the sea. The people were taken out, put on a boat and pushed into the ocean.

"Where are they taking them?"

"Keep watching." The lord said in a sad voice.

They did and couldn't believe what they saw. Once the boat got merely half a kilometer from the shore, something started coming from the water. Something that looked like a green mist. It came out of nowhere, approached the boat with the scared people and…swallowed them.

On the other side of the field, the slave traders were busy doing their job. That very minute, the boss was trying to sell Lucy. There was a good crowd of men, who wanted a new servant.

"I give you sixty!"

"I give you eighty!"

"One hundred for the little lady!"

"One fifty!"

The boss smiled, satisfied. "Any more offers? No? One fifty it is then- SOLD!"

Someone came around Lucy and put a wooden sign that said "sold" on it around her neck and roughly pushed Lucy from the platform. Then, Edmund and Caspian jumped from their place as the guards opened their cell and handcuffed them.

"Move! Come on!" the guard pushed Edmund and Caspian out of the cell and led them down to the field. When they got there, the guards made them sit next to a shaking Eustace and wait for "their turn". Edmund stared in terror, as the boss shouted "NEXT ONE!" And the next one was dragged on the platform. The next one was Edelle. At the sight of her the men started whistling, clicking their tongues and shouting out loud their quite rude and even dirty ideas of what use can she be put for. Edmund clenched his fists as he heard them and almost jumped from his place, but Caspian stopped him.

"Not yet! Just wait for one minute!"

"Wait? Did you hear what they were saying about her? The bastards, I'll rip them apart!" Edmund snapped through clenched teeth.

"I did, and believe me, you will get your chance, just wait!"

Meanwhile Edelle was standing on the platform, also clenching her fists, boiling with anger. She had never heard such disgusting things being said about her! The boss smirked "As you can see, what we have here is a divine article; Look at her, ain't a blossom? Starting price- One hundred and eighty! Who will give more?"

"I give two hundred!"

"Two fifty for the dolly!"

"Three hundred for the girl!"

"I'll take her off your hands. –a strange tall man in a long cloak stepped forward.- I'll take them all off your hands!"

Edelle and Lucy smiled brightly as the cloak was thrown away and there was Reepicheep on Drinian's shoulder. The ten-fifteen men around him also threw their cloaks aside and the entire Dawn Treader's crew charged the pirate-looking men. Reepicheep ran to the four and freed them from their confines. Once it was done, they immediately joined the fight. Lucy couldn't really do much with her small dagger, so she just hit the men with anything she could reach: stones, metal, vases and silver trophies. Edelle proved to be an excellent fighter too. She punched someone in the face, so hard he jumped back a few feet and hit his head on a stone wall. The other man seized her from behind and turned her around. She struggled to get her hands free, but with no luck. The man smirked

"That's all you got, baby?"

She grinned "Not quite."

And with that she shot her knee up, hitting precisely the right place. The most painful place on a man's body. The man's eyes shot open so wide, it seemed they would pop out any minute, Edelle was momentarily forgotten as he clenched his knees and fell to the ground. The crew outnumbered the slave traders and soon the last one fell down as the rest simply ran away. The citizens were also freed from their confined and cells and soon, everyone were on the field, cheering for their liberators. They were walking to their boat to head back to the ship, with Caspian, Edmund, Edelle and Lucy in the first line.

"My lord!"

A man shouted from the crowd and approached them. It was the same man, which had been chasing the carriage not long ago.

"My wife was taken just this morning! Please take me with you! I've been on ships before, I'm a fine sailor!"

Caspian smiled and patted the man's shoulder. "Of course, you must."

They were almost boarding in the small boat, when Lord Berne came up to them with something in his hand. It was a sword, but a very old one-it was all covered in dried dirt and stalactite.

"My lord, this sword was given to me by the great Aslan."

Edmund looked at it, curiously. "This isn't a Narnian sword."

"It's from the Golden age. There are six more."

"Caspian took the sword. "Thank you, Lord Bernes. And we will find, your lost citizens."

They walked several feet away when Caspian stopped for a moment. "Hey Edmund!"

Edmund looked at him and Caspian passed him the sword. Edmund looked at it and imagined how gorgeous it will be, once he scrubbed it from the stalactite and dirt.

"Look who finally has a sword." Edelle grinned and Edmund returned the grin. They got on the boat and rowed back to the awaiting Dawn Treader.

Well, how was it? Tell me, tell me, I wanna hear)) Stay tuned! *loves*