Disclaimer: I own nothing except Ava, Melody, the Guardians, and Sinaaq. Nobody really owns Amarok.
Note: Ava Rydia is about 5'2", Prince Caspian (the Ben Barnes version) is about 6'1", and Sinaaq is about 6'1". Also, many different sources claim giants to be different heights. Some say that they are over nine feet high, while others say they are only about seven feet high. For the purposes of this story, we'll say that the giants Sinaaq lived with were only seven feet high.
Important Note: According to my research, experiments with blood transfusions didn't happen until the 17th century, but I tried to make it feasible the best way I could. Most of those attempts killed the patient because people did not yet know of blood types. However, attempts on animals were successful. In order for a primitive blood transfusion to work the donor would have to be type O-negative or the receiver would have to be type AB-positive, which is more likely than randomly getting two people with the same blood type. Yarrow, mint, witch hazel, vinegar, and Myrrh were all used in medieval times to sterilize wounds. A fleam is a long, narrow blade (that looks very much like a needle) that was used for blood-letting in medieval times. Before there was plastic or rubber, medical tubing was made of metal and IV bottles were made of glass.
Songs for this chapter: My Own Prison by Creed, Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley, All for Love by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting
Chapter 6: Bloody Affairs
Sinaaq was sitting in his cell—he obviously couldn't go out for a stroll—growing quite bored. He was usually a very patient man, but being inside a cell for over a day, without anything to stare at but stone walls, did become maddening after a while. Still, he had to admit that Narnia kept their dungeons better than most places—how he knew that, he would never tell. The straw that covered the floor was changed by a servant regularly while a guard stood watch and he was given one scratchy, wool blanket for bedding. The walls had been made quite well, so they remained dry and didn't let in a draft. It was more than most criminals received or deserved. Sinaaq was thankful that Narnia had no death penalty. Under any other circumstances, he would say it was stupid of them, but for his sake he was glad for it.
Sinaaq was lost in thought when he heard someone approaching his cell. The footsteps were heavier than the advisor's and attached to someone with a longer stride, someone taller. He sighed in resignation; it must have been time for his trial. He stood up straight, his feet planted shoulder-width apart, his hands clasped behind his back, his posture perfect, ready to face his sentence.
What he was not expecting, was for his visitor to be King Caspian X. Sinaaq hid his surprise and scrutinized the young king. He had come to him unarmed, unguarded, and without chains with which to transport him, so why was he here? Sinaaq was the same height as the king and was able to look directly at him without tilting his head. The two men stared at each other, waiting for the other to speak.
"You are the one they call Sinaaq, yes?" the king asked in a thick, Telmarine accent.
"Do you have anyone else in your dungeons at this time?" Sinaaq asked.
"No," the king replied slowly, looking confused.
"Then yes, I am Sinaaq," the prisoner answered. King Caspian raised a dark eyebrow at him.
"What if I had said yes?" he asked.
"It would have made your question less stupid," Sinaaq replied bluntly. The king looked taken aback for a moment, but then gave a nod of agreement.
"Fair enough," he said. "Do you know why I am here, Sinaaq?" he asked, getting to the matter at hand. Sinaaq shrugged.
"You tell me," he replied.
"I am here because Lady Ava Rydia, my advisor, whom I believe you've already had the pleasure of meeting, has been attacked," the king said. Sinaaq's brow furrowed.
"And what does that have to do with me? I didn't attack her, obviously," he responded, gesturing to his surroundings and his shackles.
"I know that," Caspian replied shortly. "I do not know what attacked her or why, but as she slips in and out of consciousness, she keeps mentioning your name. I've come here for answers. I want to know who you are and where you come from and what in Aslan's name may have followed you here. And I'm not leaving until you tell me." Sinaaq stared at him, his face unchanging.
"Narnians don't strike me as the type to torture their prisoners," he pointed out. "Doesn't matter, I can cope with torture. There is no way on Aslan's green earth that you can make me tell you anything."
"What if I beg for your help?" the king asked. Sinaaq stared at him skeptically.
"You would stoop that low? You would beg for help from a criminal?" he asked, disbelieving. As if to emphasize his point, King Caspian dropped to his knees in front of him.
"Please, Ava is very important to me. She seems to be dying and we cannot figure out why. If you have an answer, please tell me," he pleaded.
Sinaaq stared down at the young king, impressed by his devotion to the woman. However, having the king on his knees in front of him also felt a little awkward.
"Okay, I will cooperate with you if you please get up off your knees," the prisoner replied. The king stood up at once. "That's better, now who found the woman after she was attacked?"
"I did. I heard her blow Queen Susan's horn," Caspian replied. Sinaaq wanted to ask what Queen Susan's horn was, but decided to save it for another time.
"When you found her, what did her wounds look like?" he asked.
"There was too much blood to get a good look at them, but she had hit her head on a tree root and her left shoulder looked like it had been gnawed on by a large animal. I gave her a drop of fireflower cordial and her wounds healed, but she had already lost so much blood. The cordial will cure any injury you've got, but it has its limits," the king explained.
Sinaaq stroked his goatee in thought. "How long has she been able to stay awake?" he asked.
"Mere seconds at a time and she cannot speak coherently," Caspian answered.
"Have you been able to understand anything she's said?" Sinaaq asked.
"She mumbled something that sounded like 'I'm a rock', but—"
"Amarok?" Sinaaq interrupted, his blood chilling at the sound of the wolf's name.
"Yes! That's it!" the king exclaimed. "She mentioned something about Amarok, though I have no clue who, or what, that is, and she mentioned you."
"I know what it is—it's the angry spirit that I've been hunting for the last decade or so," Sinaaq replied. "Amarok used to possess any creature he wished. He had no corporeal form of his own and would use those he possessed to slaughter anyone and anything in his wake. He favored predatory animals because they were easier to control than humans. The last time, he chose to possess a direwolf and slaughter my whole village. You would think that one direwolf could not decimate a village full of giants, but he managed." Sinaaq clenched his fists as his past came back to haunt him.
"You're a giant?" King Caspian asked incredulously.
"Not that I am aware of. I know nothing of my lineage; only that I was found by the giants who raised me. The giants that Amarok murdered," the prisoner replied.
"Oh…my condolences," King Caspian mumbled. Sinaaq waved a hand dismissively.
"If Amarok is here in Narnia, it is to hunt me down and kill me. The last time we met, I escaped him, and the spirits decreed that he would be trapped inside his fleshy prison until he killed me. We've been chasing each other's tails for years. The last time I saw him, I was very young, so I do not remember exactly what he looks like. Every time I think I've found him, I end up making another mistake," he explained.
"So that's why you were killing the talking wolves. You were looking for the wolf that killed your family," the king said, nodding his head as everything fell into place in his mind.
"I hardly doubt the talking wolves around here will accept that excuse, but yes, that is why," Sinaaq said. Never mind that the wolf he was looking for was the size of a horse and the wolves he had killed were only the size of very small ponies; he thought that information was best saved for another time.
"We can worry about that later, right now, I want you to come with me," the king said, taking out a key and reaching for Sinaaq's shackles.
"Where are we going?" Sinaaq asked.
"I am taking you to the infirmary to wait for Lady Ava to awake. She needs to hear what you have to say. At any rate, maybe you can tell the physician something useful," Caspian answered as he began unlocking Sinaaq's shackles.
"How do you know I won't try to escape?" the prisoner asked. The king gave him a dry smile.
"Even if you managed to overpower me, you would never make it out of the city alive," he answered.
Caspian and Sinaaq—who now had his boots, his shirt, and tunic, albeit with a hole in one side, back—entered the infirmary and went straight to the only occupied bed there was—the one that held Lady Ava.
As they drew nearer to her, Sinaaq was able to scrutinize her better and was amazed to see absolutely nothing physically wrong with her. Her ivory skin had a more unhealthy pallor to it than what he expected was normal, but aside from that, she merely appeared to be sleeping. The physician—a female Night Elf druid—had removed her clothing and dressed her in a simple chemise.
"Any change?" Caspian asked as they approached Ava's bed. The physician shook her head.
"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty," she answered, her silver eyes briefly flickering to Sinaaq. She seemed wary of him, but also intrigued as she seemed to take in every detail of him with her eyes before quickly turning her attention back to the king. Sinaaq smirked and felt his ego swell a bit.
"Is there anything that can be done?" Caspian asked with desperation in his voice.
"The problem seems to be blood loss," the physician answered. "I have done studies on the subject of blood and it seems to me that the average human adult—size depending—has ten pints of blood in their body. Someone Lady Ava's size will have much less. She has lost enough blood to make her unconscious, which, according to my experiments, is usually about three to four pints. It is possible she has lost more."
Sinaaq didn't want to know what her experiments entailed and, from the look on his face, Caspian didn't want to know either.
"So what happens now?" Sinaaq asked.
"Well, I have done experiments with transferring blood from one subject to another, but it is very risky," the elvish woman answered. "I have only tried it on dumb animals within the same species, and it was usually successful. However, I do not know if it will work on our beloved advisor. One wrong decision could worsen her condition or perhaps kill her."
Sinaaq and Caspian looked at each other for a moment; they both seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"Is there any other option?" the king asked, turning back to the elf. She shook her head grimly. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He glanced at the prisoner next to him, feeling helpless. What could be said?
Sinaaq stroked his goatee in thought and looked at the young king.
"What are you willing to do to save her?" he asked.
"Whatever it takes," Caspian answered.
"Then it's a risk you will have to take," the prisoner said.
"I am going to need someone to take blood from someone," the physician said, staring pointedly at the two men.
There was no one else in the room. Sinaaq scrutinized Caspian. Although they were the same height, the king was leaner in build, whereas he was more muscular. It was obvious that Caspian weighed less and would have less blood to give. Sinaaq turned back to the physician.
"I shall do it. I have more blood to give and I do not have a country to rule," he said, surprised by his own words. Caspian stared at him as if he were crazy.
"Sinaaq, this is not your risk to take. And you did mention that your death would unleash that hellish spirit upon all of Narnia," he pointed out.
"I'm not going to die," Sinaaq said with resolve in his voice.
"You don't know that," the king replied. He paused, and then added, "Why are you willing to take a risk for a woman you do not know?" Sinaaq chuckled morosely and shrugged.
"Why don't we call this my shot at righting at least one of the wrongs I have committed and leave it at that?" he responded.
Caspian stared at him for a moment; he had no reason to trust this man and yet here he was, considering letting him give his blood to Ava, which could potentially kill her. The man was right about one thing, however: he was much larger and did not have a kingdom that needed him alive and well. The king was unmarried—not for lack of trying—and had no heirs to take over if need be. He sighed and then gave Sinaaq a nod of agreement.
Sinaaq turned to the physician. "Alright, let us get this over with," he said, his tone one of resignation.
The physician nodded and started reaching into cabinets and flitting about the room. She sat something that resembled a coat rack next to the head of Ava's bed and turned back to the wooden table next to her.
"Hold out your arm," she commanded Sinaaq as she turned around with a glass bottle, which was attached to a long metal tube with a fleam attached to the end of it, in her hands.
She set it down on the bedside table and grabbed another bottle from her work table. Sinaaq squinted and scrutinized the loopy handwriting on the second bottle label—it was a mixture of vinegar, witch hazel, yarrow, mint, and Myrrh. She took the stopper out of the bottle and grabbed a rag from the table, putting the rag under his arm as she began to pour a bit of the mixture over the bend in his elbow. It tingled a bit and smelled funny. The elf replaced the stopper in the bottle and returned it to the work table. She then grabbed a nearby candle and began sterilizing the fleam with the flame.
"Mind telling me how this thing works?" Sinaaq asked nervously.
"I will insert the fleam into your arm where I can see your veins. If we are lucky, I shall hit the vein and blood will flow into the hollow, metal tube that I have attached to the fleam and into the glass bottle. It may help speed up the blood flow if you clench and unclench your fist," the physician explained simply. Sinaaq paled a bit, but otherwise remained stoic.
The elvish woman grabbed a rag and tied it tightly around his bicep just above the bend in his elbow. She flicked the bend a few times and watched as his veins puckered up.
"This should be easy, your fair complexion is working in your favor and I can see your veins quite clearly," she said, a little too happy for the prisoner's liking, readying the fleam.
Sinaaq took a calming breath and watched as she stuck the fleam into his arm. Immediately, blood started flowing through the tube and into the glass bottle. He started to clench and unclench his fist to speed things along, ignoring the discomfort in his arm.
After several minutes had passed, the bottle was full and the physician expertly replaced it with an empty one. Halfway through filling up the second vessel, Sinaaq was feeling very tired. At last, the bottle was full.
"This should be enough," the physician said, removing the fleam from his arm and taking the rag from around his bicep, using it to wrap up his elbow.
The two men watched as the physician prepared Ava's arm the same way she had Sinaaq's and inserted the fleam, then tied it in place with a leather strap. She then took the bottle of blood and hung it from the hooks of the "coat rack" so that the blood would flow out of it and into Ava's body.
"So what do we do now?" Caspian asked.
"Now we wait for a miracle. If either of you pray, I suggest you start doing it," the elf replied. Caspian looked to Sinaaq gratefully.
"I cannot thank you enough for what you have done," he said sincerely. Sinaaq dismissed him with a wave.
"I just did what needed to be done," he said. He noticed he had to think extra hard to get each word out properly.
"Unfortunately, I cannot just hand you your freedom, though I might want to after this," Caspian said pointedly. "As soon as you have recovered, I am going to have to take you back to your cell to await your trial tomorrow. Although, I could forgo use of the shackles. And I think you'll find the council more receptive to you when they hear of this."
"Understandable," Sinaaq responded. "If you would just allow me a moment to rest, we can be on our way."
He stood up to move to a more comfortable spot, but as soon as he did so, the room spun and his knees felt too weak to hold him up. He barely comprehended the physician and Caspian easing him into a bed before he slipped into unconsciousness.