20 - Van Casts His Lot
The celebration lasted well into the night. A party had been sent to The Phoenix with provisions once Van and Lucy returned with Asha and the dryads to the castle. Van had asked to go, but amid all the sudden well-wishes of the Selbarani people, he found no time to get away with the rest of the supply party. His discomfort only got worse as the post-victory celebration went on.
Congratulations!
Hail, Vandelar, Defender of Selbaran!
Many thanks, my lord!
The glad tidings turned his stomach, even as he hunted up a smile for Lucy when he returned her to the hall after their dance—and the kiss he shouldn't have given her. He welcomed the praise paid to her. She had certainly earned it (and now had the scar to show it), but who was he to deserve such commendation?
Edmund found him toward the end of the celebration, and pulled him aside into a quiet room. The solemn look in the man's eyes was one Van had seen often, but not quite so potently. "I want to thank you," Edmund said.
Van curled his lip. "You, too?"
"This isn't fanfare," Edmund interrupted. He met Van's gaze, and the look on his face was man-to-man and warrior to warrior. Van got the feeling his captain knew more in one look about a person than some learned in a lifetime of acquaintance. "Thank you," Edmund said again, quieter. "For my wife and sister. I know you wanted no part in this."
Itchy with awkwardness, Van shrugged. He valued Edmund's word more than he'd ever done with any other, but he didn't want to hang around and hear more about his good deed, especially after taking liberties by kissing the sister in question. He expected Edmund's good opinion wouldn't last long after he learned about that. Van muttered something about a first mate's duty and tried to make his escape.
"I'm not finished," Edmund said as Van reached the door. The captain's tone rang with an authority that froze Van, unwilling, to the spot where he stood. Van inhaled a long, bracing breath and turned around to face him.
Edmund's expression had changed—something subtle, but it was enough to indicate they were speaking on different terms now. Guilt pricked at Van as he returned to his place.
"I am your captain," Edmund reminded him, "but a king and brother first."
Van just managed not to flinch.
"I had to know to what extent I could trust you. That's why we came here and confronted the Witch's people openly. A dangerous call, but I had allies to watch you, had I needed them."
The dryads of Selbaran, of course. Van wrestled with a jolt of outrage to which he had no right. He was a pirate, and had been for years. Pirates lied all the time. Of course Edmund would test him.
"Now that Kamus knows my allegiance and whereabouts, he'll tell the Witch—if he can find her. The time has come where I can no longer conceal myself behind subterfuge. I'm going to be a target. She'll attack with everything she has, and without cease."
Van frowned. Certainly she would want to dispose of an enemy, but Edmund talked as if the Witch had particular reason to hate him.
Then he remembered his dream when they'd docked at the Faeries' Gate. A boy, small and dark-haired, with a fierce courage only beginning to surface under the glare of a tall, cold-faced woman. The woman bore a long, gleaming spear of ice.
And then a flash came to him—a premonition driven by his Haggish blood. The man before him, with the same eyes as that boy—now screaming with rage and raising that spear to strike in deadly earnest.
Van gave a little shake to clear his head. Still scrambling to understand the vision, he found himself staring as Edmund went on. "I almost wish I couldn't have trusted you," his captain said. "I would have run you through myself, if you'd harmed my family. But I now find myself in a difficult position."
"Oh?" Van said dryly.
Edmund nodded. "Rather than killing a known enemy, I must now risk losing one of my best men. I'm giving you a choice. You may take The Phoenix and roam the seas at your will. I will neither stop you nor hunt you, as long as you leave Narnia and its allies be. Or you can join me, in truth and in the open, and likely be killed in battle if you fight beside me." His eyes lit with a touch of humor. "The only thing I can promise you then is a burial with all the honor that's due the likes of you and me." He raised his forearm in offering.
Van stared a little more, unable to fathom the paradox of the man before him. Then he gave a slow, disbelieving smile. "You're right out of your mind, Captain. King. Whatever you are." He clasped Edmund's forearm. "Since we're about to plan suicide, you might tell me how I ought to address you this time."
The man grinned, broad and wily. He clapped Van's shoulder. "Sounds like a good time to start calling me Ed."
- # -
Two mornings later, Van found Arrow sitting on the shoreline of the cove where The Phoenix had moored. The crew had completed provisioning the ship, and Arrow sunned himself amid bits of leather, buckle, rope, thread, needles, and cloth on the beach. Puzzled, Van gestured to the flotsam. "What's all—"
Lucy came around from the griffin's other side, wearing clothing so snug it was impossible not to stare. Van's breath whuffed out of him and he spun away to examine the sky. "What in hell are you ... not ... wearing, woman!"
"It's a flight suit," she said behind him, sounding put out.
Van meant to look up until the sky fell on top of him, right up until he heard the griffin's low laughter. He jerked back around.
The griffin eyed him in what could only be called a mocking look. Beside him, Lucy faced Van, hands on hips, with her slender legs sheathed in shimmery, wine-red fabric. She wore a shirt of the same close-fitting cloth, over which lay a short, thin brown leather jerkin that would block absolutely no blows. Van noticed her cordial belt tied around her waist, and a pair of short brown boots lacking cuffs ... but his eyes went right back to her legs. He'd seen her in pants. Men's pants. Pirate ones, loose and roomy and heavy and certainly not prone to giving away how far away she was from being male.
She had braided her hair, too, a style pinned close to her head. She raised a hand to either side of her brow and frowned. "Ed, I couldn't find anything to replicate the goggles," she called.
Heavy footfalls brought Van's attention to Edmund, emerging from the forest near the edge of the beach, and carrying a load of leather and straps in his arms. "Your harness is done. Asha made it as lightweight as possible." When he reached Lucy, Arrow stood and gave him an expectant look.
Van watched Edmund fasten the "harness" to the griffin. It was little more than a series of leather straps that secured to Arrow's back what might have been a saddle, if there had been any actual substance to it. "That weighs nothing," Arrow said. "I could carry three of her, and a man besides."
"That's the object," Ed said, clapping the beast's shoulder. He scooped up the remaining clutter and stuffed it into a rucksack which he slung over his shoulder.
"You're going to let her sit on that?" Van sputtered.
"Not sit," Lucy said, showing him a pair of triangular wooden bits hanging from either side of the saddle. The stirrups were laced impractically high for anyone, let alone her long—and too-visible—legs. "More like a perch," she added.
"The harness has a holster for a crossbow and bolts," Edmund said, checking the fit all around. He looked completely unconcerned about Lucy's lack of meaningful attire.
"What, exactly, are we going to do with all this?" demanded Van.
Ed straightened up. The urgency in his expression drove any concerns about harnesses and clothing out of Van's head. "I got the news this morning. The Witch is moving her ships to invade Narnia by sea. We've got to get there first."
Van stiffened. "Wait. You want us—one ship—to attack the Witch's fleet? Assuming we even get there in time?"
"We have an advantage," Edmund added. "There's a dead spot in the ocean where her power over Narnia ends. No wind, Van. No waves. The Phoenix will blow right past her ships and dispatch them as she pleases while they sit still."
"Unless another of her ships decides to blow us into kindling while we're occupied," said Van.
This exchange was interrupted by the appearance, in the cove, of two tall ships of Selbarani design. "Don't worry," Edmund said with a grin. "We're bringing friends to the fight."
Van stared from Edmund to his sister, then at the Selbarani ships, The Phoenix, and the longboat waiting at the pier. "You're mad."
"Well," Lucy said, climbing onto the griffin's back, "what are we waiting for?" She beamed at Van, then she and Arrow shot off into the sky.
Ed raised an eyebrow, gave Van a look of amusement, and started for the longboat.
Van looked at the sky one last time. Arrow reached the ship and landed on its deck. Lucy dismounted as the centaurs approached her and bowed. Van groaned and started toward the pier. "Oh, we're going to die."