Chapter 5
The next morning Molly awoke in much better spirits, and surprised to find a king sleeping in the easy chair that designated her reading nook. She got out of bed and tip toed over to the sleeping teen. "Edmund, it's time to get up," she said prodding the boy's abdomen. One of his hands shot up and tried to swat her finger away. Molly tried desperately to hold in a giggle as Ed mumbled something about school in his sleep.
"Ed, if you don't get up right this second, I'll find a bucket of water to dump on your head," Molly said outright laughing as the sleeping king sprang out of the chair only to fall face first onto the floor. As Edmund picked himself up off the floor, Ed glared at Molly. "Ed, don't give me that look. You're the one who spent the night in a chair," Molly said.
As Ed left the room Molly couldn't help but smile at the sweetness Ed displayed by spending the night. Too soon, however, a faun entered the room in order to help Molly dress for the day of festivities, and assured her that all the decorations were successfully hung in her absence. Peter and Susan's ship was to arrive at noon so Molly needed to hurry and dress, or she would not make it to the dock in time to properly welcome them as their hostess.
The faun helped Molly into a maroon dress with black trim, and sleeves that grew larger as they ended at her hands. She still wore comfortable flat shoes and her sword buckled at her waist. The faun attempted to arrange Molly's wild red hair into an elegant bun, but the second Molly stepped out of her room, she removed the pins that held her hair in place.
Edmund stood waiting for Molly at the end of the hallway in one of his formal tunics, a deep blue velvet with Aslan embroidered in silver. "Shall we go meet my siblings," he asked offering Molly his arm. She rolled her eyes smiling at the chivalrous display, "I think we should sir knight." And the pair walked off towards the docks.
Peter and Susan walked down the boarding plank with genuine smiles plastered to their faces. After two months away from the castle it felt amazing to be home. Lucy, Edmund, and Molly were waiting to greet them on the dock. Susan found it hard to resist the urge to run up to Lucy and hug her. Susan found that in her time away from Narnia she sorely missed her youngest sibling.
Once the pair were safe on Narnia soil, they dashed over to the three waiting for them and there were hugs all around, smiles, and hellos. Once the welcomes had finished Peter and Susan realized that their friend and family were overdressed for just the occasion of welcoming them home. Molly in particular seemed very overdressed for the occasion. Neither Peter nor Susan had seen Molly wear a dress since their coronation.
"Alright, what's going on?" Peter asked looked at Molly, who seemed to turn a light shade of red. "We're having a party," Molly mumbled. The Pevensies laughed at how embarrassed Molly seemed. "Shut up," Molly growled, "we knew you didn't want a party, but the council insisted." Peter and Susan nodded, before Susan gasped.
"I'm in no shape to attend a party," Susan cried. It was Molly's turn to laugh as the Queen tried to run up to Cair and change before the festivities. "Well shall we go? Dinner will be starting soon," Edmund said turning toward the castle. The three others nodded and the group made its way back to the castle.
Dinner seemed an unusually quite affair. Other than the Pevensies and their immediate friend, there were between twenty and forty diplomats and visitors from the neighboring lands. The loudest member of the meal seemed to be Lord Emeth of Calormen.
He seemed very unhappy with the way Narnia was run, as children were on the throne. "The Tisroc, may he live forever, would never allow his children to rule before they came of age. A regent is the only appropriate course of action in that case. Someone of the proper age and wisdom should rule until the male heir to the throne reaches the proper age," Lord Emeth said as he continued to pick the mushroom layer and the pate layer off of his beef wellington.
Molly bit her lip and tried to restrain herself. It seemed to work too, until Edmund cut in, "Lord Emeth, may I remind you that it was by Aslan and Narnia's will that we four rule. You are also a guest in this house." Molly smiled at Edmund, who was beginning to live up to his title. Peter than added to the comment with a rather icy tone, "Does the Tisroc have a problem with four siblings sharing power?"
The other members of the Narnian royal house looked at Peter warily, before remembering Peter had spent a good bit of time in Calormen and in the Tisroc's home. Lord Emeth's face began to turn a subtle shade of red, which left Molly and Lucy desperate to stifle their giggling.
"The Tisroc, may he live forever, has no desire to understand the customs of a barbaric land such as this, especially when four siblings share a throne on which a single man," the lord said as he made for one of the pastries that reminded Molly of strudel.
She asked politely for one of the same pastries to be passed to her while she sat back and whispered into Edmund's ear, "who does he think he is? He does realize we're right here, right?" Edmund nodded at some of the statements and wished one of the other diplomats would try to change the subject, or at least divert the attention from this moronic lord. Unfortunately, no one spoke after that comment and the only discernable sounds were those of people chewing food, and their silverware clinking on the china.
Luckily after the dinner dishes had been removed from the table the orchestra began to play dance music and the tense air surrounding the party lessened. Per Narnian tradition Peter and Susan started the dancing off. Edmund looked to Molly, "May I have this dance?" Molly smiled and nodded taking Edmund's hand. After months of practice in both swordsmanship and dancing neither was near as clumsy as they had been at the Coronation Ball. Of course, they still stepped on each other's feet every once in a while, but overall both seemed more relaxed as they twirled around the dance floor.
As the first song ended another boy, maybe a year or so older than Molly, came up to the pair. "May I cut in?" this new boy asked Edmund. Ed nodded at let go of Molly, though she did notice that Edmund's hand lingered on her waist a moment longer.
"You look lovely," Molly's new partner said. "Thank you, but may I know your name?" Molly said a light blush beginning to decorate her cheeks. "I'm Caleb," the boy said twirling her on the spot, like what she had learned years before during Cotillion. "You're from Archeland?" Molly said after the twirling ended. Caleb nodded but seemed to be focused on the steps rather than on the conversation. "Loosen up," Molly said trying to pull him out of the focus, " and don't look at your feet."
Colin looked up at Molly with a look of disbelief. "You sound as though you're not talking about dancing my lady," he said accidentally stepping on her foot. "Is swordplay different than dancing?" she asked quickly rubbing her foot on the back of her other calf. "Swordplay?" Caleb asked sounding even more surprised. Molly nodded and smiled, "Ever since I was a child, I have learned the art of the sword."
As the song ended Molly thanked Caleb for the dance, and excused herself to the drinks table. Molly grabbed a glass of the berry compote and watched the dancing. At some point she actually sat down in one of the Pevensies thrones. Poor Molly didn't even realize she had done so until one of the council members who didn't care for her walked up to her and told her to remove herself from the throne.
"Molly may sit there, if I give her permission," said a voice from behind the throne. Molly looked back to see which Pevensie was talking. There in his glory was Edmund. The council member huffed annoyed and stalked off.
"I'm so sorry Edmund. I didn't realize I'd sat down…" Molly said quickly removing herself from Edmund's throne. Edmund simply laughed, "I said it was alright." Molly turned the darkest red Narnia had ever seen and bolted toward the safety of the refreshment table.
The ball only lasted another hour or so, but by that time many of the guests had left. Of course there were still the few people that remained dancing, but the important guests, Peter and Susan, had already retired.
Molly made her way toward some of the decorations behind the Thrones and began trying to take them down. Well, she would have tried to take them down, but a pair of hands at her waist stopped her. She tried to turn around to see who was touching her, but the hands held her firmly in her place.
"Come on little whore," the voice Molly assumed was connected to the hands whispered pulling her backward. Within seconds a strip of cloth covered her eyes and she felt herself being dragged along the hallways of Cair Paravel. Molly made sure to track of the turns made in her head as she was yanked along.
After perhaps five or eight minutes, the tugging on her hands stopped and Molly heard a door being opened in front of her. Then she was pulled through the doorway and thrown onto what she thought was either a couch or a lounge chair of some kind. Then her hands were bound together at the front of her body with a thick rope of some kind.
The voice spoke again in the same harsh manner, "what do you do with those kings, little whore? What do you do that makes them so attached to you?" Molly struggled against her abductor, but her struggles did nothing to help her. The man, she assumed, slapped her across the check, "stop struggling and behave. Women are only good to service men."
Using that angry outburst, Molly quickly deduced that Lord Emeth must be her abductor. Who else in the caslte would feel threatened by a woman/girl with power? She remembered the letters Susan and Peter had sent during their journeys that described Calormen as a savage place of inequality and barbarism.
Luckily Lord Emeth had not been smart enough to bind her hands behind her back. Molly doubled over and worked to reach the dagger strapped to her thigh. She remained alert, and heard Lord Emeth open a door a good distance from where she lay. The door shut and Molly worked harder to reach her dagger knowing that the time she had was limited.
Once she grabbed the dagger, Molly set to work on the rope binding her hands. When the rope gave way, Molly pulled herself from the sofa and sprinted out of the room. Once in the hallway Molly tried desperately to remember the turns Emeth had made and do the reverse of those.
Molly kept running until she had reached a hallway she'd never been in before. There were four doors on the hall that ended in a balcony with a beautiful view of the sea. As she continued down the hall, she noticed that each of the four door seemed to have objects carved into their surfaces. At the end of the hall Molly turned to look at one of the doors curious as to what was carved on its surface, as no other door in Cair seemed to have the same level of detail on it.
The door she looked at held the image of a sword, but the cross guard of the sword pointed toward the sword's grip. Molly took a deep breath not knowing on who's door she was knocking. She tapped the door in front of her lightly three time, and whispered "hello" through the door. She did that twice more and was about to turn away when the door opened to reveal a very sleepy Edmund. Molly audibly gasped, she had stumbled upon the Pevensies' private wing.
Molly quickly looked over Edmund. He was sort of dressed in a baggy white tunic and navy blue trousers that looked like shots. "What do you need Molly?" he asked his speech slurred from sleep. Molly simply hugged Edmund and said nothing.
A/N: Wow, that was a fun chapter to write. I promise next chapter will be the end of this Gala nonsense and probably the start of another fun plot involving Caleb. Anywho, read, review, comment, queries, questions? I'll take it all, and it's all welcome.