A Tale of a Voyage
Disclaimer: I don't own.
Chapter 9: Burnt Island, Sea Serpents, and Deathwater
I smiled as I stared in the direction we had just sailed from. "Boy, it's nice to leave Dragon Island in the dust."
"You're telling me?" Eustace joked.
I cast a grin at my cousin-in-law, finding that I liked him a whole lot better after he had been a dragon.
"You're not the only one," Edmund teased as he joined us.
"Did I say that out loud?" I asked, confused.
"You most certainly did!" Eustace exclaimed. "But don't worry; I agree."
"So do I," Edmund added.
"To be fair, Peter can't after our last one."
He laughed. "You're never going to let that go, are you?"
"Not at all."
"Hannah, if you're through teasing Peter, who isn't even here, let's go below. Reepicheep challenged me to a game of chess," Lucy said, pulling my elbow toward the opening we used to access our quarters. I grinned and followed.
The next day, we spotted an island some of us had seen from Eustace's back as he flew us over the mountains. We landed and, after a quick exploration, soon discovered that there was no one there, deciding that it had been either pirates' work or the dragon's. We also found a small boat, or coracle, which, being the perfect size for our Mouse, we took on board. Naming the place Burnt Island, we left rather quickly.
After several days at sea, we were all getting cranky, and a steady rain one afternoon didn't help much. Eustace lost two games of chess to Reep and was acting like his old, bothersome self again. Edmund groaned. "I wish we could have gone to America with Susan!"
I sighed. "Really, Ed?"
"Really."
"If you're that bored, come with me."
"What?"
"You heard me. Come on." I grabbed his hand. We went over to where I had stored all my gear. I dug around until I found the book Lord Bern had given to me in the Lone Islands. "Look."
He gasped. "Is what I think it is?"
"Yep." I smiled and opened The Princess's Political Games to chapter eight.
After one whole chapter, Lucy looked out the porthole and leaped up. "Hello! I do believe it's stopping. And what's that?"
We raced up to the poop deck and saw that the rain had stopped and Drinian was watching some things off the stern. We joined him and gazed at the objects. "Rocks?" Jade guessed.
"But they can't be rocks because they weren't there five minutes ago," the captain replied.
"And one's just disappeared," Lucy added.
"Yes, and there's another one coming up," her brother responded.
"And nearer," Eustace inserted.
"Hang it!" Caspian exclaimed. "The whole thing is moving this way!"
"And moving a great deal quicker than we can sail, Sire. It'll be up with us in a minute," Drinian observed.
I chewed on my lip, weighing my thoughts before finally deciding that I couldn't hurt anything by blurting out, "Might it be a Sea Serpent?"
"That it might, Your Majesty. I hope it isn't, but it might indeed."
We waited fearfully until it finally came up and showed itself. "Hannah, why did you have to be right?" Edmund wailed.
"Well, I'm sorry." We all ran to our weapons. Swords would of course do no good at the distance the Serpent was sitting. "Shoot! Shoot!" cried the Master Bowman, and those of us with bows did, but of course, the hide of a Sea Serpent might as well have been armor, for all the good our arrows did. We stood stock still, waiting for it to pounce on us. But it didn't. Instead, it, as I secretly remembered, began to wrap itself around the ship.
Eustace, who had really been trying very hard to be good, until the rain and chess put him back, jumped forward and began hacking at the hide of the Serpent. Of course, all he managed to do was break Caspian's second best sword to bits, but at least he tried. Others quickly rushed toward him to help, Art and Rose among them, when Reepicheep's voice stopped them. "Don't fight! Push!" Everyone paid attention to him because it was quite strange for him to tell anyone not to fight. The Mouse's back was pressed against the scaly side of the Serpent, and he was shoving with all his might, little as it might be. I ran over to help him, almost like I had been waiting for him to say that (oh wait, I was). The men (and Faith and Rose) caught on to our idea, and dragging the stubborn Mouse away, they joined me in pushing, although a few tried to convince the girls and me not to help, but we weren't listening. They did, however, force us to be in the front of the lines. Anyway, we pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and-well, you get the idea.
As the loop of the Serpent hit the poop deck, several of us raced to compensate. After a few sickening minutes, Caspian realized that it would get caught on the very end of the ship, the golden tail of the dragon. "An axe and still push!" he called out hoarsely. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lucy race to follow his order, grabbing an axe and rushing back to help. Before it was needed, however, the Serpent's body crashed onto the dragon tail and broke it off, the Sea Serpent itself following. We all cheered in relief and exhaustion, watching it nose along its body, almost looking for us, but we were on our way out of there as fast as possible.
That night, the men pulled out the rum, praising the valor of Eustace (though it hadn't done any good) and of Reepicheep. (I still didn't allow any of my cousins to drink any; despite their complaints of unfairness, I didn't drink any either.) We sailed for three more days before spying land on the fourth. The wind had picked up by afternoon, and Drinian suggested to Caspian, "By your leave, Sire, we will try to get under the lee of that country by rowing and lie in harbor, maybe till this is over."
Caspian agreed, but we had to row the rest of the day against the gale. We finally anchored in a natural harbor as the sun disappeared below the horizon. Everyone agreed that exploring in the dark would be a bad idea, and so we waited until morning. In the morning, upon seeing two different streams at which we could refill our water casks, Drinian began to take the eastern one, when Lucy observed, "Here comes the rain!"
"I should think it does!" her brother cried. "I say, let's go to the other stream. There are trees there and we'll have some shelter."
"Yes, let's. No point in getting wetter than we need," Eustace agreed.
"Well, that's certainly true," Jade snapped.
Drinian, however, had continued to steer us toward the eastern stream. Caspian said, "They're right, Drinian. Why don't you bring her head round and make for the western stream?"
"As your Majesty pleases," Drinian consented.
"Thank goodness," Will muttered once we were under the cover of the trees.
The rain had stopped by the time we had finished watering, and Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, Reepicheep, my cousins, and I decided to walk up a hill and look at the lay of the land. Once up there, we quickly observed that the island was rather barren, and the sea stretched far beyond the eye could see. "Crazy, you know," I heard Eustace whisper. "Sailing on and on into that with no idea what we may get to."
The fresh north wind cooled the air off so much that it was too cold to stay up there for long. We quickly made our way down off the ridge. "Don't let's go back the same way; let's go along a bit and come down by the other stream, the one Drinian wanted to go to," Lucy suggested.
All of us thought that it was a good idea, and so after about fifteen minutes we were at the source of the other stream. It was a deep little mountain lake, surrounded by cliffs except for a narrow channel on the seaward side out of which the water flowed. Finally, we were out of the wind, so we sat down to rest in the heather above the cliffs.
Edmund leaped up again rather quickly, groping around in the heather. "They go in for sharp stones on this island. Where is the wretched thing? Ah! Now I've got it. Hullo! It's not a stone at all; it's a sword-hilt. No, by Jove, it's a while sword, or what the rust has left, anyway. It must have lain here for ages."
"Narnian, too, by the look of it," Caspian put in.
Rose held out her hand for the sword, which Edmund gave her. "Yes, but not from our time; the balance is slightly off."
"I'm sitting on something too. Something hard," Lucy commented, tugging it from underneath her.
By now, we were all on hands and knew, feeling the thick heather in every direction. Our search revealed, one by one, a helmet, a dagger, and a few old coins. These I quickly snatched from Art, who didn't really know anything about them anyway. "No way."
"What is it, Han?" Faith asked, coming over to see.
"I didn't think any of these would still exist!" I exclaimed, showing her.
"Whoa."
"What's so special about them?" Caspian asked.
I glanced up at him. "They were minted in our time. Look; do you see those ten stars above the tree?"
"Yes."
Edmund and Lucy both sucked in air. "The ten year anniversary!"
"Yes!" To Caspian, Eustace, Art, James, Will, and Jade, I explained, "They were minted in 1010, ten years after the White Witch's defeat. That year was filled with huge celebrations." I smiled in fond remembrance. "King Lune and Prince Corin of Archenland, the governor of the Lone Islands, the dukes of Galma, Terebinthia, and the Seven Isles, Prince Adrian of Telmar," here I winked at Lucy, who blushed, "and even a few Calormenes were in attendance." I cocked my head. "Come to think of it, the heavy concentration of eligible males might have had something to do with Lucy's eighteenth birthday-"
"Hannah!" she shouted, making a playful swipe at me.
Edmund laughed. "I think she's right, Lu. Course, they lost hope as soon as they saw how you looked at Adrian." I snorted, and Lucy growled at her brother.
"Back to the armor, sword, and coins. Do you think that we've found whatever's left of one of our lost lords?" Edmund suggested.
"Just what I was thinking. I wonder which it was. There's nothing on the dagger to show. And I wonder how he died."
"In this type of a place? Who knows?" Art interjected.
"Not to mention how we are to avenge him," Reep added.
"Look here. There's something very fishy about this. He can't have been killed in a fight," Edmund said.
"Why not?" Caspian asked.
"No bones. An enemy might take the armor and leave the body. But who ever heard of a chap who'd won a fight carrying away the body and leaving the armor?"
"Perhaps he was killed by a wild animal," Lucy proposed.
"It'd be a clever animal that would take a man's mail shirt off," Edmund argued.
"Perhaps a dragon, then?" Caspian said.
"Nothing doing. A dragon couldn't do it. I ought to know," Eustace refuted.
"Well, let's get away from the place, anyway," Lucy said, and we all agreed.
"If you like. I don't think any of this stuff is worth taking away, unless one of you wants the coins?" Caspian added.
"I think I do," Faith said, taking them.
We went down and around to the little opening where the stream came out of the lake and stood looking at the deep water within the circle of cliffs. If it had been a hot day, I'm sure most, if not all, of us would have wanted to take a swim and get a drink. In fact, I saw Jade moving to do just that. I quickly grabbed her arm, pulling her back. "Trust me; you don't want to touch that water."
She glared at me, but suddenly, Reep and Lucy at the same moment cried, "Look!"
I looked and regretted it instantly, but as I, and maybe Rose, Art, and Will, was the only one who knew that that statue wasn't originally a statue, if you catch my drift, for the other's purposes, I kind of had to look but I quickly had to squeeze my eyes shut to ward off tears. Everyone else, however, crowded around the edge of the pool. Caspian whistled. "Well! That was worth coming to see! I wonder, can we get it out?"
"We can dive for it, Sire," Reepicheep suggested.
"No good at all. At least, if it's really gold, solid gold, it'll be far too heavy to bring up. And that pool's twelve or fifteen feet deep is it's an inch. Half a moment, though. It's a good think I've brought a hunting spear with me. Let's see what the depth is like. Hold on to my hand, Caspian, while I lean out over the water a bit." Edmund carefully lowered his spear into the water, gripping Caspian's hand.
Before the spear was even half-way down, Lucy said, "I don't believe the statue is gold at all. It's only the light. Your spear looks just the same color."
"What's wrong?" several voices chorused, because Edmund had suddenly dropped the spear.
"I couldn't hold it. It seemed so heavy," Edmund explained.
"And there it is on the bottom now, and Lucy's right. It looks just the same color as the statue," Caspian said.
Edmund was staring at his boots when he abruptly snapped, "Get back! Back from the water! All of you. At once!"
Everyone jumped back, staring at him inquisitively.
"Look. Look at the toes of my boots."
"They look a bit yellow," Eustace offered.
Edmund interrupted him, "They're gold, solid gold. Look at them. Feel them. The leather's pulled away from it already. And they're as heavy as lead."
"By Aslan! You don't mean to say-?" Caspian exclaimed.
"Yes, I do. That water turns things into gold. It turned the spear into gold; that's why it got so heavy. And it was just lapping against my feet (it's a good thing I wasn't barefoot) and it turned the toecaps to gold. And the poor fellow on the bottom-well, you see."
"So it isn't a statue at all," Lucy whispered with horror.
"No. The whole thing is plain now. He must have been here on a hot day. He undressed on top of the cliff, where we were sitting. The clothes have rotted away or been taken by birds to line their nests, but the armor's still there. Then he dove and-"
"Don't. What a horrible thing."
"And what a narrow shave we've had."
"Narrow indeed," Reep added. "Anyone's finger, anyone's foot, anyone's whisker, or anyone's tail might have slipped into the water at any moment."
Caspian leaned over and plucked up a spray of heather. "All the same, we may as well test it." With that, he dipped it into the water. It was heather that he dipped; what he drew out was a perfect model of heather made of the purest gold, heavy and soft as lead. He sucked in a breath. "The king who owned this island would soon be the richest of all kings of the world. I claim this land forever as a Narnian possession. It shall be called Goldwater Island. I bind all of you to secrecy. No one must know of this, not even Drinian-on pain of death, do you hear?"
Edmund huffed. "Who are you talking to? I'm no subject of yours. If anything it's the other way round. I am one of the seven-well, six, now-ancient sovereigns of Narnia and you are under allegiance to the High King my brother and Hannah's husband."
I sighed. "Did you have to drag me into this?"
I was, of course, ignored as Caspian said, laying his hand on his sword-hilt, "So it has come to that, King Edmund, has it?"
Faith grabbed her sword, not unsheathing it but still at the ready. "You hurt him and I swear that you will die."
"Oi! What do you think you're saying to Caspian, Faith?" Art stepped between her and Caspian.
"Get away from Faith, Arthur," Rose growled.
"Who died and made you boss?" Jade snapped, sliding next to Arthur.
Lucy began to yell at them. "Oh, stop it, all of you. That's the worst of doing anything with boys! You're all such swaggering, bullying idiots-ooh!"
All of us looked up to where she was staring. Across the gray hillside above us, without noise or looking at us and shining as if He were in bright sunlight though the sun had in fact gone in, the hugest Lion that human eyes have ever seen passed with slow pace. None of us dared ask what it was. We knew it was Aslan.
And none of us saw how or where He went. We looked at one another like people waking from sleep. "What were we talking about? Have I been making a fool of myself?" Caspian asked.
"Sire, this is a place with a curse on it. Let us get back on board the Dawn Treader at once. And if I might have the honor of naming this island, I should call it Deathwater."
"That strikes me as a very good name, Reep, though now I come to think of it, I don't know why. But the weather seems to be settling and I dare say Drinian would like to be off. What a lot we shall have to tell him."
As it turned out, we didn't have much to tell him. The memories of the last hour had become muddled for them, and I wasn't going to say anything. I couldn't help but notice Rose and Art avoiding each other and Jade glaring at Faith. Wonderful. I turned to Faith. "What say we lock Rose and Art in a room so they can finally make up?"
"Nah. They'd kill each other first."
"True."
A/N: Are you shocked? I finally updated!
I can promise that chapter 10 will not take nearly as long as this one did.