THE LAST TEMPTATION OF SUSAN
Chapter Six: The Old Flame
When Queen Susan finally reached the sanctuary of her bedroom, the first thing she did was to fall down on the bed. There were so many things she needed to sort out – so many conflicting emotions and confusing desires.
Rabadash was the same haughty, hot-blooded prince she remembered – except that he wasn't. There was a sadness in him now, a sense of shame, even a desire for forgiveness. It was risky, but Susan believed his new attitude was sincere. She wanted to help him along the road to goodness.
But it wasn't all about goodness and forgiveness. The queen scrunched her face into the pillow, glad no one could see her. Part of her wanted the old Rabadash back again. Even when they were shouting at each other by the tennis court, memories of how he'd kissed her at Cair Paravel kept coming back. She'd expected the same wild behavior today. But this time Rabadash had let her escape, and Susan couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. All she could do was cry into her pillow. Gradually her tears subsided and she fell into a deep sleep.
"Awake, O beautiful northern queen. Awake! Evening has come at last, and so has my husband, Benruz Tarkhaan."
"Your husband?" Susan lifted her head from the damp pillows, blinking at the inky blackness of the sultry tropical night. She had been asleep for hours, and her dreams had been unsettling. Yet her stomach let out a loud growl, reminding her that she had not eaten since noon.
"Benruz Tarkhaan has returned from your own far-off kingdom, O queen, bearing gifts for the entire household. And his first gift is the gown you must wear this evening." Though her manner was solemn and dignified as always, Zuleika's round face beamed with pride as she held up the evening gown made of diaphanous black silk.
"Oh, my!" Something seemed to stir in Susan as she sat up on the rumpled bed and fingered the sheer, elegant garment. She still had plenty of questions for crafty Benruz Tarkhaan. But she was also very excited about dressing up and looking her best and making her dark desert prince really notice her.
"Your royal brothers and sisters send you their love," the Tarkhaan told her that evening. They were dining under colored lanterns in a breezy open gallery off the main house.
"They must have been terribly worried after my sudden disappearance," Susan said, a tiny frown knitting her brows. "Did you tell them you tricked me into coming here by looking into the Mirror of Toh-Ledom?"
Benruz shrugged. "I merely mentioned that you expressed regret about the fate of our much loved prince, and that you wanted to be sure he was safe and well. When you vanished King Edmund placed me under arrest, but as there were no signs of struggle in your room the High King soon let me go."
"Old friend, it is dangerous to mislead the northern barbarians," Rabadash put in. "They do not take well to lying. This I know too well from my own folly." He glanced at Susan, his fierce dark eyes unreadable in the flickering light. "I am very sorry, my queen. Seeing you again like this . . . it is not as I would have wished."
"Isn't it?" Susan asked tartly. She gave him a direct and almost challenging look, her flashing dark eyes daring him to acknowledge the passionate side of their fiery relationship. "Oh, but I forgot. You are engaged to be married."
"Rabadash has to marry me," Rozalina boasted. "Not just because he loves me, but because my brother died fighting by his side. He knows it was all his fault."
"Mind your tongue, Tarkheena!" Benruz Tarkhaan scowled at the young girl. "My wise and patient wife Zuleika has warned you once already. Do we need to send you to your room?"
"It was not all Prince Rabadash's fault," Susan said quietly. "It was partly mine, for lying to him and running away." Though her manner was quite composed, she felt herself blushing, for she had never admitted this to anyone before.
"The Queen of Narnia is the kindest and gentlest of ladies," Rabadash said, in a softer voice than usual. Though he was addressing Rozalina, he squeezed Susan's hand under the table. "She has come here at great risk to help us deal with the danger of the thunder lizards, and to find some way to close the doorway between worlds. She will never take your place, Rozalina. I still remember my debt to your brother."
Susan felt like asking the girl why she wanted to marry a prince who was too old for her, but she remembered that it was a Calormene custom for well-born girls to marry very young. She also knew that Rabadash was not in love with Rozalina. The girl was being selfish and cruel, holding him to a forced marriage. Why was she being so spiteful? Susan wanted answers, but if she said too much everyone would think she was jealous. Perhaps she was, really. Perhaps she was still in love with Rabadash herself!
The Queen of Narnia didn't want to think about that right now. Instead she pulled her hand free, and spoke to Benruz Tarkhaan in a very clear and queenly sort of voice.
"I'm afraid I don't know anything about thunder lizards, other than the fact that I was almost eaten by one the other day. In my world they are called dinosaurs. Did you bring me to your home only to become dinosaur food, Benruz Tarkhaan?"
"O wisest of queens, please know that I did not bring the great lizards into this land myself," the Tarkhaan replied. "You see, long ago there were many such beasts and even stranger things roaming about the jungles. That is why the first Tisroc to rule in Tashbaan decreed that it was death for any man to enter this southernmost province of the Calormen Empire. But as the long generations passed, this rule was forgotten. Many came to the southern jungles seeking gold and other precious stones, but when I came here five years ago it was only in search of knowledge."
"Knowledge wasn't all you found though, old friend," Rabadash interrupted. He glanced at Susan. "While others have been called to this world to do good deeds, you've built yourself a palace and enriched yourself beyond measure. And you did it by trading with people of other worlds."
"Yah, other-world people like you!" Freckle-faced Rozalina gave Susan a naughty, challenging grin. "I'll bet you'd never be brave enough to jump from one world to another."
"Oh, but I have," Susan replied, smiling. "More than once."
"Young Tarkheena, it is time you were in bed," said the wife of Benruz Tarkhaan, sternly. "But first, apologize to the northern Queen."
Rozalina sulked, and stuck out her lower lip. "I'm sorry, O wisest of barbarian queens," she said after a moment. "Doubtless your courage is even greater than your beauty!"
Susan laughed. "I doubt that very much, Rozalina. But I have traveled between worlds now and again." She glanced at Rabadash and Benruz Tarkhaan. "It is not something that should be taken lightly, or done for selfish reasons."
Rozalina was being ushered off to bed by Zuleika, the enormously dignified wife of the Tarkhaan. But she turned around in the doorway, looking back at the adults. "Well, that's what I'm going to do, too. In the ancient scroll it says the girl who does it wins herself a prince!"
"How interesting," Susan said, after the little girl had gone. With dinner over, she and Rabadash had settled themselves on a small sofa. "Did you read this scroll before you opened the door to other worlds, Benruz Tarkhaan?"
"Alas no, fair queen," replied the Tarkhaan. "If I had, I would have realized that opening the door to your world would allow the ancient thunder lizards to return as well. Now we have a danger that is growing day by day, and only a maiden who has traveled between worlds can stop it."
"But that maiden will not be you," Rabadash interrupted. His voice was low, but very fierce. His dark eyes held the fire that Susan remembered. "It must not be you."
"Ah, yes." Susan didn't have to think too hard to understand what was going on here. The scroll probably said that a maiden the prince loved could stop the dinosaurs, but that it would cost her life.
It all made sense, really. Rabadash was bending over backwards not to love her, but it was becoming increasingly clear that the old flame was very much still burning.
"I think I will leave you two young people alone to talk," Benruz Tarkhaan said, breaking a long, smoldering silence.
"Thank you for the lovely dinner, my lord Tarkhaan," Susan said, removing her cool gaze from the heated, yearning visage of Rabadash. "Before you leave us, do you think you could show us that wonderful new invention, the phonograph? I haven't heard music from my world in ages!"
"Certainly, my queen," the Tarkhaan said smoothly. "What would you like to hear? Classical music, Latin, jazz?"
"Latin music," Susan replied at once. "Something romantic." She leaned back on the sofa and smiled, her warm brown eyes teasing Rabadash from under long, seductive lashes.