That night, the Dawn Treader came upon the next island.
"It looks uninhabited," Caspian said, eying the island through his telescope. "But if the lords followed the mist east, they would've stopped here."
"Could be a trap," Drinian put in.
"Or it could hold some answers," Edmund added. "Caspian?"
Caspian closed his telescope. "We'll spend the night on shore. Scour the island in the morning."
"Aye, Your Majesty," Drinian said.
Several people including Edmund, Eva, Eustace, Elizabeth, Lucy, and Gael joined Caspian onto the island.
Edmund started up a fire while the others set down blankets on the sand.
"Elizabeth," Caspian called. He set down a blanket for her. "This one is for you."
Elizabeth smiled and sat down on it, close to the fire. It warmed her up quickly which she was grateful for.
Edmund and Eva lay down next to each other.
"Are you as excited to be back as I am?" Eva asked him with the usual spark in her eyes.
"More so," Edmund replied.
"I'm sure. After all, you've been here much longer than I have."
"True. Though I wish Eustace hadn't come too."
"Oh, stop it, he's your cousin."
"He's intolerable."
"Maybe so, but I think this trip will be good for him. I mean, it worked wonders for you, didn't it?"
Edmund paused. "Fair enough."
Elizabeth hugged her knees tightly to her chest as she stared at the fire. Caspian came and sat down next to her.
"It's alright, you know," he said gently.
"What?" Elizabeth asked.
"You're just really tense. You're safe here with us. I promise. I won't let what happened on the last island happen again."
"Of course."
Caspian noticed that it sounded like she didn't really believe him. To his dismay, she was fully convinced that if she was in trouble, he wouldn't help her. "Elizabeth, may I ask you something?"
"Yes."
"What was your life like with Lucy and Edmund?"
"Nothing extravagant. I'm just the maid to their aunt and uncle and cousin."
"How did you find yourself there?"
"There's a war going on where we live. Times are hard, and people are desperate. Women take jobs anywhere they can possibly get them. I'm just naturally good at housekeeping and caring for others, so I became a maid."
"I'm sorry you're stuck with that one," he said pointing to Eustace.
Elizabeth laughed lightly. "He's really not all bad. He's just…young."
"I must admire you for putting up with him so well. Not many people are capable of that."
"I have to think good things of the people I work for. Otherwise I might find myself out of a job."
"That's a good way to go about things. Always thinking good things about people. I should try to keep that in mind."
"I believe you already do."
"Ed…Eva," Caspian said, shaking the two of them awake. "Wake up. Wake up, look."
"Mm?" Eva mumbled.
Edmund sat up and saw many large footprints in the sand. He looked over to where Lucy had been sleeping. "Where's Lucy?"
At that, Eva bolted upright and looked at where Lucy's blanket lay empty. If anything happened to the little girl who was like a sister to her, she didn't know what she'd do. How would they ever be able to explain that to Peter, Elaine, and Susan back home? Or even worse, how would they explain that to her mother?
"Lucy?" Caspian and Eva called.
"Lucy!" Edmund yelled.
"Everybody up!" Caspian ordered.
Elizabeth stirred and quickly sat up when she realized that everyone else was grabbing their weapons.
"Get up!" Drinian said firmly. "Get up, I said!"
Caspian led the way deeper into the island with Edmund and Eva right behind him, their swords drawn. Elizabeth stayed close to them, hoping to find the girl she had grown to care for.
A flash of light caught Eva's eye. "Edmund," she said, lightly hitting him on the chest. They both knelt down to see what the object was.
"Caspian, Lucy's dagger," Edmund pointed out.
Suddenly, several spears pierced the ground, threatening to hit some of the crew members. Caspian quickly pulled Elizabeth behind him. Eva raised her sword high in front of her, but an unseen force quickly knocked it out of her grasp.
"Stop right there or perish!" a gruff voice yelled.
The crew members all began to get knocked to the ground, hit in the face, and disarmed. As much as they tried to fight back, it was useless. It was impossible to fight with creatures they couldn't see.
"What sort of creatures are you?" Caspian demanded.
"Big ones!" someone answered. "With the head of a tiger and the body of a, um…"
"Different tiger!" another voice finished.
"You don't want to mess with us!"
"Or what?" Edmund challenged.
"Or I'll claw you to death!"
"And I'll ram my tusks right through you!"
"And I will gnash you with my teeth."
"And I'll bite you with my fangs. Grrr!"
The creatures' threats would have been a lot more intimidating if they had remained invisible. But before their eyes, they slowly began to materialize in front of them. Small creatures with only one foot stood atop one another to make them seem taller than they really were.
Elizabeth was extremely overwhelmed by this point. Never before had she been in a situation such as this one. This was beyond anything she ever could've imagined. She thought that she would be stuck in a house as a maid for the rest of her life.
"You mean squash us with your fat bellies?" Edmund asked sarcastically.
"Yes! Fat bellies?"
"Tickle us with your toes?" Caspian laughed.
Realizing he was caught, the creature fell from his perch atop two other creatures.
Edmund aimed his sword at him. "What have you done with my sister, you little pipsqueak?"
"Now, calm down," the creature begged.
"Where is she?"
"You better tell him!" one of them said.
"Go on, Chief, tell him," another added.
"In the mansion," the one Edmund had his sword pointed at told them.
"What mansion?" A huge house suddenly materialized in front of them. Edmund looked over. "Oh. That mansion."
Eva looked at him and smiled.
"You know, I'm really getting tired of you all leaving me behind!" Everyone turned to find Eustace fighting his way through the brush. He froze when he saw what was going on.
"It's the pig!" one the creatures exclaimed.
"The pig has come back!"
"This place just gets weirder and weirder," Eustace muttered.
"Weird?" one of the creatures said in disbelief. "Him calling us weird?"
The creatures started scrambling away, and everyone turned to find Lucy and another man exiting the mansion.
"Lucy!" Edmund exclaimed with relief as he sheathed his sword.
"Your Majesty," the man said to Edmund and Caspian with a small bow. Then he looked over at Eva. "My Lady."
Eva gave him a gentle nod and a smile.
"Caspian, Edmund, and Eva," Lucy introduced. "This is Coriakin. It's his island."
Caspian, Edmund, and Eva politely bowed to the man in return.
"That's what he thinks!" one of the creatures yelled. "You have wronged us, magician."
"I have not wronged you," Coriakin said as he walked forward, causing all the creatures to quickly begin hopping away on their one foot. "I made you invisible for your own protection."
"Protection?"
"That's oppressive!"
"Opressor!"
"I have not oppressed you," Coriakin said gently.
"But you could have, if you wanted to!"
Coriakin tossed something at them. "Be gone."
"What was that?" Lucy asked.
"Lint. But don't tell them."
Eva leaned over to Edmund. "I like this guy already."
"What were those things?" Eustace asked the man.
"Dufflepuds."
"Right, of course. Silly me."
Coriakin led them through the hallways of his large house.
"What did you mean when you said you made them invisible for their own good?" Lucy asked.
"It seemed the easiest way to protect them. From the evil."
"You mean the mist?" Edmund clarified.
"I mean what lies behind the mist."
He led them into a huge room filled with books all along the walls reaching up to the ceiling. Patterns of stars circled around the room. Coriakin unraveled a large scroll and the pictures came alive as part of it lifted off the paper.
"That's quite beautiful," Eustace remarked. When he saw everyone looking at him, he quickly added, "I mean for a make-believe map in a make-believe world."
Eva looked at the moving picture of Peter charging on a field. "Edmund, isn't that the Battle of Beruna?"
"Yeah, it is…"
His mind briefly flashed back to the battle against the White Witch where he had almost lost his life at her hand. Again.
"There is the source of your problems," Coriakin told them. The map moved and showed them an island that looked absolutely terrifying. "Dark Island. A place where evil lurks. It can take any form. It can make your darkest dreams come true. It seeks to corrupt all goodness. To steal the light from this world."
"How do we stop it?" Lucy asked him.
"You must break its spell." He pointed to Edmund's sword. "That sword you carry, there are six others."
"Have you seen them?" Edmund asked.
"Yes."
"The six lords…they passed through here?" Caspian inferred.
"Indeed."
"Where were they headed?"
"Where I sent them." The map moved again, and a small blue light appeared over a beautiful island that was the complete opposite of the island they had just seen. "To break the spell, you must follow the Blue Star…to Ramandu's Island. There, the seven swords must be laid at Aslan's Table. Only then can their true magical power be released. But beware. You are all about to be tested."
"Tested?" Lucy said.
"Until you lay down the seventh sword, evil has the upper hand. It will do everything in its power to tempt you. Be strong. Don't fall to temptations. To defeat the darkness out there, you must defeat the darkness inside yourself."
Edmund and Eva looked at each other. They had a bad feeling about what they were about to face.