Chapter 3: To the River
"AND so," said the Dwarf, whose name they had learned was Trumpkin, "and so I put a crust or two in my pocket, left behind all weapons but my dagger, and took to the woods in the grey of the morning. I'd been plugging away for many hours when there came a sound that I'd never heard the like of in my born days. Eh, I won't forget that. The whole air was full of it, loud as thunder but far longer, cool and sweet as music over water, but strong enough to shake the woods. And I said to myself, `If that's not the Horn, call me a rabbit.' And a moment later I wondered why he hadn't blown it sooner-"
"What time was it?" asked Edmund.
"Between nine and ten of the clock," said Trumpkin.
"Just when we were at the railway station!" said Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan, and they looked at one another with shining eyes.
"And I am not mistaken close to the time when we finished our battle with the first," Dawn added as Buffy nodded in agreement. Now the sisters knew why they had been pulled into the Hellmouth. The horn had summoned them along with the others from their respective points in time.
"Please go on," said Lucy to the Dwarf.
"Well, as I was saying, I wondered, but I went on as hard as I could pelt. I kept on all night - and then, when it was half-light this morning, as if I'd no more sense than a Giant, I risked a short cut across open country to cut off a big loop of the river, and was caught. Not by the army, but by a pompous old fool who has charge of a little castle which is Miraz's last stronghold towards the coast. I needn't tell you they got no true tale out of me, but I was a Dwarf and that was enough. But, lobsters and lollipops! it is a good thing the seneschal was a pompous fool. Anyone else would have run me through there and then. But nothing would do for him short of a grand execution: sending me down `to the ghosts in the full ceremonial way. And then this young lady", (he nodded at Susan) "does her bit of archery and it was pretty shooting, let me tell you - and here we are. And without my armour, for of course they took that." He knocked out and refilled his pipe.
"Great Scott!" said Peter. "So, it was the horn - your own horn, Su - that dragged us all off that seat on the platform yesterday morning!"
"And caused me and Buffy to fall into the Hellmouth," added Dawn.
"I can hardly believe it; yet it all fits in," Peter concluded.
"I don't know why you shouldn't believe it," said Buffy looking at her husband. "We all believe in magic after all. And I do believe Aslan has a reason for that particular time."
"Yes," said Peter.
"And now we know what it feels like for a Jinn," said Edmund with a chuckle. "Golly! It's a bit uncomfortable to know that we can be whistled for like that. It's worse than what Father says about living at the mercy of the telephone."
Dawn chuckled. "Yeah have to agree with you there," she said looking at her sister. That was one thing before she had learned she was a potential that she had hated was not knowing if she or their mom would get a call saying Buffy was dead.
"Meanwhile," said the Dwarf, "what are we to do? I suppose I'd better go back to King Caspian and tell him no help has come."
"No help?" said Susan. "But it has worked. And here we are."
"Um - um - yes, to be sure. I see that," said the Dwarf, whose pipe seemed to be blocked (at any rate he made himself very busy cleaning it).
"Susan means that we are the ones that were called," Buffy told the Dwarf. She stood up and smiled. "I am High Queen Buffy Pevensie of Narnia. Lady of Cair Paravel."
"I suppose those around you are also out of the old stories," said Trumpkin. He wasn't sure he believed Buffy. "And I'm very glad to meet you of course. And it's very interesting, no doubt. But—no offence?"- and he hesitated again.
"Do get on and say whatever you're going to say," said Edmund.
"Well, then - no offence," said Trumpkin. "But, you know, the King and Trufflehunter and Doctor Cornelius were expecting - well, if you see what I mean, help. To put it in another way, I think they'd been imagining you five as great warriors. As it is - we're awfully fond of children and all that, but just at the moment, in the middle of a war but I'm sure you understand."
"Children?" Dawn said shaking her head. She looked at Peter, Buffy and Susan. The adults of the group. "Correct me if I am wrong. But Peter aren't you nineteen? And Susan aren't you eighteen? And Buffy of course your twenty-two." She looked at Edmund and Lucy. "I think he means me and you two. And I don't think we're children, do you?" She looked back at the Dwarf. "We're teenagers and all of us have fought in wars before."
"I didn't mean to offend," interrupted the Dwarf. "I assure you, my dear friends—"
"I suppose you don't believe we won the Battle of Beruna?" said Edward, jumping in. "Well, you can say what you like about me because I know—"
"There's no good losing our tempers," said Peter.
"I have to agree with Peter. I know out of everyone I know. You five…and yes that includes you, Dawn…I would gladly fight alongside again," Buffy added as Dawn smiled at her sister. "Let's fit him out with fresh armor and fit ourselves out from the treasure chamber, and have a talk after that."
"I don't quite see the point -" began Edmund, but Lucy whispered in his ear, "Hadn't we better do what Buffy and Peter says? They are the High King and High Queen, you know. And I think they have an idea." So Edmund agreed and by the aid of his flashlight they all, including Trumpkin, went down the steps again into the dark coldness and dusty splendor of the treasure house.
The Dwarf's eyes glistened as he saw the wealth that lay on the shelves and he muttered to himself, "It would never do to let Nikabrik see this; never." They found easily enough found armor for both him and Dawn. The rest of them pulled on their armor of old.
As they came back up the stairway, jingling in their mail, and already looking and feeling more like Narnians, Dawn, Buffy and Peter were behind, apparently making some plan.
When they came out into the daylight Dawn turned to the Dwarf very politely and said, "I've got something to ask you. Kids like us don't often have the chance of meeting a great warrior like you. Would you have a little fencing match with me? It would be frightfully decent."
"But, lass," said Trumpkin, "these…" he started and then he noticed that Dawn was not carrying a sword. "What weapon is that?"
"It is a scythe," Dawn answered as she unholstered it. "It is the weapon of a Slayer. And before you think to remind this weapon is sharp. I know how sharp it is, I've used one before. But I'll never get anywhere near you and you'll be quite clever enough to disarm me without doing me any damage."
"It's a dangerous game," said Trumpkin. "But since you make such a point of it, I'll try a pass or two."
Buffy, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy moved off the dais and stood watching. While it might have been said they were sword fighting if not for the fact Dawn faced the Dwarf with a scythe instead of a sword.
Round and round the two combatants circled, stroke after stroke they gave, and Susan (who never could learn to like this sort of thing) shouted out, "Oh, do be careful." And then, so quickly that no one (unless they knew, as Buffy did) could quite see how it happened, Dawn flashed her scythe round with a peculiar twist, the Dwarf's sword flew out of his grip, and Trumpkin was wringing his empty hand as you do after a "sting" from a cricket-bat.
"Not hurt, I hope, my dear little friend?" said Dawn, returning her scythe to its holster.
"I see the point," said Trumpkin drily. "You are quite adept with that weapon."
"Well I had a good teacher," Dawn said glancing at her sister.
"Not entirely true, Dawn," Buffy replied. "Since I didn't have a scythe to teach you with till a few days before the battle with The First. "I trained you with swords."
"That is a nice trick, lass," Trumpkin admitted.
"Thank you," Dawn said as she bowed.
"The best swordsman in the world may be disarmed by a trick that's new to him," Peter cut in. "I think it's only fair to give Trumpkin a chance at something else. Will you have a shooting match with my sister? There are no tricks in archery, you know."
"Ah, your jokers, you are," said the Dwarf. "I begin to see. As if I didn't know how she can shoot, after what happened this morning. All the same, I'll have a try." He spoke gruffly, but his eyes brightened, for he was a famous bowman among his own people.
All seven of them came out into the courtyard.
"What's to be the target?" asked Peter.
"I think that apple hanging over the wall on the branch there would do," said Susan.
"That'll do nicely, lass," said Trumpkin. "You mean the yellow one near the middle of the arch?"
"No, not that," said Susan. "The red one up above - over the battlement."
The Dwarf's face fell. "Looks more like a cherry than an apple," he muttered, but he said nothing out loud.
They tossed a coined for the first shot and Susan lost. They were to shoot from the top of the steps that led from the hall into the courtyard. Everyone could see from the way the Dwarf took his position and handled his bow that he knew what he was about.
Twang went the string. It was an excellent shot. The tiny apple shook as the arrow passed, and a leaf came fluttering down. Then Susan went to the top of the steps and strung her bow. The Dwarf watched her keenly as she drew the shaft to her ear. A moment later, with a little soft thump which they could all hear in that quiet place, the apple fell to the grass with Susan's arrow in it.
"Oh, well done, Su," Dawn, Buffy, Peter, Edmund and Lucy shouted.
"It wasn't really any better than yours," said Susan to the Dwarf. "I think there was a tiny breath of wind as you shot."
"No, there wasn't," said Trumpkin. "Don't tell me. I know when I am fairly beaten. I won't even say that the scar of my last wound catches me a bit when I get my arm well back—"
"Oh, are you wounded?" asked Lucy. "Do let me look."
"It's not a sight for little girls," began Trumpkin, but then he suddenly checked himself. "There I go talking like a fool again," he said "I suppose you're as likely to be a great surgeon as your sister was to be a great swordswoman…"
"Dawn's not my sister," Lucy interjected.
"She's mine," Buffy added. "Dawn is only related to Lucy, Edmund and Susan through my marriage to Peter."
The Dwarf nodded and apologized for his mistake. "Or your sister to be a great archer," he concluded. He sat down on the steps and took off his hauberk and slipped down his little shirt, showing his arm. There was a clumsy bandage on the shoulder which Lucy proceeded to unroll. Underneath, the cut looked very nasty and there was a good deal of swelling.
"Oh, poor Trumpkin," said Lucy. "How horrid." Then she carefully dripped on to it one single drop of the cordial from her flask.
"Hullo. Eh? What have you done?" said Trumpkin. But however, he turned his head, he couldn't quite see his own shoulder. Then he felt it as well as he could. Then he swung his arm and raised it and tried the muscles, and finally jumped to his feet crying, "Giants and junipers! It's cured! It's as good as new." After that he burst into a great laugh and said, "Well, I've made as big a fool of myself as ever a Dwarf did. No offence, I hope? My humble duty to your Majesties all…"
"I'm not," Dawn corrected. "This is my first time to Narnia."
"Technically speaking you could be considered a Royal," Buffy countered.
"Your right, Buffy," Peter said as he remembered the story Buffy had told him, Edmund, Susan and Lucy about Dawn. "She was created using your blood. So technically speaking, Dawn could be construed not only to be your sister due to that is what the two of you believe due to the memories. But she could be considered your first-born child, your heir." He looked at Dawn. "A Princess."
Dawn blushed at the thought of being a princess. "Wow," she said.
"Then let me restate…" the Dwarf said. "My humble duty to your Majesties and your Highness. And thanks for my life, my cure, my breakfast—and my lesson."
They all said it was quite all right and not to mention it.
"And now," said Peter, "if you've really decided to believe in us—"
"I have," said the Dwarf.
Buffy nodded as she looked at Peter. "Then we the all know what we must do." She looked at her family, those by marriage and blood, all of whom nodded. "We must join King Caspian at once."
"The sooner the better," said Trumpkin. "My being such a fool has already wasted about an hour."
"It's about two days' journey, the way you came," said Peter. "For us, I mean. We can't walk all day and night like you Dwarfs." Then he turned to the others. "What Trumpkin calls Aslan's How is obviously the Stone Table itself. You remember it was about half a day's march, or a little less, from there down to the Fords of Beruna –"
"Beruna's Bridge, we call it," said Trumpkin.
"There was no bridge in our time," said Buffy.
"And then from Beruna down to here was another day and a bit." Peter continued. "We used to get home about teatime on the second day, going easily. Going hard, we could do the whole thing in a day and a half perhaps."
"But remember it's all woods now," said Trumpkin, "and there are enemies to dodge."
"Look here," said Edmund, "need we go by the same way that Our Dear Little Friend came?"
"No more of that, your Majesty, if you love me," said the Dwarf.
"Very well," said Edmund. "May I say our D.L.F.?"
"Oh, Edmund," said Susan. "Don't keep on at him like that."
"I have to agree with Susan," Dawn said as she looked at the older girl.
"That's all right, lassies - I mean your Majesty and your Highness," said Trumpkin with a chuckle. "A jibe won't raise a blister."
"As I was saying," continued Edmund, "we needn't go that way. Why shouldn't we row a little south till we come to Glasswater Creek and row up it? That brings us up behind the Hill of the Stone Table, and we'll be safe while we're at sea. If we start at once, we can be at the head of Glasswater before dark, get a few hours' sleep, and be with Caspian pretty early tomorrow."
"What a thing it is to know the coast," said Trumpkin. "None of us know anything about Glasswater."
"What about food?" asked Buffy.
"Oh, we'll have to do with apples," said Lucy. "Do let's get on. We've done nothing yet, and we've been here nearly two days."
"And anyway, no one's going to have my hat for a fish basket again," said Edmund.
They used one of the raincoats as a kind of bag and put a good many apples in it. Then they all had a good long drink at the well and went down to the boat.
Dawn was sorry to leave Cair Paravel. She had heard so many stories about it from Buffy that she would have liked to stay longer and maybe even call it home in time.
"The D.L.F. had better steer," said Peter, "and Ed and I will take an oar each. Half a moment, though. We'd better take off our mail: we're going to be pretty warm before we're done. The girls had better be in the bows and Buffy, Susan and Lucy shout directions to the D.L.F. because he doesn't know the way. You'd better get us a fair way out to sea till we've passed the island."
And soon the green, wooded coast of the island was falling away behind them, and its little bays and headlands were beginning to look flatter, and the boat was rising and falling in the gentle swell.
It was delightful for Dawn, Susan, Buffy and Lucy in the bows, Dawn and Susan bent over the edge and tried to get their hands in the sea which they could never quite reach. The bottom, mostly pure, pale sand but with occasional patches of purple seaweed, could be seen beneath them.
"It's like old times," said Lucy. "Do you remember our voyage to Terebinthia - and Galma - and Seven Isles - and the Lone Islands?"
"Yes," said Buffy, "and our great ship the Splendour Hyaline, with the swan's head at her prow and the carved swan's wings coming back almost to her waist?"
"And the silken sails, and the great stern lanterns?" said Susan
"And the feasts on the poop and the musician," said Lucy
"Do you remember when we had the musicians up in the rigging playing flutes so that it sounded like music out of the sky?" asked Buffy.
Presently Dawn took over Edmund's oar and he came forward to join Susan. They had passed the island now and stood closer in to the shore - all wooded and deserted.
"Phew! This is pretty grueling work," said Peter.
"Peter, switch with me," Buffy instructed her husband.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy and Dawn did most of the rowing thanks to their Slayer stamina. But even they were growing tired with rowing before they rounded the last headland and began the final pull up Glasswater itself.
Twilight was coming on as they rowed slowly up the windings of Glasswater Creek. It was very quiet as the sound of the sea died away behind them; they could even hear the trickle of the little streams that poured down from the forest into Glasswater.
They went ashore at last, far too tired to attempt lighting a fire; and even a supper of apples seemed better than trying to catch or shoot anything. After a little silent munching they all huddled down together in the moss and dead leaves between four large beech trees.
Everyone except Dawn and Buffy went to sleep at once. Being Slayers the only needed about three hours sleep max. "I've been wondering, Buffy. When it's time to go home. How are we going to get back? Last time Willow pulled you out. But I don't know if that will work this time since they don't know what happened."
"I don't know," Buffy admitted with a sigh as she looked up at the bright Narnian stars. "I would assume if Aslan pulled us in, he can send us back."
"Dear old Leopard," Lucy murmured nearby.
"Are you awake, Lu?" Buffy asked her sister-in-law.
"Yes," Lucy answered. "And no, your talking isn't keeping me awake. Buffy, you said I come to you in the future. I know I shouldn't know too much about my future. But I was just wondering. Do I lead a good life?"
"Dawn and I don't know everything, Lucy," Buffy answered. "For you haven't told us everything. Probably to prevent us from telling you too much when we saw you again."
"Probably for the best," Lucy admitted with a sigh.
Dawn laid back her Slayer senses listening for anything out of the ordinary. She heard the twitter of a nightingale beginning to sing, then stopping, then beginning again. "You know, Buffy," she said. "When we get home. We should go camping sometime. Being here kind of makes me wish we had done that with mom."
"I know," Buffy sighed. "I wish we had to. And when we get back, we'll set time aside that we do that."
"Oh, Trees, Trees, Trees," said Lucy, who was looking at the threes around them. "Oh, Trees, wake, wake, wake. Don't you remember it? Don't you remember me? Dryads and Hamadryads, come out, come to me."
Buffy smiled. "They always did love you, Lu."
Though there was not a breath of wind the trees all stirred about them. The rustling noise of the leaves was almost like words. The nightingale stopped singing as if to listen to it.
The rustling eventually died away and the nightingale resumed its song.
"Get some sleep, Lu," Buffy said.
Lucy nodded as she snuggled down, and was asleep in a few minutes.
Buffy and Dawn took turns keeping watch till the cold and cheerless morning woke them all next morning.
"Apples, heigh-ho," said Trumpkin with a rueful grin. "I must say you ancient kings, queens and princesses don't overfeed your courtiers!"
They stood up and shook themselves and looked about. The trees were thick and they could see no more than a few yards in any direction.
"I suppose your Majesties and Highness know the way all right?" said the Dwarf.
"I don't," said Dawn.
"Neither do I," added Susan. "I've never seen these woods in my life before. In fact, I thought all along that we ought to have gone by the river."
"Then I think you might have said so at the time," answered Peter, with pardonable sharpness.
"Beloved," Buffy said shaking her head.
"You've got that pocket compass of yours, Peter, haven't you?" asked Edmund. "Well, then, we're as right as rain. We've only got to keep on going north-west cross that little river, the what-do-you-call-it? - the Rush -"
"I know," said Peter. "The one that joins the big river at the Fords of Beruna, or Beruna's Bridge, as the D.L.F. calls it."
"That's right," said Edmund. "Cross it and strike uphill, and we'll be at the Stone Table by eight or nine o'clock. I hope King Caspian will give us a good breakfast!"
"I hope you're right," said Susan. "I can't remember all that at all."
"That's the worst of girls," said Edmund to Peter and the Dwarf. "They never carry a map in their heads."
Dawn and Buffy looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "That's because our heads have something inside them," Dawn quipped.
At first things seemed to be going pretty well. They plodded on for about half an hour when Buffy suddenly whispered, "Stop." They all stopped. "There's something following us," she said in a low voice.
"Or rather, something keeping up with us: over there on the left," added the Dwarf.
They all stood still, listening and staring till their ears and eyes ached. "You and I'd better each have an arrow on the string," said Susan to Trumpkin. The Dwarf nodded, and when both bows were ready action and both Slayers had their scythes in their hands, did the party go on again.
They went a few dozen yards through fairly open woodland, keeping a sharp look-out. Then they came to a place where the undergrowth thickened and they had to pass nearer to it. Just as they were passing the place, there came a sudden something that snarled and flashed, rising out from the breaking twigs like a thunderbolt. Lucy was knocked down and winded. There was a twang of a bowstring as she fell.
Buffy and Dawn were instantly at Lucy's side and saw that not only was Lucy fine but Lucy's attacker, a great grim-looking grey bear, lay dead with Trumpkin's arrow in its side.
"Good shot," Dawn complimented the dwarf.
"The D.L.F. beat you in that shooting match, Su," said Peter, with a slightly forced smile. Even he had been shaken by this adventure.
"I - I left it too late," said Susan, in an embarrassed voice. "I was so afraid it might be; you know - one of our kind of bears, a talking bear." She hated killing things.
Dawn walked over to Susan and wrapped an arm around the older girl.
"That's the trouble of it," said Trumpkin, "when most of the beasts have gone enemy and gone dumb, but there are still some of the other kind left. You never know, and you daren't wait to see."
"Poor old Bruin," said Susan. "You don't think he was?"
"Not he," said the Dwarf. "I saw the face and I heard the snarl. He only wanted Little Girl for his breakfast. And talking of breakfast, I didn't want to discourage your Majesties and your Highness when you said you hoped King Caspian would give you a good one: but meat's precious scarce in camp. And there's good eating on a bear. It would be a shame to leave the carcass without taking a bit, and it won't delay us more than half an hour. I dare say you two youngsters - Kings, I should say - know how to skin a bear?"
"Shall we beloved?" Buffy asked looking at her husband.
"Let's go and sit down," said Dawn to Susan and Lucy. "Let Buffy, Peter and Edmund do their work."
When they had sat down Lucy said: "Such a horrible idea has come into my head.
"What's that?" asked Susan.
"Wouldn't it be dreadful if some day, in our own world, at home, men started going wild inside, like the animals here, and still looked like men, so that you'd never know which were which?"
Dawn thought about the time she and Buffy were from. She knew from stories Buffy had told her that men have been known to do that, especially one who had created his own Jekyll and Hyde potion. "I wouldn't think to much on such things," she told the sisters.
"Dawn's right. We've got enough to bother about here and now in Narnia," said Susan, "without imagining things like that."
When they rejoined Buffy, Peter, Edmund and the Dwarf, the best meat had been cut off. Since they didn't have anything to wrap the meat in, they folded it up in fresh leaves. On they trudged again until the sun rose and the birds began to sing, and more flies than they wanted were buzzing in the bracken.
The sun grew warmer and they took their helmets off and carried them.
"I suppose we are going right?" said Edmund about an hour later.
"I don't see how we can go wrong as long as we don't bear too much to the left," said Peter. "If we bear too much to the right, the worst that can happen is wasting a little time by striking the great River too soon and not cutting off the corner."
And again, they trudged on with no sound except the thud of their feet and the jingle of their chain shirts.
"Where's this bally Rush got to?" said Edmund a good deal later.
"I certainly thought we'd have struck it by now," said Peter.
"It doesn't matter if we should have or not, beloved. All we can do is keep going," Buffy told her husband.
And still they trudged on and their mail shirts began to feel very hot and heavy.
"What on earth?" said Peter suddenly.
"Time has apparently worn the river into a deep canyon," Dawn said, though the others weren't paying any real attention to her. She along with the others were looking over the small precipice down into a gorge with a river at the bottom. On the far side the cliffs rose much higher. With the exception of Trumpkin, Edmund and likely Dawn and Buffy, thanks to their Slayer strength, none of them were rock climbers.
"I'm sorry," said Peter. "It's my fault for coming this way."
"It is not your fault," Buffy told her husband. "Any one of us could have gotten lost."
"Buffy's right," Dawn agreed. "After all we all know years have passed since you all were last here. You have to remember that you knew the land hundreds—may be even thousands—of years ago."
"Her Highness is correct," the dwarf added. "Mayn't it have changed? A landslide might have pulled off half the side of that hill, leaving bare rock, and there are your precipices beyond the gorge. Then the Rush might go on deepening its course year after year till you get the little precipices this side. Or there might have been an earthquake, or anything."
"I never thought of that," said Peter.
"And anyway," continued Trumpkin, "even if this is not the Rush, it's flowing roughly north and so it must fall into the Great River anyway. I think I passed something that might have been it, on my way down. So, if we go downstream, to our right, we'll hit the Great River. Perhaps not so high as we'd hoped, but at least we'll be no worse off than if you'd come my way."