The Trials of King Edmund - Chapter Eight
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bungakertasThe Trials of King Edmund - Chapter Eight
Disclaimer and general Author's Notes are in the first entry, which is linked at the bottom.
Edmund caught the hand Susan had held out to him and placed his other hand over hers. “My dear sister and very good lady, you must be brave now. Because I am afraid that we are in no small danger.”
“What is it, Edmund?” Susan asked.
“It is this: I do not think we shall find it easy to leave Tashbaan,” Edmund said. Susan’s grip on his hands grew tighter and he gave her an encouraging squeeze. “While the prince hoped you would take him, we were honored guests. But, by the Lion’s Mane, I think that as soon as he has your flat refusal, we will be no better than prisoners.”
There was a whistle from Mikelston and Sallowpad chimed in, saying, “I warned your Majesties. I warned you. Easily in but not easily out, as the lobster said in the lobster pot.”
Edmund had had enough of sayings, maxims, and proverbs, having endured them for so long from the Calormene ambassadors and so cut across Sallowpad. “I was with the prince this morning. He is not used--more’s the pity--to having his will crossed. And his very irritated at your long delays and doubtful answers. This morning he pressed very hard to know your mind. I put him off--hoping, at the same time, to discourage him--with some light, common jests about women’s fancies, and hinted that his suit was likely to be cold. He grew angry and dangerous. There was a sort of threatening, though still veiled under a show of courtesy, in every word he spoke.”
Tumnus nodded. “Yes. And when I ate with the Grand Vizier last night, it was the same.” Tumnus nodded at Edmund here, and Edmund realized that this was what the faun’s mind had been worrying on the night before, aside from Corin’s disappearance. “He asked me how I liked Tashbaan. And I--since I could not tell him I hated every stone of it, and I would not lie--told him that now, when high summer was coming on, my heart turned to the cool woods and dewy slopes of Narnia. He gave me a very unpleasant smile and said, ‘There is nothing to hinder you from dancing there again, little goatfoot, always provided you leave us a bride for our prince in exchange.’”
“Do you mean he would make me his wife by force?” Susan demanded, turning to Tumnus.
“That’s my fear, Susan,” Edmund nodded. “Wife…or slave, which is worse.”
“But how can he? Does the Tisroc think the High King would allow such an outrage?” Susan said.
“Sire,” Peridan said, clearly shocked, “they could not be so mad. Do they think there are no swords and spears in Narnia?”
“Unfortunately, my guess is that the Tisroc has very small fear of Narnia,” Edmund replied, not wanting to add that he felt the Tisroc had good reason. But hoping to lead others to the same conclusion, he continued, “We are a small nation. And small countries on the borders of a great empire are always hateful to the kings of those great empires. They long to blot them out, gobble them up.” Remembering the abortive attempt at provocation during the tournament, he added, “When Rabadash first came to Cair Paravel, Susan, it may be that they were only seeking an occasion against us. Likely they hope to make on mouthful of Narnia and Archenland both.”
Susan sank into a chair, her face pale.
“Let him try,” Thornbut said, sounding unimpressed. “At sea, we are as big as he is. And if he comes at us by land, he has the desert to cross.”
“True, friend,” Edmund admitted, “but is the desert a certain defense?” He turned to the raven. “What do you say, Sallowpad?”
The raven turned his head, in that way birds do when they wish to look at something, and regarded Edmund. “I know that desert well, for I have flown above it far and wide in my younger days. And this is certain: if the Tisroc goes by the great oasis he can never lead a great army across the desert into Archenland. Though they could reach the oasis by the end of their first day’s march, the springs there would be too little for the thirst of all those soldiers and their beasts.”
Edmund nodded.
“But there is another way.”
Every head in the room turned and looked back at Sallowpad, who fluttered his wings a bit and continued. “To find that way, a rider must begin at the Tombs of the Ancient Kings and ride northwest, so that the double peak of Mount Pire is always straight ahead of him. And so, in a day’s riding, or a bit more, he will come to the head of a stony valley, which is so narrow that a man might be within a furlong of it a thousand times and never know that it was there. And looking down this valley, he will see neither grass, nor water, nor anything else good. But if he rides down it, he will come to a river, and can ride by water all the way into Archenland.”
A murmur of distress went around the room and everyone began talking at once. Susan asked a question, but it was lost in the noise. Edmund held up his hands, “Friends!” The room quieted. “What is the use of this discussion? We are not asking whether Narnia or Calormen would win if war arose between them. We are asking how to save the honor of the queen and our own lives out of this blasted city. Because even if my brother Peter defeated the Tisroc a dozen times over, our throats would be cut and the Queen’s grace would be the wife, or more likely, the slave, of this prince before he could do it.”
A deep silence fell. Finally Mikelston said, “We have our weapons, King. And this is a reasonably defensible house.”
Edmund shook his head. “As to that, I do not doubt that every one of us would sell our lives dearly in the gate and they would only come at the queen over our dead bodies. But we would be only rats fighting in a trap for all of that.”
“Very true,” Sallowpad agreed. “These last stands in a house make good stories, but nothing ever came of them. After their first repulses, the enemy would simply set the house on fire.”
At this, Susan burst into tears. “I am the cause of all this!” she said, sobbing. “Oh, if only I had never left Cair Paravel. Our last happy day was before those ambassadors came. The moles were planting an orchard for us…” She broke off, burying her face in her hands.
Edmund moved to kneel before her. “Courage, Su. Courage. Remember—” But here, he broke off, since Tumnus was doing the oddest thing. He was holding both of his horns with his hands, and practically stomping his feet in fidgets. “What is the matter with you, Master Tumnus?”
“Don’t speak to me, don’t speak to me,” Tumnus replied, which drew a blink from the whole room. Tumnus never addressed the kings or queens that way. “I’m thinking. I’m thinking so that I can hardly breathe. Wait, wait, do wait.”
If only to see what it was that so discomfited the poor faun, they all fell silent.
Finally Tumnus looked up, still holding his horns. “The only difficulty is how to get down to our ship—with some stores, too—without being seen and stopped.”
Edmund had been hoping for something a good deal cleverer than that, and only just managed to keep himself from offering a very snappish answer.
Thornbut was not so restrained and answered, “Yes, just as the beggar’s only difficulty about riding is that he has no horse.” Peridan gave him a reprimanding glare, but it lacked punch.
“Wait, wait,” Tumnus said, seeing he was loosing his audience. “All we need is some pretext for going down to our ship today and taking things on board.”
“Yes?” Edmund said, unable to keep the doubt from his voice.
“Well then, how would it be if your majesties invited Prince Rabadash to a great banquet to be held on board our own galleon, the Splendor Hyaline,” he added, with a nod at Rence, which looked very comical as he was still gripping his horns, “tomorrow night? And let the message be worded as graciously as the queen can contrive without pledging her honor, so as to give the prince a hope that she is weakening.”
Sallowpad appeared to understand what Tumnus was driving at, and turned to Edmund. “This is very good counsel, sire.”
“And then,” Tumnus said, going on, “everyone will expect us to be going down to the ship all day, making preparations for our guests. And let some of us go to the bazaars and spend every minim we have at the fruiterers and the sweetmeat sellers and the wine merchants, just as we would if we were really giving a feast. And let us order magicians and jugglers and dancing girls and flute players, all to be on board tomorrow night.”
Edmund began to see where he was headed. “I see.”
“And then, we’ll all be on board tonight. And when it is quite dark,” Tumnus said.
“Up sails and out oars!” Edmund finished, astonished at the brilliant simplicity of the plan.
“And so, to sea!” Tumnus agreed, actually dancing a jig at the idea.
“And our nose northward,” Mikelston chimed in.
“And running for home!” Thornbut added. “Hurrah for Narnia and the North!”
Peridan laughed at this. “And the prince waking next morning and finding his birds flown!”
Edmund had to chuckle at that idea himself. Rabadash would be utterly confounded.
Susan jumped up and caught Tumnus’ hands, which he had finally removed from his head, and the two of them danced around in a circle. “Oh, Master Tumnus! You have saved us all!”
“The prince will chase us,” said Rence, who had been silent the whole time.
“That’s the least of my fears,” Edmund answered. “I have seen all the ships in the river and there’s no tall ship of war nor swift galley there.” He paused and then said, “I almost wish he would chase us. The Splendor Hyaline can sink anything he has to send after her, if we were overtaken at all.”
“Sire,” Sallowpad said, “you will hear no better plot than the faun’s, even if we sat in council for a week. And now, as we birds say, nests before eggs. Which is as much as to say, let us all take our food and then at once be about our business.”
Edmund offered his arm to Susan with a flourish and escorted his sister out, but remembered something as they exited and so after seeing her to her room, he immediately sought out Sallowpad.
The raven was seated on a windowsill, looking northwards, but as soon as he knew Edmund was interested in speaking to him, he flew over and alighted on Edmund’s arm.
“Sire?”
“Sallowpad, perhaps I am simply being paranoid, but I worry that our escape may not entirely deter Rabadash from attempting to make Queen Susan his wife,” Edmund said.
“A very reasonable concern, your majesty,” Sallowpad agreed. “I am also of your mind.”
“Then you will understand that I must now ask you to undertake yet another trip,” Edmund said, walking out to one of the balconies. “Fly back to Narnia, to Queen Lucy. Tell her of what has happened here and our need to have escaped. Tell her to begin raising a defense of Cair Paravel, in the event we may need it. Perhaps we shall not, I don’t know. But I would rather be prepared unnecessarily than be unprepared and have need.”
“I shall begin at once, sire,” Sallowpad said with a nod.
Edmund lifted his arm and the raven sprang from it, careful not to scrape him with his talons, and began winging his way across the desert towards Narnia.
He went back inside and snatched up a purse full of gold, directed one of the palace servants, who was stationed outside the house for their use, to be ready to deliver Susan’s invitation to the palace, then went out with Peridan and Rence to the market and began implementing Tumnus’ plan.
By mid-afternoon the three of them had managed to start several contradicting rumors about just what this banquet would be like, who they were thinking of inviting, and what sorts of Narnian entertainments there would be. In fact, the only detail about the party they had been very clear on was that it was to be held on the Splendor Hyaline the following evening. Peridan worried that the contradictions would get them found out, but Edmund and Rence assured him that such mixed reports were common when a truly excellent party was in the offing and would give their plot the ring of authenticity.
Edmund was highly satisfied with their afternoon’s work when he returned to the house. And there he received a truly nasty shock. He had just come in the door when there was a cry from upstairs. Edmund, Peridan, and Rence drew their swords and hurried up to find Corin in the room where they’d left him, with Tumnus staring at him in consternation.
This, however, was Corin unlike they had left him. His clothes were not rags, but the clothes he’d been wearing when he disappeared yesterday, although they were torn and missing several buttons. He was still wearing his shoes. And most alarmingly, he had a black eye and a missing tooth.
“Lion alive!” Corin exclaimed, seeing their swords as they came rushing in. “It’s only me, your majesty!”
“Explain,” Edmund demanded. “Immediately.”
Corin gave them a crooked grin. “The boy you thought was me wasn’t me at all! He’s my double, apparently, or near enough.”
“Where have you been, then?” Peridan said.
“There was a boy in the street yesterday who made a horrid joke about Queen Susan, so I had to box him, of course,” Corin began.
Edmund groaned.
“Well, he wasn’t so much trouble,” Corin assured him, mistaking the source of his distress. “He fetched his brother, though, so I boxed him, too. But then they fetched the Watch…who were more difficult.”
Edmund could do nothing at this point but make a small noise of disbelief.
“And then, of course, they tried to lock me up, but I managed to distract them with some wine. When they fell asleep, I found the boy who’d made the joke, and saw to him again. Unfortunately, it was too late for me to come back, so I climbed up to a roof and lay there until this morning. I made my way back today, and discovered my double here. He left just before you, Mister Tumnus, came in.” Corin gave Tumnus a little bow here, which Tumnus returned out of habit, his expression one of absolute shock.
Corin continued blithely on. “His name is…well, he never told me his name, but apparently he’s making an escape to the north with a talking horse named Bree.”
“A talking horse named Bree,” Edmund repeated, too shocked to say more.
“Yes. And he mentioned something about a secret escape tonight? It’s a good job I got back when I did,” Corin said. “You might have left without me, thinking he was me!”
Edmund gave up and sank into a chair, laughing. “Oh, Corin, we might have indeed.”
“He knows everything,” Peridan said faintly. “All our plans. He heard every single word.”
“Yes, he did,” Edmund agreed, “and he is now we know not where, speaking with we know not whom, telling them we know not what. It may already be too late.”
“You can’t think he’d tell,” Corin began.
“Your highness can not vouch for this boy’s trustworthiness from an acquaintance of thirty seconds’ duration, no matter how alike you look,” Tumnus told him sternly.
“And it does not matter, regardless of how trustworthy the boy is or not,” Edmund said, still laughing ruefully. “Our plan is in motion. We are committed. We have no other plan, and we shan’t get a second chance at any rate. We’ll have to try tonight whether we are discovered or not.”
“What, by the by, are we trying?” Corin asked, sounding only vaguely curious. Edmund was suddenly gripped by a strong desire to strangle the child.
Rence filled him in on the plan. Edmund and Peridan left and searched outside their house, just to be sure, but the boy was nowhere to be seen, and at last they gave up.
“We shall just have to hope that this boy means us no mischief,” Peridan finally said.
“We did give him a truly excellent lunch, and Queen Susan kissed him several times,” Edmund observed. “He has good cause to be in charity with us.”
Peridan blinked at him, clearly feeling that this was not the time for jokes. Edmund couldn’t find it in himself to care. Things were out of his hands now, and so he felt that he might as well enjoy them as not.
*~*~*
Author's Notes: As with last chapter, since this one still intersects with the stories of the characters of The Horse and His Boy, there are portions the dialogue that are taken from the book. This begins at the start of the chapter and ends at "let us all take food and then at once be about our business." And as before, this applies to dialogue only. If it's not in quotes, it is my own work.
And, given that this is the last Sunday prior, I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope it's an excellent holiday for all of you. :)
Chapter One - A Proposal is Made to Queen Susan
Chapter Two - Prince Rabadash Arrives in Narnia
Chapter Three - Harfang Sends an Envoy
Chapter Four - The Narnians Hold a Tournament
Chapter Five - A Voyage to Tashbaan
Chapter Six - In the Court of the Tisroc
Chapter Seven - Prince Corin Goes Missing
Chapter Nine - Escape to Narnia and the North
Chapter Ten - The Battle of Anvard
Chapter Eleven - King Edmund and Queen Lucy
Chapter Twelve - The Return To Cair Paravel
Disclaimer and general Author's Notes are in the first entry, which is linked at the bottom.
Edmund caught the hand Susan had held out to him and placed his other hand over hers. “My dear sister and very good lady, you must be brave now. Because I am afraid that we are in no small danger.”
“What is it, Edmund?” Susan asked.
“It is this: I do not think we shall find it easy to leave Tashbaan,” Edmund said. Susan’s grip on his hands grew tighter and he gave her an encouraging squeeze. “While the prince hoped you would take him, we were honored guests. But, by the Lion’s Mane, I think that as soon as he has your flat refusal, we will be no better than prisoners.”
There was a whistle from Mikelston and Sallowpad chimed in, saying, “I warned your Majesties. I warned you. Easily in but not easily out, as the lobster said in the lobster pot.”
Edmund had had enough of sayings, maxims, and proverbs, having endured them for so long from the Calormene ambassadors and so cut across Sallowpad. “I was with the prince this morning. He is not used--more’s the pity--to having his will crossed. And his very irritated at your long delays and doubtful answers. This morning he pressed very hard to know your mind. I put him off--hoping, at the same time, to discourage him--with some light, common jests about women’s fancies, and hinted that his suit was likely to be cold. He grew angry and dangerous. There was a sort of threatening, though still veiled under a show of courtesy, in every word he spoke.”
Tumnus nodded. “Yes. And when I ate with the Grand Vizier last night, it was the same.” Tumnus nodded at Edmund here, and Edmund realized that this was what the faun’s mind had been worrying on the night before, aside from Corin’s disappearance. “He asked me how I liked Tashbaan. And I--since I could not tell him I hated every stone of it, and I would not lie--told him that now, when high summer was coming on, my heart turned to the cool woods and dewy slopes of Narnia. He gave me a very unpleasant smile and said, ‘There is nothing to hinder you from dancing there again, little goatfoot, always provided you leave us a bride for our prince in exchange.’”
“Do you mean he would make me his wife by force?” Susan demanded, turning to Tumnus.
“That’s my fear, Susan,” Edmund nodded. “Wife…or slave, which is worse.”
“But how can he? Does the Tisroc think the High King would allow such an outrage?” Susan said.
“Sire,” Peridan said, clearly shocked, “they could not be so mad. Do they think there are no swords and spears in Narnia?”
“Unfortunately, my guess is that the Tisroc has very small fear of Narnia,” Edmund replied, not wanting to add that he felt the Tisroc had good reason. But hoping to lead others to the same conclusion, he continued, “We are a small nation. And small countries on the borders of a great empire are always hateful to the kings of those great empires. They long to blot them out, gobble them up.” Remembering the abortive attempt at provocation during the tournament, he added, “When Rabadash first came to Cair Paravel, Susan, it may be that they were only seeking an occasion against us. Likely they hope to make on mouthful of Narnia and Archenland both.”
Susan sank into a chair, her face pale.
“Let him try,” Thornbut said, sounding unimpressed. “At sea, we are as big as he is. And if he comes at us by land, he has the desert to cross.”
“True, friend,” Edmund admitted, “but is the desert a certain defense?” He turned to the raven. “What do you say, Sallowpad?”
The raven turned his head, in that way birds do when they wish to look at something, and regarded Edmund. “I know that desert well, for I have flown above it far and wide in my younger days. And this is certain: if the Tisroc goes by the great oasis he can never lead a great army across the desert into Archenland. Though they could reach the oasis by the end of their first day’s march, the springs there would be too little for the thirst of all those soldiers and their beasts.”
Edmund nodded.
“But there is another way.”
Every head in the room turned and looked back at Sallowpad, who fluttered his wings a bit and continued. “To find that way, a rider must begin at the Tombs of the Ancient Kings and ride northwest, so that the double peak of Mount Pire is always straight ahead of him. And so, in a day’s riding, or a bit more, he will come to the head of a stony valley, which is so narrow that a man might be within a furlong of it a thousand times and never know that it was there. And looking down this valley, he will see neither grass, nor water, nor anything else good. But if he rides down it, he will come to a river, and can ride by water all the way into Archenland.”
A murmur of distress went around the room and everyone began talking at once. Susan asked a question, but it was lost in the noise. Edmund held up his hands, “Friends!” The room quieted. “What is the use of this discussion? We are not asking whether Narnia or Calormen would win if war arose between them. We are asking how to save the honor of the queen and our own lives out of this blasted city. Because even if my brother Peter defeated the Tisroc a dozen times over, our throats would be cut and the Queen’s grace would be the wife, or more likely, the slave, of this prince before he could do it.”
A deep silence fell. Finally Mikelston said, “We have our weapons, King. And this is a reasonably defensible house.”
Edmund shook his head. “As to that, I do not doubt that every one of us would sell our lives dearly in the gate and they would only come at the queen over our dead bodies. But we would be only rats fighting in a trap for all of that.”
“Very true,” Sallowpad agreed. “These last stands in a house make good stories, but nothing ever came of them. After their first repulses, the enemy would simply set the house on fire.”
At this, Susan burst into tears. “I am the cause of all this!” she said, sobbing. “Oh, if only I had never left Cair Paravel. Our last happy day was before those ambassadors came. The moles were planting an orchard for us…” She broke off, burying her face in her hands.
Edmund moved to kneel before her. “Courage, Su. Courage. Remember—” But here, he broke off, since Tumnus was doing the oddest thing. He was holding both of his horns with his hands, and practically stomping his feet in fidgets. “What is the matter with you, Master Tumnus?”
“Don’t speak to me, don’t speak to me,” Tumnus replied, which drew a blink from the whole room. Tumnus never addressed the kings or queens that way. “I’m thinking. I’m thinking so that I can hardly breathe. Wait, wait, do wait.”
If only to see what it was that so discomfited the poor faun, they all fell silent.
Finally Tumnus looked up, still holding his horns. “The only difficulty is how to get down to our ship—with some stores, too—without being seen and stopped.”
Edmund had been hoping for something a good deal cleverer than that, and only just managed to keep himself from offering a very snappish answer.
Thornbut was not so restrained and answered, “Yes, just as the beggar’s only difficulty about riding is that he has no horse.” Peridan gave him a reprimanding glare, but it lacked punch.
“Wait, wait,” Tumnus said, seeing he was loosing his audience. “All we need is some pretext for going down to our ship today and taking things on board.”
“Yes?” Edmund said, unable to keep the doubt from his voice.
“Well then, how would it be if your majesties invited Prince Rabadash to a great banquet to be held on board our own galleon, the Splendor Hyaline,” he added, with a nod at Rence, which looked very comical as he was still gripping his horns, “tomorrow night? And let the message be worded as graciously as the queen can contrive without pledging her honor, so as to give the prince a hope that she is weakening.”
Sallowpad appeared to understand what Tumnus was driving at, and turned to Edmund. “This is very good counsel, sire.”
“And then,” Tumnus said, going on, “everyone will expect us to be going down to the ship all day, making preparations for our guests. And let some of us go to the bazaars and spend every minim we have at the fruiterers and the sweetmeat sellers and the wine merchants, just as we would if we were really giving a feast. And let us order magicians and jugglers and dancing girls and flute players, all to be on board tomorrow night.”
Edmund began to see where he was headed. “I see.”
“And then, we’ll all be on board tonight. And when it is quite dark,” Tumnus said.
“Up sails and out oars!” Edmund finished, astonished at the brilliant simplicity of the plan.
“And so, to sea!” Tumnus agreed, actually dancing a jig at the idea.
“And our nose northward,” Mikelston chimed in.
“And running for home!” Thornbut added. “Hurrah for Narnia and the North!”
Peridan laughed at this. “And the prince waking next morning and finding his birds flown!”
Edmund had to chuckle at that idea himself. Rabadash would be utterly confounded.
Susan jumped up and caught Tumnus’ hands, which he had finally removed from his head, and the two of them danced around in a circle. “Oh, Master Tumnus! You have saved us all!”
“The prince will chase us,” said Rence, who had been silent the whole time.
“That’s the least of my fears,” Edmund answered. “I have seen all the ships in the river and there’s no tall ship of war nor swift galley there.” He paused and then said, “I almost wish he would chase us. The Splendor Hyaline can sink anything he has to send after her, if we were overtaken at all.”
“Sire,” Sallowpad said, “you will hear no better plot than the faun’s, even if we sat in council for a week. And now, as we birds say, nests before eggs. Which is as much as to say, let us all take our food and then at once be about our business.”
Edmund offered his arm to Susan with a flourish and escorted his sister out, but remembered something as they exited and so after seeing her to her room, he immediately sought out Sallowpad.
The raven was seated on a windowsill, looking northwards, but as soon as he knew Edmund was interested in speaking to him, he flew over and alighted on Edmund’s arm.
“Sire?”
“Sallowpad, perhaps I am simply being paranoid, but I worry that our escape may not entirely deter Rabadash from attempting to make Queen Susan his wife,” Edmund said.
“A very reasonable concern, your majesty,” Sallowpad agreed. “I am also of your mind.”
“Then you will understand that I must now ask you to undertake yet another trip,” Edmund said, walking out to one of the balconies. “Fly back to Narnia, to Queen Lucy. Tell her of what has happened here and our need to have escaped. Tell her to begin raising a defense of Cair Paravel, in the event we may need it. Perhaps we shall not, I don’t know. But I would rather be prepared unnecessarily than be unprepared and have need.”
“I shall begin at once, sire,” Sallowpad said with a nod.
Edmund lifted his arm and the raven sprang from it, careful not to scrape him with his talons, and began winging his way across the desert towards Narnia.
He went back inside and snatched up a purse full of gold, directed one of the palace servants, who was stationed outside the house for their use, to be ready to deliver Susan’s invitation to the palace, then went out with Peridan and Rence to the market and began implementing Tumnus’ plan.
By mid-afternoon the three of them had managed to start several contradicting rumors about just what this banquet would be like, who they were thinking of inviting, and what sorts of Narnian entertainments there would be. In fact, the only detail about the party they had been very clear on was that it was to be held on the Splendor Hyaline the following evening. Peridan worried that the contradictions would get them found out, but Edmund and Rence assured him that such mixed reports were common when a truly excellent party was in the offing and would give their plot the ring of authenticity.
Edmund was highly satisfied with their afternoon’s work when he returned to the house. And there he received a truly nasty shock. He had just come in the door when there was a cry from upstairs. Edmund, Peridan, and Rence drew their swords and hurried up to find Corin in the room where they’d left him, with Tumnus staring at him in consternation.
This, however, was Corin unlike they had left him. His clothes were not rags, but the clothes he’d been wearing when he disappeared yesterday, although they were torn and missing several buttons. He was still wearing his shoes. And most alarmingly, he had a black eye and a missing tooth.
“Lion alive!” Corin exclaimed, seeing their swords as they came rushing in. “It’s only me, your majesty!”
“Explain,” Edmund demanded. “Immediately.”
Corin gave them a crooked grin. “The boy you thought was me wasn’t me at all! He’s my double, apparently, or near enough.”
“Where have you been, then?” Peridan said.
“There was a boy in the street yesterday who made a horrid joke about Queen Susan, so I had to box him, of course,” Corin began.
Edmund groaned.
“Well, he wasn’t so much trouble,” Corin assured him, mistaking the source of his distress. “He fetched his brother, though, so I boxed him, too. But then they fetched the Watch…who were more difficult.”
Edmund could do nothing at this point but make a small noise of disbelief.
“And then, of course, they tried to lock me up, but I managed to distract them with some wine. When they fell asleep, I found the boy who’d made the joke, and saw to him again. Unfortunately, it was too late for me to come back, so I climbed up to a roof and lay there until this morning. I made my way back today, and discovered my double here. He left just before you, Mister Tumnus, came in.” Corin gave Tumnus a little bow here, which Tumnus returned out of habit, his expression one of absolute shock.
Corin continued blithely on. “His name is…well, he never told me his name, but apparently he’s making an escape to the north with a talking horse named Bree.”
“A talking horse named Bree,” Edmund repeated, too shocked to say more.
“Yes. And he mentioned something about a secret escape tonight? It’s a good job I got back when I did,” Corin said. “You might have left without me, thinking he was me!”
Edmund gave up and sank into a chair, laughing. “Oh, Corin, we might have indeed.”
“He knows everything,” Peridan said faintly. “All our plans. He heard every single word.”
“Yes, he did,” Edmund agreed, “and he is now we know not where, speaking with we know not whom, telling them we know not what. It may already be too late.”
“You can’t think he’d tell,” Corin began.
“Your highness can not vouch for this boy’s trustworthiness from an acquaintance of thirty seconds’ duration, no matter how alike you look,” Tumnus told him sternly.
“And it does not matter, regardless of how trustworthy the boy is or not,” Edmund said, still laughing ruefully. “Our plan is in motion. We are committed. We have no other plan, and we shan’t get a second chance at any rate. We’ll have to try tonight whether we are discovered or not.”
“What, by the by, are we trying?” Corin asked, sounding only vaguely curious. Edmund was suddenly gripped by a strong desire to strangle the child.
Rence filled him in on the plan. Edmund and Peridan left and searched outside their house, just to be sure, but the boy was nowhere to be seen, and at last they gave up.
“We shall just have to hope that this boy means us no mischief,” Peridan finally said.
“We did give him a truly excellent lunch, and Queen Susan kissed him several times,” Edmund observed. “He has good cause to be in charity with us.”
Peridan blinked at him, clearly feeling that this was not the time for jokes. Edmund couldn’t find it in himself to care. Things were out of his hands now, and so he felt that he might as well enjoy them as not.
Author's Notes: As with last chapter, since this one still intersects with the stories of the characters of The Horse and His Boy, there are portions the dialogue that are taken from the book. This begins at the start of the chapter and ends at "let us all take food and then at once be about our business." And as before, this applies to dialogue only. If it's not in quotes, it is my own work.
And, given that this is the last Sunday prior, I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope it's an excellent holiday for all of you. :)
Chapter One - A Proposal is Made to Queen Susan
Chapter Two - Prince Rabadash Arrives in Narnia
Chapter Three - Harfang Sends an Envoy
Chapter Four - The Narnians Hold a Tournament
Chapter Five - A Voyage to Tashbaan
Chapter Six - In the Court of the Tisroc
Chapter Seven - Prince Corin Goes Missing
Chapter Nine - Escape to Narnia and the North
Chapter Ten - The Battle of Anvard
Chapter Eleven - King Edmund and Queen Lucy
Chapter Twelve - The Return To Cair Paravel
