His Majesty, Her Grace - Sequel to A Prince Caspian Love Story

Chapter 16 - Nightmares

Althea's POV

"Althea..."

"Althea, wake up." Caspian whispers.

"What's wrong?" I ask groggily while sitting up in the hammock.

Caspian's already out of bed and a tired-looking Edmund is beside him. He scoops me in his arms to help me down silently.

"Nothing's wrong just come with us." He says.

We successfully leave the bunkroom without anyone waking up and go to the office where Lucy is already waiting.

"Finally, I've been waiting here for almost half an hour." She says.

"We had to be sure everyone was asleep," Caspian explains.

"What is going on?" I ask again, fighting back a yawn.

"I realized that someone must have overheard us speaking the other day. It's the only way they could've known about your possible past." Caspian says cautiously. We haven't spoken about the information he found, it's still a touchy subject for me.

"Oh."

An awkward silence fills the cabin and no one seems to know where to start.

"What now?" Ed asks.

Caspian looks at me, his eyebrows furrowed. He's asking permission. I nod. I still don't know if Lord Bern's claim has any truth behind it, but the fact is that people believe it and it's putting us all at risk.

"We need to talk to you both. More so Lucy than you Ed." Caspian says.

"What do you mean?" Ed asks again. He is quickly growing impatient and begins to pace around the room.

Caspian explains everything regarding me up until what just happened, then I take over explaining how someone pushed me off the ladder and that it wasn't an accident. Caspian's explanation receives shocked expressions but mine changes them to horror and worry at the prospect that a mere rumor can be the cause.

"So, you could be a queen?" Lucy asks.

"I don't know. The only person who knows for sure is my aunt."

"Where is she?"

"We think she was fed to the mist," Caspian says, his voice slow and heavy.

It's quiet as the siblings process the overload of information. The room flashes from lightning and thunder cracks above us a few seconds later.

"How are we going to figure out who it is?" Lucy asks.

"I haven't gotten that far," Caspian says. "I do think we should keep it a secret until it's confirmed. If we tell the crew they'll just suspect each other and the last thing we need is everyone being divided."

"I agree." I chime.

"This could work. If no one knows then we could set a trap for whoever it is." Edmund suggests. He seems to be excited by the idea, but setting a trap makes me feel uneasy.

"How can't we do that without Althea getting hurt, or any of you. You almost fell off the ship with her Ed. They clearly don't care about anyone else getting hurt along the way." Lucy says.

"I know but we can't just sit around waiting for another attack."

Lucy's right, this person has no regard for anyone else, not even the High King of Narnia. Edmund could've easily died because of me. I don't want to sit around either, but there's nothing that can be done. We don't know the lengths that this person will go to have me killed. We have to wait it out and see what happens.