Lost and Found

32: Sold

"We should probably think about setting up camp soon." Orious announced. "And tomorrow we'll head into Calormen."

Peter hesitated. "One more hour?" He asked, a hint of pleading in his voice. "And then we can stop for the night."

Orious hesitated, glancing around at Amir and Philip before nodding slowly. "Okay." He replied.

Peter gave him a grateful smile and the three followed behind Amir for the next hour before, like Peter had said, they stopped and began setting up camp.

"You can see Calormen from here if you look closely." Amir sad as he walked up to stand beside Peter, who was stood overlooking the desert.

Peter squinted and peered out over the horizon, and sure enough he saw something the wasn't just continous sand.

"Do - do you reckon Edmund will be okay?" Peter whispered after a short while of silence.

Amir was quiet for a moment. "You want the truth?" He asked.

Peter swallowed hard. "Yeah." He mumbled.

"I doubt it." Amir answered gently. "Horses escaped, because he forgot to lock the doors."

"That wasn't his fault." Peter all but whispered. "You said yourself he was too tired to remember."

"They will not care, sir." Amir told him. "I would not be surprised if they locked him downstairs."

Peter frowned. "What's downstairs?" He asked hesitantly, sounding almost afraid to ask.

"No one really knows to be honest." Amir said. "Anyone who's been down there is always too scared to talk about it, or they don't get a chance to talk about it before-" He quickly stopped himself, realising what he'd just been about to say.

"Before?" Peter questioned, finally looking up at the horse, fear in his eyes.

The horse didn't say anything for a long while before dropping his gaze to the floor. "Apparently people are locked in a pitch black room for days on end, eventually driving them mad."

Peter's heart skipped a beat, but he quickly shook his head. "Not Edmund." He said somewhat firmly. "He - He's strong."

"If you don't go mad," Amir said. "You're sure to be scared of everyone and everything for weeks afterwards, it has those effects on people. That's why we don't know too much about it, everyone too afraid to even come close to you let alone talk about what happened."

Peter sighed and looked back over the horizon, blinking tears from his eyes. "I miss him." He murmered after a while.

"He misses you too." Amir said with a nod. "More than you probably think, he wants nothing more than to go home."

"I know." Peter choked. "And I will get him home, no matter how long it takes I will find him."

"Well, if everything goes to plan that day will come sooner than you expected." Amir said.

"I really hope it does." Peter breathed, before sighing. "Well, I should probably try and get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight your majesty." Amir said with a bow of his head.

Peter smiled at the horse before turning and entering his tent, where he immediately sat down on the edge of his hammock, taking a deep breath as he ran a hand through his hair. "Two days." He whispered. "Two days and you'll see him again."

He kept repeating this to himself over and over again until he forced himself to lay down, covering himself with a blanket. "Two days." He murmered, and after at least a whole hour, he eventually drifted off to sleep.

May 7th

Edmund was woken the next morning to the cell door swinging open and hitting the wall with a bang, causing him to groan as he forced his eyes open.

He panicked when he saw a guard marching towards him, but before he could so much as raise his head his arms were grabbed and he was hauled to his feet, a scream of pain escaping him before he could stop it.

He managed to only just keep in a sob as his hands were tied tightly behind him, but his fear was still great, and he tried his hardest to get away, but it didn't do much except earn himself a wack around the head.

"Move." The guard growled, pushing Edmund towards the door harshly.

Edmund had no choice but to walk ahead of the guard, pain shooting through his whole body every time he placed a foot to the ground, but he grit his teeth and kept walking, knowing that it wouldn't end well if he complained even in the slightest.

He was pushed through the huge house until they reached the room he had first been brought to, on his very first day. There were two men stood talking in the centre of the room, but other than a few servants, that was it.

Edmund was suddenly pushed to his knees only a few steps away from the two men, and it was only then that he recognised the one who'd bought him in the first place. But after this he kept his head down, his heart hammering and sweat beginning to appear on his forehead.

"This is the boy?"

"It certainly is." Edmund swallowed hard, listening closely to the conversation even as he kept his eyes on the floor. "He's a hard worker, although he has quite a quick and sharp tongue."

"Oh don't worry, we can easily beat that out of him."

Edmund's heart skipped a beat at this, and he all of a sudden found himself feeling rather quite sick.

"How old is he then?"

"I think about 16."

"So he won't get too tired too easily then."

Edmund just knelt there as the two talked amongst themselves for the next few minutes, before they were suddenly shaking hands. "Bring him." The other man headed from the room, and once again Edmund was yanked to his feet and forced to walk through the house, his heart pounding the entire time.

Please Peter, please, I'm begging you... where are you.

He didn't even bother to keep back the tear that eventually rolled down his cheek, all he wanted was for his brother to find him, because wherever it was he was going, in his mind sounded worse than this place.

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