Beyond the Sea

CHAPTER 5: KARA

A/N: Please read with an objective eye... I haven't edited this chapter, and it was more of a filler. But I needed to get it published while I have some inspiration flowing. I hope you enjoy!! 

"I bid sixty!"

"I bid eighty."

"One hundred for the little lady!"

Lucy stood on the platform in front of men holding up their satchels of money, shouting out bids as if she were nothing more than a... a sofa or something. Kara found herself torn between laughter and tears at her own inner conversation. Where was the crew? Caspian had given them orders to come find them if they didn't return. And, well, they hadn't returned.

"Any more bids?" When there were none, the man on the platform yelled, "Sold!"

Lucy gave a soft cry as another man seized her shoulders and lifted her off.

Then it was her turn. Kara shook from head to toe as she mounted the platform, working hard to school her expression so they wouldn't see her growing panic. She forced herself to take deep breaths, but they were coming faster by the second. The ropes around her wrists were burning into her skin. She focused her gaze on her boots, feeling their eyes on her, sizing her up.

Where was Ed? Caspian? Would she ever see them again? Would she and Annaliese be separated? What would happen to Lucy? To her? A whisper of a thought tickled the back of her mind.

What if... what if she never saw Ed again and she hadn't had the courage to tell him how she felt?

She pushed that thought aside fiercely and met her sister's tired, wise eyes. Annaliese gave her a gentle nod, and Kara returned it. Aslan was with them. It would be alright.

The men were yelling out bids and she couldn't hear them. Her pulse was throbbing in her ears and tears were beginning to prick her eyes. She sucked in a sharp breath of air, a warm breeze off the water catching in her hair. Aslan, help us, help us Aslan, please...

"I'll take them off your hands," a voice was suddenly saying. It was the first to resonate, and Kara's head whipped up. She knew that voice.

"I'll take them all off your hands! For Narnia!"

Kara released a sob of relief, lifting her eyes to the sky. It was Reepicheep! And Drinian, and the other men—they had come! Thank you, Aslan!

Then Lucy was there, slicing a dagger through her bindings. "Thank you!" Kara exclaimed, wincing at the welts on her wrists. "Aslan saved us, Lucy."

"He did." Lucy beamed and squeezed her hand. "Now we've got to set these people free. They've been tyrannized for too long."

The anxiety slid away as Kara's thoughts turned to the people. This wasn't about her, it was about them. Somewhere she found a sword and she fought furiously, the moves coming as naturally as breathing after years of experience. Any moment now she'd fall into what she called her 'battle-zone', where adrenaline kicked in and there was only her breathing and her muscles reacting.

Yes; there it was. The sounds of metal crashing against metal faded into the back of her mind and there was just the sound of her pulse pounding in her throat and the sensation of her limbs moving instinctively as she and the Dawn Treader crew fought with the knowledge that victory was already on their side. They would not be defeated.

Annaliese stood at her side, catching a man's blade with her own and then ducking around him to send him in Kara's direction. Kara thrust her sword through him with only the slightest hesitation. Her 'battle-zone' made it easier not to think about the fact that sometimes being a queen and bringing freedom meant ending other lives.