The Voyage - Edmund Pevensie

15

As we sailed on, the days at sea didn't get any easier. The thought of running out of food became a real possibility that weighed on everyone's minds. Between the stress of our situation, the relentless storm, and the fact that nobody was sleeping well, it was starting to mess with the crew. I heard them whispering about seeing things on the ship. They ranged from figures of lost family, to bugs and other animals. Of course the ship was searched, but nothing was found. Although that didn't stop the edge and tension that had seemed to settle over the ship.

While I tried to go on ignoring it, I couldn't help that at times I felt like I was being watched. And not by Ed, or Cas, or anyone on the ship. It was the kind of feeling that made the hair on my arms stand up and shivers run down my spine. And to top it all off, it was worse at night. 

After a long day of struggling with the crew to navigate the sea, I trudged down to my room. My limbs felt like lead and my whole body ached as I struggled to peel my drenched clothes off of my body. Numbly, I hung them up with the fool's hope that they would dry at least a little overnight and climbed into bed after putting my nightdress on. While normally my thoughts began to race the second I climbed into bed, the exhaustion settled over me like a blanket. I fell asleep fast than I had in weeks, my eyes too heavy to keep open.

_________

It was the whispering that woke me up. A soft sound, like voices or someone softly singing.

"And you call yourself a princess..." As the words registered in my brain, I was immediately awake and I was sure my heart stopped. I knew that voice. I knew who it belonged to. The words were spoken with such disgust, such disdain, that they could only have come from one person. But, it wasn't possible. There was no way my uncle could be here on this ship. 

"Leaving your people to go on this foolish quest. And not only that, taking the advice of a senile old fool that has done nothing but put your crew in jeopardy..." I scanned my room, trying to see where the voice was coming from, but I couldn't see anything. Until, a flash of lightning lit up my room enough to see the green fog creeping towards my bed. Then another flight of lightening, revealed that it had now taken on the form of my dead uncle, the old tyrant of Telmarine. Miraz. 

The dagger that sat at my bedside table was in my hand in a matter of seconds, the blade pointed at my uncle who just leered at me. 

"Pathetic..." he sneered. I almost didn't hear him over the pounding of my own heart, fear making it thud harder. How was it possible that he was here, in my room? "You may act tough, oh great general, but you're nothing more than a scared little girl." While the rational part of my brain told me this was just some trick, some kind of dark magic, I was frozen. I couldn't do anything except stare at my uncle, my heart pounding too much to move. 

"Catarina the Reliable..." he drawled. "What a great disappointment you must be to that overgrown lion."

At that remark, a different emotion began to overtake my fear. Anger. Anger that my uncle was here when it shouldn't be possible. Anger that he dared to speak that way about Aslan. And then, anger that I was letting him win, and even more that some part of my brain believed him. 

With a cry, I hurled the dagger that my uncle. But I blinked and my blade was stuck into my wall on the opposite side of my room. No uncle, no green mist. Needing to move, to shake the last of the fear out of my system, I got up and threw on a shawl. Then, I padded across the hall to Lucy's room that she was sharing with Gale. I knocked lightly before opening the door to peak my head in.  

The covers had been pulled back like someone had gotten out of bed, and sitting there was a piece of paper. I moved closer to examine it and immediately recognized it as the piece of Coriakin's spell book Lucy had taken. It'd completely forgotten she'd even taken it. I did a quick scan of the room looking for her, but only saw Gale sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. I took a step outside the room, intending to go look for her. 

I pulled up short a few steps outside of Gale's room. Confused, I looked around, not remembering what I had been about to do. I looked back at Gale sleeping, smiling to myself that I was glad the girl was ok. I was surprised she'd been ok with having a room all to herself after what she'd been through, but she was strong. But I couldn't shake the feeling that I had just been about to do something important. Or, maybe look for something important?

"Maybe I should go see if Cass is awake," I said out loud when out of nowhere my heart began to hurt. Grimacing and feeling tears well up in my eyes, I raced back to my room suddenly alarmed. It wasn't the physical kind of pain, but the kind where it felt like I'd lost someone important. Like how it felt when my father died. But, I hadn't lost anyone I loved in a while? Caspian, my brother and the most important person in my life, was sleeping just below deck. So why was I suddenly feeling this way? In my room, I passed my bow stand. My feet stopped, and I turned to look at it. I'd told Caspian I didn't have a need for it, that I didn't have a bow to put in it. But he'd just told me that it was there in case I wanted it, and so the empty bow stand and sat there since we left Telmarine. So, why did it suddenly feel like it was missing something? 

A huge crack of thunder and lightening shook the boat, starling me. 

"Aslan!" a voice shouted from across the hall. I raced through the still open door to see Lucy, sitting up in her bed clutching that spell page. Lucy.... I stood there, staring at her dumbstruck as the past few minutes came back to me. I'd left the room to go look for her. So what had just happened to make me completely forget about her? And how in the world was she now back in her bed as if nothing had happened? 

I opened my mouth to speak, but immediately shut it when Lu got out of bed and stalked over to the fireplace, crumbling up the spell page as she went. Wordlessly, and a bit curious, I followed until I was standing next to her. With a venom that surprised me, she chucked the page into the flames. From the flames themselves, Aslan's head appeared roaring as the page burned away. Raising one brow in question, I turned to Lucy who was just staring at the fire. 

"I'd rather not talk about it right now," she whispered. So I didn't talk. I just pulled her into a hug. We stood there for a few minutes, two friends comforting each other as the ship swayed underneath us. 

"Want to go check on the boys?" I asked eventually, and she nodded. 

We made out way down below deck, careful not to wake any of the sleeping crew. When we got to where Ed and Cas were sleeping, I was surprised to see Ed awake. I was even more surprised to see him sitting up, pointing his sword into the darkness at nothing. Lucy and I exchanged a look as Lu sat on Edmund's hammock, and I sat on the edge of Caspian's. Neither of the boys stirred, even though I was looking right at Edmund now. It seemed like he was looking at something far away, but the fear was clear on his face. 

"Edmund..." Lucy whispered. Ed jolted as if she'd woken him up. His head swiveled towards his sister, then to me. He didn't lower his sword until he checked over my shoulder, at the spot he'd just been staring at. 

"Oh, Lucy," he said, his voice still tired from sleep. Another crack of thunder and lightening sounded overhead, and Cas jolted awake next to me. We shared a look as Lucy said,

"I can't sleep." Ed looked between all of us, his sword still in his hand. 

"Let me guess. Bad dreams?" We all looked at each other, agreeing without words. "So," Ed said. "We're either all going mad, or something is playing with our minds."

"Great," I muttered. "Just another thing to add to the list of things that have gone wrong on this trip."