The High Queen of Narnia

Chapter 20

Elodie was forever amazed at the gentleman her husband was despite whatever life-threatening adventure they were on. As they docked the longboats, Reep was the first to jump off.

"Onward! The thrill of the unknown lies ahead," he exclaimed as Caspian climbed out, offering a hand to his wife as she stepped out of the boat with ease before he turned to help Edmund and Lucy.

"Couldn't this wait until the morning?" Eustace asked, the sun just shy of setting on the horizon as he sat in the longboat, Elodie rather surprised that he wanted to come along rather than wait on the ship. She supposed it had something to do with Tavros.

"There is no honour in turning away from adventure, lad," Reep explained.

"Cas," Elodie called as she finished setting up a crossbow that she threw at him, the king catching it with ease as they began to make their way up the stairs from the port.

"Listen," Lucy said. "Where is everyone?"

"Come on, jelly legs," Reep said as he offered the boy a hand.

"I'm capable of doing it myself," he insisted, only to fall onto the stairs the second he got off the boat, not accustomed to the fact that the ground under his feet was no longer moving.

"And you're certain he's related by blood?" Caspian questioned with a bit of a disbelieving look at the boy's grace.

"And to you by marriage," Elodie smirked as her husband rolled his eyes as they made their way up the stairs. It was quiet, eerily quiet as their sailors joined them and Elodie didn't like it one bit. And she didn't draw her sword until a bell tolled, the loud ring making everyone flinch and a few other sailors draw their weapons. Caspian raised his crossbow as he aimed it at the stone tower the single toll came from.

"I don't like this, Cas," Elodie muttered. "It's like someone is calling us up there."

"We still have to investigate, Ellie," he replied. "Reepicheep, stay here with Drinian's men and secure the place. We'll head on," he ordered as they began to make their way up the ramp that led to the higher parts of the small town.

"And if we're not back by dawn, get Tavros and send a party," Elodie added as the mouse bowed his head.

"Yes, your majesties."

And as they made their way to the tower, the sunlight became unable to reach them but still left the area bright enough to see as they approached the large oak doors that led into the bell tower, Edmund, Lucy and Eustace with the royal couple.

"Yeah, looks like nobody's in, so do you think we should head back?" Eustace asked hopefully as he gestured to the broken shutters he'd peered into, not mentioning the family that hid inside the house.

"Do you want to come here and guard...something?" Edmund suggested uncertainly before the boy came running over.

"Ah, yes!" he exclaimed. "Good idea, cousin. Very, um...logical."

"Ellie, do you mind? He's unarmed," Lucy asked and her sister sighed before she faced the blond boy and drew one of her knives from her belt, offering him the hilt.

"Try not to stab yourself with it," she advised before turning around as they prepared to enter the tower.

"I've got it. I've got it. Don't worry," Eustace assured them but they took no comfort from his rather uncertain assurance. And the large doors rumbled and creaked as Elodie and Edmund pushed them open, Caspian walking in with his crossbow poised as they observed the large bells that hung above them. Bells that definitely needed someone to pull the ropes for them to ring out.

"Uh, I'm ready to go when you are!" Eustace called from outside and Elodie had to roll her eyes. She now understood her brother's annoyance for their cousin. Her brother that shone his flashlight through the hall that was lined with massive statues as they made their way to a stack of books and candles in the middle of the room.

"Who are all these people?" Lucy asked as they stared at an open book that seemed to be a ledger.

"Why have they been crossed out?" Edmund asked as they peered at it.

"It looks like some kind of fee," Lucy guessed.

"They're sale records," Elodie announced with a saddened glance at her husband.

"Slave traders," Caspian explained, but the second he said those words, the bells started ringing again as men began to slide down from where they'd hidden inside them, the long rope allowing them easy access. "Look out!" Caspian warned as he managed to fire a single arrow at one of them and send him tumbling from the ropes before he threw down the crossbow and reached for his sword.

Elodie lunged straight into battle as the sound of swords clanging echoed through the halls almost as loudly as the bells did, her silver sword easily fending off their attacks as she also lashed out with her feet. Subconsciously, she also stayed close to Lucy knowing she had only a single weapon made for close-quarter combat, but the girl was doing rather well as she wrestled a sword off a trader before beginning to fight with it. Edmund was also surprised as he watched his older sister both fight with a sword and then send dagger after dagger hurtling through the air and striking her target as she barely took a second to aim.

And they would've won the battle, had it not stopped a the sound of a scream and they all turned to see Eustace with a knife held to his throat.

"Unless you want to hear this one squeal like a baby again, I'd say you should drop your weapons," the man ordered as the doors swung shut behind him and he began to walk Eustace inside.

"Like a baby?!" Eustace exclaimed before the knife was pressed harder into his neck.

"Now!"

And Elodie huffed angrily as she threw her sword down and undid the belt from around her waist with all her knives strapped to it, before her lips blew the fallen strands of hair from her face, her chest rising and falling heavily.

"Eustace," Edmund spat through gritted teeth.

"Put them in irons!" the man hollered and Elodie instantly started fighting back as four men approached her, three holding her down as the fourth placed iron manacles, held together by a small chain, around her wrists.

"Unhand me! Get your filthy hands off me!" Elodie spat as the men held her fast.

"Let's take these three to the market. That one especially," the man ordered, now holding Eustace by his ear as he pointed the knife at Elodie.

"You're going to fetch us a hefty price, beautiful," said the dirty man that chained her up as he squeezed her face in his hand. And her only response was to spit as much saliva as she could into his face.

"Send those two to the dungeons," the man ordered as he gestured to Caspian and Edmund.

"Listen to me, you insolent fool! I am your king! And you are making a grave mistake touching my queen like that," Caspian bellowed as the man wandered up to Elodie and ran the knife down her jaw.

"With a face like that she could certainly be a queen," he remarked. "But she won't be much of one to whoever buys her at the market."

Elodie thrashed in her captor's arms again but there were too many of them and she could move too little of her body. Edmund on the other hand had been slapped in the face as he tried to fight back, the young king gritting his teeth as he stifled his anger.

"You're going to pay for that," he spat before a new voice emerged from the shadows.

"Actually, someone else is going to pay. For all of you," the new man said, seeming like the one in charge as they began to be dragged away.

"NO! EDMUND!" Lucy screamed in terror.

"Lucy! Ellie!" he shouted back.

"CASPIAN!" Elodie yelled as she thrashed as hard as she could in her captor's arms. "Cas! EDMUND!"

"ELLIE! Elodie!" her husband called and the last she saw of two of the people she loved most was her brother being knocked unconscious and the defeated look on Caspian's face as he realised that he couldn't save his wife.