Whisked Away

77. What Was in the Stable

Tirian's POV
I watched as Levi and Levian fell and blade after blade cut into my wife's flesh. I saw her fall and my world stopped. Without a plan, I rushed into battle, crying out her name as i went. The others followed behind me and we fought and fought. Before I knew it, I was facing the stable door and fighting furiously with a Calormen, but quickly, I dropped my sword, grabbed him by the belt and pulled him into the stable with me.
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Edmund's POV
I had been watching the train come in and looking for Eustace and the others when I saw them. Eustace gave a little wave and then the train jerked terribly and something came flying at me. Next I knew here I was in this strange country. There was an odd door in the middle of the land and the rest was all rolling hills and far off their were high mountains.

Suddenly the door opened. In came a man with a drawn sword. He seemed not to notice us and through the door it was dark and seemed to be some kind of clearing in a wood. I looked round me once again and saw that Peter, Lucy, the Professor, and Aunt Polly stood around me. I shared a look with Peter, as we had both noticed that the man was a Calormen.

My mind flashed to my little adventure in Tashban during the days of Rabadash, but as he didn't say anything, I tried to put aside my worry. Lucy went up to him and tried to speak, as did the others, but Peter and I hung back. "I don't like this," I muttered to him.

"Me nether," he admitted, "but we don't seem to be in any danger." The others rejoined us and we were just waiting around, for none of us could think of anything to say. The door suddenly opened again and through it a cat came in. The suddenly before us was the figure of the Calormen god Tash. The grass below him wilted at his form and the cat gave a great shriek and ran out again.

A little bit later, a young Calormen entered, but the sentry was so shocked that he had just enough time to strike him down and push him back out the door. He looked around at it all in wonder and shock and kept murmuring, "Tash, Tash, where is Tash? I go to Tash." And then he walked away from us. The door opened not a second after he had wandered away the door was flung open again and an ape was flung in.

Tash appeared again and swallowed the ape whole so suddenly we had scarcely time to process it. Then a group of dwarves were flung in. After we looked over at them, the door was flung open again and three bodies were flung in. "Peter," I warned. We all rushed to them.

"Shifra!" Lucy cried, identifying the only female in the group. She had several arrows in her side and back and knives in hit chest and even a few in her wings, but the stab wound to her chest was what had killed her.

"B-but s-she can't die!" I cried, tears forming in my eyes, "She can't die...unless..." I looked up to see everyone was in tears. She had been a dear friend to all of us. No one recognized the two men, but we dragged all three away from the door and waited again. The door opened three more times and Jill, Eustace, and a man we didn't recognize with a Calormen.
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Tirian's POV
Upon entering the stable, I was met with the face of Tash, looking hardly at Rishta. "Thou hast called me to Narnia, Rishta Tarkaan. Here I am. What has thou to say?" asked Tash. His voice was a croak, but so terrible I knew not what to think of it.
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Edmund's POV
As I saw Tash take up the Calormen in his arms, I drew my sword, the other following me. Tash fixed his eyes on the man, but Peter's voice spoke before anything else could happen, "Be gone, monster, and take your lawful prey to your own place in the name of Aslan and Aslan's great father the Emperor Over the Sea."

The man, who I now recognized as the one from when we had met together, turned to look at us with such wonder and surprise in his face I was temped to laugh. Jill stepped forward first and said, "Sire, let me make you known to Peter, the High King over all Kings in Narnia." The man stepped forward and knelt to kiss Peter's hand.

"High King," he greeted in a kind and wise voice, "It is an honor."

Peter helped him to his feet and greeted him in the typical fashion for a high king and led him to Aunt Polly, whose age had greatly lessened opinions being here. Peter began the introductions starting with Polly and the Professor and moving to myself, "This is my brother, King Edmund, and this my sister, the Queen Lucy."

"Sire," the man asked, "if I have read the chronicles right, there should be another. Does not your majesty have two sisters?"

"My sister Susan," Peter began slowly, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."

As the others began to talk about Susan, I turned back to the three we had behind us. None had woken, but I did notice a change in the two men. They had grown younger and scars were healing over. Shifra herself had many scars that were healing as well. The man speaking with the others suddenly asked, "I hate to interrupt, but have any of you seen my wife? Queen Shifra?"

I turned back in surprise and found that the others aside from Jill and Eustace looked perplexed as well. "Queen?" I asked. "She's right here, but she has not woken."

He rushed to her side and felt for a pulse. "None," he breathed. "And King Levi and Prince Levian."

"Who are they?" Peter asked.

"Shifra's godsons and the royals of Archenland," he explained. At that moment, Shifra and the two men began to stir.