~By the Lion's Mane: The Call~

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

We sailed for several more days with a light, warm breeze behind us, filling the violet sail and making the golden lion of the Narnian crest shimmer. We caught sight of the blue star the first night after had left Coriakin’s island, and set our course for it and the darkness that lay ahead.

But despite the pleasant weather, we quickly grew bored again. I played a lot of chess with Reepicheep and Eustace and Lucy, and sat up on the fighting top with Edmund, and practiced my swordsmanship with him and Caspian.

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I leaned against Edmund’s shoulder, letting my eyes half close as the sun warmed my skin and the rolling of the ship lulled me into a state of drowsiness. I was completely at peace.

“Rose?” Edmund asked after a while.

“Mmm?” I answered, still half asleep.

“How long do you think Lucy and I will get to stay this time?” he asked.

I sat up and stretched and looked at him. “I don’t know. Maybe... maybe as long as the first time.” Truthfully, I hadn’t even considered how long Aslan would give them. Out here, in the middle of the ocean, time seemed to pass differently. But I felt as if they had been here for a long time. Perhaps Aslan would let them stay for the rest of their lives, or at least as long as the very first time they had come to Narnia, during the Golden Age.

Edmund gazed out over the waves through eyes squinted against the bright sun. Then he returned his gaze to me. “Rose, when we get back to Narnia, or England, or wherever, I want to marry you.”

I felt foolish, like I was a lovestruck teenager, as I felt my eyes grow misty and a smile spread across my face. “I want to marry you too, Edmund,” was all I could think of to say.

He smiled and leaned in to cup my face and kiss me gently. After he broke away, he said, “So you’ll come with me? Wherever it is? Even if I have to go back to England? Because I know that you chose to stay here last time, because there’s nothing for you in England. But after leaving you behind-- I just can’t live like that again. I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy there, and to make a life for us together.”

By this point tears were rolling down my face and I pulled him to me. “Of course I’ll come with you. Of course I will...”

And I would. I was even prepared to leave Narnia behind, if it meant I was with Edmund.

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Finally, after thirteen days with nothing on the horizon, Edmund called down from the fighting top, “Land on the port bow!”

I rushed to find my eyeglass and scrambled up the ropes to where he was sitting. Sure enough, off to our left, there appeared to be a dark mass that looked like a mountainous land. We set our course for it, but had to row because of the wind. It took us all that day and night, and then the next morning. And yet it was still not clear enough to see very well. It was much larger, but didn’t look very much like land. “I wonder if we’re coming into a mist?” I remarked to Caspian and Drinian and the others, who were all up near the wheel.

But then all of the sudden, at about nine in the morning, we came so suddenly upon it that it became clear that this was neither land, nor mist in the sense that you would think. It was just a mass of darkness with an eerie green light glowing softly from within, billowing slowly about like smoke, but far darker and more sinister. The Dark Island.

“Keep her back!” called Caspian to the boatswain, and we came to rest in the flat, glassy water.

For a long while we just sat and stared at it, as if hoping it would disappear without us having to go into it. But obviously it wasn’t going to, and so Caspian called for the men to prepare as if for a battle and assemble on deck.