Chapter Six:

//You'll always have a place, and a way to my heart//

England…

Susan Pevensie was having one of the most unpleasant months of her young life. She had been trapped in her own home with Eustace – her extraordinarily exasperating cousin – for over two weeks. He had no acquaintances to visit and so it was up the Pevensies to entertain him. Subsequently even with Edmund and Lucy running interference between them, she still felt like slaughtering the self- engrossed little brat.

To add to her predicament it seemed as though each day she was growing larger. Her and Caspian’s child was moving, growing and even though this brought her elation, it also encouraged a soul wrenching desolation. From the little snippets her beloved had told her about his own childhood, she knew that he would have taken pleasure in every change and movement of this baby.

Susan’s door burst open and she saw Lucy standing there. “Su…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Eustace is…”

“What did he do now?”

“He’s missing!”

She got herself up – with some difficulty – off of her bed and stared down at her younger sister, “Missing?”

“We were playing hide and seek…” Lucy began. At Susan’s glare she admitted, “We did eventually go looking for him.”

She sighed, she did not like him or his ‘fat’ jokes – at her detriment – but she truly did not want anything to happen to him, unless it was by her own hands. Susan followed Lucy down the stairs to where Edmund was apprehensively waiting and sighed at her luck.

“Sorry, Su…” Edmund said shamefacedly.

“It’s okay, Ed. Do you have any idea where he could have gone?”

“We have checked down here,” Edmund told her. “But I suppose he could have crawled into a hole somewhere…”

“Ed!” Lucy yelled.

“Well, he could have and let’s face it… no one would miss the little toad.”

Susan sighed, yet again, “I’ll recheck down here. Why don’t you two check upstairs and we’ll meet in the lounge room in ten minutes?”

“Okay,” the younger two chorused.

She checked all of the rooms downstairs, but found not anything disturbed and nowhere any person – even a rat like Eustace – could go into hiding. ‘Maybe he went through a wardrobe’, went through her head and she unexpectedly felt as though she could not breathe. Surely it was out of the question … would… could Aslan have taken somebody like Eustace to Narnia? It was a ridiculous thought and she pushed it aside as she went into the front reception room to wait for Lucy and Edmund to return from their search.

Ten minutes extra passed her by, followed by another set, but Lucy and Edmund did not return to her. Assuming that they had found their cousin and were keeping him out of her way, she got up and headed into the kitchen to prepare dinner for them all.

Almost two hours later she stood at the bottom of the stairs and called for the three of them to come to dinner. When they did not come down, she went upstairs after them and received a kick in the teeth. Now not only was Eustace vanished, but somehow Lucy and Edmund had joined him.

She sank down onto Lucy’s unmade single bed and realised with dreadfulness that her earlier thought had been accurate. The three of them had gone to Narnia. She was not sure of how or why, but they were there currently and now she had to live with the fact that Eustace had been authorized entry when she had been deprived of it.

Calmly – almost too calmly – she went back downstairs and ate her dinner, put away the other portions and cleaned up the mess in the kitchen. Then she steadily strode into the study and using the phone called the professor’s house to speak to Peter.

“Su… are you and the baby all right?” her older brother asked worriedly.

“They’ve gone.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lu, Ed and Eustace,” she replied evenly. “They’ve gone to Narnia.”

“Eustace!”

//I want you so bad that I can barley breathe
It's a sign of my obsession//

Narnia…

Caspian was sat on the bow of the ship and stared out at the unfathomable blue of the ocean, comparing it to the colour of Susan’s eyes. It was something he had done and still felt compelled to do numerous times per day. In the end the ocean always came up short, by no means the precise shade for his liking.

So far, the journey had been rather repetitive, but at the same time unreservedly fascinating. Boring was due to the never-ending expanses between islands and the places that they had visited. They had been allies of the Narnians and/or the Telmarines for practically forever and each one had their own agenda concerning the ship and its crew.

Most involved Caspian, as the King of Narnia, he was considered a most important catch for all daughters, nieces and sisters of the royalty or leaders of each island. He felt as though he was fortunate to escape some places without been forcibly wed to a woman not of his choice.

Fascinating was for the most part Caspian’s own estimation and stemmed from the everlasting expanses of the water. Telmarine’s – regardless of Aslan’s assertions to the contrary – did not like the water. They bathed as little as possible, hardly ever went to the river or ocean voluntarily and unquestionably did not sail away upon it.

However Caspian found it breathtaking. He had always found the life-giving liquid mesmerizing, but now he found that it also gave him a sense of peace that had been missing for quite some time. Trumpkin had suggested that it was not the water, but simply the comprehension that at the end of his expedition, he may get Aslan to return something precious to him.

In the distance three figures appeared in the water, like magic and for a fleeting moment Caspian thought that he might have imagined them. After a split second of staring, he knew that whether they were genuine or make-believe he needed to check on them, to help or he would truly lose his grip on his sanity and become an unfeeling monster.

“Trumpkin! Herspian!” he called. “There are people in the water. We must help them.”

As Caspian dove into the freezing cold sea and swam towards the unfortunate souls, his friends and crew realised that he was correct. Trumpkin forced the Captain to drop anchor and Herspian lowered the small row boat and they followed their King towards the strangers.

When they arrived they pulled Caspian and the strangers on board and were shocked to find that they knew two of them. “King Edmund? Queen Lucy?”

“Caspian,” the cold, wet young Queen threw herself into his arms. “I am so glad to see you. I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, little Queen.”

“Hey, what about me?” a gruff voice asked.

Lucy detangled herself from Caspian to hug Trumpkin, Caspian greeted Edmund. “Hello, my friend.”

“You look like crap, Caspian.”

“Thank you,” Caspian replied sardonically. “You are looking well… if wet.”

“What is going on? Where are we? Why am I wet? Who are these weird people?”

“Who is that?” Caspian asked Edmund.

Edmund reluctantly answered, “That’s our cousin, Eustace. However if you wanted to throw him back in… Lu and I would not criticize you.”

“I do not believe a member of your family could be appalling enough to warrant that… except for Peter.”

“Peter’s a git, but Eustace is worse. Trust me!”

Lucy’s voice interrupted them when she suddenly asked, “What are you doing out here? I thought Telmarines did not like the water.”

“We as a people generally do not, Your Majesty,” the other man in the boat answered shyly.

Their conversation was cut short by the return to the ship. Caspian with good organization prepared quarters and clean and dry clothes for each of his unanticipated guests. He promised to meet them when they were ready, just before Trumpkin ushered them away.

He sat down on the deck once again, in his accustomed location, and attempted to wish away the immeasurable anguish. For a moment when he had first seen Lucy and Edmund, he had thought, had hoped, that Susan was with them – that Aslan had at long last answered his prayers – instead they had come with a Eustace.

They came back a brief while later, without their cousin who had taken to his bed claiming to be suffering from a noxious illness. Lucy and Edmund sat down with him, one on each side, surrounding him, but they did not articulate a word to him.

After a while Edmund asked, “How long has it been?”

“Twenty-seven months and two days,” Caspian replied without even flinching.

Lucy and Edmund exchanged looks at Caspian’s precision, before Edmund continued, “It’s only been about four and a half months for us.”

“Why are you out here?” Lucy asked her earlier question, impatient as ever.

“Herspian and the other Telmarines would tell you that I am on a vitally important mission to find the seven missing Lords that Miraz sent out to sea…”

“But the truth is…” Edmund prompted.

“I am but half a man without your sister - a King who is slowly losing his sanity. Just over one year ago Glenstorm came and told me that the stars had said that once Cair Paravel was rebuilt…”

“You rebuilt Cair Paravel?” Edmund interrupted.

Lucy shot him a filthy look, “Ed!”

“Sorry.”

Caspian continued as though there had been no disturbance, “That I must go to the sea and find Aslan. Once I have done this I must ask for the return of Susan. It has given me hope for the first time since you all had returned to your home.”

Edmund and Lucy exchanged another look and Edmund nodded for Lucy to continue. “Caspian… about Su…”

“Is she all right? She is well, correct?”

“She asked me to tell you something…”

“What is it?”

“That she loves you,” Lucy said, noting the first smile that crossed Caspian’s face since they had returned.

“Thank you, my little Queen.”

Edmund looked uncomfortable, “There’s more…”

“More?”

“Su is… well…” Edmund stumbled over how to tell the man before him the news.

Lucy took pity on them both, “What Ed means to say is that, Su is… well… pregnant.”

“Pregnant… with child… my child…” Caspian paled and tried to get his head around what he had been told. “How?”

“If you don’t know that, then you have no business doing it,” Edmund told him.

“I did not mean… of course I know that. I am going to be a father,” he said. “But if Su is there and I am here…”

“We will find a way to work it out,” Lucy promised him.

“Is she… are they… well?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” he replied. “You *must* both come with me to see Aslan. To help me to convince him that Susan belongs here in Narnia.”

“What if… he doesn’t agree,” Edmund asked.

“Then you must help me to convince him to let me go to your world.”

End Part