[au] Narnia and the North

[the_seafarer]

There's a chill bite to the air, these days. The horses have been growing out their winter coats, and they look shaggy and plump as Caspian turns them out into the paddocks. Behind the stables, in the makeshift woodshop he'd cobbled together, the sleigh from his drawings is starting to come together. 

He hopes he'll have it finished by Christmas. With a little luck, and maybe some assistance, he thinks it should be possible. The tack, he's largely left up to Susan's devices, though he'd commission Gimli the dwarf for the various buckles and other metal pieces they'll need.

Once the horses are turned out, he gets to his other morning chores with a will, whistling cheerfully as he does. The stable stays strangely quiet around him. It takes him the better part of an hour to realize the strangeness is because he's become accustomed to Susan's cheerful presence working alongside him, talking or humming or simply working in companionable silence. 

Caspian pauses in his task – refilling the grain chest – and looks around. Susan's nowhere to be seen, and when he later wanders through the stables, checking each stall and outside, he can't find her there, either.

Comments

[the_seafarer]

It's easy to forget while he's here, but this is not Narnia-as-was or even Narnia-as-is , but Narnia as it should be, as it could be. So perhaps it's not strange that, as he thinks back to a ball held in honor of their departure across the sea to the East, that same ball should slowly come into form around them. Centaurs hold a solemn conversation off to one side of the great room, fauns leap and frolic as the music surges, and Caspian whirls Susan into the dance, light-footed and sure, while dream-light glints off his brow and touches the outline of a crown.

[sai_delgado]

Oh, and it's a sweet and kind power, this is, whether it's the Dream-lord's or the Lion's or some quirk of His country itself, and Susan gives herself over to it and to the joy of the dance.

She's enough of grace in her steps and her bearing to follow Caspian's lead easily as they move among the misty figures, and delighted pleasure is in every line of her as she dances with him.

[the_seafarer]

He guides her smoothly through the steps, now laughing, now humming along with the music. The ball fades away behind them as he leads them gradually toward one of the doors leading to a hall, but the sense of joy and delight stays fresh.

Finally, he spins her a last time, then drops a kiss on her knuckles and bows, a sparkle in his eyes. "Shall we continue our tour?"

[sai_delgado]

"An'ye would, aye." She curtseys again in response to his bow, then impulsively trails her fingers lightly across his forehead. "I'd not seen thee with a crown before."

[the_seafarer]

"Well, it's not very practical for working in a stable," he teases, though he ducks his head to let her trace the line the dream-crown had drawn across his brow. "And some of them are damnably heavy."

[sai_delgado]

"It might keep Kiseki off yer hair," she teases back. "Did'ee think of that?"

[the_seafarer]

"That's as good a reason to wear one as any, and better than most," he laughs. "The traditional crown, the most official one, gave me a frightful headache if I wore it too long, though I gather it was still lighter than most. I had something simpler for most days when one was needed."

[sai_delgado]

She can't help but giggle at the very thought of a 'simpler' crown, and leans up to kiss him on the cheek.

"Thee very dear," Susan tells him. "I like it, I do, seeing thee like this as well as how I've always known thee. Both suit, do'ee ken?"

[the_seafarer]

He accepts her kiss with a smile and lets go of her hand to slip his arm around her waist. "I glad to hear it," he says, amused but sincere. "For they're both part of who I am, after all."

[sai_delgado]

She leans into the curve of his arm and rests her head against his shoulder for a moment. "I kennit," she murmurs.

Deep waters, Sue, she thinks, and wonders what her da' would have thought of Caspian. He'd have liked him, she's certain sure, just as he'd thought well of Cuthbert - but she'd seen how surprised he was to see his daughter in the company of gunslingers, and can imagine he'd be more so now, although not displeased.

Ka like a wind, she supposes, and hers was different than she'd ever imagined, as her father's had been.

"But I like who thee are."

[the_seafarer]

He ducks his head and presses a kiss to her hair, smiling soft and fond. "That makes me very happy," he murmurs back.

As does her lifted mood. She's thrown herself into this visit, and now the tears and worries of the morning feel a lifetime away. Eager to show her everything the castle has to offer, he points out paintings and statues and tapestries, some of which depict stories even he has only the faintest knowledge of. "Look," he tells her, directing her attention to a tapestry showing a fair, beautiful woman sitting by a lake. "Queen Swanwhite, who ruled before the White Witch. They say she was so beautiful that if her face were reflected in a forest pool, the image of it remained there for a year and a day."

[sai_delgado]

"She looks like Lady Gabrielle, a little," Susan muses, examining the weaving with care. "In the face, the eyes mayhap. What happened to her?"

[the_seafarer]

"I don't know," he admits. "It was a very, very long time ago, and the White Witch destroyed all the records of what came before her that she could. But from what I've heard, from the Old Narnians' long memory, she lived a long and happy life and was a much beloved ruler."

[sai_delgado]

Susan sniffs at the mention of the White Witch. "Of course she did. Spiteful as anything. That kind always are."

Certainly Rhea of the Cöos had been, and Walter o'Dim with what he'd done to Roland and Jake both, and Susan sees no reason to expect that Narnia's witch would be any different.

She touches the edge of the tapestry again, very gently, and smiles over her shoulder at Caspian. "But she weren't forgotten, and thee and yers remember her fondly. That's what's more important."

[the_seafarer]

He comes to stand by her and looks up at the tapestry as well. "I could hardly believe it when all the stories of Old Narnia turned out to be true," he murmurs. "Even being in the middle of a rebellion and then a war, even with Miraz and Prunaprismia... it felt like I'd been given the greatest gift that could ever exist."

Caspian considers the tapestry, then smiles at her. "I think she looks like you."

[sai_delgado]

"I kennit," she says, just as soft, and oh, so, so certain. Even with how it had all ended, even knowing now as she does what had happened after, still the memory of those days will be with her ever.

Susan starts to say something else, only to break off at his observation, blushing a bright pink. "Caspian!"

[the_seafarer]

"There's definitely a resemblance," he says, grinning at the sudden color in her cheeks. He sets his hands at her hips and crowds her gently against the wall, smiling merrily down at her before tipping his head for a soft kiss.

"And a strong one, at that."

[sai_delgado]

She makes no attempt to break free, even going so far as to put her arms around his neck as she kisses him sweetly back, but Susan's still blushing when the kiss breaks.

"Thee silly. I'm no queen, nor lady even, say true. But it were sweet of thee to say."

[the_seafarer]

"Perhaps not in title or land," he agrees, musing, and smiles at her again, nudging his forehead against hers. "But beauty does not require either."

[sai_delgado]

"Aye, and I'm no beauty of legend and story either," she says, practically, for Susan's never read sai King's books herself and is thus blissfully unaware of the truth of it.

"But thee are a dear, dear mischief."

[the_seafarer]

"Only because you were not born in Narnia," is Caspian's opinion. "I can think of any number of poets, singers, and storytellers who would have fallen all over themselves attempting to describe your loveliness, Su."

[sai_delgado]

She blinks at him, for he looks and sounds deeply certain and not as though he's teasing at all. Susan feels the warmth in her cheeks grow, and casts her gaze down through her eyelashes, suddenly shy.

[the_seafarer]

He smiles and turns his head to kiss her warm cheek, then slides a hand down her arm to catch her fingers in his.

"Come," he murmurs, not wanting her to be embarrassed. "There's a stair up ahead. Let me show you the view from one of the towers."

[sai_delgado]

She squeezes his hand and smiles up at him. "I'd like that, say true. How far can thee see?"

[the_seafarer]

"I suppose we'll have to find out," he teases, and draws her back along the hall, while the paintings and tapestries and statuary look on.

The tower stair rises in a tight spiral, opening now and again to a room or another hall. As they climb, one of these draws Caspian's attention: a comfortable library with shelves thickly stocked with books and a paper-covered desk at which an old man is bent, scribbling something.

Caspian draws to a halt, his heart in his throat, and his fingers tighten on Susan's. "Doctor Cornelius?"