[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]

"Speak as plain as you like, sir."

He keeps his voice down – the very last thing he needs is for Reepicheep to catch wind of some insult to him and take matters into his own paws – but the words are sharp. "If you think me some soft and sheltered fool who has never known pain and loss and grief – and, aye, guilt – "

– And at this he flashes a cutting, knowing glance at them both, for even if they'd only been taking orders from their High King, their dinh, still they'd done so, and let her burn –

" – you know little enough of me I expect I can hardly take insult, for it's my own fault and no one else's, but I have loved – and lost – and grieved more than you can even imagine."

There's a hard look in the sea-gray eyes now, one that promises he'll rise to whatever argument Cuthbert wishes, and willingly.

(he’d speak sharp when he thought it were needed, and more)

"Do not deign to explain the lady to me. Have you even thought to ask her what it is she needs? Or only decided you know best?"

[sai_delgado]

Color drains from Cuthbert's face, and he takes a harsh breath, but Alain sits forward before he can speak. "We'd meant to talk with her about it today," he points out, his easy tone a deliberate contrast to the other two.

Mayhap they've underestimated this man, Alain thinks, for there's nothing of the merry fellow he's known all this time about Caspian now, and quite a lot more hinted at beside.

"You'd know as well as we do why that didn't happen, obviously. We've all her best interest at heart, aye?"

[the_seafarer]

There's still tension in his jaw, strung painfully hard along his neck to his shoulder, but he glances at Alain and deliberately leans back against the couch, ceding the point. "That," he agrees, "we all have in common, yes."

[sai_delgado]

"Aye," Cuthbert grits out, and Alain allows himself a flicker of relief. They're not free and clear yet, but there's a chance this'll not come to blows or worse here and now.

He keeps more of his attention on Caspian, being attuned enough to 'Bert that he'll sense his movement in the second before it's happening. Sometimes that's not enough, as the both of them ken all too well, but here it should be.

"We've kept this quiet for a reason." He hadn't intended to explain before, neither of them had, but it's come to it and all that's left is to ride through. Alain flicks a cautious glance in Susan's direction and is relieved to see that Eddie's still managing to keep her distracted. "There's many here who'd be wanting to help, if word got out. Who'd want to surround her with familiar faces, for comfort. And Sue's gentle; she'd not want to make them feel bad by turning them away. But if this - if tomorrow takes her the way it might, she'll not know them save as those who turned against her before."

[the_seafarer]

His brows draw together in a flicker of a frown. "And you?" he asks.

"Will she see you for who you truly are, or as the crowd that murdered her?"

[sai_delgado]

'Bert stirs and Alain shoots him a warning glance, then turns back to Caspian. "We think she'll see us true, since she's one of the tet. And if not--"

He turns both of his hands upward, as though cradling something unseen in his palms. "--I've a trick that can help to clear a mazed mind."

[the_seafarer]

"The touch," Caspian says. He feels as though he's biting down on metal, and something in his voice strains dangerously at the leash.

"And this trick can clear her mind only for your faces and no others?"

[sai_delgado]

Alain blinks, and as he does, Cuthbert sits bolt upright. "She told you about - about that?"

[the_seafarer]

"You assume, because I hold my tongue out of respect, that I know nothing, I see," Caspian says, with a little more of an edge than is perhaps warranted, but he very nearly can't stop himself.

"Yes. She told me of the touch. And I know more than I could ever care to – more than you, I daresay – about what it is, what it means when someone you know and love looks at you and cannot recall your face."

[sai_delgado]

Cuthbert's eyes narrow as he studies Caspian with new sight and a keen intensity that leaves no room for preconceptions or beliefs, a sharp hawk's stare that looks only for what's in front of it. "Well then," he says, after a moment. "Alain?"

Speak for us both, I beg, for our fathers' sake and for Susan's. Alain hears it as clearly as if 'Bert had spoken aloud and tips his head in the faintest of nods.

"It's not - I'd not be able to wipe it all clean in a flash," he says, quietly. "More like pulling aside cobwebs, may it do ya, and helping her find her way back through them to see truth once more. But if she trusts ye that much, sees ye that clear, then aye, it'd work for ye as well, I wager."

[the_seafarer]

Caspian listens with the same focus he'd given all his advisors over the years, knowing they knew more than he, and when Alain finishes, he nods. "I understand."

He meets that stare of Cuthbert's with a level, steady one of his own: a man who has faced giants and monsters and the murderous intent of his own family and not backed down. "So. Do you still tell me to stay away, and leave what may come tomorrow to you?"

[sai_delgado]

Cuthbert holds his gaze for a second longer, then nods a quick assent. "No. Given the givens, I'll not stand in the way. But if Susan chooses otherwise, then that's how it'll be."

[the_seafarer]

"Quite," Caspian says, in a chilly voice that adds obviously.

He supposes, wearily, this may be the end of attempting to get Cuthbert to like him for himself, and not only tolerate him as a strange fancy of Susan's, one that might – ideally, no doubt, for the gunslinger – be temporary, but he's not certain he can find the energy to care overly much.

[sai_delgado]

Cuthbert settles a little more easily in his corner of the couch, still studying Caspian closely. Alain glances back and forth between them, then addresses Caspian.

"What about yer mouse-knight? Ye'd not suggest he come?"

[the_seafarer]

Caspian's glance tracks over to where Reepicheep, on the bar, appears to be animatedly relating some tale of adventure, and his mouth softens, crooks into a rueful smile. "I would trust Reepicheep with my life," he says. "And have, in the past. And he'd do anything for Susan, without question or hesitation. But this is nothing he can do battle with; not with sword, or even honorable words."

He shakes his head. "But he helped her today, too. If Susan wishes him there, I'd bring him with a will. You'll never find a more loyal friend or a more valiant knight."

[sai_delgado]

Alain opens his mouth, but Cuthbert beats him to it. "Does he know?"

[the_seafarer]

"No."

It'll break his heart when he does, Caspian knows. "Susan hasn't told him yet, and I'll not speak of it without her say. If she wishes him there, and if she wishes him to know, I will tell him. At the moment, he knows only that something is gravely amiss, though not what it might be."

[sai_delgado]

"Ah." Alain shakes his head. "I'd not think it wise, then. It's as I said before, about so many of those who care for her here."

[the_seafarer]

"As it happens, I agree with you," Caspian murmurs. Reep is still doing what he can to cheer Susan, he can tell, and his heart aches to see it. "For both their sakes."

He hasn't even yet had the will to tell Reepicheep about his wife, his son.

[sai_delgado]

“Then it’s settled,” Cuthbert says, firmly. “We keep this among the three of us, and Eddie and Susannah.”

He glances at the bar, then back to them. “If we’re not to tell her tonight to avoid Sai Mouse hearing, then in the morning, early. Alain and I’ll meet you both in the stables after dawn.”

[the_seafarer]

"All right," says Caspian, who can recognize an olive branch when he sees it. "I'll ride out, afterward, to ask the tree-sisters' permission, though I don't think they'll object. If you like, one of you could come with me, and we could arrange things beforehand, make it ready."

[sai_delgado]

"Probably best I do that," Cuthbert suggests. "Alain can help Susan with the stable-work while we're gone."

Alain slants a speaking look at him, but nods agreement.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian studies him a moment, but he has to admit that if they're going to have this out, better they do it in the woods and away from where Susan might hear them.

"All right," he says, again. "Thank you, Cuthbert. I'd appreciate your company and your help."

[sai_delgado]

He figures he's as unsure of that as he thinks the other man is about him, but he can take it on the face of things. Susan's what matters, and on that at least they're agreed. Cuthbert nods to him, then tips his head back and catches Eddie's eye.

"He'll send her back over in a few moments," he says, easily.

[the_seafarer]

"Fine."

He smiles a little, seeing Reepicheep and Susan and Eddie all together. "If you like," he begins, meaning to offer an olive branch of his own, "if you'd rather Eddie and Susannah were there, I'd help find someone to take the shifts."

The faint edge of his usual humor steals into his smile. "Perhaps Reepicheep could tend the bar for a night."