[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

[sai_delgado]

“It were just a dream,” she argues. “I trust ye, Alain, so aye, if ye’d wish then of course ye may, but it were only a dream. If it’d been aught else ye’d have found it before.”

“I didn’t look for other traps before.” Alain doesn’t let the guilt that spears through him now interfere. They’d all failed her in Mejis, and he’d failed her a second time here by not finding the not-man in the stables before she’d been approached; there won’t be a third. “And I’ve learned a few things since then, of Rhea’s tricks and the Bends both.”

It’d been one of the things he’d sought Vannay for, after they’d returned.

“I still say ye’d have found it.” But Susan holds her hands out to him, and he takes them lightly in his before he looks up at Caspian. “I’ll need to take her deep. Don’t be alarmed.”

[the_seafarer]

Caspian meets his glance and nods, though he has more than a few worries about all this himself. "Go on," he murmurs, and braces himself for whatever's to come.

[sai_delgado]

"Do you need the shell?" Cuthbert asks, intent and serious. Susan's glance flicks back and forth between them, wide-eyed and unafraid. Alain considers for a moment, then nods. "Best we not risk I not reach far enough otherwise, not for this. Make sure she can hear all of us."

Cuthbert nods, draws one of the weapons at his hips, and shucks a bullet from it into his fingers. He hunkers down on his heels in front of Susan and gives her a quick smile. "You know how this goes. Watch the shell, Sue. Watch it close, I beg." As he talks, he makes it dance back and forth over his fingers, deft and nimble, and light winks off the casing. Back and forth, back and forth. "That's it-- gods."

For Susan, watching the flickering light from the shell, is already gone. Her lashes flutter as fog-gray eyes close. Cuthbert swallows hard. "Do ye hear me, Susan?"

"I do." Soft but clear, in a dreamy tone. "Cuthbert Allgood of Gilead. I hear ye, 'Bert."

"Good girl," he murmurs. "There's two others here with me as well. Alain, and Caspian. I'd have you hear them when they speak, as well as myself."

He nods to Caspian.

[the_seafarer]

He takes a quick, hard breath. "By the Lion, that was quick."

Cuthbert seems to think so, too, gauging by his response. Caspian breathes in and settles himself, then speaks to Susan, his voice quiet but clear and steady. "Here I am, Susan. Do you hear me?"

[sai_delgado]

"She's been hypnotized before," Cuthbert murmurs. "It takes her quicker every time, since the first."

Susan, meanwhile, stays perfectly still, her eyes closed and her breathing even. "I hear thee, Caspian." She smiles, sweet and unshadowed. "Did thee wish to ask me something?"

[the_seafarer]

The sweetness in her dreamy smile sends an arrow through his heart. "Alain and Cuthbert would like to hear more of your dream, dear," he murmurs. "Won't you tell them about it?"

[sai_delgado]

"It were pink," Susan tells them, and Alain trades a grim look with Cuthbert and shifts a little forward. "What was pink?" he asks, gentle, sending into her with the gift he's always carried. "Something you saw? Something you heard?"

"Everything." Simple and clear and certain. "I was floating in the fire, and everything were pink."

"Gods be kind." Cuthbert's voice is a little choked.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian frowns at this – she hadn't mentioned anything about fire before. But perhaps she simply hadn't wanted to worry him.

He casts a worried glance at Cuthbert as the gunslinger speaks.

[sai_delgado]

Alain takes a deep breath, and squeezes her hands. "Was it because of Rhea? Did she do something to make the fire pink?"

"Nay." No resistance at all, but her hands are cold in his and he knows he'll have to bring her out soon or risk worse. "She didn't. She wouldn't have. She wanted me to feel it. Charyou tree."

As she speaks, her voice shifts as Alain's heard before, becoming an eerie mimicry of the witch's horrible cackle. "Take this murdering bitch and cook her red-handed! Charyou tree!"

[the_seafarer]

He pales, but stays where he is and holds his tongue, shoulders and back and neck all painfully tight. The hag, he thinks, and sees again a leaping shadow, feels teeth meeting in his shoulder.

[sai_delgado]

Cuthbert looks like he's going to be sick, Caspian's as pale as salt, and Alain doesn't feel all that well himself. He bears down, holding fast to Susan's fingers with his hands and to her dreaming, drifting mind with the touch.

"Rhea's not here," he says. "She can't hurt ye now, Sue. Do ye believe me?"

"Aye, I kennit," she says, in her own voice, and dreamy though it might be it's worlds better than before. "Even if she were she couldn't. Not ever again. Ye wouldn't let her."

"You're right. We wouldn't." Not just the three of them, either, but that's a little too much for this. "Sue, listen carefully, this is important. Do you know why everything was pink in your dream?"

"Because it's broken," Susan tells them.

[the_seafarer]

He bestirs himself at that and looks to the gunslingers, then to Susan's dreamy face.

"What's broken, Su?"

[sai_delgado]

"The Ka-Tet of Nine," Susan replies, and Cuthbert jumps, startled. Alain opens his mouth to ask another question, but she's not done. "Ka-shume. The shadow on the heart. Grief like a stone. O, Discordia. We've lost the anchor. The door whispers. Don't ye hear it?"

"We hear it," Alain affirms. Not as strongly as she does, but he and Cuthbert have talked about it an-tet. "We hear it, too."

[the_seafarer]

(I'll not leave thee)

His hand fists on his knee before he consciously relaxes it.

(I won't)

Earlier, the name of Aslan had seemed to give her a little peace, a little clarity. He's tempted to speak to her with it again now, but holds his tongue. Alain and Cuthbert have questions of their own.

[sai_delgado]

"So did Eddie. Before." Susan says, in response to Alain. She sighs, weary and sad. "I don't want to go."

Alain squeezes her fingers again. "Her hands are too cold," he says, looking at the other two men, urgency in his tone. "This is important, but I don't think it's down to Rhea, and it's not a good idea to have her this deep for this long. If there's anything else, best ask it, so we can bring her back."

[the_seafarer]

"No," Caspian says. He's pale but controlled, and his voice is quiet but firm. "I say bring her back, Alain. Whatever else she tells us, I'd have it be her choice to say or not as she wills."

[sai_delgado]

Alain nods, and so does Cuthbert, who then shifts forward again. "Susan. Can you still hear me?"

"Aye," she says, slow and dreamy. "I hear ye, 'Bert."

"Good." He puts firmness into his words. "I'm going to count backward from ten. When I reach the end, you'll wake up, and you'll remember everything. Okay? Ten, nine, eight..."

As Cuthbert finishes counting, Susan opens her eyes and looks around at them all.

[the_seafarer]

He smiles at her, slight. "Hello again," he murmurs.

[sai_delgado]

Alain squeezes her fingers and lets go, and as he does Susan turns to put her arms around Caspian and hold him tight. "I'm all right," she tries to reassure him. "I'm all right, say true."

[the_seafarer]

He presses his face into her shoulder and curves a hand at the back of her head, an arm tight around her waist, and doesn't give a damn what the gunslingers might think. "Yes," he whispers.

She is, and she isn't. But she's not hurt, and her mind is clear again – as clear as it can be, today. "I'm glad, Su. You've done so bravely, dear."

[sai_delgado]

Cuthbert takes the opportunity to put the bullet back in his gun with careful concentration, more than might actually be needed. Alain studies his boots, giving them all the privacy there is to be had here.

Susan hugs Caspian, and lets him hold on to her for a moment or two before she shifts and settles against his side, into the curve of his arm.

"It weren't Rhea," she says, definitely. "It were just a dream. So at least we ken that."

"We do," Alain says, "but it might have been more than just a dream. Especially here."

[the_seafarer]

"Especially now," Caspian adds, his arm around Susan. There's been some talk around the bar of especially vibrant and real-feeling dreams over the last few days; visits from friends and family who have passed on. Some patrons seem convinced they weren't actually dreams at all.

[sai_delgado]

"There's that," Cuthbert agrees, with a nod to Caspian and Alain both. "I suppose we could always seek out the Lord Morpheus and ask--"

Susan stiffens and shakes her head. "I'd rather not trouble him, say true," she says, firmly.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian looks to the gunslingers. "Whether it was only a dream," he says, "or more than a dream, has it told us anything not already known? To me, it seems to confirm your thoughts, Cuthbert, Alain – that it would likely be wise to be away from the door this night."

[sai_delgado]

"Hear, hear," Cuthbert says, and it's more than a little grim. He turns to Susan. "Alain and I had some thoughts about that, and we've talked them over with your - with Caspian, here. There's a bit of a tradition we've kept over the last ten years or so, and if you'll allow, we'll keep it with you, tonight."

Susan eyes him. "Say on, 'Bert, do." Her glance travels over all of them. "Or one of ye should, anyway."