Part 2
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Lucy tried not to stare at Sam.
They were swimming in the waters around the ship, and the salty breezes were ruffling their hair gently, and the warm sun was shining brightly over their heads, making for very good swimming weather. Lucy had found a plain dress in one of the trunks that she wore for swimming – it was just a simple dark blue dress, with no patterns and flourishes like her other one, and it was one she didn’t mind getting soaked with salt water. Sam, however, went shirtless, and while Lucy had been swimming with her brothers before, this was entirely different. She was extremely embarrassed by the fact that she kept wanting to look at Sam, but she figured it was normal – Susan had told her it was, anyway. Even if it was, it still embarrassed Lucy to no end, so she did her absolute best to keep her eyes either on the cool, rippling waters around her or on the pale, beautiful sky above them. She could tell Sam had no idea about her uncomfortable predicament, and for that she was grateful.
“So where did you come from?” Sam asked. “Before we came here.”
“I lived in London,” she told him. “With my brothers and sister. We went to live with Professor Kirke for a while during the war, and then with our Aunt Alberta and Uncle Harold, but we’re back at home now-”
“Wait,” Sam interrupted. “The war? What war? The War on Terror?”
Confused, Lucy asked, “What’s that? I’ve never heard of that war…”
Sam eyed her strangely for a moment, making her blush, even though she honestly had no idea what the War on Terror was; if they had learned about it in school, she’d totally missed that lesson. Perhaps it was an American war that the teacher had not bothered to teach them about, but she doubted it.
“The war in Afghanistan,” Sam said slowly. “The war that’s going on right now, and has been for, like, ten years or something like that. Have you been living under a rock?”
Still mortified, Lucy shrugged weakly. “No, but I’ve never heard of a war called that. I didn’t even know America was having problems with Afghanistan, Sam.”
Sam gave a disbelieving laugh, and then a strange look came over his face. “Lucy, what year was it back in London?”
“1943,” she answered, growing alarmed as Sam’s eyes widened. “Sam? What is it?”
“Um…” he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “You sure?”
“Yes, of course,” she said impatiently. “What’s bothering you?”
“It was 2011 back in California before I came here, Lucy,” Sam said gravely, windmilling his arms a few times to stay afloat.
She gaped at him, stunned. “2011?!” she demanded, unable to believe it. “How is that possible, Sam? It was 1943, I swear it!”
Sam shrugged nonchalantly, though his blue eyes were shadowed. Lucy searched for any signs that he might just be playing around, but she saw none, which concerned her greatly. If Sam wasn’t lying – and if what he said was really true – then what kind of place was this, really? If what Sam said was true, then it had brought three worlds and three different time periods together into one place, defying all the rules of the world. Was something like that even possible? It made Lucy’s brain hurt just to think about how that might work.
“Incredible,” she said softly, tipping her head back to look up at the creamy sky, pushing all the strange thoughts of alternate times and worlds from her head and focusing instead on the warmth of the sun on her skin, the lapping of the small waves against her collarbone, and the little, warm sun of joy that had coalesced inside of her.
They were silent for a while, enjoying the water and each other’s company. It was the third time they had gone swimming, mostly because there was little to do on the ship and on hot days, it was wonderful to be able to just jump off the elegant boat and into the crystalline waters below. The only thing that was missing now were her brothers and sister.
“So what do you think of Caine so far?” Sam asked a while later, a tangible edge to his voice. Lucy looked at him in sympathy, knowing that Sam disliked his twin brother greatly. She didn’t know why, honestly; Caine had seemed perfectly normal to her, if only a little bit mistrustful. But then, Sam had been at first as well. He was warming up to her now, Lucy knew, and he and Caspian were pretty good friends already, too. They liked each other well enough, at any rate, and for that, she was glad; it would have made for a miserable time if the boys had decided they didn’t like each other. She was unsure about how Caine and Caspian would react to each other, if what Sam said about Caine was at all true. Lucy hoped it wasn’t; she would hate it if Caine turned out to be as selfish and cruel as Sam had made him out to be.
“I like him well enough so far,” Lucy said, determined that she wouldn’t judge Caine until she had seen for herself what he was really like. Sam have a disbelieving laugh at her statement and assured her, “Just wait ‘till you get to know him; you’ll hate him just as much as I do then.”
Sad, Lucy said softly, “I don’t hate anyone, Sam.”
“You’ll hate Caine,” he replied stubbornly.
Lucy pressed her lips into a thin line and didn’t reply, knowing it would turn into a full argument if she kept on, and she didn’t want to argue with Sam. He apparently sensed her hesitation, for he relented gently, “Right, sorry. I should know by now that that’s true enough; I don’t think you’re capable of hating anyone, Lucy.” His mouth tipped up in a wry smile, making Lucy blush as she realised how handsome she thought he was when he smiled like that. “But I’m warning you,” he went on, “Caine’s not the saint you think he is.”
“I’ll judge that for myself, Sam.”
He laughed, the edges of his eyes crinkling as he did. “All right then!” he exclaimed. “You just wait. Let Caine show you what kind of monster he really is, and then we’ll see what you think.”
Lucy smiled back, knowing that Caine would have to be very horrible indeed for her initial opinion of him to change. But then, she realised, stranger things had happened.
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“Wait, wait, wait,” Skandar said, holding up a hand to motion for Samantha to stop. “You think you saw Vanessa Talydon in my room? How the heck would she have gotten there, Samantha? I would have known if my best friend had come over to my house.”
Samantha, Skandar’s ten-year-old sister, had come streaking down the stairs a few minutes ago, screaming that Vanessa – Skandar’s best friend – was in Skandar’s room, and that she had disappeared magically a moment later, like she had never been there at all. Skandar felt that Samantha had been watching too many horror movies or something, and that they were all still floating about in her brain, making her imagine things. But Samantha was insistent – she was completely, 100% convinced that Vanessa Talydon had been in Skandar’s room a few minutes ago.
“Yes!” Samantha said impatiently, her cheeks flushed. “She was there; I saw her, Skandar! She was right there!”
“And she magically poofed away?” Skandar asked, wiggling her fingers in an abracadabra motion.
Samantha pouted at her, looking angry and hurt. “I’m not crazy, Skandar. I saw her.”
“Uh huh. And I’m the grand potentate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
“What?” Samantha looked confused.
“Never mind.” Skandar waved her hand dismissively. “Sammie, people – especially Vanessas – can’t just mysteriously appear in people’s bedrooms and then poof themselves out again. It’s not logically, or mathematically, or grammatically correct, okay? That’s not how the world works. Therefore, you must have imagined her,” Skandar concluded, crossing her arms and making perfectly logical sense to herself.
Samantha threw her arms up in despair. “Why don’t you just call and ask her?”
Skandar doubled over laughing. “Call and ask Vanessa if she poofed into my room and back out again when you came in? No way! Then she’ll think I’m crazy, Sammie! If anyone’s gonna call her, it’s gonna be you, honey.”
Her sister sighed dramatically and muttered, “But she’s your friend…”
“You’re the one who thinks you saw her in my room,” Skandar reminded her pointedly.
Samantha groaned and then pulled out her phone, scrolling through her contacts. Skandar couldn’t believe she was going to actually call Vanessa; Samantha must’ve thought she really saw Vanessa in Skandar’s room. Skandar shook her head; what was up with her sister? Maybe she was starting to hallucinate or something. Either way, Skandar would have to call Vanessa herself later and they would have a good laugh about it.
“Put it on speaker,” Skandar advised, still chuckling. She wanted to hear this.
Samantha obliged grudgingly. The phone rang a few times, and then they heard Vanessa’s voice say warily, “Hello?”
“Hey, Vanessa. It’s Samantha,” Skandar’s sister said, sounding nervous.
There was a long silence, which Skandar found intriguing. Then, Vanessa said, “Yeah, and?”
“Um…” Samantha stuttered. “Well, the thing is…I mean…I…Were you in Skandar’s room a few minutes ago?” Skandar had to cover her mouth to keep from cracking up, but it was hard to supress her laughter. How daft could Samantha get, honestly? Thinking that Vanessa Talydon had poofed in and out of Skandar’s room, honestly!
So, naturally, Skandar was shocked when Vanessa didn’t laugh. Instead, her friend said to Samantha, “Is Skandar there, Samantha?”
Surprised, Samantha looked over at Skandar, who shrugged, curious but also puzzled; why hadn’t Vanessa started laughing like Skandar had expected her to? Why was she asking if Skandar was there instead of answering the question? Skandar motioned for the phone. “Um, yeah, she’s here,” Samantha replied, handing the phone over to her sister.
Skandar took it and darted up to her room, closing the door, locking it, and settling in on her bed before saying to Vanessa, “Craziness, right? I mean, seriously. What’s she thinking?” She laughed, expecting Vanessa to laugh with her, but when she didn’t, Skandar stopped and demanded, “Vanessa? Are you still there?”
“…Yeah.”
“Why aren’t you laughing at my daft sister with me?” There was another long silence, which made Skandar a little worried. This was getting really weird now….
“Vanessa…?”
Still, her friend didn’t answer. “Look,” Skandar said then, getting tired of waiting, “Are you gonna answer me or not? I’ve asked you, like, five questions, and you haven’t answered but one of them. I-”
“Skandar, I was in your room a few minutes ago.”
Stunned into silence, she said nothing. Skandar blinked a few times, and then laughed, saying, “Nice one, Vanessa. But there’s no way I’m falling for that one. It’s not even convincing, like, at all-”
Skandar was suddenly aware of a faint purple tint to her room, one that existed for only half a second. She stopped mid-sentence, however, intrigued by it. But as soon as the purple tint vanished, Vanessa stood before her bed, her phone up to her ear. Skandar clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, scrambling back from Vanessa in shock. “Oh, my…” Skandar gasped, and Vanessa lifted one hand and gave her a small wave.
“Find it convincing now?” Vanessa asked.
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“We can’t just abandon them,” Susan protested, sounding desperate and near tears. Edmund watched her carefully, hoping she wouldn’t start crying in front of him and Peter, because then Peter would ask why she was crying, and while he might accept the answer that she was worried about Lucy, Edmund also knew that Peter suspected and disapproved of Susan’s feelings toward Caspian. Peter was probably glad Caspian was gone, actually.
It had been nearly two hours since Lucy and Caspian had disappeared, and they were nowhere near closer to coming up with a plan for finding them.
“We won’t abandon them,” Peter assured her, looking aghast at the suggestion. Edmund knew he probably was; the insinuation that he would ever stop searching for his favourite sister was a very offensive one to Peter. “We just need to wait until we know where to look and not do anything rash,” he explained calmly.
“If we wait too long, it might be too late,” Susan argued.
“Well, it’s not like we can do anything else,” Peter said helplessly, raking his fingers through his golden hair and looking flustered. Susan huffed and looked away like she couldn’t stand to look at her brother anymore, he was so frustrating.
Edmund kept silent, knowing from experience to keep out of arguments between the oldest Pevensies. But how he wished they would stop arguing! Arguing wouldn’t fix anything, nor would it help them find Lucy and Caspian.
“All I’m saying is that-” Susan started, but at that moment, Edmund suddenly realised that he was sitting on the deck of a ship instead of the smooth, polished floor of Cair Paravel. Salty breezes swirled all about him, bringing back memories of the months at sea with Lucy, Caspian, and Eustace. A bright sun swung overhead, shimmering down in a dazzling manner on the sparkling blue waters that surrounded the ship. Susan and Peter were sitting a few feet away, looking as amazed as Edmund felt. The three of them were silent for a long while, just gaping at the mast and huge purple sail that sprouted from the middle of the deck, the black dragon’s head at the helm of the ship, and the great black wings that were folded along the ribs. Edmund looked around wildly for land, but none met his eyes, to his dismay. Where were they…?
Peter stood up, still squinting up at the purple sail. He looked at it a moment more, and then helped Susan to her feet. She gazed about the deck and asked to no one in particular, “Where are we?”
No one answered.
“Are…are we in Narnia?” Peter ventured after a while, wandering over to the deck and gazing out at the waters. “The ship looks Narnia enough – just like a black Dawn Treader, actually – and the waters do too, but…there’s no land. I can’t tell.”
“Why would we be moved from one place in Narnia to another like that?” Susan asked. “It doesn’t make sense. Maybe we’re not in Narnia.”
“Well, we’re certainly not on Earth,” Edmund piped up, eyeing the whole ship again. Except for the colours, it was exactly identical in every way to the Dawn Treader, making him miss the grand ship and the adventures he’d had upon it even more. “Not in a ship like this.” He ran his hand over the smooth oak railing and then pulled his hand away, a little disturbed; it even felt like the railing of the Dawn Treader.
Thoroughly confused and bewildered, the three Pevensies stood looking at each other, having absolutely no idea where they were, why they were there, or how to get back to Earth or Narnia.
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