"Ettinsmoor? Is that what we're calling it now?" Imira asked.
"Better than 'the northern lands the Ettins inhabit' don't you think?" Peter asked in return.
"I suppose it's catchy," she agreed. "So what do we do now?"
Peter looked around the room...
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Chervy had never run so fast in his life. He jumped over streams, leapt over fallen trees and rocks. He was a blur and the world was a blur as he dashed across Narnia to reach Cair Paravel. In some instances, it felt as if his hooves weren't even touching the ground. How he managed a journey that would have taken any rider a day in six hours, not even he could comprehend. His heart pounded rapidly and his muscles nearly gave up, but his pace remained steady even as he raced through the gates of Cair Paravel. He had a purpose he was near fulfilling, he could rest later.
He crossed the tall tunnel that was the outer gate and got as far as the inner gate before the guards stopped him.
"Halt! What's yer business 'ere?" the guard, a brown minotaur on the older spectrum, asked.
"A message..." The stag heaved, "I bring an urgent message for the Queen," he managed before collapsing.
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Cair Paravel felt empty. It was not just running on a minimum guard force but everywhere you looked, Narnians were missing. At council meetings, half of the members were not present; at royal audiences, peasants barely showed up; at dinners, more than half of the seats remained unclaimed. Even in the stables horses were missing. Almost all of the fauns and dryads were gone, off celebrating high summer at the dancing lawn with Baccus and the maenads. Very few men remained, most had gone north with Peter, so the court was currently comprised mostly of ladies, mermaids and children.
But it wasn't a sad, gloomy, depressing sort of emptiness that was felt throughout Cair Paravel. Despite the circumstances that brought the emptiness, the atmosphere of the castle was one of tranquillity. The sun shone, the birds chirped happily in the fountain, the gardens flourished, and the latest news from the front were promising.
Lucy finished her breakfast —which she had been enjoying on the stone gazebo out in the eastern gardens amongst the white roses since her siblings left— and headed for her first morning meeting. Talks about the war, maintaining the supply line, and taxes occupied all of her morning. After a much-needed break and lunch with some friends, she returned to more meetings: representatives of the Lone Islands's merchant guild were waiting.
