serendipity - narnia

chapter 39

Chapter 39
The Winged Interloper

As they crossed the beach to greet the others reloading the longboats, Caspian and Dahlia could sense the hopelessness hanging over their crew. The king and the mage glanced at each other, both thinking the same thing - they were running out of options.

"What food did you find?" Caspian asked as they reached the longboats. Dahlia sighed as she peered down at the few wicker baskets of food they collected, each one holding less than the next.

"It's volcanic, Your Majesty. Not much grows," Rhince replied apologetically, gesturing at their meager findings. Caspian turned to Dahlia, but he barely had time to open his mouth before she cut him off.

"I can't just create food out of thin air, Cas. If I could, I would have done it already. And even if there was a spell or something, it would require a lot more strength and energy than I have at the moment," the mage said apologetically, holding up the hands she so deeply wished had the power to take care of the crew's starvation.

"Right," Caspian said with a sigh, glancing back at their exhausted crew before returning his gaze to the mage. "Well we certainly don't want you overworking yourself. We'd be lost without our mage." There were about a thousand more unsaid words behind the look he gave her, but everyone else was too tired or preoccupied to pay it any attention.

"Where's Eustace?" Lucy asked, scanning the beach. Quite honestly, with everything that had just happened, Dahlia hadn't even noticed that the boy was gone. From the looks on Caspian and Edmund's faces, they hadn't either.

"I believe he's out not helping us load the boats," Reepicheep replied bitterly. Lucy turned back to the rocky cliffs behind them and called the boy's name a few times, but was only met with the sound of hissing steam from the fissures covering the ground.

"Edmund, I've got a bad feeling," the young queen said as she turned back to her brother. Dahlia let out an irritated huff and put a hand on Lucy's arm.

"Get back to the Dawn Treader, I'll handle it," Dahlia said, giving Lucy a gentle shove towards the longboats. She didn't actually want to handle it, she was just looking forward to lecturing Eustace about running off alone whenever she found him.

"I'll go, Lia, you stay here," Edmund tried to reason. "I may not be too pleased about the relation but he's my cousin, not yours."

"Don't make me pull the 'you're the closest thing I have to family' card, Ed. Either you get in a longboat or I float you into one myself. No, just listen," Dahlia continued when Edmund opened his mouth to argue. "It's my job to keep you out of harm's way as often as possible, and usually when Lucy has a bad feeling it's for a reason." Dahlia waited for Edmund to argue again, but thankfully he conceded and went to help the crew finish loading the boats.

The mage patted Lucy's shoulder with a reassuring smile and started walking back the way they'd come in search of Eustace. Behind her, Caspian handed Lord Restimar's sword to Lucy and jogged over to the mage, quickly falling into step with her.

"Cas-"

"I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."

"But-"

"Don't make me pull the 'I'm your king' card," Caspian said with a sly smile. The mage just rolled her eyes and gently knocked him to the side with a small puff of air. The pair continued walking around the island, calling Eustace's name to no avail. Dahlia's legs ached in protest as they moved along the uneven ground, and the mage found herself wishing she'd just let Edmund do the searching.

"Maybe I really should've just pushed him back into the ocean." Caspian glanced at her, eyebrow raised. "I'm kidding! Mostly." They stopped short a second later, staring down at the small valley ahead of them - it was full of gold. Chests, jewels, armor, filling the entire chasm as far out as they could see. "Having seen what gold can do on this island, that's probably a bad sign," the mage said as she scanned the piles of treasure for the lost boy. Caspian nodded towards the valley and Dahlia flew down; something caught her eye as soon as she landed, but it wasn't any of the treasure.