The Lost Queen (a Caspian Romance)

5. Kings and Queens Galore

When Zoelle awoke, the sky above was dark without even the moon to light it. She stayed very still for a long time, waiting and listening for any sound. When she was finally convinced that there were only the sounds of the horses and other ordinary night noises, she sat up. Moving carefully, she rose to her feet and slipped down to the horses. Selecting a white mare, she mounted, gripping the horse's round shoulders with her knees.

Patting the horse's neck, she whispered, "Come now. We must go."

Instantly, the horse broke into a gallop. Shouts rose up as the horse's great hooves pounded along the cobblestone, but it was a swift mare; she moved faster than lightning as she carried Zoelle from the stables into the woods, following the same path Caspian himself had taken just the day before. The Narnian air whipping about Zoelle's face and hair was deliciously cool, like taking a sip of water from a high mountain stream when the sun has only just risen. Zoelle felt strength and courage restored to her in that air, the air that knew her so well.

Although the going for the next several days was hard, she at last found, to her own great surprise, a trail. It seemed to have come from dwarves in a great hurry. She followed this trail for two more days before coming to the Fords of Beruna, where she found Telmarines at work on a bridge.

Quickly retreating, she circled the area from afar and at last found another trail. Something in her knew, even if nothing was proving it, that something important was about to take place. Her heart hammered in her chest as she pushed the mare to a gallop. The earsplitting clanging of swords had reached her ears as well as the frustrated cries of those in the fight.

It took about three minutes for her to reach the scene. Caspian was standing, attempting to pull a sword out of a tree while another, not much older than him, was swinging a rock in the air to hit his head.

"Caspian!" she shouted just as a little girl, who had been hiding behind a bush, cried, "No, stop!"

Zoelle quickly dismounted as a few hundred Narnians appeared. Rushing forward, she wrapped her arms around Caspian.

Caspian accepted her embrace, but quickly pulled away, keeping hold of her gently by the shoulders as he demanded, "Are you all right? What did Miraz do to you?"

"It does not matter now," Zoelle said quickly with a smile, sniffling slightly as tears of delight rolled down her cheeks.

"Thank Aslan you're safe," Caspian said, embracing her again.

The other boy was staring at the two of them with an unreadable expression on his face, but his brows were furrowed slightly as though in thought.

Finally looking from Zoelle to Caspian, the oldest boy said, "Prince Caspian?"

"Yes," he replied. "And who are you?"

"Peter!" a voice cried from behind them.

"Adelaide?" another surprised voice said from behind them.

Zoelle turned and saw two more people, one hardly younger than the boy and another who looked still younger, but not as young as the little girl. The last to appear was a dwarf, the very same who had been taken with her to Miraz's castle.

"You," she said in surprise. "How did you-"

"Another time I can explain," the dwarf said shortly.

"High King Peter," Caspian said, looking from the sword to the eldest boy.

"I believe you called," Peter replied.

"Well, yes, but...I thought you'd be older," Caspian admitted.

Rolling her eyes, Zoelle hit his arm.

Fighting back a smile as he glanced at Zoelle, Peter said, "Well, if you like, we could come back in a few years."

"No, no that's all right," Caspian said. "You're just...not exactly what I expected."

"Neither are you," the younger boy, who Zoelle knew had to be Edmund, said.

"A common enemy unites even the oldest of foes," a badger said.

Turning to Edmund, Zoelle said, "You called me Adelaide. Why?"

Edmund hesitated, glancing at Peter before he said, "You look like someone we once knew."

Zoelle nodded but said nothing.

"We have anxiously awaited your return, my liege," a large mouse said, approaching the group of kings and queens. "Our hearts and swords are at your service."

"Oh my gosh, he's so cute," Lucy whispered to Susan.

"Who said that?" Reep shouted, drawing his sword and rounding on them.

"Sorry," Lucy said meekly.

"Oh, uh," he said in surprise. "Your majesty, with the greatest respect, I do believe courageous, courteous, or chivalrous might more befit a knight of Narnia."

"Well, at least we know some of you can handle a blade," Peter said.

"Yes indeed," Reep said as Caspian threw an annoyed look at Peter.

With a sympathetic sigh, Zoelle slipped her hand into his, giving it a comforting squeeze. Caspian looked up at her with a slightly surprised look, but she had looked away from him and back to the others while running her thumb over his hand comfortingly. Caspian felt his ill temper dissipate.

"And I have recently put it to good use," Reep was saying, "securing weapons for your army, sire."

"You mean Caspian's army," Zoelle said sharply.

Everyone looked up at her, some with looks of shock and others with looks of outrage.

"I don't recall asking the Telmarine for her opinion," Reep said.

"I am not a Telmarine!" Zoelle shouted, letting go of Caspian's hand and stepping forward. Releasing a long sigh, she met their eyes with a far calmer expression as she said in a clear, ringing voice, "I am the only daughter of Lady Adelaide, daughter to the Berunan River God."

"How?" Peter asked, barely keeping his emotions in check. "Adelaide had to have died thousands of years ago."

"She did," Zoelle retorted. "My mother died two years before the Telmarines attacked."

The badger drew in a sharp gasp, staring at her with new eyes before approaching her. Taking her hand, he kissed it and knelt.

"Queen Zoelle," he said in his earthy voice. "We had long thought you had disappeared like your father, but...here you are."

Peter had gone deathly pale.

In little more than a whisper, he said, "Adelaide said she had something important to tell me when we got back from the hunt."

Susan, Edmund, and Lucy looked at him in surprise. He was staring at Zoelle as though looking at a ghost. Dropping the rock still held in his hands, he rushed forward, pulling her into his arms. Zoelle couldn't keep back her tears as she held her father for the first time in her life.

"You looked after Narnia all these years?" Peter said, his voice thick with emotion.

"I tried," she said, her voice quickly being reduced to sobs. "I tried to be like you, Papa. I tried to protect them, but I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't strong enough."

"Sh, sh, it's all right," Peter said, holding her closer as though he thought she might break.