Heroic Hearts: A Chronicles of Narnia Fanfiction

The Slave Market of Narrowhaven

A cast iron door clanked as it was thrown open. The foul smelling man shoved me into the space, sending me into the opposite wall with a growling laugh. He spit at my feet, the golden torchlight wavering against the black.

"Stay in there or we'll throw you to the deep," he threatened, dragging his burly hand under his nose. 

"Wait! Wait!" I screeched, rushing the bars of my cell and shaking them. "Where am I? Come back here!"

A door clanged shut and I was entombed once again in darkness. With a shaky breath, I ran a hand over my ponytail and paced back to the opposite wall. My nails dug into the wall and I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the floor to stop rolling. 

"I'm dreaming, this is a dream," I whispered. "I need to wake myself up..."

But everything smelled so real. The rank scent of unwashed bodies and rotting fish filled my nostrils as well as the overwhelming scent of the sea. If I didn't know any better, I would have said I was in the hold of a ship.

"Be quiet or they will do what they are threatening," a small voice spoke in the darkness.

I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the dimness. The faint glow of a full moon radiated from a grate in the ceiling. I scanned the hold.

"Hello?"

"Be quiet," the voice repeated.

A figure approached the bars in the cell across from me. It was a young girl, maybe twelve or thirteen, with lank curls and a dirt smudged face. She pressed a finger to her lips.

"Whisper if you must," she said.

I nodded, eyes wide and mouth ajar with horror. "What is this place?"

"Were you knocked unconcious when they took you?"

"Took me?"

She eyed me, her gaze running the length of my body. "You aren't from Felimath. You're too well dressed and clean. Are you a cast off from a merchant family on Avra?"

"What?"

With an aggavated sigh, she motioned to my dress. "You were just taken, weren't you?"

"Taken by who?"

"The slavers."

I gaped at her. "What is happening?"

"They are taking us to Doorn for the market. Most of the slave sales have gone underground ever since the Kings and Queens at Cair Paravel took their thrones. Seems like we are the last unlucky ones to be sold on the block."

All the names were entirely foreign to me. Perhaps I had fallen inside the wardrobe and hit my head. Or maybe I was sleeping behind the counter at the shop. 

Or perhaps the wardrobe, with it's strange carvings, was more than it seemed. Was that why Susan had searched for it her whole life? Trying to get back to wherever this was?

The whole thing was so improbable, I let out a hysterical laugh and gripped the bars. "Where am I?"

The girl shook her head. "Not even a day in captivity and you're already loony. No matter. A healthy girl like you will sell to a rich house for a good bit. Not like me, I'm surely to be sent to the docks and only Aslan knows what will happen to me from there."

Out of all the strange names and phrases the girl had used, that one caught my attention. I shivered at the sound, suddenly feeling like I was standing outside on a moonlit December night, the pine branches around me fragrant and the clean sweep of snow before me gleaming like diamonds. I let out my breath, half expecting it to materialize with cold.