The High Seas [ᴘʀɪɴᴄᴇ ᴄᴀsᴘɪᴀɴ]

V.

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          A THROBBING SENSATION HAD STARTED POUNDING AGAINST HER SKULL AND RANI FELT HER EYES STRUGGLE TO OPEN. Faintly, she could hear the distant cry of her name, by whom she had no idea. She tried to swallow, only to realise her throat was parched and mouth was as dry as a bone. A small groan slipped past her lips as she rolled her head to try and ease the pain.

  "Rani?" A hand grasped her arm and another framed her face, taking ahold of her chin, none too gently either. "Thank goodness you're waking up."

  "What—" Rani coughed once, blinking rapidly now. "What happened?"

  A silence followed her answer and her eyes had finally adjusted to the light. Lucy's pale, frightened face was the first thing she saw, and beside her sat an equally terrified Eustace. Both of them were staring at her with equal measures of concern marrying their features.

  "Are you both alright?" Her voice was croaky but it still managed to bring the two cousins out of their stupor.

  Lucy smiled at that and nodded before her eyebrows furrowed once more. "You've got a nasty gash there, Rani, it ought to be cleaned soon. And, well, you've been unconscious for... well, quite a while." She gnawed at her bottom lip before reaching out to grasp Rani's hand. "I was worried you weren't going to wake up."

  Sending an assuring smile back at the younger girl, Rani couldn't help but feel her heart swell at the tenderness in Lucy's eyes. She squeezed her hand tightly and gave a weak laugh. "Don't worry Lucy, I'm awake now."

  Lucy and Eustace both smiled at her, although Eustace's looked more like a pained grimace. It was only then that she realised, they were in chains, shackled and sat against a wall. And they weren't the only ones.

  "Wait," a sudden realisation struck her, "where's Caspian and Edmund?"

  "I don't know," Lucy mumbled, her voice quiet.

  Half-heartedly, Rani attempted to wriggle her wrists free of the iron cuffs but gave up when she realised they were secured too tightly to even try. It was hopeless.

  She turned back to her two companions only to find their eyes pinned on a cart bumbling their way. Her head still buzzing slightly, Rani turned her attention to the cart, straining to see what had entrapped them so.

  "Mummy!" A girls voice called out.

  The cart rolled past them and Rani felt her eyes widen as she took in what sat within it. It was full of people, and the armoured man running behind them left no doubt in her mind that they had been caught by slave traders.
  Almost instantly, she felt her gaze fall upon the other man running after the cart in an almost maddened panic. His eyes were wide and his arms outstretched, flailing as he stumbled after the cart.