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“I hate it. I hate this entire business.”
King Edmund of Narnia apparently did not mince his words, even around Nalcheesh, the Calormene guard. Nalcheesh relied on his strict training and held his ground, his eyes focused on the opposite wall of the private chambers located within the newly established Narnian Embassy.
In turn, the Narnian Ambassador to Calormen didn’t say anything at first, but instead shoved the bowl of pickled garlic towards King Edmund. “It is all to Narnia’s benefit.”
“More to Calormen’s, more like,” the king retorted.
“It’s not too late, is it?” The Raven called Sallowpad ruffled his feathers. Nalcheesh still had not gotten used to the Raven’s extraordinary size, let alone the fact that fully formed speech came forth from its strong beak. “Perhaps Archenland can be reconsidered, and a meeting with King Lune—“
They were interrupted at the arrival of the faun Tumnus—another creature that still startled Nalcheesh, despite being more familiar with the faun’s presence.
“Where is she?” the king demanded.
The faun was breathless. “Your Majesty, she wasn’t in her rooms this morning. I checked in at the crack of dawn, but there has been no sign of her. The maidens claim ignorance to her whereabouts.”
“What do you mean? Where could she have gone?” the ambassador asked, raising himself off one of the long, silk cushions encircling the mid-morning feast spread out in the center of the room.
“Could she have been taken?” the Raven added.
The Taken. That was what was being whispered in the alleys and closes of the sprawling desert city. Nalcheesh thought of the many other disappearances in Tashbaan that had been happening as of late—more than usual. It was not openly talked about amongst the general population of the city, and the losses mainly consisted of livestock, but the rise of missing young women had not gone unnoticed by Nalcheesh. Especially since, as per the orders given to him, he had a part in nearly one-third of these disappearances.
But Nalcheesh said nothing. He stood his ground as he had been trained to do, and had been doing in twenty years of service to the Tisroc.
The ambassador was not as poised, taking a step closer to Tumnus the faun. “Do we know for a fact she returned to her rooms last night?”
Indeed, Nalcheesh knew for a fact that she did not. The news of her not being in her rooms was not the least bit surprising—he had personally escorted her elsewhere the evening before. What was surprising, however, was that he was not outside the very same door he was ordered to take the queen to, guarding it as were his habitual orders. In the two months since her arrival, Nalcheesh had never been more than twenty feet from the Queen of Narnia. Where she slept, he slept in the next room. Where she ate, he ate at the circle to her side. Where she bathed, he sat on the opposite side of the reeded screen.
This morning’s unexpected reassignment of duties to escort the king of Narnia instead had Nalcheesh slightly on edge.
In the meantime, the ambassador was not done with his interrogation of the faun. “Have you checked—“
He was interrupted by the abrupt opening of the door. The Narnian Queen Susan entered, looking pale despite the mid-summer sun that had colored her cheeks since her arrival earlier in the Calormen summer. Dombreh, a younger, temperamental guard followed behind, closing the door behind him and taking the post on the other side of the door from Nalcheesh.
“Good morning,” the queen stiffly said. She looked around the room, observing her surroundings. Despite having been in Tashbaan for months, this was the first time the queen had stepped foot in the Embassy. Nalcheesh knew, of course—again, he had been her personal escort since she arrived. Up until yesterday evening, he thought, his mustache twitching in annoyance.
Edmund frowned at her slightly disheveled state. “And good morning to you,” he carefully said.
Susan crossed to the cushion by the window and gingerly eased herself down, gripping tightly on the marble sill for support, not lifting her gaze to any of the present company.
The ambassador seemed to finally collect himself. “Your Majesty,” he said, bowing deep before the Narnian queen.
It occurred to Nalcheesh that this was the first time the ambassador and the queen had been in the same room. Indeed, it was the first time the queen had been allowed anywhere near the embassy, he realized, having not stepped foot in the building since spring. Strange, considering this had been her permanent assignment since the Narnian embassy’s opening two years prior.
“It is good to see you again. My Lord,” the queen quietly replied, briefly meeting his eyes before bowing her head again.
“Yes. It has been years,” the ambassador said. He paused before once again taking his seat, the faun and the Raven following his lead and joining in the circle.
King Edmund shared a look with the ambassador before turning to Nalcheesh and other Calormene guard. “Thank you, we are fine here. You may go.”
Nalcheesh clicked his heels, ready to bow, but Dombreh wanted nothing of it. “The great Tisroc, may he live forever, demands the barbarian queen should not be—“
“And His Majesty King Edmund of Narnia and all of Barbaria has said otherwise,” Edmund clipped out. “We are in the Narnian Embassy, and thus on Narnian soil. You may go.”
After a slight hesitation, both soldiers gave a quick bow and filed out. Sallowpad flew to the floor and tapped the door shut with his strong beak behind Nalcheesh, his heel and the curved sword at his back barely clearing the threshold in time.
He turned to Dombreh. At a nod, they split in different directions—Nalcheesh to the left, Dombreh to the right. He went not ten paces before pushing on the stone panel and slipping into the dark, narrow passage the hidden doorway revealed. With a gentle push, the panel closed behind him, and he took his place. He had to stand taller in order to see through the wall crack and the fine, horizontal tear in the tapestry on the other side, but he was rewarded with a clear view of the room from where he had just been summarily dismissed.
Apparently, he hadn’t missed much in the few seconds it took to get into place. The queen, however, did seem a bit more at ease now that he and Dombreh had left.
Nalcheesh thought back to the time he first laid eyes on the foreign queen. He had already been well established as a permanent guard in the Narnian Embassy, being posted in the office of the ambassador and being privy to the private discussions held there.
The queen had been of extreme interest to those in Tashbaan, and the Tisroc, may he live forever, sent delegates to that foreign land, upon the recommendation of the ambassador. And they had spoken highly of Queen Susan upon their return to the Tisroc, may he live forever, and his sons. And then Rabadash, the favored son himself had journeyed to Cair Paravel for the spring tournaments, and, according to the rumors, had won the interest of the queen.
“I finally have use of you, Ambassador,” the Prince Rabadash had said upon his return to Calormen. He still remembered the prince’s hardened face and hungry eyes as he sat before the ambassador. “Bring the Queen Susan here.”
And she was sent for and there was much commotion in Tashbaan upon her arrival. Was this to be the new princess to the prince? Indeed, the rumors were true—she was beautiful. Queen Susan vaguely reminded Nalcheesh of his own dearly departed wife, both in her beauty and her spirit. However, the queen’s demeanor had changed in the two months since her arrival.
“Would you like some tea, your Majesty?” Tumnus offered, crouching down for the tin pot on the low fire.
“Yes, please, Mr. Tumnus.”
As the faun poured the steaming tea into the wide, delicate mouth of the Calomene porcelain cup, the queen fidgeted as an uncomfortably silence settled in the room. She reached for the bowl of sugar, her hands noticeably shaking.
“I wish you all would stop looking at me like that,” she said. The coin of sugar slipped from the delicate silver tongs and crumbled on the elaborate rug.
Edmund slowly rose up from the low cushion onto his knees, grabbing a bowl of plump olives. “Word was it the you disappeared last night. Forgive us if we were a bit worried.”
“Well, you needn’t be,” Queen Susan tersely snapped, but immediately softened. “I have the guards with me at all times, I’m never out of their sight unless I’m with—with…” The queen clutched at her pale throat and glanced the door. “I’m sorry. This… this wasn’t what I was expecting. Any of it.”
“Why, is it better than you thought?” Edmund asked, his dark brow raised sardonically.
She didn’t answer. The ambassador looked towards the king, not masking his glare.
King Edmund poked the pit out of an olive, and popped it into his mouth. After a couple of thoughtful chews, he swallowed, cleared his throat and said, “Susan.”
Nalcheesh watched the queen take a breath before turning her head to look at her brother.
“Have you been to the gardens, Susan?” the king gently asked.
Susan looked more nervous than before, and glanced quickly at the very tapestry Nalcheesh was standing behind.
So she knew. The queen was smarter than she presented herself as being to Rabadash, for certain. Why did she hide these aspects from him? For what… safety and survival, perhaps? Nalcheesh muffled a grunt. He did not blame her.
Though the queen knew the room had ears, it was a shame she did not know it also had eyes. She was lucky it wasn’t Dombreh in this passage today—there was a reason why he turned left. Dombreh could only hear what was being said from his spot on the opposite wall.
“The—the gardens. I’ve only been the one time,” she said, not being able to meet neither the king nor the ambassador’s eyes. “Far too many roses for my liking. So many thorns.” The queen paused. “I…I wasn’t ready for it.”
“You didn’t want to go, Su?”
The queen nervously turned the cup of tea in her hands. Some sloshed on her hands, having not taken a single drink of it yet. “No.”
There was a moment where no one spoke. The queen kept her eyes down, the king kept his on his sister, and the ambassador slowly looked from one to the other, apprehension apparently in his eyes. The tension was palpable, even through a tapestry and a thick stone wall.
“I thought as much,” King Edmund finally said, and offered her the bowl of olives which she slowly took off his hands. Then, the king looked up at the ambassador and gestured to the door with his head.
The ambassador rose from his seat. “Tumnus, Sallowpad, let us leave their Majesties to catch up. We shall reconvene in the courtyard downstairs.”
“I will be with you shortly,” King Edmund said to him, though his eyes remained on his sister. “And Peridan? Don’t forget your cloak.”
Nalcheesh watched the ambassador, who did not even bother looking over his shoulder to see that his cloak was already quite firmly attached by a brooch. Instead, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Edmund slowly lower his hand, his thumb touching his middle finger, with a quick twist of his wrist. Nalcheesh nearly missed it and nearly avoided disaster.
The discreet signal shocked him to alertness, and he took a step back, grazing his head on the wall behind him, his helmet giving off a dull thunk! The time had come—had finally come.
Nalcheesh stepped closer to the wall, just catching the Raven swoop through the doorway with he faun closely following, the door clicking quietly behind them. The guard turned his gaze back toward the queen, who was starting absentmindedly out the window at the markets down below as her brother slowly eased down to sit next to her, grabbing for her hand.
At the lone knock at the door, Nalcheesh quickly opened it, allowing the Lord Peridan into the tight squeeze of the room.
With what little light bled through into the tight space, Nalcheesh could see the ambassador wound up as tight as Queen Susan’s infamous bow. He relinquished his spot so Lord Peridan could get a view. They stood quietly, with the soft glow of the light from the chambers illuminating the ambassador’s unblinking, steely eyes.
“I hate the roses, Edmund,” Nalcheesh was still able to hear her say.
“Shhh, Susan,” replied the king. “You won’t have to go back there.”
“How can you promise that? You don’t—“
“I can and I have. Consider it already done. We just need to wait for awhile—it’s best you eat something now.”
The ambassador closed his eyes, let out a shuddering breath, taking a moment before opening the panel to exit the tight quarters. In the light of the hallway, the Calormene guard saw the faun and the Raven quietly waiting, and Nalcheesh slipped through the opening to join them.
“Now,” Peridan, the First Lord of Narnia, Narnian Ambassador to Calormen whispered to Nalcheesh and the faun. He signaled silently to Sallowpad, who found a nook to huddle in and keep watch in the hall as the ambassador quickly strode towards the stairwell. The faun click-clacked in the opposite direction, slipping down the stairwell at the other end of the hallway.
Nalcheesh could barely breathe. Now. What seemed improbable was actually going to happen. Nalcheesh could never have dreamed that the decision and execution could ever happen this fast. In the years of dreaming, and in these two months of hope and the actual planning from the very moment of the queen’s arrival…
Now it was time for Nalcheesh to finally leave this Tash-forsaken place. It was time for the greener lands and a hopeful future that he could finally provide for his daughter. It was finally time for them to go to the faraway land of Narnia, the land that the faun Tumnus had taught him so much about in the years he served in Tashbaan, and that the ambassador had since supplemented for the past two years while Nalcheesh served in the embassy. Perhaps he will meet this Aslan.
And it was time for his daughter, his dear and beautiful Atkaheen, to escape the same fate her mother met, nor of those other poor girls throughout the city and its province.
Freedom for the Queen Susan of Narnia meant freedom for Atkaheen, only daughter of Major Nalcheesh of the Army of the Tisroc, may he perish in misery.
There was much to do—the horses to secure, to retrieve the stash of supplies from the floor of his daughter’s room, and to bring her to the prearranged rendezvous point. The Narnians had promised passage for both of them in reward for his service. But Nalcheesh knew deep in his heart his service to Narnia was just beginning.
But first…
Nalcheesh made his way to behind Dombreh’s corridor, drawing the sword from his back and opening its unknown second hidden door in one swift, silent movement.
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us." — Henry David Thoreau.