A Jewel in the Crown: A Prince Caspian Fanfiction.

Very well, here it goes- My PC fanfic. Keep in mind this is both movie and book canon- much of this first chapter is taken directly from Lewis himself (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, HarperCollins Publishers, 1981) but is given in such a way that I've reworded a lot of it, and italics (as I've used in other stories) won't really work. Hopefully, however, it will be a fun ride.

So, without much ado, I give you the end of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and the beginning of quite another story altogether.

Before them, beyond the pillars, there was the slope of a low hill. And now a door opened in the hillside, and light appeared in the doorway, and a figure came out, and the door shut behind it. The figure carried a light, and this light was really all that they could see distinctly. It came slowly nearer and nearer until at last it stood right at the table opposite them. Now they could see that it was a tall girl, dressed in a single long garment of blue. She was bareheaded, and her long hair hung down her back. And when they looked on her, they knew that before seeing her they had never known what true beauty meant. Some among them thought of the moon reflected on a still sea, and others thought of the dryads of old who were known to dance in the woods where no men walked, and still others called to mind the poem from the elder days which goes, if the scholars know it right,

"An Elven-maid there was of old,
A shining star by day:
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,
Her shoes of silver-grey.

A star was bound upon her brows,
A light was on her hair
As sun upon the golden boughs
In Narnia the fair."

Though the presence of the great lady seemed in a strange way to calm them, for they knew that Aslan would never permit one so beautiful to do anything evil or not right by his codes, it unsettled Caspian, for in her face he could see something of someone he had once loved- thought that time and that woman seemed very far away now.

When she spoke, the forest stood still to listen to her; even the trees stopped rustling their branches.

"Travelers who have come far to eat at this table, why do you not sit and rest yourselves, and avail of its hospitality?" she asked, her voice as wise as the sea itself.

No one seemed to have a voice to answer her. Finally, Caspian spoke. "We feared the food was poisoned, madam, and had cast our friends here into their present sleep."

"They have never tasted of it, Caspian, son of Narnia," the lady said mysteriously. "The food will bear no malice, for it comes from one who is also without malice." How does she know my name? Caspian thought to himself, for no one had spoken to him or mentioned it while she had been within hearing.

"Please, then, Lady, tell us what has happened here," Lucy asked.

The lady turned to look at Lucy and smiled. "Seven years ago, Queen Lucy, there came a ship whose sails were rags and whose timbers were tired with voyaging. These men embarked the ship, along with many others, and sat down at this table with the intent to decide whether to continue or stay here. However, each disagreed on the course of action to be taken, and when out of anger they caught up the Knife of Stone which lies there on the table to fight each other with, the Lord of this Banquet sent a deep sleep upon them to punish them."

"Why did he punish them?" Eustace asked. "It's just a stone dagger."

"It was a thing not right for them to touch, Eustace Scrubb, a thing holier than the intention to which they meant to put it. Do you recognize it, Queen Lucy?" she asked, pointing to the weapon on the table. Lucy squinted at in, trying to remember, once, a very, very long time ago, a stone table on a moonless night, a lion's growl and a witch's cry–

"Why, that's the knife the White Witch killed Aslan with!" she exclaimed. The sailors and Caspian were all very much amazed, and each tried to peer over his comrade's shoulders to take a closer look.

"Indeed, Queen Lucy," spoke the lady. "It is the same. It was brought here to be kept in honor while the world lasts and travelers still seek this place."

The company pondered this for a moment, and finally Edmund spoke up. "Look here," he said. "I hope I'm not a coward – about the food, I mean—and I don't mean to be rude by refusing this lord's hospitality, but we've had a lot of queer adventures on this voyage of ours and we've found out the hard way a few times that things aren't always as they seem. When I look in your face I can't help but believe everything you say, but that's happened before with me and not always for the best. How are we to know that you're a friend to us and Narnia?"

The lady laughed, and smiled at Edmund. "But you cannot know, King Edmund. You can only believe me." Her smile seemed to be full of riddles, but then she spoke again. "If that is too much for you, think on this: who would keep such a token of evil as that dagger?"

Edmund looked at Lucy somberly. "It would only be…Aslan himself," Lucy said finally, thinking very hard. "And you yourself said, lady, that the Lord who sets this Table bears no malice. The only person I can think of like that is Aslan – and he certainly wouldn't poison us!"

"That is enough proof for me!" cried Reepicheep, and clambering onto the table, the mouse took up a goblet and walked it over to where Caspian sat. "If it please you, my lord, pour out a little of that wine. I would like to drink – to the lady, if she wills it."

Caspian poured a little of the wine into the cup, and Reepicheep lifted it to the lady in blue, who bowed her head in acknowledgement as he drank.

"I thank you, Lord Reepicheep, for your honor. But it is not my health alone that you should drink to, but also the health of your host."

Caspian nodded, and poured another cup of the wine, lifting it in toast. "To the Lord Aslan!" he said loudly, quaffing the wine. The lady took a cup of her own and mirrored the gesture.

"To the Lord Aslan."

Seeing there was no poison and no threat of enchanted sleep, the crew of the Dawn Treader fell to the food like a pack of starving travelers, with each man, in his turn, taking his cup and saluting the Lord Aslan with it before drinking.

"So, why does Aslan set this table?" Lucy asked the Lady, who did not sit and eat with them, but merely watched the proceedings serenely.

"It is his gift to those who come this far seeking his country, for he knows that only with true nourishment will a man reach what he desires of his journey here. Some call this island the World's End, for though the water will bear your boat further, this is the beginning of the end."

Yes, I suppose it is the end, Caspian thought to himself, listening to Lucy and the lady, the end of the journey and the end of our story. We've found the seven lords, and now it's a matter of getting home. But how?

"Lady," he asked, interrupting the conversation, "How are we to dissolve the enchantment Aslan placed on Lords Revilian, Argoz and Mavramorn?"

The lady smiled at him, and the look made something inside Caspian shiver, though whether it was from fear or something else, he did not know. "It is not for you to dissolve, King Caspian. Aslan laid the enchantment, and Aslan alone can break it. But for that, you must ask the advice of my father."

"Your father? Who is he? And where?" Caspian, and the rest of the company, asked. The lady pointed to the door in the hillside from whence she had come; they could see it easier now, for while they had been talking and eating the stars had grown fainter and great gaps of white light had begun appearing in the grayness of the eastern sky. It was a man, dressed in the same blue as the lady wore, with a great silver beard that hung all the way to the floor.

"Caspian, Adam's Son," He said, opening his arms wide as if he were a father receiving his child after a long voyage. "Your coming has long been expected here. Come with me, and we will talk of what you need to know."

So Caspian went inside the house of Ramandu, the star and ruler of the Island at the World's end, and learned from him what was needed to break the spell Aslan had set on the last three Narnian lords.

Caspian watched the little boat bearing Lucy, Edmund, Eustace and Reepicheep out onto the horizon until they could be seen no more. His throat did not have a voice in it for giving orders- a simple hand gesture sufficed to have Lord Drinian order the ship to turn back for the Island of Ramandu.

The four newly awakened lords ( you will remember Rhoop was also left with his three sleeping companions) greeted him with much pleasure and heartfelt thanks for rescuing them from themselves and their terrible fate.

"Thank Aslan, not me," Caspian recommended. "It is by his grace that you were all restored."

He left the company to be alone for a while, the sadness of all of this almost too much to bear. First Lucy and Edmund had to leave again, and then- the lady! She reminded him so much of her. Thankfully, he had not seen Ramandu's daughter since they had returned to the Island; perhaps, if his luck held, they could leave again without seeing her again.

Ramandu joined him out on the balcony overlooking the sea, the sea breeze ruffling his beard a little bit, making him look like more and more of a traveler who has journeyed a great many miles in search of a great treasure, or a distant truth.

"Stay a little while longer, Caspian," Ramandu suggested. "Your men are tired, and I can see that your own heart, too, is weary. Rest here for a few days: The journey home is easier than the journey away from it."

"My advisors will be in an uproar if I am gone longer than expected," Caspian said. "War might start, and my people would suffer. I am sorry, but I cannot know what is going on at home, and without that knowledge, I cannot change my plans. I will set sail tomorrow afternoon, if my captain Lord Drinian reads the tides right."

Ramandu considered this, and then nodded. "There is a way you might know what goes on in the uttermost west, Caspian," he offered. The king turned to look at him, interested. "My daughter has the gift of Far-sight, a gift given to all young stars. Go to her tower at midnight, and watch the sun rise. She will be able to tell you how things fare in Narnia."

King Caspian thought about it for a moment and bowed. It would be for the best- and it would not hurt to know. "Thank you, Lord Ramandu. I will seek your daughter's advice in the morning," He said, leaving for his own chambers, his heart still very, very heavy.

Well, that's the end of that. The poem at the beginning of the chapter is from - you guessed it- JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The last line originally reads "In Lorien the Fair" but as we have no Lorien in Narnia (and I have yet to write a story connecting Middle Earth with the venerable lands beyond the Wardrobe) it had to be changed. Perhaps it was mistranslated in Caspian's time. ;)

And again, a great deal of the text in this chapter copyright Lewis Family, 1981.