[Fic] "Ancient Lands" -- Chronicles of Narnia, fragment
rthstewart requested: Narnia, Cor and Aravis meeting Ilgamuth and Shezan
This is not really a proper response to the prompt, since I never reached the actual meeting, but I like this scene and may do something more with it someday.
Aravis and Cor return to Tashbaan. Fragment. (475 words)
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Ancient Lands
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It was strange to return to Calormen after so many years, even if they only planned to visit Tashbaan rather than continue southward toward more familiar provinces. Aravis had only been to the city twice before -- once as quite a small child, and once during their flight to the north. Her father had not been high in the old Tisroc's favor, having pointedly sat out the war between Rishti and his brother Udrilar, and so she and her brother had grown up at a remove from the intrigues of court society. The river and the desert were not landscapes she knew in her bones. But Tashbaan was, in many ways, the heart of Calormen, and everything from the deep blare of the horns that closed the city gates at sundown to the rhythm of voices in the streets washed over her with a deep, drowning sense of home that Archenland could never equal.
Cor shivered beside her on the palanquin as the horns sounded their last note, and she wondered if he felt the same.
"A night in the palace will be more comfortable than one among the Tombs," she said lightly, touching her husband's wrist to feel the heat of his blood beneath the skin.
Cor turned toward her with a wry smile. "That depends on your definition of comfort, I suspect."
"Point. At least there will be a bed, with sheets, and fresh water. And me, to soothe your fear of the dark," Aravis said.
"My fear of Rabadash's temper, more like," Cor said. "I still think this is a mistake. Father couldn't afford to let the occasion pass without recognition, but to send the two people most responsible for his defeat, his humiliation, and his curse?"
"To send anyone not of royal blood would be a dire insult. Your family tree is thin. Too many died fighting the White Sorceress of Narnia, or of plague during the famine years. The only other option was Corin," Aravis reminded him for the thousandth time.
Cor made a terrible face.
"Exactly," Aravis concluded. "Besides, if anything untoward happens to us in Tashbaan, the political and economic consequences for Calormen would be unpleasant at best. Rabadash will be rude, obliquely, but nothing more."
Cor sighed. "I know, I know. And I'll have to be polite no matter what he says." He paused, then laced their fingers together. "You, on the other hand, don't speak with Father's voice. O my love and the light of my life, I implore you to consider yourself free to return Rabadash's words in whatever manner you deem fitting."
Aravis smiled. "I would have anyway, but it's nice to know you share my thoughts."
Cor was still laughing as the palanquin swayed to a stop and the bearers lowered the cushioned platform to the ground.
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And that's when I realized I had no idea if they were in Tashbaan for Rabadash's coronation, or the birth of his first son, or some other momentous occasion; that I couldn't write the introduction scene without deciding that issue; and that any decision here and now would probably get overwritten by "A Change of Season," whenever I get around to that story. So I broke off and wrote a little mini-scene from a couple days later instead.
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I really need to write "A Change of Season" in 2014; there are so many other Narnia fics I cannot work on until I finish that and thus pin down my post-HHB headcanon for Calormen!
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