Ch 19: A Cloak Of Stars

As a Jinn, Saris never slept. He did not require it—a good thing, since he was liable to be summoned by some new master at any hour without regard to his personal welfare. So it was with surprise that he found his human body succumbing to exhaustion some time during the evening. He slept only a few hours, whether out of force of habit or concern for Queen Susan's safety, and woke with night still veiling the world.

Her world, where he'd been sent, powerless and disgustingly vulnerable to attack, by their Lion. Why would Aslan have done such a thing? In his Jinn form, Saris could have protected her from any danger. But as this human—one bullet had nearly ended him.

"Foolish," he whispered.

But then he stilled and watched Susan's sleeping form, curled under a blanket and shivering in spite of it. Saris needed no blankets or extra clothing. Even the pants were a measure of modesty, rather than protection from the elements. He retained his Jinn attribute of inherent heat; no frost or chill wind bothered him. Watching her shiver, Saris moved to sit closer.

She seemed to relax a bit in her sleep. Her hair spread out around her, such a mass of silk that many more than Rabadash had coveted her. What madmen. To want a woman merely for her hair or her beauty—though the Gentle Queen had enough of that to warrant the desire. No, kindness was the gem in the crown of her, the thing that would not die even as the years passed. The Lion must have known that when he titled her.

Perhaps not so foolish after all.

If the spell Saris had woven in Tashbaan had gone the way he planned it, he would not be here now. He would have sent her home alone; he had not intended to draw the rest of her family with her.

Alone, she would have been thrust into this ordeal. To face the abduction—and possibly murder—of her mother and father at the hands of these Nazis.

Everyone else believed Aslan knew what he was doing. But why send him? The kings, surely, and Queen Lucy—as brave a fighter as any Saris had ever seen on a field of battle. But himself, like this? Saris, who had spent all his life wishing he could wish away his own power, now only wanted it back to keep Queen Susan safe.

Troubled, he stood and walked out of the camp, past Salvia who was keeping watch. He nodded deferentially to the bird; hawks and falcons were creatures of high regard in Calormen, and that Peter called one of them friend was one of the reasons Saris respected the High King. Salvia nodded back.

Saris walked some way, until the myriad small sounds of the slumbering camp faded and he could hear only crickets, and at last ended at a small cove of rock where the wind eddied down in lonely whistles. He leaned against the granite and stared at the sky. Stars, too, were well-regarded in Calormen, though the Tisrocs often bent their heavenly wheelings to their own purposes, rather than obeying what was written there to begin with.

How strange, that he could find the constellation Leo with no effort. He stared at the brightest star, Regulus, sometimes called the Heart of the Lion. Saris was familiar with many worlds and many cultures in the course of his thousand-plus years, but on this night and in this world, that star absorbed more of his focus than anything had in his long memory.

"I worried you had gone."

Queen Susan's voice splintered his focus. She stood at the top of the cove with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders. "I am not accustomed to sleep," he said. "How did you find me?"

"Salvia directed me." She picked her way down to the cove floor and came to stand nearby. "What are you doing?"

"Seeking answers," he said without thinking.

"You're wondering why he sent you with me."

Still watching Leo, he replied, "I wonder why he did not send someone else." He shook off his contemplations. "The High King will not linger long in this place. He may want to move on before sunrise, and bring your mother and father to safety. He would want you to get rest."

The Queen stepped nearer. "My brother is not here now. Saris."

He looked at her then, porcelain-skinned in the starlight, and the affection in her eyes humbled him. "You have been as much a friend to me as anything I have done for you," she said. "More so." Her hand slid into his. "Of all the men who have ever come to Narnia to seek me out, not one offered me his life, nor in return for so little given. I haven't deserved what you've done for me."

He started to protest, but she held up a hand to stop him. "I can't even come close to the hardships you have faced, but I do know how it feels to be wanted only for what gain you might provide to others. I lost all hope that there were any men of honor in that country." She stepped nearer still. "And that's why Aslan sent you."

"Do not class me so honorable," Saris said, sneering as he thought of all the unspeakable things he'd done over his lifetime.

"A queen does as she wills," Susan said, and when he looked at her again he found her smiling. The smile faded. "I don't fear magic when I'm with you." She closed the space between them and leaned up, her mouth a breath away from his. She closed her eyes.

Regret tore through him. Gently, he pressed his fingertips to her lips, a touch he would not have dared but now memorized to the last detail. She opened startled eyes, and he could not make himself meet them. "I am not worthy of such a gift."

She curled her hand over his wrist and lowered it, then angled her head until he was forced to look at her face. The expression in her eyes was sweeter than wine and more painful than the bullet that had almost killed him. "Please don't make me wish for it," she said softly.

Defeated and elated, he said, "I can deny you nothing, my lady." He cupped her cheek and ever so slowly, pressed his lips to hers.

Overhead, though neither of them saw it, Regulus pulsed, and a ripple of light spread across the sky.