Chapter seventeen
The years passed. Caspian’s sisters married and moved away. Joseph eventually married Rose, the eldest of Caspian’s four sisters. I knew that there was more they wanted in life than sticking around with me, and I finally convinced him that they should go start new life. It had become a sort of unspoken agreement between Caspian and I that we would stick together, at least until we could find the island once more. A while after Joseph and Rose’s wedding Caspian worked up the nerve to ask me, and finally we got married. Nobody was surprised—apparently they had been expecting it. Caspian and I took care of his parents when they grew old and were unable to do so themselves. This period was hard for Caspian, and for me as well, for I had grown close to Mal.
Our time with Caspian’s parents ultimately came to an end. We buried Mal and Mr. Good on the hillside by the house, and before long, Henry claimed his inheritance and kicked us out. Thus, Caspian and I began our journey.
We searched for the crewmembers of Lord Fitch’s ship. We started in Hangman’s Harbor, and found two of them, both in taverns. They knew nothing about navigation, nor where any of the navigators resided. We visited Blue River and Kingstown and found a few other sailors. They were understandably not anxious to begin another long journey, especially with the son of the man who imprisoned them. They did, however, tell us where we might find other crewmembers. Off we went, across the kingdom once more, but we were not successful in finding the people we needed.
“It’s been twenty years,” I said over the dull roar in the crowded inn where we waited for our meal.
“What do you mean?” Caspian asked.
“It’s been twenty years since we got back from the fountain,” I told him.
He sat back. “I feel old.”
I smiled wryly. “You’re only, what, forty? That’s not old.”
“Older than we look,” he countered. “You still look the same as you did then.”
“That’s a good thing, I hope.”
Caspian nodded with a smile. “You’re beautiful.”
“Father used to say I would grow up to look like my mother,” I said, thinking back to the first time I met Lord Fitch, when everything began.
“I never saw your mother,” he said.
“I don’t remember her, but we did have a portrait.”
I tried to remember how life was back then, but I found it difficult after so much time. A sudden thought hit me. “Tom!” I exclaimed.
Caspian jumped. “What?”
“Tom knows navigation, and he’s immortal! He’ll still be alive!”
“Tom is immortal?”
“Yeah, he took the water when we first found it.”
“Wait—” Caspian said abruptly. “The seer was lookin’ for one immortal person. Could she have been lookin’ for Tom and not us?”
“If that’s true he could still be in Hangman’s Harbor!”
We returned to Hangman’s Harbor. After searching all the taverns in town we finally found Tom.
“Is that him?” Caspian asked doubtfully.
I grimaced. “Yeah, I think so.”
We stared at a drunkard who had just fallen face first into the gutter. Some village boys rummaged through his pockets, but the sailor did not stir.
“Do you think we can trust him to get us to the right place?” Caspian asked.
“He’s our best bet. Unfortunately”
After standing there a moment longer, we carried him out of the street and into an inn.
For a while, Tom was too drunk to say anything coherent, much less comprehend anything we had to say. After a time though, he was sober enough to understand our proposition.
“You’re kiddin’ right? You’re listenin’ to a crazy ole woman says she want us to go back to the godforsaken island where all this started? You’re Fitch’s son! Why would I help you?”
“Because…” I trailed off.
“We’ll pay you,” Caspian said.
The offer of money got Tom’s attention. “How much?” he asked.
“We’ll give you five hundred silver coins to begin with, and then five hundred gold coins on our return; however, this is on the condition of your silence. You tell no one of our journey before or after it.”
“When do we leave?”
…
We hired a ship and departed within the week. We kept Caspian’s identity secret from the crew. Out only concern was how well Tom could keep his mouth shut. Though we did not know if any of the crewmembers held a grudge against the name ‘Fitch,’ we knew the safest option would be to make sure they did not find out.
“I wonder what will happen when the immortality is taken away?” I asked.
Caspian and I were in our cabin preparing for bed when the thought came to me. Caspian shrugged, and I continued. “Do we die immediately, or become as old as we really are, or continue our lives from where we left off?”
“I hadn’t thought of it. I really have no idea what’ll happen.”
“It would probably have helped if we had at least considered these possibilities before we set out,” I said wryly.
We got into bed and blew out the candle.
“Was it hard to hide on the ship all those years?” Caspian asked.
“What brought on that question?”
“I was just wonderin’…since we’re on a ship again and all.”
“I had Cook helping me but, yeah, it was hard. I ain’t going into detail about what made it hard, but it was a good thing that nearly everyone ignored me. I didn’t have to worry about slipping up so much.”
“How did you—you’re gonna get angry at me—but how did you chop wood and do all the things the men did?”
“I needed to fit in, and after a while it wasn’t so hard.” I paused. “I wanted my father to see me, so I could shove it in his face. He always said that women couldn’t do a man’s work—which is precisely what I was doing and nobody even knew!”
…
Leaning on the edge of the ship, I watched the clouds drift lazily by. I heard a whisper in my head tried to ignore it, but it became more insistent. Lord Fitch had not called to me in several years, and I had hoped that he was finished with me. Apparently, I was wrong.
“Caspian,” I said, needing him before the voice attacked with all its might. “Caspian!”
The shooting pain went through my head, and I slammed into the deck. The outside world stayed quiet. I heard only Lord Fitch’s call: Come to me.
Merry Fitch, he emphasized the last name. It has been a long time, but you are returning to me at last.
“No!” I screamed. “No! I’m not!”
You were always mine.
“Please, no,” I whimpered.
You escaped me once, but you shall not do so again. You will lie here in misery along with me.
“You were buried in the fire. You can’t do anything.”
That is where you are wrong.
“Merry? Merry, can you hear me?” It was Caspian.
Until we meet again, Merry Fitch.
Lord Fitch released me from the spell. I slowly uncurled.
“Merry?” I heard Caspian clearly.
He knelt next to me, ready to stop me if I tried to flee.
“He—he let me go,” I said breathlessly.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Caspian looked grim.
He helped me up and took me to our cabin, where I told him what Lord Fitch said.
“Should we turn back?” he asked.
“We didn’t come this far just to turn around,” I said. “Plus, there’s Tom to think about. He won’t take it lightly if we go back on our deal.”
“Yeah, but it’s your life we’re talkin’ about.”
“I know, I know, but we can’t run away from him when we’ve gotten so close.”
; Caspian tried to dissuade me. “Do you even want to get rid of the immortality anymore? You know, the longer I think about it, the more appealing sounds.”
“What happened to you wanting to get rid of it as fast as possible?”
“Well, an eternity with you doesn’t sound so bad.”
I laughed, but when he didn’t, I “Wait—you’re serious?”
“About the eternity with you, yeah. I kinda signed up for that when I married you, didn’t I?”
All was calm when we set anchor in the open waters away from the now barren, rocky island. Caspian, Tom, two sailors, and I got into a rowboat and paddled to the island. As we drew closer, I noticed a tall woman in green, flowing robes standing on a stony rise, watching our progress. The sailors and Caspian pulled the rowboat to shore. Caspian told the two sailors to wait for us while we went up to meet the mysterious woman. The seemingly solid ground crumbled, turning to sand beneath our feet as we walked. Finally, we came to stand in front of the woman.
“Greetings,” she told us regally. “You have come to reverse the effects my fountain. I have for you some water from the fountain. It will reverse your immortality, which will give you the ability to die.”
She offered a large shell filled with water.
“What happens when we drink it?” Caspian asked.
The woman answered, “Your life will go on as if you had never consumed the fountain’s water. If the water has prevented you from dying, your mortality will cause you to perish immediately.”
Caspian and I looked at each other. Our immortality had saved both of our lives. If we drank the water, we would die.
“What does that mean?” Tom piped in. “‘Your life will go on.’ Will I look and feel like I’m fifty, or what?”
“You will continue where you stopped aging,” she answered.
Tom snatched the water from her and took a gulp. He staggered, but remained standing. The woman looked briefly at me and then at Caspian. “I will leave this for you to make your decision.”
She placed the shell with the remaining water on the ground, then turned and walked up the hill. She disappeared.
“If we drink it, we’ll die now,” Caspian stated what we both realized.
“After a few hundred years we might become tired,” I said. “We may regret not taking it.”
“But we haven’t done anythin’ or seen anythin’ yet. We haven’t even lived a full lifetime.”
“Giving the immortality up would be hard, even if we didn’t have to die immediately,” I mused.
Lord Fitch’s voice entered my head. Merry, you are here at last. I cannot wait to see you.
“Caspian!” I cried in a panic. “He’s calling me.”
Caspian grabbed my arm. “Tom! Help me get her to the boat!”
“Why?” he asked.
“Just help me!” Caspian snapped.
I managed to hold the voice at bay long enough for them to get me to the boat, but after that, I lost control. I know I ran up the island, following the voice. I heard Caspian chasing me. I stopped above a gaping hole, the place from which Lord Fitch called. This pause, no more than a second, was long enough for Caspian to tackle me. The force of being taken to the ground knocked me out of the trance—I realized that the hole was what was left of the fountain and was where Lord Fitch now dwelt. I fought with Caspian, but he somehow kept me from throwing myself into the abyss. I looked up suddenly to see the lady in green standing above me. I recoiled as she reached for me. She touched my head, and everything went black.
Chapter eighteen
I awoke in the sand. Something felt…missing. I rolled over to find Caspian sitting anxiously next to me.
“What happened?” I asked.
Caspian started, and smiled at me. “You’re awake!” He smoothed my hair out of my face.
“What happened?” I repeated. “The lady in green appeared, but I don’t remember anything else.”
“She touched your forehead and you passed out. I thought she’d killed you, but she said you were just sleepin’. After that she said some gibberish into the hole, and you started shakin’ real hard. She said Lord Fitch wouldn’t bother you anymore.”
I furrowed my brows. “Why’d she help me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m glad she did.”
Finally, I realized what I missed. “Caspian, I can’t hear the voice!”
He looked at me quizzically, not understanding my excitement.
“It was always there in the back of my mind, where I could just barely hear it, but it’s gone now!”
Caspian grinned and gave me a hug. When he sat back he said, “That woman is still here. She says this is our last chance to take the water. I wanted to wait for you before I made a decision.”
“What do you want to do?” I asked guardedly.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It…doesn’t seem so awful now that we don’t have to worry about Fitch. We haven’t even lived a whole lifetime.”
“You want to leave without taking it?” I asked.
“Merry, she said we’d die if we took it,” he said quietly. “It’s up to you, though.”
I fell silent. “I want to talk to her.”
Caspian nodded, and he helped me up so that we could go meet her.
“Have you made your decision?” the woman asked.
“I just wanted to know,” I began. “Is this the last chance we’ll have?”
“The island is sinking,” she said. “By nightfall it will be no more. So yes, this is your last chance.”
Caspian and I looked at each other. “Excuse us,” I said meekly. This was the second time we. I did not want to bring her wrath down on us.
“So, are you okay with immortality?” Caspian asked.
I looked off at the open sea. “I never imagined I’d say this, but yeah, I am.”
“We’ve gotta be sure,” Caspian said.
I hesitated. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to stay,” he said. “This can’t be the only magic in the world, perhaps someday we can find another way, if we must.
“I do too.”
“Are we ready?” he asked, stretching his hand out to me.
I smiled, taking it.
…
We did do everything we wanted to do—and so much more. After making it back to land, we traveled the world. We saw mountains and beaches. We watched cities crumble, and we observed as new ones were built. We were there at the death of kingdoms and at the birth of new empires. We listened to stories, and we made our own.
This is my story, but it is not over. It has only just begun.
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