Peter's only consolation was in checking with the sleepy station manager and learning that the train he might have otherwise tried to catch had been canceled, and the next three after. It was after ten when the train finally stopped for good. Maybe in circumstances involving mosquito netting, a lot of gin, and yapping hyenas, it wouldn't matter. Peter suspected it was Mary's book, although Richard or even Aunt Polly was a possibility as well he did not know if Polly read French. Based upon his painful classical Latin and barely manageable French, this collection appeared to be of a different, far more lewd and satirical character. He remembered reading La Parure (in English) in school – the necklace of paste illustrating the principle of irony and all that. There was also a volume of stories in French by Guy de Maupassant. Peter was able to puzzle out the name, Muhammad Hafiz Ibrahim and the word an-nīl, which he thought meant the Nile River. There was reading material as well, including a battered volume of Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass, an even more bruised Hound of the Baskervilles, and intriguingly, a slim volume of what he thought might be Arabic verse. There was a very detailed map, the topography of which was certainly North Africa, but all in Arabic. The travel documents were not as helpful and included an outdated railway timetable from Bombay and a steamer schedule from Perth. All were things that would have been very useful when they had been summoned into Narnia the last time. He found tins of sardines, packages of nuts and dried fruit, matches (in waterproof container), candles, torch (with battery), compass, notepad, pencils, collapsible container for water, a pocketknife with 23 attachments, and something at the bottom that he was fairly certain was a tightly folded oilskin tarpaulin for sleeping on damp ground. There was a peculiar moment when a great number of people got on and off at a junction with "Bletchley," which he would not have expected given the location and the hour.Īs irritated as he had been at the mothering and provisioning, when he became sufficiently bored to inspect the pack Mary and Asim had thrust at him, Peter was forced to concede that they really did know something about unexpected adventures. The train would get there even as it sat for hours, waiting for other, more mysterious trains to rumble by in the dark. The only thing restraining Peter's raging impatience to get to Lucy and Edmund (and Eustace? Eustace? How can that be?) was his confidence that Asim would not have sent him astray. Wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile. Any original content in my derivative fiction is in the public domain and may be used freely and without notice to me or attribution.Ĭhapter 1, At The End Of The Varsity Line No compensation has been received or provided. No ownership interest in the work that follows is claimed whatsoever. Lewis which I gratefully acknowledge here. The following is a derivative work based upon the works of C.S. Or, just do what I do and go with the flow, and make it up as you go along. Queen Susan in Tashbaan will include characters from my other stories accumulating in this vision, By Royal Decree and The Palace Guard as well Chapters 10 and 11 of The Stone Gryphon, Part 1. While I will try to bring it all up to speed through tedious exposition and overly explanatory dialogue, if you are new to this story line, you may want to read Chapter 8, Lions' Business, and at least some of Chapters 12-15, Crossroads, of The Stone Gryphon, Part 1, Oxfordshire 1942. Upfront blather: This represents Part 2 in The Stone Gryphon story arc. Peter is escorted to the station by two friends of Professor Kirke's, Asim bin Kalil, an Arab mystic and spy for the British military, and Mary Anning Russell, a paleontologist with a passion for hips, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and magnificent drooling lizards. In his most dictatorial, High King fashion, Peter orders everyone about and rushes to catch the next train on the Varsity Line out of Oxford to Cambridge to see his brother, sister, and cousin. Edmund reports that he, their sister, Lucy, and however improbably, their odious cousin, Eustace, have just been to Narnia and that Edmund and Lucy are never to return. When last we left the story, after a summer in Oxfordshire with Professor Digory Kirke, Peter Pevensie receives a telegram from his brother, Edmund. The Stone Gryphon, Part 2, The Queen Susan in Tashbaan