Lionheart: The Epic of the Narnian Knight

Knight of Narnia

Knight of Narnia

New member
Hello Everyone,

I have been playing with this story in my head for a while now, and I finally decided to put pen to paper (er, uh, fingers to keyboard) and begin actually writing this story. This is my first real attempt at writing fiction so I would welcome any input from the other members of this board, since so many on here are very gifted writers.

This story begins about 12 years before the events of Prince Caspian, and will eventually coincide with the events of Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. So, without further delay, I shall bring you "Lionheart: The Epic of the Narnian Knight"
 
Chapter 1: Sunset​


As the sun began to set in the east, as it always does in Narnia, a tall man with a dark beard and tired face stood silently gazing into the distance. He had been standing there, thinking to himself for quite some time before a second man approached him. The second man walked up almost as though he was afraid of the first, with a slow pace and his head hanging low.

"King Caspian", the second man finally spoke, "I feel that there is something wrong that you have not told us. When the High Council was meeting today, you barely spoke to us, and seemed as though your thoughts were elsewhere. We have noticed this change in your behavior over the past few weeks, and have become very concerned for you."

The king was silent for a moment and finally with a heavy sigh replied "Lord Balbanes, I feel a growing sense of unease from amongst the High Council. Lately I have heard whisperings of secret meetings between members of the council. It is said that some of the members have been seen leaving their chambers at night and returning just before dawn. No business that must be carried out during the secret of night can be of any good."

Lord Balbanes appeared as though someone had just knocked the wind out of him. After a short time, he regained his composure and asked the king
"Who amongst us could be plotting evil? Out of the twelve members of the High Council, all but two were chosen by you my liege, and the remaining members were chosen by your brother, Lord Miraz. Surely, no-one amongst us could even be capable of evil."

King Caspian paused, and looked out at the sunset. After some time, he spoke "Lord Balbanes, the whispers that I have heard tell of a seditious plot to seize control of the kingdom. Only someone from within the council would be capable of fabricating such a devious scheme. For it is they who would be most capable of taking over the kingdom, as they have the trust of the people. My greatest concern is that this information has reached me too late, and I will be incapable of stopping the plans that they have set in motion. Lord Balbanes, you are one of my oldest and most trusted friends. If anything should happen to me, I would ask that you watch over my wife and son and ensure their safety."

"But my liege", Lord Balbanes replied, "Who would even consider such a terrible act? The people are happy with you as their king as you have been just and fair to all of them. I have never even heard the slightest quarrel from amongst the members of the council. All of your people and your advisers wholly support you, and would never consider such a treasonous act."

"Perhaps you are right Lord Balbanes", said the King, "Maybe I have just been working myself too hard lately and am suffering from a lack of sleep. I should retire for the night early this evening. Thank you for your company this evening, and for all you have done in the service of the Kingdom. I shall always remember your loyalty, Lord Balbanes."

With these words, the King turned to look at the sunset again, and paused for a moment. The sky had turned to an ominous shade of red, with the dark sky of night quickly overtaking the light of day. Caspian nodded his head as though he understood something that was unsaid and slowly walked back towards his chambers. When he returned to his chambers, he washed his face and hands from the water basin near his bed and laid down to rest for the night. Lord Balbanes also returned to his chambers, but could not rest due to the ominous conversation he had with King Caspian earlier that evening. He began to think of any from amongst the council who would be capable of such a wicked plot, and attempted to recall any times when any of the other members of the High Council had acted in a bizarre manner. He began to write down any of the incidents that he could remember and slowly he noticed a pattern emerging. Then he realized what had been happening amongst the council. Although he was stunned by his findings, he knew that it was imperative that he tell the king as soon as he could. He grabbed his sword and rushed out. He ran as fast as he could towards the King's chambers, but just as he came within sight of the doors, he heard a woman scream like nothing he had heard before. He rushed in and threw open the doors. He looked over at the Queen and saw the horrified expression on her face. She was unable to speak from shock, but simply pointed towards the bed where the King was laying. Balbanes walked over to the King and realized what had happened: King Caspian IX was dead.
 
Now, K-of-N, you are faced with a branching of the road. Since what you are beginning falls into the broad category of fan fiction, you must choose (or you already have chosen, and we just haven't seen it yet) between two courses. Either course is perfectly "legal" in this twilight realm which exists outside of copyright considerations. The choices are:

1) You write a story which does NOT contradict any of the "facts" of the original source, but is to be thought of as if it were "new information" you had "discovered." This is the path I chose for "Southward the Tigers."

2) You write a story which DOES contradict the "facts," and it's okay because you are creating a sort of alternate-parallel-universe plot. In this option, you could for example say that Balbanes, INSTEAD OF Cornelius, becomes the young Caspian's mentor.
 
*Thank you CopperFox, Balbanes' story exists outside of the scope that Lewis covered in PC and VoDT. So his story would be considered "new" information. I have set his story up in a similar fashion to your Southward the Tigers story in that it will focus on the new characters while having known characters make breif appearances in the story.


Chapter 2: Nightfall​

For a moment the room was completely void of all sound. No one could muster the strength to speak or even cry. The only sound that Balbanes could hear was the quickened beat of his heart. He did not know whether to feel fear, anger, or perhaps both. He could only stand there in silence and stare at his king who had been his mentor and his friend for so many years. Finally he regained his composure enough to speak

"Queen Azucena, what has happened to King Caspian?"

"I ... I .... I don't know....." she sputtered out between sobs " I had gone out for a walk and when I came back in he was laying here. I tried to wake him, but he would not move. I tried everything I could, but he was just laying there motionless. I didn't want to believe it, I could not possibly believe that it had happened... but he was dead."

Balbanes looked at where King Caspian was laying, and looked to see if there were any wounds that had been inflicted on the king. However, there were no marks on the king that would have been recent enough to have caused his death. The king's body still carried scars from the many wars he had fought. Balbanes had fought alongside the king for many years and knew that the king was a very strong individual, and would not have simply died in his sleep so easily. Still, there was nothing about the way the king died to suggest otherwise.

By this time others in the castle had heard the screams and had rushed in to see what had happened. The gathering crowd could do nothing but stare in silence at their fallen king. Some among the crowd began to cry, while others simply looked down and remained silent. Finally, after some time had passed a voice cried out "Where is the Prince?" The crowd began to murmur amongst themselves, but no-one could say for sure what had happened to the prince, Caspian X. The queen spoke up suddenly

"He was in his room with his Nursemaid the last time I saw him."

"I will go and check on him my lady" Balbanes said

Balbanes rushed out of the room, pushing aside the crowd that had gathered. As he ran, he kept his hand on the hilt of his sword and was prepared to strike down anyone who could possibly bring harm to the young prince. His heart was pounding with fear and anxiety. He could only imagine what harm could have befallen the prince. As he reached the prince's chambers, he thrust open the door with a single shove and charged in, ready to face any foe. However, the only people there were a frightened child and his equally scared nursemaid. Caspian began to cry out of fear, and his nursemaid did everything she could to calm him down again.

"Now, now Caspian, you know that you are far too brave to let something like this get you all worked up. You're going to be the king someday and you're going to have to learn to be brave like your father is." the Nursemaid said, consoling Caspain.

"Now, what business brings you here bashing in doors and whatnot at this time of night Sir Lord?" she said as she gave Balbanes and menacing glare.

"Madam and Young Master, I have some terrible news. King Caspian has died." Balbanes said, barely able to hold back his own tears.

"Daddy....?" Caspian said in a very confused and hurt tone
"Daddy!!" Caspian then ran past Balbanes and his nursemaid and ran off towards the king's chambers.

Prince Caspain arrived at his father's chambers and could only stand there, stunned by his father's death. Finally he went over to his mother and they embraced each other and began to weep for their beloved father and husband. At this point, Lord Miraz, the king's brother, walked in upon the scene with some of the other members of the council.

"At first I thought these words to be nothing more than a cruel rumor, but now, standing here, I cannot deny the truth -my brother is dead." Miraz said in a solemn manner. "We must prepare for King Caspian's funeral immediately. I will personally oversee the arrangements, we must ensure that this will be a fitting sendoff for such a great king."

The crowd's mood lifted ever so slightly, and a the people began to talk amongst themselves about how wonderful Miraz was, and how hard it must be for him to shoulder the burden of preparing a funeral for his own brother. The crowd felt secure with Miraz taking over and somehow felt better knowing that he was around to take care of anything that was needed. Although the people's spirits were still very much downtrodden, they felt a slight hint of hope from Miraz.

"I would also like to call an emergency meeting of the High Council immediately" ,Miraz stated in a very official-sounding voice, "We must delegate roles that the king held until we can elect a protectorate to hold watch over the kingdom until Caspian X has come of age."

"What do we need a meeting for?", said a boisterous voice from the crowd, "Lord Miraz, you were the king's only brother. You of all people are ready to guide this kingdom during its time of transition and uncertanty."

"Yes!" said another voice from the crowd "Miraz will lead us just as Caspian IX did!"

Several more people began to shout their endorsements for Miraz and before long the entire crowd was cheering for him.

"I understand the will of the people" Miraz said with a false modesty "tomorrow morning I will convene the High Council and we will make preparations for me to assume the Protectorate for this kingdom!"

Balbanes and some of the other members of the Council looked nervously at each other, but said nothing. They all shared the same thoughts about Miraz's sudden desire to take over the kingdom in his brother's stead, but decided to leave this discussion for another time, when they would be in less danger of being overheard.
 
I'm glad that the mother of Caspian Ten will get to be seen as a character in your story. I'm even more glad that you did NOT resort to the cheap device of Balbanes himself immediately being accused of murdering his king.

Since you are not contradicting the "canonical" text, I have a guess at what you might be planning to do to make Balbanes important in a way that DOESN'T contradict Mr. Lewis. I seem to recall that the book "Prince Caspian" doesn't say how Cornelius GOT the job of tutoring Caspian Ten. Maybe you're going to say that Balbanes makes it possible for Cornelius to gain the position, acting in the knowledge that Cornelius will do the prince good.
 
K-of-N: Although the men in charge of RUINING "Prince Caspian" for the cinema cut out everything about the rotten school system that the Telmarines had under the rule of Miraz, you have a chance here to amend some of that loss to fans who only know the movie version. You can write a scene or two that SHOWS Miraz, or his henchmen, taking actions to ensure that children are taught only in government schools, and are taught exactly what the establishment wants them to be taught.
 
* CopperFox, I really enjoy your input on this story. Thanks again for taking the time to read and help me out as I am going along. I never thought about having an interaction with Dr. Cornelius and Balbanes, I'll have to keep this in mind for later in the story....



Chapter 3
Midnight - When Darkness Peaks​


The next day, the High Council of the Twelve Lords met in the throne room to appoint Miraz as Lord Protectorate of the Telmarine Kingdom. It was not a grand ceremony as the crowning of a king would have been, but was rather procedural and straightforward. Miraz read from a scroll that gave a summary of his role and the duties that he was to perform as Lord Protectorate, which is a rather long and tiresome list that reads much like a set of instructions that one would leave for someone taking care of their house. When he came to the end of the scroll, Miraz announced

"Who among you will offer your pledge of support for me to assume the role of Protectorate for the Kingdom?" (any position change from within the council requires the pledge of support from two members of the council).

The first to speak up in support of Miraz was the Lord Gloezelle, who quickly and faithfully pledged his loyalty and support to Miraz. Gloezelle's pledge was quickly seconded by the Lord Sopespian, who offered his loyalty and support to Lord Miraz. The remaining members of the council remained silent throughout the proceedings, not wanting to anger Miraz or the people who had placed their support in him. They also felt that since the kingdom was in a state of shock, that it would be best to simply let Miraz take control for a while until everything calmed down. Miraz, followed closely by Sopespian and Gloezelle, walked out onto the balcony outside of the throne room and announced to the awaiting crowd that he had been given the title of Lord Protectorate by the High Council. The crowd erupted in a jubilant cheer and shouts of praise rung throughout. Miraz called over Queen Azucena and Prince Caspian and announced to the crowd:

"From this day forward, I pledge to all that are present that I will watch over the wife and son of my dear, departed brother as though they were my own. Although I can never fully replace what my brother meant to them, I will do my best to be as noble and upright as my brother was!"

The crowd erupted into more cheers and shouts of praise for Miraz, with people shouting

"What a noble guesture!"

"What a fine man!"

"How wonderful for the prince and queen!"

"Hooray for Miraz the Noble!"

Miraz, who was swelling with pride by this point announced to the crowd

"As my first action as Lord Protectorate, I will now personally oversee the funeral for my brother, the late King of Telmar! We must make it the most grand funeral that this kingdom has ever seen!"

The crowd once again, began to cheer on Miraz, as though he had always been their leader. Their cheers grew in volume and intensity until the castle itself was nearly shaking with praise for the new Lord Protectorate. Balbanes and the remaining members of the council took this opportunity to excuse themselves, with the excuse that they had to prepare for King Caspian's funeral. While the other council members made their way back to their chambers, Balbanes took the opportunity to go inspect King Caspian's room in private. He slowly opened the door, not knowing if anyone else was on the inside. The room was dark and had an odd smell to it. Balbanes did not immediately recognize the smell suffice to say that the smell reminded him of a time when he had gone to battle against a tribe of trolls that had been raiding and pillaging some of the farms on the outer parts of the kingdom. He closed the door behind him and started to walk around the room to see if he could determine the source of the smell. The scent began to grow stronger as he grew closer to where the king's bed was. He looked around to see if he could determine the source of the smell. He looked and saw the basin that the king used to wash his face and hands at night. He examined the bowl and noticed that the water had turned to a strange grey-green color. He drew his face close to the water to get a better look and was immediately repelled by the strong scent coming from the basin. He was curious as to what the substance in the bowl and poured it into a small flask that he carried with him. Since Balbanes had no experience with chemicals, he decided to take the substance to a close friend of his.

Meanwhile, Miraz was completing the arrangements for King Caspian's funeral. As he completed the arrangements, he sent instructions for the caller to call for everyone meet in front of the castle. Miraz had a giant pyre built for King Caspian and had the king's body placed on the top. When all of the citizens had come, Miraz began the ceremony. He gave a very sincere-sounding speech about how much his brother had meant to the kingdom and how he could only hope to try and match the effort that his brother had put into ensuring the well-being of the kingdom. All of these words rang hollow with more than a few people. There were those in the crowd who could since that Miraz was not being as sincere as one would expect from someone in this situation. Miraz finished his speech and lit the pyre. The wood caught ablaze rather quickly and the fire roared with a sound that resonated throughout the land. Never before had anyone heard a fire make quite such a frightening sound, and many were shaken by the great roar that the fire was producing. As the fire began to burn down, the roar began to wane, and shrank into a hiss that was almost a whisper. Slowly the silent crowd began to shuffle away from the funeral, eventually leaving only a few loyal supporters of the king. Balbanes looked over at Miraz, and although he could barely make him out in the darkness, enough of the fire remained so that he could barely make out a sinister smile on Miraz's face.
 
It looks as if you intend to have Balbanes (with his chemical sample) be the REASON WHY Cornelius will know that Caspian the Ninth was murdered. Good move; it gives Balbanes importance, without TAKING AWAY importance from Cornelius.

Now, concerning your statement that Balbanes had fought trolls. In the book "Prince Caspian," we see that the Miraz administration was generally trying to deny or forget the existence of abnormal creatures. That "fact" could be smoothly reconciled with your statement of Balbanes' experience--by saying that, eventually, Miraz DENIES that Balbanes ever DID encounter trolls. If you want Miraz to be out for Balbanes' blood, that could be the very pretext: Balbanes could be called a troublemaker for claiming that monsters DO exist--even if Miraz doesn't know that Balbanes knows Miraz is a murderer.

George Orwell's novel "1984" (actually a parable of the Soviet system) imagined propaganda workers constantly rewriting history, to pretend that anything the rulers wished had never happened, really HADN'T happened. Miraz could have something like that going, censoring all records of any kind of event he wishes people to forget.

By the way, is the name "Balbanes" supposed to be pronounced as if it were Spanish?
 
:D Yep, you got it CopperFox! Balbanes will soon be meeting with his "friend" and we will soon be seeing some trouble begin to brew between Balbanes and Miraz. Since I had Miraz poison Caspian IX, I figured it would make sense to have a scholar to research the poison. Cornelius fit into this role very well.

One idea that I did take from the movie makers, was to have the Telmarine characters have Spanish or Spanish-sounding names. I imagined Balbanes name to be pronounced "bal ban ez" or, while Caspian's mother's name Azucena I translated to Spanish from the word "lily" (I used an automatic translator so am not certain if the translation is accurate, but I think it's correct).
 
Okay, K-of-N, that leads us to another decision-point in the flowchart. If you're not going to contradict the Lewis book, then Balbanes cannot be the one, EVEN in part, to bring Miraz to justice in the end. So do you kill off Balbanes at the end of this story, or do you figure a way for him to live which _neither_ makes him a coward, _nor_ lets him "contaminate" the plot of "Prince Caspian"? As I see it, you have two best choices:

1) Balbanes, having done what he can by setting Cornelius up to mentor Caspian Ten _without_ Miraz knowing that either Balbanes or Cornelius is a threat, becomes a companion to the Seven Lords who are part of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." After all, those seven noblemen couldn't have been the _only_ men on board to operate a ship of any size; thus, though not counted as one of the seven, Balbanes could be their navigator or something. You could end Balbanes' story by saying that he settled in the Lone Islands, passing away later just before the adult Caspian came there in VODT.

2) Balbanes, worried that Cornelius might come under suspicion and _not_ be allowed to teach the Prince, pulls the same stunt Batman pulls at the end of "The Dark Knight." That is, Balbanes purposely draws hostile attention to himself....and even lets _Cornelius_ pretend to be the one to _expose_ "the Balbanes conspiracy against the government." This would convince Miraz that he can trust Cornelius; and it would explain why Balbanes is NOT part of the action of "Prince Caspian." For if Balbanes is not killed outright, he would have to escape to someplace beyond Miraz's control--to Archenland, maybe, if Archenland even _exists_ at this time in the history of the Narnian world. That's a point on which Mr. Lewis is unclear, probably because he had not even gotten around to inventing Archenland at the time he wrote "Prince Caspian."
 
I agree with you CopperFox. Balbanes will not be the one to bring justice to Miraz, since, Prof. Lewis already handed Miraz his fate in the real novel.

Balbanes will soon be parting company with the Telmarines for a while and the story will begin to follow his journey. Bal still has some character growth ahead of him, I just need to figure out how everything is going to figure in. Look for chapter 4 tomorrow. :)
 
Well, if Balbanes is travelling, maybe you can have him find out if there ARE any Archenlanders left. If there are, they would probably have retreated into remote areas, because as worshippers of Aslan they would be on the enemies list for anyone like Miraz.
 
Oohhh ... good idea CooperFox. I never thought about adding in the Archenlanders. I have some characters that I was wanting to add in later in the story and they would be PERFECT for Archenlanders. Now I don't have to have something cheesy like wild Telmarines.

Thanks CopperFox, you've been really, REALLY helpful and I appreciate it! :D
 
I'm always glad to BE appreciated, young friend.

Have you ever read Sir Walter Scott's classic medieval novel "Ivanhoe"? I've mentioned it on the Robin Hood thread, because Robin and his Merry Men were important secondary characters in Scott's story. So important, that when the Ivanhoe movie was made with Robert Taylor and the unrelated Elizabeth Taylor, the scriptwriters caused Robin Hood to be addressed always and only by his earldom-name of Locksley, because otherwise they feared that the audience would just assume this was a Robin Hood movie. As it was, on the screen as in the book, "Locksley" saved Ivanhoe's life at one point in the story.

I say this because, in view of the likelihood that any Archenlanders NOT under Telmarine rule would be living as some sort of refugees or nomads or guerrillas or outlaws, the characters you say could be Archenlanders would relate to Balbanes in much the way that Robin Hood related to Wilfred Ivanhoe.
 
Alrighty, after much delay from our author, we shall commence with Chapter 4 of our story!


Chapter 4:
The Darkness Before the Dawn​



The days that followed King Caspian's death and Lord Miraz's subsequent rise to power were filled with much uncertainty and change. The members of the High Council would spent their days attempting to talk with Miraz, only to be ignored and shoved aside as though they were some sort of petulant children. The people who lived in the cities were content with Miraz being in charge, although there were the occasional rumblings about how quickly he assumed power after his brother's death. No-one would actually speak ill about Miraz in public though, since there was an imposing sense of dread coming from him every time he spoke.

Miraz himself quickly set to work "stabilizing" the kingdom. He informed those who he felt needed to be informed (who were very few in number mind you) that he was merely attempting to stabilize the kingdom and keep it prosperous until Prince Caspian could ascend the throne. However, the stability that Miraz instituted was actually a series of drastic changes to the kingdom. One of his first orders of business was to close nearly all of the schools (except for a few smaller ones in the countryside that were not worth his trouble) and re-open them as "Telmarine Education Centers". Here, boys were given a slight bit of instruction on literacy and writing, while at the same time were given several hours a day of combat training. All of the books that had been in the classrooms were removed and discarded in a basement of the castle. In their place, Miraz added a series of books that were "fit for a proper Telamarine education". These books consisted mostly of writing and grammer books, books on combat techniques, and history and literature books that contained Miraz's own "revised" versions. What was not in these books were the old stories of the ancient Kings and Queens of Narnia, stories of the mighty centaurs who were always willing to lend a hand to any of the residents of Narnia from the gigantic elephants who would stand over 10ft. tall to the squirrels who were barely 2ft tall, or even stories from the early days of Narnia in which the lives of some of the first lions and tigers in Narnia were expertly chronicled. In fact, any mention of "old Narnia" was removed from the books, and in its place were stories of ancient Telmarine heroes (who never actually existed I might add) and their great conquest of the savage land of Narnia.

After ensuring that the schools had been "stabilized" properly, Miraz set about to "stabilize" relations with foreign lands. He called for a meeting with the Tisroc of Calormen, in order to ensure the mutual benefit of allowing free trade between their countries. What Miraz had meant by trading of course, was gold. He would use the money from the taxes he collected from the people of the kingdom to pay the Tisroc in exchange for jewels, fine silks, and other items that Miraz deemed necessary for the kingdom.

Meanwhile, the other members of the council had begun to meet in private in a basement of the castle. Their growing concern over Miraz and the changes that he was instituting in the kingdom. They agreed that Miraz somehow had to be stopped, but that they could not forcefully remove him from power. They also concluded that any show of contempt for Miraz could easily mean their deaths. So they finally decided that the only thing they could do was to wait and simply let Miraz continue as planned.
 
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