The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

to be talking and laughing. And before the hunting fish had got back to them with its
prey, another of the same kind came up from the Sea People. And Lucy was almost
certain that one big Sea Man who sat on his sea-horse in the middle of the party had sent
it or released it; as if he had been holdng it back till then in his hand or on his wrist.
"Why, I do declare," said Lucy, "it's a hunting party. Or more like a hawking party. Yes,
that's it. They ride out with these little fierce fish on their wrists just as we used to ride
out with falcons on our wrists when we were Kings and Queens at Cair Paravel long ago.
And then they fly them - or I suppose I should say swim them - at the others."
She stopped suddenly because the scene was changing. The Sea People had noticed the
Dawn Treader. The shoal of fish hard scattered in every direction: the People themselves
were coming up to find out the meaning of this big, black thing which had come between
them and the sun. And now they were so close to the surface that if they had been in air,
instead of water, Lucy could have spoken to them. There were men and women both. All
wore coronets of some kind and many had chains of pearls. They wore no other clothes.
Their bodies were the colour of old ivory, their hair dark purple. The King in the centre
(no one could mistake him for anything but the King) looked proudly and fiercely into
Lucy's face and shook a spear in his hand. His knights did the same. The faces of the
ladies were filled with astonishment. Lucy felt sure they had never seen a ship or a
human before - and how should they, in seas beyond the world's end where no ship ever
came?
"What are you staring at, Lu?" said a voice close beside her.
Lucy had been so absorbed in what she was seeing that she started at the sound, and when
she turned she found that her arm had gone "dead" from leaning so long on the rail in one
position. Drinian and Edmund were beside her.
"Look," she said.
They both looked, but almost at once Drinian said in a low voice:
"Turn round at once, your Majesties - that's right, with our backs to the sea. And don't
look as if we were talking about anything important."
"Why, what's the matter?" said Lucy as she obeyed.
"It'll never do for the sailors to see all that," said Drinian. "We'll have men falling in love
with a seawoman, or falling in love with the under-sea country itself, and jumping
overboard. I've heard of that kind of thing happening before in strange seas. It's always
unlucky to see these people."
"But we used to know them," said Lucy. "In the old days at Cair Paravel when my
brother Peter was High King. They came to the surface and sang at our coronation."