Chapter 1

"Peter! Peter, come quick!"

Peter's head jerked up from the papers he had been studying. "What? What is it?"

Susan came barreling around the corner, breathing hard. "There's a messenger in the receiving room who needs to talk to you. Apparently, some giants have attacked the Western Woods."

Peter's eyebrows shot up. "Western Woods? I thought giants came out of the northern mountains. How did they get that far into the country without us knowing about it?"

His sister shrugged. "Does it matter? We've got to do something about it!"

The young man cast a reluctant glance back to his desk and heaved a sigh, causing Susan to chuckle. "I never banked on it being this difficult," he moaned. "I've only been in this king business five months!"

Susan laid a hand on his arm. "We all have. But problems aren't getting solved by us just standing here. As Kings and Queens of Narnia, we have a responsibility to lead the people, even in battle. I don't want to do it any more than you do, but…" She trailed off, but the pointed look she gave him spoke volumes.

Peter turned to her, his gray-blue eyes boring into hers. "You're right. Aslan wouldn't have called us if he didn't think we were capable." Allowing a faint smile to touch his lips, he spoke quietly, yet with a note of determination. "Let's go."

The young woman smiled in response. "That's the High King Aslan appointed."

With that, they hurried out of the study in the direction of the auditorium.

On the way, they passed Edmund engaged in a heated argument with a faun. "That isn't fair, and you know it!"

"Your Majesty, I—"

"Don't start with that rubbish again, Tranaeus! You know—"

He was interrupted sharply as Peter stopped and spun him around. "Ed, what's all this about? What are you doing?"

The boy's face paled, and Peter noticed the faun behind him blush a darker shade of crimson, which was accentuated by his red hair and beard.

But Edmund was only pale for an instant. "Tranaeus treats me like I can't do as I please! I am king, after all!" he finished, casting an angry glare over his shoulder in the faun's direction.

Peter spoke as calmly as he could, knowing that the situation depended on him being level-headed. "Ed, calm down. The faun might know what he's talking about. Remember, we're all learning here."

Edmund's face remained dark. Exasperated, the older brother cast a glance toward Susan for help, but she shrugged and indicated the receiving room with a jerk of her head. Peter made a face. "Edmund, you've got to let it go. We've got a battle on our hands."

That got his attention. "What?"

Peter nodded. "Giants. Come on, we'll need your help." He started to head off, then paused and glanced back. "Where's Lu?" Edmund shrugged, and Peter saw Susan and Tranaeus do the same. The young man rolled his eyes. "Okay. We'll find her later. The messenger probably thinks we died on the way." Again, he began striding away.

"Messenger?" Edmund wrinkled his brow.

"The one who informed us of the giant attack," Susan leaned over and whispered.

Understanding dawned on his face, and he hurried to catch up with the others as they moved rapidly down the corridor.

Lucy was skipping down the hallway on her way to the library when her siblings rushed past through a corridor intersecting the one she was in, all focused on their destination. She paused, a confused look on her face. "Where could they be going in such a hurry?" she wondered aloud. A strange sense of foreboding gripped her, and her eyes grew wide. "Oh, I hope everything's alright!" Turning quickly, she began to run after them when she near collided with a faun who had been trailing behind.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty!" he cried, clearly surprised, at the same time Lucy exclaimed, "Oh, goodness! I didn't even see you, Tranaeus. I'm sorry."

The faun smiled in response, and Lucy was reminded very briefly of the first time she ever ran into a faun, the first time she had ever even seen a faun, in fact. But that was quite another matter.

"Do you know why the others were in such a hurry?" she queried.

Tranaeus looked anxious. "Apparently there's been a giant attack. His Majesty King Peter was looking for you earlier."

Lucy's eyebrows shot up. "Giants?"

He nodded.

"Where were they headed?"

The faun gave her a blank look.

"My brothers and sister," she explained tersely.

"Oh. The receiving room, I believe," he returned, for which information Lucy promptly thanked him and rushed off that direction as well.

"How could we have possibly missed this?" Peter ejaculated with a frown. "Isn't our border guard better than this?"

"We haven't had much time to establish a border guard," Susan spoke quietly. "This is just us not being prepared."

"Obviously," Edmund interjected. "If we had been prepared, then we would have stopped them before they even hit Narnia."

Peter shot him a look that conveyed all the annoyance of the situation. "Ed…" he trailed off.

"What? You know it's true. If we hadn't been so focused on rebuilding the palace and various buildings the witch destroyed and instead put our energies into fighting the rest of her cursed forces, then we wouldn't have this big of a problem."

Just then Lucy came in, hearing the last bit of what he said. "Okay, I don't even exactly know what's going on, but you and I both know that these were things that needed done. We can only tackle one thing at a time. Just because we're kings and queens doesn't mean we can do everything all at once. Besides, accidents happen. How were we supposed to know that we needed an army right away?"

All three of her siblings turned to look at her in surprise. Peter was the first to speak. "Lucy's right. And there's no sense moaning about what could have or should have been done. All we can focus on right now is what we're going to do about the issue at hand. My only question is: how are we going to plan a battle without Aslan's help?"

Edmund, Susan, and Lucy took a collective gasp and stared at him, eyes wide. "I don't know," Edmund spoke up. "I haven't ever done that before."

Susan gave him one of her exasperated looks, then returned her gaze to Peter. "Well, we do have competent commanders. I'm sure Oreius would be more than willing to assist us. Him and all of the other centaurs who helped us last time. Remember, you did lead the initial attack on the witch in the Battle of Beruna."

Peter nodded slightly, although it was more of a shake of his head than a nod. "Yes, well…"

"And don't forget about all of the faun, satyrs, and cats that helped us, too, among others," Lucy piped up. "We have more than enough to do what we need to do."

The High King pursed his lips and nodded, this time with more confidence. "That's true. Ed, I need you to help me gather all of those that Lucy just listed. Susan, I'm going to need your help to get the archers together and ready. Lucy, I—uh—you just stay in the castle for now." Lucy returned this comment with a pout, to which Peter hastily added, "We'll find something for you to do later. At this point in time my main concern for you is to stay safe."

Lucy ducked her head so her brother wouldn't see and rolled her eyes. "I can take care of myself," she muttered.

Peter heard her anyway. "Come on, Lu. I need you to cooperate on this one. Everyone, we have a battle to plan!"