Disclaimer: Edmund and Peter Pevensie and all the characters and situations in the Chronicles of Narnia belong to C. S. Lewis and not to me.

UNCAGED

"It's a prison, don't you see? A cage! Let me go! Let me go!"

"No," I murmured, pulling his head into my lap, shielding him from the wind and lashing rain that beat wild and raging against the doors and windows. That same wild raging burned hot in his eyes.

Three weeks. Three weeks ago to the day, we realized they had taken him. Why? There was no why. There was no way to predict. King or beggar, man, woman, child or beast, they stole one here, another there, dragging them off to be caged and tortured with death the only release. What did it profit them? Nothing we could ever determine, unless it was pleasure in seeing life drained from their captives, one agonizing drop at a time, pleasure in stealing the innocent, in breaking our hearts.

We had carried him away from them, hoping the cordial would be enough, but even it was nothing against what they had already done. He was thin and weak, lying unresisting for days on end. But with the storm had come his ravings about locks and bars and cages.

This kingdom, this castle, this very room, they had been his refuge. His haven. Home. But now–

"A cage! A prison!" he cried, eyes as wild as the night, as fever-bright as the leaping candle flames.

My tears fell onto his cheek, mingling with sweat and tears of his own. "Shh."

"Let me go! Let me go!"

"No, please," I breathed, holding him closer. "Please, I can't."

"Why?"

His voice was broken now, soft and pleading, no longer warped with raging.

A cage. A prison. And I would keep him forever locked in it?

"Why?"

I held him closer, pressing my lips to his tangled hair. Then I shoved myself to my feet and ran to the balcony doors, flinging them open, throwing wide the windows after them. The wind and the storm rushed through, billowing the curtains like sails on a ship outward bound, filling the room with wild fury.

The candles flickered and guttered and then went dark. I could see him there, eyes shining as they looked far into eternity.

Where he had gone.

For Eloise.