Chapter 1

Long live the king

It was the evening of Caspian's coronation and the Telmarine castle was a wash of excitement as courtiers busied themselves with finishing of dresses and robes, preparing and setting out the feast in the great hall and those polishing the silverware and the crowns off the Kings and queens of old.

But amongst all this excitement three inhabitants were both sad, nervous and battling their feelings internally. Peter, Susan and Caspian himself.

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Peter was looking out of a tower which rose high above most of the castle and he was looking out onto the land he would pass to Caspian in a matter of hours. If Peter had the choice he would have remained in Narnia and would have ruled alongside Caspian, their differences now forgotten. But Peter had a feeling, somewhere in the pit of his stomach that this would be his last view of Narnia for many years to come. Now something else niggled his brain, his last look at his queen and empress had been just that, his last. He had promised to come home from the hunt of the White stag and he hadn't for he and his siblings had fallen back through the wardrobe to the professor's house. He touched the ribbon which was tied around Rhindon's hilt and smiled weakly.

"Once a king or queen of Narnia always a king or queen of Narnia." He whispered and raised his eyes from the Crimson and gold lion headed hilt and back to view of Narnia from the tower window. "Long live the king."

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Susan was sat in the library of the Telmarine castle a book she wasn't really reading open on her lap. Her mind was on other things and other people. She was in love. There was no two ways about it she was in love with Caspian and didn't want to leave him as she had done her many suitors before when she had returned to England during the hunting of the White stag. She looked up and out of the high vaulted window that looked out over Narnia and sighed. She was leaving she could tell, and she had no way of stopping it. She looked down at the book once more and the images of the battle against the White witch which the fauns had painted centuries before and sighed.

"Once a king or queen of Narnia always a king or queen of Narnia." She whispered with a weak smile as the imagined the five of them, her siblings, herself and Caspian all seated in the thrones in the throne room of Cair Paravel, ruling side by side. "Long live the king."

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Caspian meanwhile was pacing. Pacing up and down the throne room nervously whilst Edmund and Lucy looked on from the side lines, hidden behind a pillar. Caspian was sure he would be a very bad leader, a very bad ruler of the narnian and Telmarine peoples. The narnians he felt sure would hate him and the Telmarines would think him a traitor and usurper of the throne from his uncle Miraz. He felt sure there would be no peace for years to come. He only hoped the Pevensie's would be allowed to rule alongside him for a while and set him on his way. He knew he would feel lost without them. Especially Susan. Susan, his other dilemma. He was sure he was in love though he had no idea how one realised they were in love. He wanted to tell her how he felt, but how was he to do it? That was his biggest concern. He just would have to work a way to do it before his coronation that evening.

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Caspian's coronation came quicker than he thought one minute he was prince Caspian and the next he was King Caspian the Tenth, Lord of Cair Paravel and Emperor of The Lone Islands. Then the party was getting underway and he had no time to talk with Susan before she was whisked away by doctor Cornelius, nor Lucy was dancing with Trumpkin the dwarf. Edmund was no where to be seen, until much later when he was found beneath the ale table with Trufflehunter and several fauns. Peter was off with Glenstorm talking about the golden age Peter was sure Caspian would bring to Narnia. As the evening drew to a close there was once again a rousing rendition of "long live the king" for both him and the Kings and queens of old. In that moment, Susan had seen caspian's nervousness and gently took his hand in her own as she took Peter's, Lucy took Caspian's other hand and Edmund finished the line by taking hold of Lucy's free hand. There they were, one last time together, Kings and queens of Narnia.

Long live the king.