Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia or any of the characters. I just own the plot line.
I stared down at my 11 year-old brother lying in his bed at the Cair. Why did this sort of thing always happen to him? Why did my little brother always have to risk his neck for everyone else? One battle and he was lying in his bed dying while Lucy was racing back from Archenland with the cordial. One battle…
"High King Peter! High King Peter!" Mr. Tumnus yelled running down the hall towards me.
"Yes, Mr. Tumnus." I said turning to face the faun and seeing his terrified face. "What's wrong?"
"Sir, the giants are attacking the northern dwarfish settlements!" The fellow squeaked.
"Alert my brother and General Orieus say that we are to leave immediately. Tell Susan she is to watch over the Cair until our return." I said instinct taking over.
"Yes, sire." With that the faun ran off towards the library where Edmund was most likely to be reading a book on Narnian law. I raced off towards the armory. Soon my brother joined me. He was already formulating a strategy for fighting the giants. We got into our gear and headed to the front of the sparkling castle.
"Is everyone ready?" Edmund asked General Orieus when we arrived at the front of our army.
"Yes." He replied shortly.
"Good." I said. "Let's head out."
The party started forward and we rode north for a day. The giants were still attacking the dwarfish settlements when we arrived. We rode into battle immediately going exactly were my younger brother told us too. He had become quite the strategist and warrior since we had come to Narnia.
The giants were nearly beaten there were few wounded soldiers and only two giants left. I as I finished off one of them I heard a whack behind me and spun to see the second hitting my brother who had thrown himself in the way of me getting hit by the giants club. Edmund flew fifteen feet through the air and into a tree trunk were he slumped at the bottom. I fought the giant who had hit Edmund winning quickly.
I ran to my brothers limp form praying to Aslan that he was alive. Blood was seeping out of his back when I reached him. I quickly checked his pulse before looking to see a large cut down his back. What had he been thinking?
"Help!" I cried desperately. "I need help. King Edmund is hurt."
A medic named Alia and Orieus raced over with bandages. Alia quickly wrapped the bandages around my brother's torso. He then started wrapping a bandage around a wound on my brother's head I hadn't noticed.
"The King is in a very poor condition." The dryad said sadly. "I have done all that I can. We must get him back to Cair Paravel and your sisters cordial quickly. He has lost a lot of blood and will surely die without it."
"But Lucy has taken the cordial to Archenland to help King Lune who was gravely injured in battle a week ago." I said to the medic fear filling my face.
"She must return to the Cair as must we." He said. We ran back to the rest of the army and all mounted our horses. Edmund was in front of me on my horse, Fria, while Phillip was beside us glancing anxiously at Edmund who remained motionless. We rode back to Cair Paravel with urgency that no one had seen the likes of since the Battle of Beruna. We arrived and I carried my brother to his room and laying him on his bed.
After everything the four of us had been through would this be it. Would Edmund die this way? He shouldn't have to die at all. Sure he had done some wrong in the past, but he had become a saint over the past year and everyone in all of Narnia had forgiven him. He had changed so much, but it was still rare to see him smile or talk. He didn't trust himself unless it involved a carefully thought out battle plan.
That's why he'd thrown himself in front of that club of course! It hadn't occurred to me then, but now that I was slightly calmer and could think clearer that was it! He had always trusted himself to make battle plans making sure they were flawless, but this one hadn't. I had nearly gotten killed and Edmund wasn't going to watch me die, but knowing my brother if he survived this he'd know his plan had gone wrong. In his mind he would have failed Narnia again.
Edmunds breathing got even shallower. Susan and I looked at each other from across him. Heavy tears were spilling down her face and I was sure mine was a mirror image. It was a three-day ride from Archenland and it was only one day since Lucy's answer came with Garin the eagle. She wasn't going to get here soon enough and Edmund would die. We'd all blame ourselves, but in truth it was my fault. I should have been watching my back, but instead I had been consumed in the battle with the giant in front of me and not seen the other come from behind.
Edmund took a gasp for breath and then was silent. I couldn't believe it. This couldn't have happened! It just couldn't have! Edmund didn't just die in front of me. He couldn't have! He was Edmund! He'd survived torture and a stab to the stomach, he'd survived me being his older brother and us yelling at him all the time, he'd survived the war back home and dozens of battles here. He couldn't die.
Susan sobbed loudly across from me. In between sobs I heard things like Please, Aslan! and Not, Ed. Aslan did not appear that day nor the next. When Lucy arrived she had him with her and sobbing.
"It was your brothers time to go, but do not cry children for you will see him again." Aslan said comfortingly.
"He shouldn't have died though!" I said angrily knowing that Aslan could have stopped my brother's death. "He…he saved me. He was a hero."
"Even heroes die." Aslan said.
AN: R&R please!!!!!!