Chapter Two: Duel

Caspian was apparently so embarrassed about seeing Edmund half naked that he barely spoke to him the next two or three times that they were called to Narnia. One day, however, he found Edmund looking over some old books in the library and he came over.

"There is something that I've been meaning to show you," he said, abruptly.

Edmund raised an eyebrow, but followed Caspian as he began pulling rolled up parchments and maps from a shelf. Caspian rolled one particular parchment out in front of Edmund. Edmund looked down and saw what appeared to be a builder's sketches of a castle. Upon second glance his eyes widened and he looked over at Caspian.

"Cair Paravel. It is our castle. Why?"

Caspian ran a hand through his hair, nervously. "I was thinking of rebuilding it, actually. Give the Old Narnians a castle that they can call their own. What do you think?" He looked at Edmund, anxiously.

Edmund looked down at the sketches for long moments. "Have you shown this to the others?"

Caspian shook his head. "No, just you."

Edmund looked at them some more, trying to think of some kingly advice to offer. "It wouldn't be a bad move, politically, assuming that it doesn't bankrupt you, of course. Is it financially feasible?"

"I think so," Caspian said. "Look, what I really want to know is do you like the idea or … well, would it be too painful. This is going to be a very accurate re-creation of Cair Paravel. Would it make you feel too sad to stand in your old castle – with, well, with none of the old faces."

Edmund was surprised that Caspian had been so sensitive to their feelings. He certainly wasn't so sensitive when he was calling them all to Narnia every other day. Edmund hadn't even thought of how it would feel. "I suppose that it wouldn't be easy, in a way," he said, after some thought. "But I think that we'd like it well enough after the initial shock. It would be wonderful to see Cair Paravel again."

Caspian seemed pleased with this response. "Good, because I'm partly doing this for you, you know – all of you, I mean, so it wouldn't do if you hated it."

"Well," Edmund felt the need to warn him, "if you are doing it to impress Susan then I should tell you that she is probably the one of us who is least likely to approve of the idea. It isn't terribly practical, you see. You already have a perfectly good castle here – larger, closer to the center of the kingdom, more defensible from attack."

"I wasn't doing it just to impress her," Caspian muttered. "You were wrong before, you know. I haven't been calling all of you here just so I can walk around with Susan on my arm."

This truly caught Edmund off guard. "Really? But that is all you seem to do."

Caspian scratched his chin. "Well, once she is here, I can't exactly ignore her. I mean, we are courting, I suppose."

"You suppose?" Edmund asked and realized for the first time that it was Susan who had kissed Caspian that first time and it was still usually Susan who leaned over to kiss Caspian on the cheek or who grabbed his hand. "So why do you keep calling us, then?"

Caspian shrugged. "For advice. Reassurance, I suppose."

"You never ask our advice," Edmund objected. "Except for just now."

"Well, not yours."

Edmund stepped back, offended. Did Caspian think that his advice wasn't good enough? Edmund was the one who was clever and good at advising, but he supposed that people would always assume that Peter was better at everything. "Why not mine?"

Caspian gave shot him a smirk. "Because you always seemed to be so angry at being here. I didn't want to bother you."

"Oh," Edmund said, unable to deny it.

-- -- --

Lucy clapped her hands. "I think it is a wonderful idea."

"I agree," said Edmund, who, of course, had already been told about the plans for Cair Paravel and thus had time to school his reactions.

Susan scowled at them. "Well, I think it is the silliest thing I've ever heard in my life. Why on earth do you need to build another castle? This one is perfectly fine – better situated, in fact."

Caspian smiled at Edmund. "Yes, your brother has already told me about all of that and I am told by my architects that we can improve the fortifications while still capturing the general feel of the castle."

Susan looked back and forth between Edmund and Caspian and her face went red, but not for the reason Edmund would have thought. "You've already talked this over with Edmund?" she asked.

Caspian looked confused. "Yes."

She sat down, abruptly and wouldn't be budged by the rest of them. "You obviously don't want my input," she said to Caspian.

-- -- --

It was over a month before Caspian called them again. Edmund had begun to really worry. What if Caspian could no longer call them? What if time in Narnia had started to pass faster and a few hundred years had slipped by without them realizing it? Normally, three or four Narnian days passed for every day that they spent in their own world, but there was no reason that couldn't change.

"Why haven't you called us?" Edmund asked as soon as he set eyes on Caspian.

"Yes," Susan agreed. "I've been worried sick." Edmund looked at his sister and saw the same anxiousness that he felt reflected in her eyes. He chewed his lip.

Caspian looked at them wearily. "There has been trouble to the north with the giants. I've been up there until yesterday."

Edmund saw Peter shake his head, his eyes smoldering at this new threat to Narnia. "Those giants are always trouble."

Of course, the rest of the day was spent in Edmund, Peter, and Caspian discussing military strategy.

When Peter went to speak to one of the generals, Edmund talked to Caspian. "Here, I was hoping to give you good advice, but you seem to know more about the situation than me or Peter," he said, smiling.

Caspian smiled back. "It certainly doesn't feel that way."

Edmund raised an eyebrow. "Well, you do. Not that I'm not happy to be here – I was as worried as Susan -- but you don't have to have us here. You could handle it without us."

"Maybe. Maybe it was easier because there were four of you, but didn't you ever feel like you needed some help when you began your reign?"

Edmund laughed. "Are you kidding? Of course we did. We weren't raised to rule a kingdom like you. We weren't even raised in the nobility. But we had to sort of feel our way along in the dark and somehow figure out what was right."

Caspian gave him a sidelong look. "But if you had owned a horn that could call, say, King Frank and Queen Helen, the first king and queen of Narnia, up to give you advice any time you wanted, wouldn't you have used it?"

Edmund hadn't thought of it that way. "I guess we would have."

Caspian gave a small nod as if glad that they understood one another.

-- -- --

"You never spend any time with me anymore," Susan told Caspian. It wasn't said in an angry way, just in a slightly regretful way.

Caspian shrugged. "I apologize. I've been busy with planning this campaign to the north."

"I know how to fight battles too, you know," Susan told him reproachfully.

"You do?" Peter asked, doubtfully and Edmund snickered outright. Susan was good with a bow, but military strategy had never been one of her interests.

"Yes, boys," she told them.

Caspian soothed her. "There is to be a ball in three weeks. We will go together."

-- -- --

It was the holidays and Susan was in one of the worst moods that Edmund had ever seen her in. True, he and Lucy had been throwing tiny pieces of bread at one another at dinner while Mother wasn't looking, but he hadn't meant to dump Susan's dinner in her lap.

"Really, Ed," she said furiously when she went up to the bathroom to make a futile attempt to get the stains out of her skirt. "You'd think that by your age, you would be more mature."

"Well," Lucy said, trying to look on the bright side. "At least you won't have to eat your peas."

Susan glared at Lucy who attempting to help her scrub her skirt. Edmund had a feeling that she thought this statement was childish as well.

"You're in a fine mood," Edmund said. "I've already said that I am sorry."

Just before bedtime, Edmund came up to the girls' room to try apologizing one more time. He caught Susan sitting in of her mirror, just staring at herself. Not combing her hair or putting on the makeup that she often wore, but just looking.

"Have you heard Caspian's latest idiotic scheme?" she asked softly, without looking at him. "He wants to sail out to find those friends of his father's who were never heard of again. Not just send an expedition, mind you, he wants to go himself. And if he can't find them at any of the islands, then he wants to keep sailing on. Into the unknown."

It didn't sound like such a stupid idea to Edmund. When they were all ruling Narnia, he and Lucy had tried for years to convince Peter and Susan that there should be exploration of the lands beyond the Lone Islands. He didn't tell Susan this, however, because she seemed so very upset.

"He didn't tell me," Edmund said, as though there was some sort of need to reassure her that they were not in competition with one another.

Susan looked at herself some more. "He never listens to me. He doesn't really need me. Narnia doesn't really need me."

-- -- --

Looking at Caspian and Susan that night, Edmund could hardly believe that they had been arguing so much lately. He could see why the Narnians so loved the image of them together – they are beautiful, vivacious, vibrant. Caspian whirled Susan about the dance floor as if neither of them have a care in the world.

"They are so perfect together," Edmund muttered and somehow, the knowledge was painful. "Why couldn't I see it before?" Edmund had been speaking to himself, but Lucy looked over and gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Come and dance with me, Ed," she said, softly.

Edmund could barely keep his eyes off of them the whole night, but he retired to the sitting chamber that he had been given early. He was sick of the music and the light and the Telmarine girls wanting to dance with him. He poured himself a glass of wine, but he didn't drink it. He just held it and swished the dark liquid around in the glass.

After a long while, he heard Caspian and Susan talking at the door outside her room. He knew the routine. They would talk for ten minutes or so and then he would give her a rather chaste kiss on the lips and he would go to his own chambers. They never did anything terribly interesting. They were not very – passionate.

When Edmund heard Susan's door close, he went to his own door, opened it about halfway, caught Caspian's eye and motioned the young king inside. Edmund sat down with his booted feet propped up on the table. He did not offer Caspian a seat.

Edmund did not waste time. "As you've been courting Susan for quite a while now, I feel that it is my duty, as her brother, to ask you what your intentions are."

"My – what?" Caspian asked. He seemed to sense that Edmund was not totally serious, but was unsure what this was all about.

"Your intentions. For example, do you intend to marry her?"

Caspian's eyes widened. "Marry her? No – I mean, I don't think so. I mean, we are both still very young, King Edmund." He was looking at Edmund warily, now.

"Well, then," Edmund sat up straighter and grinned challengingly at Caspian, "I'm afraid that I must challenge you to a duel."

Caspian looked thoroughly confused. "A duel? But --"

"And," Edmund went on, ignoring Caspian's objections, "as my sister is the injured party, I demand the right to choose the type of weapons that we shall use."

Caspian gave up trying to make sense of this and decided to play along. "What will it be, then?" He had one hand on his hip and a cocky sort of look on his face. "Swords? Axes? Our bare hands?"

Edmund reached under the table. "Bottles," he said, placing the wine bottle on the table.

Caspian actually gave a good-hearted laugh before he schooled his face into a fake seriousness. "Why King Edmund," he chastised. "Your sister informed me that you are considered too young to drink wine in your own world. Shall I send someone down to the kitchen to fetch you a jug of milk?"

Edmund didn't blush; he merely looked Caspian straight in the eye. "We are not in my world," he said, very distinctly.

"I see," Caspian sat down. He picked up the bottle and looked at it. "I don't know what things were like in your time, but these days, this type of Archenlander wine is considered too strong to drink. You have to mix it with water."

Edmund, who knew all about Archenland wine, smiled. He picked up the glass and managed to down it in three gulps. His eyes watered. It was strong stuff. "They wouldn't have put it in that fancy bottle if they meant you to mix it with water before drinking it. You can pick your own weapon, though. Perhaps you'd like a sweeter wine. Or we could always send to the kitchens for that jug of milk."

Edmund offered Caspian a glass, and, never taking his eyes off Edmund, Caspian poured the strong wine. It took him longer to drink it than Edmund, but he managed to down the whole glass without flinching.

-- -- --

This was bad. Caspian had one of his fingers shoved up inside the wine bottle and was waving it around. He looked like he was conducting an orchestra. With a wine bottle. Edmund really should have thought this through more. If Susan found out that he had got Caspian drunk, then she would kill them both. Peter probably wouldn't be too happy either. Edmund had to get Caspian down the hall and into his own bed without anyone seeing him.

Edmund managed to stumble to his feet – he wasn't as drunk as Caspian, but he wasn't exactly sober either. He took Caspian's arm and lifted him to his feet. "Where are we going?" Caspian asked. "Can we go dance? I like to dance."

"I think you've danced enough for tonight," Edmund muttered. "Besides, you can barely stand." Caspian laughed hysterically as if Edmund had made a terribly funny joke. Edmund struggled to guide Caspian through the halls, but Caspian kept getting away from him and stumbling into the walls. Edmund was sure that they would wake up the entire castle, but everything remained quiet.

Edmund sighed with relief as he dumped Caspian into his bed, but as he turned to leave, Caspian grabbed him by the tunic and pulled him down into the bed. Edmund waited a moment and tried to get up, but Caspian pulled him down again. And again. As if it were some sort of game. Edmund knew better than to try to argue with someone who was drunk, so he lay still.

After a few minutes, he noticed that Caspian was not drifting off to sleep as he had expected, but was staring at him very intensely. Suddenly self-conscious, Edmund tried to keep from breathing very loudly. He wondered what Caspian was thinking.

"You're very odd looking," Caspian said.

Well. Now he knew. "Thanks," Edmund said, sarcastically.

"No, I mean your hair and eyes are dark like a Telmarine, but your skin is as fair as an Archenlander. Strange. I remember the first time I saw an Archenlander." Apparently Caspian was the type who babbled when he was drunk. "I was five and a delegation of them came here to the castle. I was scared of the ones with blue eyes. I had never seen blue eyes before. Nothing else about the way they looked scared me, just the eyes." Edmund remembered, idly, that Susan had blue eyes.

"Your skin really is amazing, you know," Caspian went on. "It is amazing all over. I remember. I saw – you were all wet and I saw." Caspian's was running his hand over Edmund's cheek and down his neck and tracing the collar of his tunic. "The wine has stained your lips," he ran his thumb over Edmund's lips.

He's going to kiss me. He's going to kiss me. He's going to kiss me, Edmund thought and his heart was beating very fast. But Caspian didn't kiss him, he just rolled over and promptly fell asleep.

Damn.

-- -- --

Edmund awoke to see Caspian lying beside him. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but he supposed that it wasn't a bad thing. He looked down at Caspian's sleeping form and began playing with a tendril of dark hair. Why did Caspian have to be so handsome?

Edmund had his back to the door, but he had the odd feeling that he was being watched. He turned around and his heart skipped a beat. Susan. He had forgot that she often came into Caspian's room in the mornings. Most people wouldn't think much of seeing two fully clothed young men in a bed together – they would just assume that something had been wrong with Edmund's bedroom or he had happened to fall asleep, but Susan knew Edmund. She knew how he was back when they were all kings and queens of Narnia and she knew which way his tastes ran.

Susan looked at him carefully and, without a word, she turned and left the room.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Edmund got out of the bed as fast as he could and ran after Susan. Caspian didn't stir from his place. "Su! Susan!" Edmund yelled, running after her. "Su, stop!"

Susan stopped and turned to face him, obviously angry. "I didn't expect my brother to steal my boyfriend, Edmund," she said.

"I didn't," Edmund was breathless. "I mean, it wasn't like that. I mean, we didn't sleep together. Well, obviously we slept together, but not like that. We didn't even kiss."

Susan crossed her arms, skeptically. "You didn't sleep together?" she asked.

"No."

"And you didn't kiss him?"

"No."

Susan looked at him, carefully. "Did you want to kiss him?"

"I --" Edmund's objection caught in his throat. He had wanted to kiss Caspian and was wondering if he should lie. His moment of silence was apparently enough answer for his sister as she threw her hands in the air in exasperation and walked away.

"Su!" he yelled after her, but he felt something pluck at him and knew that he was being called back to his own world. Why did they never have any control over when they went back? That wasn't how it was the first time. After a moment, Edmund found himself back at his boarding school with no chance of having a private conversation with Susan.

The next time Caspian blew the horn, Susan did not come. The others worried the whole time she was gone, but Edmund knew that nothing was wrong. His sister had simply chosen not to show up.