So I'm also writing a companion story about Princess Aiyanna. Currently her story set before the start of this story with the "mishaps", but it will eventually catch up with this one and some parts of the plot will intertwine. Now back to this story!
"Captain! What are you doing?!" Susan cried out. She had been returning from a horse ride to talk with the villagers who had filed several complaints about a corrupt judge when she had seen Sirius beating someone. She had quickly rode her horse towards the two men and had seen it all. Sirius paused when he heard his queen's voice. Her lady-in-waiting Liesel and other companions followed. She was suddenly very glad she had not asked Lisette to be a companion for this trip.
"My queen, this villain has been plotting against you!" he cried out, pointing his finger accusingly at Darius. "He is a traitor! Once a murderer, always a murderer. Let me to dispose of him for you!" Darius looked up at the queen from where he was kneeling. His eyes were bloodshot. She felt a pain in her heart while looking at his pitiful face. He had been allowing the faun to do this to him. He fell prostrate on the ground from blood loss. Unsurprising. Most men wouldn't be strong enough to kneel upright as long as he did. She quickly moved to position herself between the irate faun and him, knowing Sirius wouldn't dare try to hurt Darius if it may mean hurting her.
"Nay, you shall not lift another finger against him until we have heard his side of the story! Lady Liesel dear, send for General Oreius and at least two other guards to come here immediately," Susan said, falling quickly into the role of commander. The royal "we" rang in her strong voice.
"Sirius, by the Lion, what offense could he commit that would rationalize such brutal punishment without trial?"
"Your majesty, this villain, this blackguard, he had bewitched you and your siblings, but I see right through him! Just today I caught him in the castle when he should not have been. Don't you see? He is still allied with the Calormens and plotting to kill you! I did this for your protection, your majesty," Sirius snarled. Throughout Sirius' speech Darius merely stared at the floor. What has the faun done to him to make him so submissive and meek? Liesel returned with Orieus, Arianis, and Bernadette.
"General Oreius, our Captain Sirius has greatly abused his power as a captain in Narnia's royal army," Susan began.
"I have not! My queen, I've been your faithful servant, doing my duty to undo whatever wicked enchantment-"
"Oreius, silence him!" Susan commanded impatiently. Oreius looked surprised but obeyed of course and quickly gagged Sirius. All in one breath she said, "As his breath of conduct and misuse of power is a military matter, we leave him to you to punish as you best see fit, once he has stood as prosecutor whilst Darius is being interrogated. Sir Bernadette, Sir Arianis, arrest Darius and bring him with us for questioning to test the validity of Sirius' grave accusations. General Oreius, arrest Sirius and bring him with us. Liesel, seek out mine royal siblings and inform them of what has occurred and entreat them to come to the interrogation room if their current work will allow them to find time. Tisell, fetch us supplies to treat Darius with and bring them to the interrogation room. The rest of you, dismissed!"
Arianis walked over towards Darius, but looked more confused than angry. She used her snout to help Darius to his feet and then allowed him to use her as support to stand. Susan wondered at that, not knowing that the two had been together earlier. Bernadette pulled out a dagger and held it loosely to Darius' back, which seemed a bit ridiculous since he was in no position to make a run for it. Oreius unsheathed his sword while guarding Sirius from making any rash actions, but just holding it in his hand was enough because Oreius' skills were well known.
The minotaur Killroy was standing guard outside the prisons.
"Sir Killroy, we require usage of the interrogation room. The centaur Tisell and hopefully my siblings will arrive soon. Let them in," Susan said as Killroy unlocked the room.
"Do you wish for me to chain Darius, your majesty?" Bernadette asked. Susan frowned.
"No, he looks as though he could barely walk, much less fight off all of us while weaponless and make a run for it," she said with just a touch of sarcasm to emphasize her point. "Darius, sit in the chair."
Darius collapsed into the chair silently and stared down at the floor. He had in fact been silent the entire trip down.
"Darius, he didn't cut your tongue out did he? Can you speak?" Susan said, suddenly worried.
"He did not, your majesty," he said hoarsely. Susan walked over to him and cupped his chin in her hands, gently forcing him to look up at her. He looked at her, confusion clouding his eyes. After a second, he lowered his eyes.
"Has Sirius treated you like this before?" she asked. He gave no response, but the flicker in his eyes told her everything. "Oh, you poor dear!"
"I… It's fine," he muttered hoarsely, not meeting her eyes. She knew he'd be being healed soon, but she couldn't help worrying about him. She wished she could have been there earlier to protect him.
She ran her fingers through his hair comfortingly and then stopped when she realized her fingers were quickly being covered with his blood. She whispered, "Darius…"
"A-hem? What is going on here?" Edmund said sounding scandalized as he entered. Susan quickly drew her hands back. Edmund kept staring at her with a suspicious look.
"Look at him, he is seriously hurt and needs help," Susan said, trying to explain her actions. When Edmund looked at her and shook his head, she changed tactics and tried to distract him.
"Brother, Sirius attacked and has made charges against Darius here, believing him to have plotted against us and to still be aligned with Calormens," Susan said sternly.
"What?! No, that's crazy!" a young voice suddenly cried out. Edmund and Susan turned and saw that Peter had entered and had brought Pheneus along with him. Susan grimaced. He was way too young to bring to such things. Why in the world did Peter have to bring him? Pheneus looked shocked and upset when he saw his uncle's face. He began to run towards him, but Peter caught the boy's arm and pulled him back, restraining him with an arm. Pheneus stared at Susan. "What did you do to him?!" he choked out, struggling against Peter's strong hold.
"I've sent for Tisell to bring healing supplies for him," Susan said soothingly, caressing the young boy's hair a little. This somewhat calmed Pheneus. At the very least he stopped fighting against Peter's hold on him. "Brother, why did you bring your squire along with you?"
"He was there when Liesel sent for me and insisted on accompanying me," Peter said ruefully with a shrug. Susan frowned, wishing her brother had handled that with more discretion.
"We helped Tisell with the healing supplies," Lucy said as she entered. Behind her entered Princess Aiyanna and Tisell. They had no healing supplies in their hands. Everyone looked at them in confusion. Lucy giggled and pointed to Aiyanna. "Here's all our healing supplies!" Aiyanna ignored Lucy's joke and quite frankly everyone in the room, simply walking over to Darius and called up her healing powers to mend him. Susan glanced at Lucy and quickly realize she didn't just want Aiyanna there to heal Darius but also so she would be forced to be in the same room as Peter.
"But I thought dryad magic wasn't as powerful so far from their tree?" Edmund asked.
"Ed!" Susan protested, shocked at her brother's lack of tact.
"It's alright. Generally no, but my powers are amplified as a princess and have been growing much quicker than the average dryads. But it will still take quite awhile, and the wounds will still take time to fully heal," she said while placing her hands on Darius head to heal the damage there first.
"Incredible," Peter said admiringly. Susan and Lucy shared a knowing glance which Peter didn't seem to catch. Edmund just rolled his eyes.
"Anyways, Sirius, we will allow you to speak now, but facts only, not your interpretation of them," Susan said. Peter shot her a look. He never took to kindly to Susan leading in bloodier cases, but she really didn't care. She was the one who witnessed the incident; she was going to take charge. Thankfully, Peter didn't contest her. Oreius removed the gag from Sirius' mouth.
"I sent Darius with Sir Arianis on an errand to fetch armor from the village that we had ordered. He returned far too late for such a simple errand, and Sir Lir saw him in the castle! He was there, your majesties, and the only explanation is that he was spying for the Calormens!" Sirius seethed.
"The only explanation?" Arianis asked, annoyed. "I was with him. We saw her highness, Princess Aiyanna, on our way, being attacked by a group of men and intervened and then escorted her into the castle."
Sirius' eyes grew big. "But that doesn't explain why he returned so late."
"I'm afraid that's my fault," Lucy perked up. "I insisted they stay and tell me what happened over tea."
"Then there is no reason to interrogate Darius; the accusations against him were incorrectly made assumptions only loosely rooted in fact," Peter said. Pheneus looked up at him with adoring eyes, happy that Peter was supporting his uncle. Peter allowed a small smile for his squire before turning back to Sirius with a hard look. "However, Sirius' abuse of power against him must be answered for. Nothing, especially not this, allows for such a hateful act." Sirius looked at him wildly.
Edmund turned to Darius and asked, "Darius, are there any other crimes Sirius has committed that we should know about?" Darius shifted uncomfortably, as though he didn't want to speak.
"Sirius has been using Darius as a punching bag for some time. I'm not sure how long because he wouldn't say anything, but the look of fear and shame in his eyes when I asked him about it made it clear," Susan said, placing a kind hand on Darius' shoulder in hopes of encouraging him to speak, but Darius only seemed to retract from her touch.
"That's preposterous! I may have hit him once or twice, but only to keep him from trying to escape from Cair Paravel or from snooping around!" Sirius protested. Ed and Peter looked a bit uncertain at these words. General Oreius kept his perfect poker face, not betraying any emotion. Lucy, however looked horrified at Sirius' words.
"Uncle Darius wouldn't!" Pheneus shouted out. Peter pulled him back with a frown and motioned for him to be quiet. Pheneus looked sulky, but obeyed.
"I think we can deduce from what happened today that this is highly unlikely to be true. If you think that saving Princess Aiyanna and staying with my sister warrants you beating him so badly, we doubt any other abuse was warranted either," Susan said sternly.
"Either way though," Edmund said, raising a hand to silence Sirius before he could say anything. "Darius has to press charges against him. We cannot just assume based on what Susan deduced happened, even though I agree it seems most probable. Do you press charges against him, Darius?"
"He's the criminal, not me! He killed my father!" Sirius shouted. Everyone froze. The next couple of seconds felt like an eternity.
"Was… was your father Panbus?" Darius asked hoarsely. "Then… then… I won't press charges."
Sirius was furious that Darius had dared to say his father's name. That murderer!
"No… no, I don't want to press charges," Darius said slowly. What's he playing at? Sirius thought suspiciously.
"He… he was… an assignment from the White Witch. He was part of a rebellion group against her," Darius stammered. He then put his elbows on his knees and dug his face into his hands. Everyone reacted as it dawned on them what Darius meant by "an assignment."
"How horrid," Lucy whispered.
"Murderer!" Sirius hissed. General Oreius quickly moved to restrain Sirius from attacking Darius, pulling his arms tightly behind his back.
"Sirius, remain calm," Peter said, stepping in front of him and holding him by his shoulders. "I know this is hard for you, but violence is not the answer."
"He sure seemed to think it was when he murdered my father!"
"He's changed. He's not about to murder again," Peter murmured comfortingly, but it was lost on Sirius.
"No! Once a murderer, always a murderer!" Sirius cried out, struggling against Oreius' hold. When the centaur's grip wouldn't yield, Sirius eventually gave up and went limp, crying.
"Sirius… I know this probably won't help, but I'm sorry about what I did. I wish I had never done all the stuff I did in the past," Darius offered weakly. Sirius only glared at him through his tears.
"High King Peter, allow me," Aiyanna said, pushing him back with her hand. He released his hold on Sirius and looked at her curiously. She placed her hands on Sirius' head and murmured something in ancient dryad. Sirius instantly felt lighter and the tears stopped flowing. He was still angry but much less so. "Is there anything else you'd like to add? No insults though, just fact."
After a long pause, Sirius whispered hoarsely, "He tricked my father, claiming to be sent by one of his friends. After my parents gave him a meal, he proceeded to tell us why he was really there and tried to kill my father. I tried to stop him. Just as Darius was about to deal the killing blow I ran in front of my father to block him. I begged him to show mercy, but he pushed me aside. I then tried to attack him, but he quickly defeated me and knocked me unconscious." Throughout all of this, Darius remained crouched with his face in his hands. He started shaking when Sirius spoke about begging for mercy.
"Darius, do you deny any of this?" Peter asked sternly. Darius looked up from his fingers and Sirius was shocked to see that the man had been crying. It's all an act. He just wants their pity¸ Sirius reminded himself.
"No," Darius said quietly. He looks so genuinely upset… But no! If he was, he would have never done it in the first place! Darius suddenly got up out of the interrogation chair. The room was silent as all eyes were glued on him, wondering what he was about to do. He knelt down on both knees in front of Sirius.
"I know I deserve to die for all the deaths and suffering I have caused, and that nothing I can do can ever make up for them… If you… if… if you want to kill me right now to avenge your father, I will not fight you. And I ask that no one else here try to stop him," Darius said. Sirius stared back at him in shock, not understanding why a coldblooded murderer would offer up his life so willingly.
"Darius, there's no need for you to do this. Aslan himself sent dreams to tell us to forgive you," the High King said firmly.
Darius shook his head. "Even if Aslan is real, he never sent a dream to Sirius telling him not to kill me. If he wishes to avenge his father, he should do so."
Sirius was confused, not comprehending the moment. He had been trying for months to get Darius to disobey an order so that Darius would be executed, and yet here he was, fully able to walk free but choosing to put himself at Sirus' mercy. He heard an audible sob and a cry of "Uncle!" and saw the High King pull Pheneus in close and hug him tightly to restrain him. Pheneus turned in his arms and buried his face in the High King's tunic. In a trancelike state, Sirius heard Queen Susan's voice, sounding far off, say no. He suddenly realized Bernadette was speaking to him and turned to her. She was holding out a sword for him to take. He stared at it, confused. He then realized it was to kill Darius with. He turned to Darius again. Darius looked pained, but not afraid. Almost as though it was guilt, not fear for his life that was paining him. Sirius realized that Oreius had let go of his arms and grabbed the sword. It felt heavy in his hand. Father, I can avenge you at last.