Chapter 7: Battles are ugly affairs...

Susan found the sword with the blue and silver hilt again and drew it from its sheath. She weaved her way through each stance and strike as Jadis coached her in the movements and occasionally parried a blow.

"Now, can you feel it? In your blood? That power?" Jadis questioned. "That's what you are going to have to use if you want to call forth snow and ice."

Susan panted from their sparring and wasn't sure she was quite willing to learn that power just yet or not.

Peter bitterly counted the seconds since Edmund's tragic, but brave demise. A messenger kneeled in front of him, "Milord, your sister has appeared with a host of warriors at our gates."

"What?" demanded Peter, in shock.

Susan sat proudly on her grey charger wearing a blue dress and light armor with her ivory quiver and bow slung across her back with her sword hanging from her horse's saddle. Peter approached and eyed the reinforcements Susan had brought from Narnia, but most of all his shocked gaze wandered back to Susan in the front of the grand host. Her hair was loose, but braided slightly back with a raven feather tucked into it and a silver circlet on her head as she regally watched Peter come nearer.

"What are you doing here, Susan?" said Peter, with disapproving glance, and gathering her horses' reins to hold them while she dismounted.

"I've come to help avenge our poor brother of course." Susan replied, daringly.

Peter sighed, "Come. We need to talk in private."

Susan entered Peter's private tent and waited for the arguing to start.

"Susan, I am happy you brought more men with you. That is a great aid to me, but I do not want you fighting. You should return home immediately." Peter explained.

"And do nothing? Sit at home and wait for the next messenger who will announce your death to me?" Susan inquired coolly.

"Peter, maybe you're too proud to admit it, but you need help. And I am going to help you whether you like or not." Susan spoke strongly.

"You don't understand Susan. You have no idea what its like to kill another person. It will break your soul."

"Well, as fragile as you believe my soul to be, if you don't allow me to help now, then Lucy and I will end up fighting the enemies you couldn't defeat on the steps of Cair Paravel itself."

"Do you really want Lucy's soul to shatter? Because hers surely would if she was ever forced to kill someone."

And to that Peter had no response.

The next morning's battle was an ugly affair indeed. They had managed to drive the enemy forces back and not lose any ground, but only at a terrible cost to their own fresh troops. Susan walked among the dead corpses strewn on the ground, her blade still bloodied. Peter was nearby, but consistently refused to look her in the eye. Susan felt bile rise in her throat as she thought of all the charging, sweaty bodies that had attacked her and how she had sliced through them all as if they were nothing more than fields of wheat. She pulled out a cloth and wiped it down the blade to clean her sword, trying to wrest her memories and emotions back under control. Peter had been right about one thing. She had had no idea what it was like to kill someone. The stench of blood, the blank, surprised look in their eyes as they fell to the earth beneath your feet. The way no one stopped to mourn for them, just simply stepped over or on them and continued to fight those still alive.

But it was a necessary evil. Susan thought to herself stubbornly. If we didn't kill them, then they would destroy everything we hold dear. If we must fight to protect, then we must not wallow in our guilt.

Susan made her way over to Peter and his generals who were already preparing for the next assault.

"Susan, we're going to go for the heart of the enemy's castle. If we keep going like this they will soon kill us all off because of their superior numbers." Peter resolved. "If we can get close enough to take out the leader, then we stand a chance because they're likely to surrender."

Under the cover of night, Peter and his soldiers creeped toward the castle. Peter's second-in-command lead a decoy army, determined to attract the attention of the enemy away from their castle's security. Susan sat waiting, in a clearing with a few others guarding the perimeter, for Peter's signal to move.

"It won't come." Jadis hissed in her ear.

"What do you mean?" Susan whispered, so as not to have the others ask who she was talking to. "Peter will send no signal. He has deceived you. These men he placed with you are simply here to guard you and whisk you away to safety should this reckless plan backfire."

Susan's eyes blazed in anger at the truth in her words. Deftly, Susan slipped away from her guards into the night heading towards the enemy's keep on her own.

--

I guess in some ways I'm venting my own frustration at the lack of fighting on the girls' part. They're just expected to stand around and look pretty. Probably why I like Jadis so much because she doesn't follow the rules. She fights. REVIEW!!