Chapter 7

A Telmarine soldier looked out from a watch tower and saw the vast forest surrounding Miraz's castle. Seeing nothing unordinary, he decided that it would be an easy night of patrolling. Little did he know what doom would befall on him in mere seconds.

Penthesilea watched the soldier from her perch in a nearby tree. She noticed him leaning against the railing of the tower and closing his eyes. A satisfied smile crept onto the huntress's lips. She nodded at Edmund who stood behind her with a griffin mounted.

Silently, Edmund took off from his hiding place, riding the griffin through the sticky night air. He circled around the watch tower once, and the soldier didn't notice him. On the second time around, the griffin snatched up the soldier, and the Telmarine didn't even have time to cry out before the griffin had sliced his throat with its razor claws.

Edmund jumped down from his mount and watched it fly away with the body of the soldier. He took a deep breath and brought out his electric torch from the satchel he wore. Then he began turning the flashlight on and off, on and off, while pointing it at the forest.

Upon seeing the signal, Peter, Susan, and Caspian took flight on their griffins followed by Penthesilea in the form of an eagle.

A few other soldiers were patrolling the courtyard. As his griffin flew low, Caspian swung his sword and killed one of guards.

Elsewhere, a Telmarine archer noticed Edmund's signals and grew suspicious. He aimed his crossbow at Edmund's watch tower.

Penthesilea flew down and raked the archer's face with her talons before swatting him to the ground to knock him out. Then, the huntress continued to follow Susan, Peter, and Caspian as they landed in the courtyard which was now empty except for a few bodies of Telmarine guards.

Penthesilea took her true form. The four regained their posture and proceeded to finding a way inside the castle.

Meanwhile, a Minotaur wandered around the castle quietly. A Telmarine soldier noticed the creature and drew his sword, ready to fight it off. Before he could swing his weapon, the Minotaur turned around and made a gesture to be quiet. "Shhhhh…"

The soldier stared.

Nikabrik snuck up behind the soldier and knocked him out.

At the entrance, Reepicheep and his mice easily squeezed between the bars of the gate and entered the castle from underground. Reepicheep turned a corner and saw a cat sleeping soundly on a fancy cushion. The mouse drew his sword and smiled deviously.

Outside, Peter and Caspian hugged the wall of the castle as they climbed their way down to an open window. They were followed closely by Susan and Penthesilea.

"Professor?" Caspian whispered loudly as he stepped into Cornelius' study.

The four let themselves into the old professor's room and looked around. Dust covered the books while the quill looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. Caspian noticed Cornelius' glasses on a nearby desk and picked them up. "I have to find him," he told his companions.

"We don't have time," Penthesilea argued. "Why didn't you mention this before we came? It's too late. We have to get to the gatehouse, now."

"You wouldn't even be here without him and neither would I!" Caspian countered, a bit of anger in his voice.

Penthesilea's cheeks puffed a little to show her irritation. "Fine. You go straight to Cornelius and then to the gatehouse. We'll take Miraz," she turned to Susan and Peter.

Then they went their separate ways.

Meanwhile, a soldier walked around the castle and noticed the cat tied up with ropes. He looked around suspiciously.

Reepicheep then dropped down from the ceiling, hanging upside down with his tail. When the soldier turned to stare at him, Reepicheep sighed. "Yes, I'm a mouse." He hit the soldier with his sword and knocked him down.

The other mice came out from hiding and worked together to open a door.

Trumpkin was waiting behind the door. He shot another soldier who was trying to sneak up behind the mice. Reepicheep looked up at the dwarf. "We were expecting someone, you know, taller."

Trumpkin didn't even crack a smile. "You're one to talk," he replied in monotone.

Reepicheep raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to be irony?"

Somewhere in the dungeons, Caspian slammed open the door to his professor's cell and saw the old man chained to the floor, sleeping. The prince quickly shook him awake. "Five more minutes?" he asked when the professor opened his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Cornelius demanded, his voice raspy from disuse. "I didn't help you escape just so you could get captured. You have to leave before Miraz learns of you!"

"He'll learn soon enough," Caspian said as he began unlocking the chains that held his tutor. "We're giving him your cell."

"Don't underestimate Miraz the way your father did," Cornelius said grimly. His chains were gone now, and he took his glasses from Caspian.

Caspian stopped for a moment, "What are you talking about?"

The professor realized that he had said too much. "I'm sorry."

Caspian suddenly processed what it meant. He rushed out of the cell toward Miraz's chamber, leaving Cornelius behind.

Miraz's room was faintly lit by a candle and the moonlight. Caspian quietly entered and drew his sword.

Miraz woke when he felt the cold edge of a blade touch his neck. He opened his eyes and saw a very angry Caspian pointing his sword at him. Smiling slyly, Miraz said, "Thank goodness you're safe."

"Get up," Caspian ordered, not taking his sword away from his uncle's throat.

Miraz slowly did as he was told, looking perfectly calm. Prunaprismia sat up in bed and saw her husband and nephew. "Caspian?" she asked in disbelief.

"Stay where you are," Caspian said. His voice shook from rage.

"What are you doing?"

"I think it should be obvious, dear," Miraz answered quietly. He turned to Caspian and raised an eyebrow at him. "You know, some might consider this inappropriate behavior."

Caspian didn't waver or let his guard down. "That doesn't seem to have stopped you."

Miraz smirked. "But you're not like me, are you? It's sad… The first time you show any backbone, and it's such a waste."

While this was happening, Prunaprismia had resourcefully grabbed a crossbow that hung on the wall and aimed it at Caspian threateningly. "Put the sword down, Caspian," she said with a feeble voice. One could tell that she was afraid to shoot. "I don't want to do this."

"Neither do we!" Penthesilea stormed into the room with Susan and Peter behind her. Peter drew his sword while Penthesilea and Susan aimed their arrows at Prunaprismia.

There was an awkward silence as Prunaprismia aimed her crossbow at Caspian, then at Penthesilea, then Susan, trying to decide who is more dangerous.

Miraz sighed, "This used to be a private room."

"Caspian, what are you doing?" Peter shouted. "You're supposed to be at the gate house!"

Caspian gritted his teeth. "No! Tonight, for once, I want the truth." He turned to Miraz and growled, "Did you kill my father?"

"Now we get to it," Miraz said, completely at ease even with Caspian's sword pointed at his neck.

Prunaprismia frowned and lowered the crossbow a little. "You told me your brother died in his sleep."

"That was more or less true," Miraz replied thoughtfully.

Caspian was getting impatient. He took a few steps toward his uncle with sword still drawn, and Miraz was forced to step back against the window. "Did you kill my father?" he repeated.

"Caspian, this won't make things better," Susan warned.

Caspian ignored Susan and continued to wait for an answer.

"We Telmarines would have nothing had we not taken it." Miraz said to his nephew. "Your father knew that as well as anyone."

Prunaprismia stared at her husband in horror. "How could you?"

"For the same reason you will pull that trigger!" Miraz begin walking forward, forcing Caspian to take a step back. "For our son! You must choose," he said without taking his eyes off of Caspian. "Do you want our child to be king or do you want him to be like Caspian here? Fatherless!"

"No!" Before anyone could react, Prunaprismia pulled the trigger and an arrow pierced Caspian's arm. The prince fell to the ground, and Miraz escaped through a secret passageway, leaving his wife behind with the enemy.

Meanwhile, Edmund was absentmindedly messing with his torch, waiting for Peter to tell him to give the signal. Of course, he carelessly dropped it. Edmund gasped as his torch fell through the air and landed on another tower below.

A Telmarine soldier was patrolling and noticed the strange object lying on the ground. He hesitantly picked it up to examine it. Finding a power switch, he accidentally turned the flashlight on.

The bright light shown in the sky, and the Narnian army noticed it from their post in the woods. "What's that supposed to mean?" Nikabrik asked himself when he saw the misleading signal.

Edmund, knowing that the light would confuse his allies, jumped down onto the soldier to try and get his torch back.

At the same time, bells and alarms began to sound, waking up the Telmarine troops sleeping in the castle.

Penthesilea, Susan, Peter and Caspian ran through the halls of the castle and arrived back at the courtyard where the gate was. Caspian had recovered from the arrow wound miraculously.

"Now, Ed! Signal the troops!" Peter shouted to Edmund who was struggling with the Telmarine soldier.

"I'm a little busy right now, Pete!" Edmund had dropped his sword and used the torch to hit the soldier instead. He knocked the soldier from the tower and then proceeded to try and turn the torch back on. The flashlight flickered a little and went out.

Below, Peter was turning the wheel to open the gate for his troops.

"Peter, it's too late!" Susan reasoned. "We have to call it off while we still can."

Penthesilea glowered at Caspian. "Perhaps if someone hadn't gone dilly-dallying in Miraz's chamber, we'd be alright." She grabbed the wheel and tried to help Peter open the gate.

"No! I can still do this! Help me!" Peter shouted to Susan and Caspian who were just standing there.

"Just who exactly are you doing this for, Peter?" Susan asked angrily as she and Caspian began turning the wheel too. They kept opening the gate as quickly as they could.

Up in the tower, Edmund was shaking his electric torch in frustration, trying to get it to work again.

In the castle, Trumpkin and the mice began lowering the drawbridge.

In the woods, Glenstorm and the other Narnians grew restless. They had not seen the signal yet, and therefore could not attack.

Back at Edmund's tower, the torch finally turned back on, and Edmund flashed it into the night sky with that same on-off-on-off signal.

Glenstorm noticed the signal. He reared on his back legs and shouted a battle cry. The Narnians charged forward, with Glenstorm leading them. A Minotaur used his horns to bash through the first gate, and the Narnian army plowed across the drawbridge. They surged past Peter and Susan as they entered the courtyard of Miraz's castle.

Peter and Caspian drew their swords, Susan notched an arrow, and Penthesilea unsheathed her knives. "For Narnia!" They charged into the battle.

Edmund watched the battle from his tower, wishing he could do something. But Penthesilea had strictly ordered him to not leave his post no matter what.

Below, Telmarine archers began lining up along the perimeter of the courtyard. One soldier aimed his crossbow at Peter whose back was turned.

Edmund saw this and made a split-second decision to save Peter and face Penthesilea's wrath later. He jumped down from his tower for the second time that night and knocked the soldier away before he could shoot Peter.

Peter looked up to see Edmund standing on the archer's balcony with at least a dozen Telmarines. "Ed!"

Edmund turned around and saw that he was in trouble.

The nearest archer aimed at Edmund.

Edmund did the logical thing; he ran. He sprinted along the platform and threw himself into a doorway leading back into the castle. Just as the archers shot, Edmund kicked the door closed, and the arrows pierced the wood instead of him.

Back in the courtyard, Peter and Tyrus the big, buff satyr began fighting their way to a tall balcony where Miraz was standing, speculating the battle below. Tyrus jumped up to the balcony, catching Miraz by surprise, and raised his weapon.

Glozelle and his soldiers stormed onto the balcony just in time. The general shot Tyrus in the soldier with a crossbow.

Tyrus winced in pain but did not let go of the railing.

Miraz smirked cruelly and took his time while walking over to the satyr. He looked down at the creature and simply pushed.

Peter watched Tyrus tumble down the balcony and hit the ground hard.

"Get that gate closed," Miraz was saying to Glozelle.

The gate, and the Narnians' only way out of the castle, began closing slowly.

Asterius, the Minotaur, sprinted to the gate and wedged himself under the heavy metal door, holding it open for his fellow Narnians to escape.

"Fall back! Retreat!" Peter began running around telling his allies to withdraw from the battle.

As Glenstorm galloped through the gate, he swung Susan onto his back.

"Caspian!" Susan shouted to Peter.

"I'll find him!" Peter replied as he killed another Telmarine soldier.

Penthesilea thought fast. She transformed into a cheetah, the fastest of all land animals, and carried three injured dwarves on her back through the gate to safety. Then she sprinted back into the courtyard to help more of her allies who were hurt and couldn't run.

As Asterius lifted the gate higher, more Narnians fled through it.

The Telmarines shot at the Minotaur, but most of the arrows missed.

Meanwhile, Edmund ran up a long spiral staircase and arrived at the tower he had originally stood on to give the signal. Still being pursued by enemies, he shut the door and used his torch to lock it. Edmund looked over the edge of the tower and saw that it was a really long fall down and the griffin was nowhere to be seen.

The Telmarines finally rammed their way through the door, breaking the electric torch.

Edmund spun around to face the armed soldiers, pressing his back against the railing of the tower. Then he let himself fall.

The soldiers' eyes widened in shock. They scrambled to the edge of the tower hoping to see Edmund's body.

A griffin shot past them, carrying said person on its back.

The Telmarines tried to shoot the griffin, but Edmund steered his mount away from the tower.

Down in the courtyard, Caspian and Cornelius emerged from the stable house, riding horses. Caspian was holding the reins of an extra horse for Peter.

After kicking a Telmarine out of the way, Peter jumped onto the horse and galloped toward the gate that was slowly closing.

Asterius had been shot in the chest and was slowly losing his grip on the gate.

Penthesilea had made dozens of trips back into the castle and managed to save numerous allies, but a lot more were still in the castle.

The drawbridge began to close as well.

Peter rode past her. "Penthesilea! C'mon!"

At that moment Asterius collapsed, and the gate dropped down, trapping the remaining Narnians inside Miraz's castle.

Penthesilea dashed through the gate and barely made it out as the door closed with a loud metallic crash. She looked back at the Narnians as they were mowed down by a volley of arrows from the Telmarine side of the gate.

Peter's horse scarcely landed on the other side of the drawbridge as it closed.

Penthesilea leapt over the gap as well. She glanced back, and one of the Narnians nodded at her. At this point, the huntress was glad that she was still taking the form of an animal. At least with the body of a cheetah, no one would see her cry as she followed the rest of the army back to Aslan's How.


A/N: There, I'm done with it! As always, thank you for reading to the end. This battle is really heartbreaking isn't it? Leave a review! Do it. NOW.

What? Penthesilea is crying? Oh, dear Aslan, the world is ending! Yes, viewers, Penthesilea actually has tear glands.