A/N: Well, it's Hadam here with a super-long chapter! We really wanted the war to be in the next chapter so I just kept writing up until the war! So here is the 2198 word chapter not including Author's note! So feel very very special. Not to mention, 2 updates in one day! *cue cheering* but anyway, please read, review and enjoy!
Chapter 7: War Declarations
"How would you like it if you just went out one day to do your job and never came back?"
Chantelle screamed as Eleanor stood beside her, nodding in agreement. The two girls, apart from being less violent than Gail and Reena, had also watched their fathers murdered in the same incident. They had serious issues with killing anything.
"Don't forget, they want to invade Narnia. We should protect it,"
Susan tried to reason with them.
"Protect, yes, kill, no,"
Eleanor tried to reason with the raven-haired queen,
"Those soldiers have families too, you know,"
She continued as Chantelle gave Eleanor a warning look.
"Well, anyway, we will not kill anyone, no matter what happens. We're not even going to take weapons,"
Chantelle interrupted before Eleanor could tell Susan and Lucy what happened on that fateful day.
"Come on girls, please at least take some weapons with you; for your own protection,"
Lucy pleaded but the two girls just shook their heads.
"No,"
Eleanor told the two queens firmly, clenching her jaw. Lucy and Susan shared a look. After a while, Susan finally spoke,
"We understand that it's your decision, whether or not you kill, but we are insisting that you take weapons. You don't have to use them, but you must have them with you."
This time, it was Eleanor and Chantelle's turn to share a look. With a heavy sigh, Eleanor spoke,
"Fine. But we will not use them to kill anyone,"
Susan breathed a sigh of relief,
"That is all we ask,"
She said, taking the girls back inside where an arrow was lodged into the table and the others were gathered around a note. They looked up when they heard Susan and Lucy, along with Chantelle and Eleanor walk in and stand around the table as well.
"What's it mean by warning?"
Reena asked dubiously once the others had take their places. Peter rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well… you see, with all of the other notes we've been getting, there have also been warnings. If we don't give the telmarines what they want, then they will declare war."
"And what do they want?"
Reena asked in the same tone she had used before.
"Ah… well… you see,"
Caspian started before Edmund interrupted looking each of the girls straight in the eyes,
"They want you,"
"What?!"
Chantelle screeched, her face paling even worse than it did before as she took a shaky step back,
"Jeez girl, you nearly blasted my ear off, keep it down,"
Gail told the brown-haired girl irritably as she whipped around to face her friend, rubbing her ear.
"Why do they want us?"
Eleanor asked quietly, breaking the tension as Chantelle stepped back into her place.
"Your prophecy says that you girls are to save Narnia and some of the Telmarines are still fuming about how Narnia was, in a way, 'taken' from them,"
Edmund explained,
"They want you because without you, Narnia cannot be saved. And if Narnia isn't saved, then they can invade Narnia. Basically, we have the option of turning you girls in and throwing away any chances of saving Narnia or going to war and hopefully saving Narnia in the process."
"We're ready,"
Gail told the kings and queens.
"You'll needed to be fitted for armour, obviously, and then find some clothes you can fight in,"
Caspian told the girls, pausing when he saw the sceptical looks written all over Eleanor and Chantelle's faces,
"Even you two,"
The two girls nodded in understanding as Susan addressed all four girls,
"I'll be up to your rooms soon with a chain-mail tailor to help you girls choose what you'll be wearing,"
All four of the girls nodded this time before heading up to their corresponding rooms.
"We shouldn't have told them,"
Peter said once the girls were out of earshot,
"You saw how freaked Chantelle and Eleanor were, especially Chantelle,"
Susan came up behind him,
"No, they needed to know but I think there's something else going on with Eleanor and Chantelle that they're not telling us."
Caspian looked up.
"What make you think that?"
He asked.
"Eleanor told us was that they weren't going to kill anyone because they have families and people who care about them too but before she could go on, Chantelle interrupted her. It seems as though there's another reason why they won't kill anyone but they don't want to tell us,"
Lucy explained. Edmund frowned, knitting his eyebrows together in thought.
"Susan and Lucy, you should try and figure out what it is. They're obviously closer to you than the rest of us. We don't need them freezing up in battle because they need to kill someone."
"That's the other thing,"
Peter told them,
"I don't think any of them should fight,"
Edmund nodded in agreement,
"I agree with you Peter, but I still think Susan and Lucy should talk with-"
"Oh yes, I still agree with that but those girls are too young to be fighting on the battle field. I suggest that we move them somewhere so they can hide, with either me, Caspian or Edmund with them and then keep them there until it is safe."
The others agreed to Peter's plan as they started making arrangements on where to go. It was finally decided that Caspian should go with the girls and the others would stay back and fight with the exception of Lucy who would stay in the healing tent. Susan looked up from their plans and noticed that the chain-mail tailor was there.
"Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there!"
She exclaimed as the tailor bowed in respect,
"Just up here,"
Susan told him, leading the tailor to the girls' rooms. When Susan and the tailor got the living area of their wing, the girls smiled their hellos as Susan gestured for Gail to be fitted first. Gail grumbled, but stopped when she saw the look on Susan's face. Gail took a step towards the tailor and allowed herself to be fitted for her armour. While this was happening, Susan helped the other girls choose what they were going to wear. Eventually, everyone had armour that fitted properly and they had chosen their clothes. Reena was going to wear boots, a pair of pants and a tunic, Gail was wearing the same as Reena and Chantelle and Eleanor had opted for simple dresses that were easy to move in.
As the girls lay down to sleep that night, Chantelle kneeled at her window, looking out at the stars. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't hear Susan come in softly and sit on her bed before she began to talk.
"Daddy? If you're there, I want to ask you something. What do you think I should do about the war? I mean, I don't want any of my friends getting hurt, including any of the kings and queens but I can't kill anyone, not after seeing you murdered with Eleanor's Dad. I don't think I can do that to anyone. Those people are loved, Daddy, and somewhere out there, there are people waiting for them to come home. No-one wants to see their friend die alongside them. What do I do? Goodnight Daddy."
Susan's eyes widened as she realised why Chantelle and Eleanor wouldn't kill anyone. Chantelle turned around to get into bed and saw Susan. Her mouth dropped open and her cheeks erupted in a red flush.
"Um, just out of interest, how much of that did you hear?"
Chantelle asked Susan. Susan looked at her sheepishly.
"All of it,"
Susan admitted. Chantelle bit her bottom lip.
"You-you're not going to tell anyone about it, are you? Not even Gail and Reena know,"
Susan smiled sympathetically at the younger girl,
"I'm sorry but I have to, Edmund's trying to figure out how to get you two girls to actually defend yourselves."
Chantelle gave Susan a pained look as the older girl stood up and walked to the door,
"I'm sorry,"
Susan said again as she shut the door gently behind her.
Eleanor stood in shock as she looked at Lucy, her mouth agape.
"You mean you heard it all?"
She asked her as the older girl nodded solemnly. As Lucy started heading towards the door, Eleanor grabbed her by the wrist and looked at her.
"Please don't tell anyone about it, you wouldn't know how much trouble Chantelle and I have been through to try and keep it from Gail and Reena,"
"I'm sorry Eleanor, I have to so you can defend yourself,"
Eleanor lowered her eyes and smiled sadly,
"Ok, I understand,"
She finally whispered as Lucy left her room.
"Come on Gail, do I have to wake you up every morning?"
Eleanor asked, barging into her friend's room. Gail threw her pillow at the intruder.
"Piss off,"
She mumbled into the covers. Just as Eleanor was about to haul Gail out of her bed, Edmund came into the room. He looked at Gail's sleeping form and grinned evilly.
"Oh no, what are you about to do?"
Eleanor asked Edmund who had now made his way half-way to the bed. Edmund took the covers off and jumped into the bed, beside the grumbling Gail.
"Eleanooooorr…. Get out of my bed,"
She whined, hitting Edmund before realising that there was no way Eleanor would have that much muscle in her arms. Gail opened her eyes blearily and saw Edmund lying in her bed, wait, Edmund?
"Argh!"
Gail screamed before jumping out of the bed and falling onto the floor.
"Well that was dignified,"
Eleanor said sarcastically, looking down at her friend on the floor who slowly stood up and looked at her bed.
"Why. Is. Edmund. In. My. Bed?"
She asked through gritted teeth as Edmund smiled up at her and said,
"Good morning sleeping beauty,"
"Out, Out OUT!"
Gail yelled as she pushed Edmund out the door to her room. Gail ushered Eleanor out as well and quickly changed before heading down to breakfast.
"So what are we doing today?"
Chantelle asked casually as she sipped her orange juice.
"Weapons training,"
Caspian told her as both Eleanor and Chantelle looked suspiciously at Susan and Lucy.
"Dammit,"
They whispered under their breaths as the two queens nodded. Once breakfast was over, the group went to the weapons shed to get their preferred weapons to practice with. But before they could leave, they were stopped by Peter who made a point of handing swords to Eleanor and Chantelle, daggers to Gail and a bow and quiver full of arrows to Reena.
"Change of plans today, ladies,"
He told them as they gave him shocked expressions. Chantelle and Eleanor looked at each other worriedly as they followed Peter to the sword training area of the training fields. Edmund and Caspian were already there, waiting for them. The girls looked around to where they saw two very lifelike dummies.
"Oh, no, we can't-"
Eleanor started but she was cut off by Caspian.
"You can, and you will,"
He lowered his voice to a more sympathetic tone,
"Susan and Lucy told us,"
Chantelle and Eleanor felt their faces starting to burn when they realised that all three kings were looking at them sympathetically. They shared a look before taking a deep breath and stepping forwards to battle the dummies.
By the end of training, Eleanor and Chantelle were both physically and mentally exhausted. After working on the dummies, Eleanor had been paired up with Edmund and Chantelle with Caspian to duel. Both Caspian and Edmund had forced the girls to get used to pointing their blades at someone. And, by the end of it, both girls were just about ready to either burst into tears, or collapse on the spot, whichever came first. They made their way into the castle with Gail, Reena, Susan and Lucy where Peter was standing with a note in his hand.
"Tomorrow,"
Was all he said, yet everyone was aware of what he was talking about. Gail and Reena looked at him.
"We're ready,"
They told him simultaneously just as Chantelle and Eleanor said,
"We're not,"
"Well, that's the good news then,"
Peter told them,
"You won't be fighting in the battle tomorrow,"
Chantelle and Eleanor breathed a sigh of relief. Peter looked at Gail and Reena.
"Any of you,"
Gail was still fuming when she had to saddle up her horse that night, ready to run away. She had been grumbling all afternoon – while she was packing her saddle bags, while she was changing into her battle clothes, while she was putting her armour on, while she was getting the sword she was going to use – and was still grumbling about how Peter thought them too young to be fighting. But as soon as the five horses set off, Gail stopped grumbling and just gave in. Now that they had started, there was no way they were going to be stopping anytime soon. All she could hope for was that the battle ended up being where they were hiding. As the blackness engulfed them, Caspian leading the way, little did Gail know that you have to be careful what you wish for.
