A/N: So sorry about the delay... Life, ya' know? This one is quite long. Also – Mind the genre.


Chapter 9: The Black Garden

The light changed as they worked, but eventually, almost so slowly that none of them noticed, eventually the long evening crept over the city. Bringing with it a strange, new dusk.

They had toiled and dragged stones out of the way, trying to clear a hole without collapsing the cave, and had so far made a very slight indent in the wall that barred them from their home. Two groups had formed, one always working whilst the other rested. A sense of urgency followed the softening of the light and through unspoken agreement all of them began preparing themselves to work through the night.

Conversation had dwindled as work and no real nourishment wore each and every member down. Edmund began to feel the effects more and more keenly, wanting to break into tears with each new stone lifted, certain that he would die in this new Hell. But by some stroke of luck, each time he felt close to breaking, a kindly hand would touch his shoulder. Either to relieve him or to spur him on.

Shamefully, he admitted that the one thing that kept him from sitting down and weeping was the certainty that his fellows would never do so either.

And so he worked. So Lucy worked, dragging loose rubble away on one of the royal, maroon capes to help clear the dig. It became mindless in its monotony until Hadron called for relief and was given it by the second team. As they shook themselves awake, the Edmund, Lucy, Hadron and the others began to crawl down the slope. Limbs stiff from working in a crouch for hours.

When his feet his flat ground, a deep relief echoed through Edmund's entire body. So fierce that the world fell away around him and pleasure radiated up through his feet. He turned around and looked up at the wall. It had not moved an inch. It had not changed one stone. Or so it appeared.

His hopelessness would have felled him if not for the pure relief. "Come, King Edmund," Kairon's mild-mannered page beckoned. Phi was his name, as Edmund had learned. "Rest for a bit. Things always look better then."

He guided him towards Lucy who had stopped to stare at Edmund. She held out her hand and he took his readily, wary of the burning there that indicated forming blisters. "You feel it too?" she asked. Her voice had hardened since the first many hours of compounded trauma. Her eyes as well, had hardened and darkened into something Edmund never thought he would see. "Sit," she bade quietly. He collapsed against a boulder next to Phi and sighed. His back cracked and he was helpless against the groan that escaped him.

"I have something," Phi said even as Lucy unfolded her brother's hands and began blowing on them. The page pulled out a bell of fat and offered it to Lucy.

Her surprised smile caused an upsurge in the temperaments of the three, instantly easing away fears that had snuck up on them as hands first began to thump in beat with a pulse, threatening open sores. Lucy smeared a layer over her own palms and took Edmund's to do the same. "It won't cool you down, but it'll prevent blistering," Phi explained quietly.

"Do you think it would work if you could cut the plant out?" Edmund asked on a whim with his eyes fixed on his now glistening hands.

Lucy glanced up as she repeated her treatment on Phi. "It might," she whispered with a wary look at Hadron, Escar, and Baro. "But it would mean letting it grow," She glanced at Kairon as well, noting that he had worked with the rest of them to clear the mine, though he had begun to chuckle to himself half way through the shift. Presently he sat cross-legged, trapped in his own mind with an armed man watching him.

"For how long?" Edmund asked, now also staring at the royals who had been on their shift.

Lucy watched him and Phi both before she shrugged a little. "I don't know," But her eyes drifted down in thought. "I think it took almost half a day for the others to start showing signs," She looked up at her brother. "That's a long time to leave a wound untreated without knowing for certain."

The two siblings caught each other's eyes. Edmund had the sense that his little sister was assessing him. Wondering and evaluating and Edmund did his best to stare back with as much certainty as he could muster. "If I get cut-"

She inhaled. "Ed-"

"If I get cut," he persisted. "Let it be for a while. Until I start showing signs."

"Or until you die from the trauma."

He stared at her, now unwilling to look away in surrender. "Lucy, someone has to know how."

"Kairon might-"

"No," he interrupted. He straightened and leaned closer to her. "If we're going to survive someone has to know how to cure us."

Next to them Phi held his breath. Lucy seemed on the verge of either crying or yelling. Edmund now knew with utmost certainty which he preferred. "I will help you, Queen Lucy," Phi suddenly whispered. The young man's eyes burned in the waning light of day. "No matter what. I will help you," He looked to include Edmund as well and nodded when he did.

"Thank you," Edmund whispered.

Lucy chuffed in a most sarcastic manner and rolled to her feet with the bell in hand. She strode over to where the relieved team was sitting and kneeled in their midst without invitation. Edmund heard their low voices as she conveyed her intentions. They each looked at her with wide eyes as she smeared the fat on their hands.

"Thank you, Phi," Edmund then said again. The young man nodded once more before he turned to watch an ailing Kairon sink further into his own mind.


Though the intent had been to work ceaselessly the darkness brought with it a natural and almost unnoticed urge to sleep. The relief team stopped working and joined those already resting as the light began to wane more and more. The temprature dropped and stars appeared on the eastern horizon. The sun transformed from its pale yellow to stunning pink and vapors danced high above the ground. Edmund sighed as the light refracted off them, softening even more.

It was the most marvelous sunset he could ever remember seeing.

Lucy made rounds for those who had stopped working, to apply salve, and reapply it to those who needed. When she re-joined Edmund she felt noticeably colder and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders on instinct. "Cm'ere old girl," he growled out and tricked a giggle from her.

"Levi gave me these," she said and held out three dried figs and one and a half crackers.

"Who's Levi," he mumbled as he bit greedily into the fruit. He worried about eating the biscuit, knowing it would most likely only make him more thirsty.

Lucy drew back and pointed at one of the soldiers. "That one. He's Hadron's Second."

Edmund watched him. He had noticed the man before. One of those loyal to Hadron, more so than to his princes. "Did they give you any water?"

She nodded and pulled out a pitifully limp skin. "Bilfred has the only other one. All the others are empty," she said even as Edmund began urging her to drink. He received it and took a quick swallow as well, passing it to Phi.

"Kairon knows how to make more," the page said.

Their lips had begun to dry, Edmund noticed. They had all stopped licking them when the dry air sucked the water from their open mouths. Edmund rubbed his still, glistening fingers against the chapped skin. Lucy and Phi copied him. "Yes, if he still has the presence of mind to teach us," Edmund grumbled. Lucy curled up tighter next to him, face turned towards the sunset.

"He does," Phi said with an unnerving certainty.

Edmund looked at him before he looked back at Kairon. "He killed the future King. Even if he survives there's no mercy for him in Eion," He felt a stab of pity when next he looked at Phi. "I'm sorry."

The young man huffed through a sad smile. "Don't be. I've been with him for a while. I've known something was wrong even before all this, but…" Something calculating made Edmund hold his breath for the conclusion. "He knows."

"Hm," Edmund allowed, dark eyes fixed on Phi. "He's sleeping," he observed.

"As we should be," Lucy muttered. When Edmund peered down over his chin he saw her eyes were closed as she curled up against him.

He snorted and settled a bit more firmly against her. "Alright then, good my Queen. So we shall," he whispered the last into her hair before he placed a quick kiss on her crown. He didn't need to see her to know she smiled.


Sleep stole over each and every human without reprieve. It caressed their sun kissed skin with cooler breezes and a quietness unto the air made it silky smooth. A silence that, for a while, seemed more soothing than threatening.

Edmund realized in his last conscious moments before sleep, that it was because of some cricket-like insect, chirping softly into the night.


He woke with a gasp of air and wild disorientation.

"Everyone up!" someone yelled. Darkness had fallen, but now bathed the city only so far as the moon and the white, reflective stones allowed. Sounds of men rolling to their feet snapped him fully awake, with Lucy quick to follow. He noted that Phi was no longer beside them, but spared it no further thought as he looked around. "Everyone, stand," Hadron yelled. "Where are the bloody torches!"

Edmund gripped his sword, but waited to draw. Oily splotches danced in front of his eyes as they adjusted to the dark and he tensed. "What is it?" he shouted amidst the sounds of disoriented men calling out for one another. Doing a head count.

"There was no one on guard. We all fell asleep!" Hadron yelled, sounding furious for the first time since Edmund had met him.

"Captain," Escar barked nervously.

"Does anyone see Kairon!" the royal captain demanded and a different kind of panic spread.

"The skin," Lucy shrieked. "My water skin is gone."

"Mine as well," a man yelled. Bilfred, Edmund identified.

"That rat bastard!" someone else hissed.

"I need light. Now!" Hadron ordered, something besides rage creeping into his voice. Panic beginning to blossom.

"How-"

Someone screamed suddenly in fear.

"Use the bloody vines and wrap them around a boulder if you have to!" Hadron roared.

"Sir-"

"Your swords," someone else yelled in panic. A worker most likely. "Fasten them to your swords. Please!"

Edmund's lungs froze when he looked around him in the dark and suddenly heard the sounds of something slithering across gravel. He saw the moving shadows, writhing and coiling around their feet like living things, the next second and knew. Lucy screamed and he jerked her up on a raised boulder. "Get on the stones!" he bellowed as even more men began screaming in earnest.

"Gods- Everyone on the bloody rocks, now!" Hadron ordered. "Levi!"

"Sir!"

Edmund saw the Second push Baro ahead of him up a pile of stones rolled away from the mine, next to Escar, Hadron and the rest. He saw one soldier stumble and fall to the twisting shadows, jerking and yelping in the seconds until he began screaming.

"Allon!" Hadron cried in chorus with more of the others, but was unable to get down to help him.

Someone lit a spark and the vines around a sword shrieked and writhed in the flames as they clung to the steel. Hadron carried the makeshift torch and all saw suddenly what they had allowed to happen. The little hollow wherein they had so obliviously fallen asleep was black with moving masses. Vines wrapping themselves up rocks to reach their human prey. Twisting and crawling from tiny crevasses along the ground and slithering into cool night air whilst their prey slept. A quiver raced through Lucy and she began brushing herself off with panicked shrieks. Dragged her fingers through her loose hair as they watched vines begin to paw at the rocks they had all escaped onto. They had all seen the vines climb and knew it was only a matter of time.

"King Edmund!" Baro called in panic as the torch was angled towards them. They were trapped on one of the lone boulders that had fallen in the collapse. High enough off the ground that Edmund doubted the vines would fully reach them for hours, but irrevocably cut off from the others.

And the nights are so very long, Eddykins, Jadis giggled like a coy girl.

He looked over with open despair and darted his eyes down to try and figure a way out. Lucy kept brushing in panic at imaginary vines and shifted enough that she titled off kilter for a moment. Edmund reacted instinctively, reaching out and wrapping his arms around her from behind. Drawing her close and steadying them both. His breath bellowed in and out of his chest and his heart pounded. "There's no way down!" he shrieked and took a deep breath, attempting to steady himself. "Hadron!" he yelled. "There's no way down."

He shot his eyes around in the darkness, but all he saw was black, creeping death.

"King Edmund, hold still."

"We need a path," he yelled, panic welling up inside him when he thought they didn't understand.

"Edmund!" Lucy shrieked.

"I don't-"

"Edmund!" she yelled in a suddenly different voice. Her hands were gripping him back, no longer just clinging to him. "Edmund, listen," She twisted in his grip and wrapped both hands around his face, fording his eyes to hers. "Listen!" she screamed.

"To what?!" he screamed right back, letting some of his anger replace the fear.

"Breathe deeper," she instructed, her voice dipping to a calmer registry as her wide eyes fixed onto his. "Breathe deeply and look at me. Follow me, do you remember?" she encouraged.

He did. He did remember. Old nightmares and new ones. Horrors faced over the span of just a few years. Lessons in breathing by dance instructors and swordsmen alike. A kind general watching from the sidelines as the angry, little king learned to control his temper and his fear.

"Breathe deeply and think."

Think. He was trembling and grasping hard at every word she said as though they were in a foreign language.

"We need a way down," she continued in her calm voice. Forcibly holding him still even as the slithering of the vines appeared back into his consciousness. Tiny pin-pricks traveling up and down his legs, and every brush of his clothing mocking their spindly vines. "We need to get there," she said and gestured to the men behind her. She darted her eyes down to the ground and swallowed audibly.

"You need light, Your Majesties," Hadron called in something very close to panic.

Edmund's head buzzed as he drew in deep breaths, gulping air he had deprived himself of in his hysterics. "Lucy."

"Yes," she joined, not asking just as Edmund wasn't. Simply reaffirming presence. "Set them on fire," she called, steely voice suddenly devoid of fear. Roaring with the kind of anger she never displayed. The kind Peter had showed only very rarely.

"Majesty, you'll burn-" Baro called.

"Captain!" Lucy barked. "We are on a taller rock than you and we're surrounded. Light them on fire."

Edmund swallowed down a flutter and grasped reflexively at her jacket. His arms were vibrating with low level shivers, but he saw quite clearly when the captain, against competing orders from his masters, made a decision. Through the din of princes Baro and Escar yelling, miners yelling, Edmund caught the captain's eye and nodded once.

A heartbeat passed before the captain toed the vines off a rocky edge. With a deep inhale Edmund reached both hands around Lucy's head and twisted away from the sudden boom. A blast of hot air shot up around them and the vines screamed in agony. He had tucked Lucy's head snug against his shoulder, but opened one eye warily and saw only one thing before the stinging smoke blinded him. He saw, through pale orange fire, smoldering veins draped across the ground as they burned from the inside out and released flaming gasses into the air.

"Lucy," he cried when the air became impossibly hotter and an even more violent wave of panic surged through him. Her only response was to reach up and blindly push his face against her shoulder even as the fire blew itself out with an anticlimactic burp.

Crackling and hissing joined Edmund's gulping sobs as he tried to breathe deep enough through a feeling of suffocation. Lucy was heaving breaths as well, even retching as she trembled against him.

Strong hands appeared out of the ether and yanked them off balance. Edmund's instinct was to push them off, but familiar voices followed in the wake of the unwanted touches. "Sire, come down!"

"Hurry," He was dragged off the rock, into someone's arms like a feeble babe and unceremoniously hauled away.

"Lucy!" he yelled through a useless inhale for more air. His voice sounding pitiful even to his own ears.

"Please, King Edmund- look at me!"

"Lucy!" he mewled again.

"She's here, Sire."

"Aslan… Hadron, look,"

"Please," Edmund begged through a throat he could hardly draw air through. His eyes burned and all he saw were dancing shadows amidst white flashes.

"Get them, let's go!" Hadron yelled.

He was moving, being carried in someone's arms. He was aware of wheezing for breath, but could do nothing to stop it. His arms shook and felt as though they were on fire. At the same time his body felt like a block of ice and nothing alleviated the pain that bored its way from his eyes, to the back of his skull and from his lungs, into his skin.

A final jolt of agony was what undid him. His back arched as he gave a whimpering plea for escape. The answer was the sweet kiss of oblivion.


"Set him down here," Hadron ordered, carrying his own precious cargo. So much lighter than she looked, the queen was, that it nearly broke his heart. "Here, here," He called for the king to be set down next to his sister. Out of the two it was undoubtedly the Just King who had fared worse. His sister, though she breathed oddly and was completely still, looked almost unharmed.

Her brother had been burned, Hadron saw when they placed the boy next to his sister. Most visibly in his face, where the skin had swelled grotesquely and blushed in painful red. "Get fires burning at each corner," he ordered, glancing at the edges of the roof they had so frantically scaled. One of the houses near the mine.

Fires roared to life almost instantly, vines puffing out more noxious smoke. Below them, around the entrance to the mine a sea of embers still hissed and whistled as fire coursed through the plants. "Here, here," Baro said in a quivering voice as he wiped bloody tears and dirt from the king's face.

They were so young, still.

"Careful," Hadron grumbled as he pulled out the queen's cordial. He held it up to the crown prince, kneeled at Edmund's head, with a wordless question.

"Do it," he ordered without hesitation.

He uncapped the diamond flask and tipped a few errant drops into the king's and queen's mouths. As he leaned back, heart pounding furiously, several wide eyes fixed on the two children. "C'mon, c'mon," someone muttered. Hadron ran a hand through his now sooty hair.

Baro darted wild eyes from the children to his captain until suddenly the girl arched up with a deep inhale in sudden, violent awakening. She jackknifed to sitting up and flinched as though on fire.

"Your Grace, Your Grace- Lucy, Lucy, Lucy," Baro muttered in a slight panic.

"Baro," she exhaled as two tears rolled down her cheeks. With a flinch she turned to her brother at her immediate right and touched a delicate finger to his temple. "Oh," she moaned softly at the sight of red, irritated skin. "His eyes," She looked up through more tears welling in her own to stare at Hadron.

"We gave him the Cordial as well-"

Just as Edmund rose with a deep inhale through a perfectly round mouth. "Edmund!" Lucy shrieked and lunged into his arms, sobbing and heaving with each cry. Tiny body shaking as though she had been dunked in ice water and not fire.

"Lu," Edmund forced out between deep breaths, one arm coming to wrap around her automatically. "Lu, I'm alright. I'm alright."

Her only response was to cry harder and she began pawing at his clothes, trying to grab and pull him impossibly closer. "Sire," Baro asked in a shell-shocked voice. Wet, wide eyes trying to catch those of the boy.

"King Edmund, look at me. Look at me," Hadron ordered in a calm rumble, repeating it when the Narnian king didn't respond and gently taking his shoulder to turn him around. The swelling on his face had gone down with the cordial, the diluted red that had run from his eyes had dried and the horrifically red sclera from moments before was once more replaced by soft brown. Miraculously, he seemed healed. "Eyes to me, Sire," Two fingers cradled the king's chin as he looked into shocked, brown eyes, seeing even by the flickering firelight a pair of healthy pupils dilating. The redness was fading as well before their very eyes. "The smoke burned your eyes, Your Grace," he said in humbling relief and carefully let go of the royal's chin only for his hand to touch the boy's shoulder.

"Cordial?" Edmund asked though he was still trying to catch up. The last he remembered was pain. Unending and foreign in the most horrible of ways.

Hadron nodded and looked down. "Sire."

"Thank you," he said, still panting slightly, more from shock than damage. Lucy's sobs had quieted to a disconcerting weeping. Soundless but no less paralyzing. "Lu, I'm alright," Edmund whispered, feeling his own relief so distinctly. He realized Lucy was most likely feeling it as well and stopped trying to console her. Instead reaching up with both arms to hug her tighter.

With a relieved groan he buried his face in her shoulder and breathed in, finding her smell even under the stench of sulfuric smoke.


Escar had kneeled a few feet away from the now resting king and queen. Hands folded in front of him and his thoughtful gaze on their slender forms. "We can't spare any men, Hadron," Baro explained softly. Repeating himself from an earlier argument.

Escar clenched his jaw, but stood up with surprisingly soft movements to approach his brother. He touched a hand to Baro's arm and looked him in the eye, noticing for the first time in years how much he had aged. Short, dark hair seeming slightly silver in the strange moonlight. "I need to protect them," he whispered.

They both glanced over at the youngsters, where Hadron was still poised. Guarding, as though having chosen a path of action that he now refused to veer from. A path Escar recognized only because he knew the man so well. Hadron's allegiance had shifted from the Terebinthian princes first and foremost, to the Narnian king and queen.

"As do I, brother," Baro whispered right back. He suddenly smiled. "You are so much like Father," he said, still in a whisper. "He would've been proud had he been here."

A hot grief welled up in Escar's eyes at the words. At the thought of family lost to death and distance. "We need to get them home," he said and nodded to the children.

Baro's smile vanished and he looked back at them as well. "I know," They watched for a beat before both looked at each other again. "We will."

At the cost of them both, if need be.


Night lingered for what felt like years as stars slowly rotated across their dome.

Many hours after their harrowed escape Lucy moved in half-consciousness. She shifted closer to Edmund and opened her eyes from one second to the next without the slow transformation from sleep to wakefulness. She felt warmth by her head and found a seated Hadron watching her. The older man gave her a soft smile when she looked at him. She turned to Edmund who began stirring as well.

She watched until his brown eyes opened, as hers had, with unerring awareness from one second to the next. "Lucy," he whispered.

"She is alright, King Edmund," Hadron said quietly. "As are we all for now," A large, warm hand rested on Edmund's crown very briefly, but was removed when the king made moves to rise. Hadron, remembering his place, removed his hands and supported them to their feet.

As they rose they saw others do the same. They were fourteen present. Edmund knew eight of them, counting Lucy, by name. The last five were nameless faces. Three soldiers and two miners. One was from the mine entrance where he had sat guard over his dead comrade for hours.

He studied them all with a blank expression. Baro and Escar drew nearer and brought the rest cautiously curious, all watching him and Lucy. "What happened?" he asked. Lucy appeared to be triaging herself quietly next to him, but looked to him at his question.

"I set fire to the vines, Your Majesty," Hadron answered and looked down. He backed away from the two in obvious shame.

Edmund frowned. "I don't remember that."

"They exploded," Lucy said softly as she watched her brother with an unreadable expression. "I felt the blast, but I think you watched it," She looked at the smooth skin around his eyes.

He swallowed and tried to remember, but drew a blank. The wind blew constantly on the roof, in the dark, and he shivered. Drew Lucy closer in an open embrace.

"I apologize, Sire," Hadron confessed. He looked on the verge of tears and Edmund took pity.

"Don't for a second," He lightened his voice and found to his surprise that it came quite effortlessly. "You only did as I asked. If there's blame it lies solely with me," Hadron averted his eyes so Edmund released his sister and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hadron."

The two studied each other. The captain's eyes skidded to Lucy's before he nodded and turned away. Leaving Edmund to draw a breath as he looked around at the rest of them. "Well, at least now we know that doesn't work."

He caught Bilfred's conspiring smile and felt a modicum of success.

"They stopped burning a while ago and there are no more left on this roof," Escar said. "Perhaps we should move?"

Lucy nodded against his shoulder, but it was he who spoke. "Alright."

The prince nodded and started for a neighboring rooftop. The two houses stood only a foot from one another and were easily scaled. The third one as well. "Here," one of the miners called. "There's more vines 'ere."

"Then we stop here," Escar allowed even though Edmund keenly recognized the longing in his voice. A longing to keep walking. Edmund imagined him as the sort of man who would exhaust all avenues of escape before he simply began walking till he dropped. Edmund found to his surprise that he felt quite removed from what had transpired and felt no urges to do any particular thing. A quick look around revealed similar expressions on most of their faces.

But stop they did and new fires were lit. Two; one in each corner of the newly chosen roof, to guard against unwanted shadows. The group huddled together in the center and in unspoken agreement divided themselves into guards and guarded. All but three lay down to sleep; three soldiers, Hadron among them. He stayed awake, sitting cross-legged a foot or so from Lucy. Edmund curled up on her other side, facing her.

Without a word she shifted until she was pressed against his side, arms and legs folded close to conserve heat. The nights were not undue cold, but the wind chilled and the soldiers' cloaks only covered so many.

The guards rotated after an estimated three hours. Fires were stoked and more vines added. Edmund woke as they did and took watch with the three men. Baro, a miner named Solor, one soldier Edmund didn't know the name of, and himself.

The four shared looks amongst themselves, but quickly took up seats with fronts to the night. The darkness was lighter than Edmund expected. The glorious night sky had nothing to outshine it and the ethereal pinpricks of light or a distant celestial gasses made the limestone rooftops glow. Turned shadows sapphire blue.

Thus the four sat for many hours until a burst of light above roused them.

The mood of the red haze that had dominated the northern sky was fractured by the mischievous, blue tail of a blinking comet. All four exhaled at the wondrous sight and watched the rock streak across red swirls, past indifferent stars. Edmund smiled and found to his surprise that Baro smiled with him. The two grinned at each other, but said nothing.


More hours passed in silence as the four watched for other celestial events, though none of particular note occurred. Three new guards were awoken for a shift change, but Edmund briefly wondered if they should relocate. It wouldn't matter how many times they rotated during the long night, they would die of thirst before the sun rose if they stayed asleep. But sleep had been ever so elusive and their harrowed escape had only managed to exhaust them further.

He mentioned as much when Baro made to lie down. It was not the crown prince who answered, but rather his brother. "We'll let you sleep a few hours before we head out," Henodded towards Lucy, and Edmund found himself rather disinclined to argue. As soon as he lay down she made a soft sound and snuggled closer, burying her little hands in his jerkin and her face against his chest. Chilled fingers wriggling under his collar.

He folded his arms around her and allowed sleep to reclaim him.

Their rest was shattered after what felt strangely like hours, yet only seconds, by a cheerful call. As one the group roused, those on watch stood up with drawn weapons. One soldier notched an arrow and faced the oncoming threat. It was the familiar shape of a small man with wild hair that made his way towards the group. "My friends!" the maniac called and giggled, spreading his arms in greeting. Not sensing the threat of weapons.

"What the Devil…" Escar whispered as Kairon stumbled onto their roof and entered the light of their flickering fires.

"I bring wonderful news!" he laughed as he stumbled closer.

A surge went through the gathered as they got their first, good look at the man. "Kairon…" Lucy moaned and put her hands over her mouth. The man giggled and stumbled to a stop when Escar and two men angled their swords at him.

His eyes were wide open and a smile cut open his mouth to reveal grey teeth and black foamy spittle at each corner of his lips. "My Queen!" he squawked and shuddered. Edmund watched in horror how a black tendril was curled protectively around one reddened nostril. "I've f-found it!" he exclaimed and spread his arms, eliciting more weapons drawn by any who had one.

His fingers were blue and the rest of him almost grey. His breath wheezed on every inhale as though difficult to draw and he looked exhausted. "Kairon-" Edmund began, but stopped when he stuttered over what to say.

"I'm cured, Your Majesties," he said through a grin. A burst of laughter exploded from him and with it followed little drops of grey spit. Those closest retreated with weapons out at the ready.

"Stay there, Kairon," Escar ordered. "Where is your boy?"

Kairon watched the prince uncomprehendingly before he looked directly at Lucy. "My Queen, I require your assistance-"

"That's close enough!" Baro ordered when Kairon made to take another step.

"But I-" Kairon stuttered and grabbed his shirt with uncoordinated hands. He raised it up to reveal large, blooming bruises across his distended abdomen. "I'm c-cured, Your Majesty," he said to Lucy. He took a quivering breath when something inside him moved under his skin. "It- It," He fell silent and started again abruptly. "It thought it could eat me... But I won," he muttered as an afterthought.

"Kairon, where is Phi," she asked.

"Who?" he giggled.

"Phi!" she barked. "Your page, where is he?"

"I have no page," he muttered and allowed a string of drool to leak down his front. Grey against the worn shirt. "S-something…" He gestured back into the darkness and slowly turned back in the direction he'd come. He almost stumbled in the process, but finally angled his back to the gathered.

"Oh God."

To their horror he revealed a shredded backside with barely any fabric or skin left. Deep grooves ran through his muscles in diagonal tears where white knobs of fat sparkled amidst coagulating blood. Here and there the pearly white of a bone shone through and with every inhale they saw his insides move.

"Kairon," Lucy whispered.

In one gash across his lower back something black and horrific surfaced before it burrowed deeper inside him. Edmund swallowed with wide eyes transfixed on the gruesome sight.

Not a member among them thought on the cause until suddenly there came a howl in the distance.

All shot their gazes past Kairon. "They came for the rotting corpses," Kairon muttered before he promptly fell to his knees and collapsed on the ground.

Another howl ripped through the darkness. It didn't sound like anything Edmund had ever heard. He arm snuck out to grab hold of Lucy as she shifted closer. "What was that?" Hadron whispered next to them.

For a few seconds everyone stared fixedly in the same direction. "I think you were right about those predators, Captain," Escar muttered as he signaled a man to take aim at the sound. The captain raised his sword and was copied by his princes.

Edmund pushed himself in front of Lucy and drew Shaefelm.

No sound followed in the silence but for a hurrying scuffle of gravel and near soundless footsteps, running. A sound, almost a snort, came from below, within the building on which they were standing. "They're in the house," Edmund muttered in horror and watched a soldier turn his bow on a gaping hole in the floor.

A yip called from below and the sounds of running stopped. One, massive paw reached out of the hole to proceed a body. A muscular front leg followed, quickly joined by a set of thickly muscled shoulders. A pale hide, riddled with long solitary hairs, more like spines, came into view. Long, curved claws dug into the limestone as the creature yanked itself onto the roof in a smooth leap.

It heaved deep breaths and watched the group through small eyes. Its throat arched up into a set of long jaws and a wide, cylindrical snout, ridged in a snarl. Brown blood painted its muzzle and teeth as it was lit up by the flickering fires like some primodial scene. It loosed another snort that vibrated the thin skin on its cheeks and pounded through air like a rattling war-bark. Yellow eyes with blown pupils watched them in candid, animalistic greed as saliva quivered over pointed teeth.

Suddenly several barks answered from the darkness, both below their feet and from neighboring rooftops.

Edmund felt the fear of exposure keenly and glanced over the pale blue roofs to the beasts hidden by shadow.

"We can't fight that thing," Escar breathed. It stood almost at his height. His sword had lowered and concentration was, like the others', fixed between the sounds from the darkness and on the strange creature. It snorted at the fire closest to it, seemingly only slightly bothered, and blinked its narrow eyes like a small critter batting its lashes at the sun. Smacking its jaws and licking them.

"I fear you're right, Prince Escar," Hadron answered just as breathlessly. He drew in, signaling his men to do the same. Taking up defensive positions in a loose circle around the four royals.

"Where do we go?" a soldier asked. Hadron looked around the rooftop in distress. "There's no clear path."

"We need to go down," Hadron muttered though Escar immediately refused.

Edmund looked around as well and saw a neighboring building was close enough to jump to.

"What about Kairon," Lucy asked.

"Leave him," Bilfred growled in an uncharacteristic display of rage.

It must've been Edmund's imagination, but the pale blue sky in the east seemed slightly lighter than it had been when he last was awake. "We move east," he said. A few of the others glanced at him and the direction in question. Without waiting for their say-so he pulled Lucy towards the gap. "Do you think you can jump?" he called even as they moved. Terebinthians taking up positions to defend their rear.

She nodded and drew back to get a running start. With a light leap she crossed onto the other rooftop and Edmund was quick to follow, readying his sword at the tripping shadows that danced along their flanks. The strange dogs had exited onto the roof of their former camp, some shying away from the fire, others snapping at it.

He turned and willed Baro to act. "What are you waiting for?" he shouted when none of them moved. "C'mon!"

Then, as one, all turned and ran for the second rooftop. The dogs drew away from the exit and let out their slightly melodic barks as the humans fled to the neighboring roof. The animals skirted along the edge of the firelight, fretting at the light. They began following, testingly.

Some lashed out at the last Terebinthian to cross the gap, almost as though toying with their prey. The smell of their deceased compatriots had drawn the beasts to Kairon and Kairon had led them back. He had been with the corpses, the dogs as well. He realized absently that they were still unsure what humans were.

"The corpses," he called and jogged towards the next roof in a crouch. "We need to lead them back to the corpses and lose them there."

They had fed once, perhaps a less resistant meal could deter their attention.

The gaps between buildings were tiny to the massive animals and he felt pretty sure their inaction was mostly due to full bellies. They followed at a languid pace, snapping each other; each clapping of jaws came down with a rush of displaced air that shook Edmund's diaphragm. None of them ran for fear of a misstep. For fear of awakening some latent instinct in their aggressors.

The group retreated in a tight circle as they slunk deeper into the shadows.

Lucy, who had instantly picked up on her brother's idea, began guiding their band of humans in the direction of the abandoned corpses. She leapt across the gap of a conjoined building like a spry cricket and landed lightly on the other side, her little dagger drawn. Edmund was right behind her with his sword drawn; both pairs of eyes fixed on any movements.

"Stick close," he called her softly and felt, not just she, but the entire group tighten. Not a single arrow had been loosened or a sword swung in defense, but all of them felt the unease at their predators' unpredictability.

They were too vulnerable on the rooftops. Would remain so until they retreated to lower ground. Suddenly he understood Hadron's command. They would have to pick between one monster or the other.

"They've probably never tasted human-flesh before," one of the miners said, loud enough to be heard by all.

"Let's not give them a chance to taste it," Escar muttered flush by Edmund's side with angry eyes on the dogs that crept along their flanks. "How many do you count?" he asked the group.

It was Hadron and Levy who answered. "Seven in the rear."

"Three starboard," the Second added.

"Four ahead of us," Edmund's focus was primed on Lucy beside him even as his eyes watched every movement of the four beasts in front of them.

She kept pace one step behind and to his right, as she had been taught by Peter. A dark corner of his mind was happy that his siblings were no longer strangers to danger, because in the very darkest corner of his mind he knew it would make his task simpler. Breath forcibly slow, eyes keen, and his fingers prickling with tension, he knew with a sudden, unwavering certainty that he could leave the others behind should the situation warrant it. He recognized a darkness born of years of guilt and anger that would cheat and lie if it meant Lucy would survive to see their siblings again. It settled inside him like the warmth of home and molded itself seamlessly into his image of King and Duty. He could become her protector and nothing else.

"Steady," Hadron called, still at the rear guard. Their pace tempered as they approached a familiar structure.

"It can't be far," Baro called. Edmund glanced at him and found his sword-hand shaking.

"Tighten," Hadron ordered when a miner drew away from the circle. A soldier reeled him back in.

"They're sticking with us," Bilfred commented when two dogs snapped at each other in irritation. They matched the humans step by step, circling. Waiting.

Prince Escar suddenly called to attention and began moving purposefully. As they approached, Edmund watched his four dogs in front rejoin one of their pack members that had been left behind. It was smaller than the others and had seemingly lingered with the corpses as its fellows left to follow Kairon.

It was greedily swallowing the remnants of someone's soft intestines. It looked saw its fellows and growled, reluctant to release its catch. "Keep your arrows at the ready," Escar ordered. "If you must fire, aim for the eyes or joints. Make it count."

Edmund heard a soldier do as ordered and take perfect aim for the apparent leader. "We arch around," Lucy called and began directing Edmund left of the roof. The smell of the dead hung in the air and made several creatures perk their noses. It would appear some of them at least had already eaten of the corpses and were anxious for more.

"Steady…" Hadron cautioned as they scaled a half wall to change rooftops. One, dog lost interest as they did and rejoined its pack. Most of whom had been drawn in once again by the corpses. "King Edmund, stay at the head," Hadron ordered when the young king began to slow his retreat to still be facing the animals. The captain gestured his soldiers between the dogs and their fellows even as some of the monsters lingered in slow pursuit. "They're still sizing us up."

"Over there," Lucy said and pointed to a collapsed wall. She skipped over, now protected by their entire group, and looked down at a web of vines. "It's the only way down, but the ash vines are everywhere," She glanced back, but found their collective attention fastened on one of the suddenly advancing monsters.

"See if there's a way through them, Lu. Quickly," Edmund muttered even as his breaths stilled and the anticipation of a kill lightened his sword. The leader of the beasts had no real interest in the half-eaten carcasses of its previous meal, when it had a far fresher one in its sights. "We'll need it."


TBC

AN: So sorry for the wait!