A/N: So…um…I don't really have anything to say, except thanks to SaguaroCactus, sowhatifImaninja, and my reviewer and my biggest fan (or so it seems) JORDAN! She's my bestie outside my haven of writing in the real world, so yeah. MISS YOU JORDY!

I decided NOT to let some of my reviewers die from suspense, so I'm FINALLY posting! YAY!

This chapter has some pretty...mixed emotions, by the way(:

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Narnia, blah blah blah. You've heard it all before.

Charlotte clung to Edmund's tunic. She closed her eyes and listened as Edmund negotiated.

"Ah, Damian." He pushed Charlotte behind him, one arm protecting her. "How nice to see you," he said, with mock enthusiasm.

"I wish I could say the same for you, Edmund." Anger flared in Charlotte's eyes.

"It's King! King Edmund, you bastard!" She had leapt out from behind Edmund and confronted Damian, right in his face. A piercing crack was heard, as Charlotte fell to the cobblestone clutching her cheek.

"Do not touch her!" Edmund growled, pointing his sword at Damian's neck. He grit his teeth and his eyes flicked at Charlotte, who had tears in her eyes, threatening to spill over. He looked back up at Damian, who had a smug look on his face. Smug? How dare he! The
King of Narnia has his sword pointed at his neck and he dare be smug?

"Ah, but Edmund," Damian said, smirking. "You have no rule in this land. I can do as I please." Charlotte growled at him from the ground. Damian thrust the sword from his neck, and roughly picked up Charlotte. He captured her lips in his, and his hands moved slowly downward from her waist, to a place
lower.

Edmund exploded.

"Get your filthy hands off her!" He quickly pulled Charlotte away from the Tarkaan, and shoved her behind him once more.

She gripped on to the back of him as he whispered in her ear, "Go. Get away from here. Go back to the ship. Peter will be there."

"No! Edmund, he will kill you! You must come with me!" She pleaded with him. He needn't say more because the look in his eyes told her not to argue. She turned and walked away slowly, casting a look back before she turned a corner.

~*~
Charlotte reached the ship and ran around trying to find Peter.

"Peter! Peter, where are you?" A hand clasped on her shoulder and she swirled around to see the blue eyes of the High King staring at her. A smile broke out on her face and she hugged him tightly, but, remembering where Edmund was, pulled away quickly.

"Edmund. He-he told me to find you. He is in a garden, probably fighting Damian right now. What if he's hurt?" She quickly hugged Peter again, not being able to think of what would happen.

"It will be alrigh-" He was interrupted by someone yelling his name. They both rushed over to railing of the ship and looked down. A silhouette could be seen, and it looked like the person was carrying another person.

"High King Peter! Your brother is injured!" Charlotte knew that voice. Caruso!

Peter turned to her, his eyes full of urgency. "Go get Lucy's cordial. She let us borrow it for the trip. It is in the captain's cabin, on the left side hand of the desk. Go!" She needed no more words. The dreams had left Charlotte having a great sense of where everything on the ship was. She followed her instinct and arrived in the cabin. She fumbled with the desk drawer and pulled out the glass bottle containing the miracle juice.

She dashed back up on deck and saw Edmund lying on deck, gasping for air, clutching his side. His shirt was torn off and Peter was cleaning his deep wound. She gasped, kneeled down beside him, and cradled his head in her lap. She opened his mouth and poured a drop of the fireflower juice into it.

For a fearful moment, he stopped breathing. Then, he gasped and his eyes popped open, surveying the scene around him. Before he knew what was going on, arms wrapped around his neck and hugged him tight.

"Oh, Ed! Don't you dare do that to me again!" He could feel Charlotte's bare skin of her stomach touching his bare one, and his skin tingled with an emotion unknown to him.

He stood up abruptly, muttered an, "I'm fine," and walked off deck without another word.

Peter turned to look at Charlotte. He surveyed her, looking over her wounds and the severity of them. "Charlotte, go change and get yourself cleaned up. Then you can talk to Edmund." He knew she would go talk to him so it was no use saying he would talk to his brother.

She nodded and walked off to her cabin. Inside her cabin was a bunk bed, a desk, a mirror, and a few lanterns hanging overhead. Above the window was a wooden carving of a majestic lion.

"Aslan," she whispered. She ran her fingers over it and felt a warm breeze wash over her face. She looked out the window. It had a perfect view of Tashbaan. She hated it. Drawing the curtains so as to not look at it again, she turned and found a white shirt, a pair of trousers,
and some leather boots by her bed.

"No dresses here," she muttered. Before getting dressed, she tore a piece of the black fabric off her skirt and dabbed it in water from the wash tub. She cleaned the cuts on her face, her arms and her legs before she realized she could not reach her back. She huffed and
desperately reached behind her back. She gave up, knowing it was no use.

A knock sounded at her door, and it opened revealing Caruso. He blushed and said, "I am sorry. I did not realize the state you were in-" She interrupted him.

"It is fine. You've seen me in a worse state. Can you clean the cuts on my back and wrap it for me?" He nodded and dunked the cloth back into the water. He started dabbing the wounds as he talked to her.

"I am sorry about your betrothed. He was deeply hurt." Charlotte's eyes widened.

"My betrothed? What are you talking about?"

"King Edmund. Is he not courting you?" She crossed her arms and winced, the skin on her back stretching the wounds.

"No. No, we are not getting married," she replied stiffly. Then she murmured, "Nowhere close." He stopped wrapping for a second, leaned in front of her, and raised an eyebrow. She scowled and the look on her face told him to shut up and wrap.

"You are all done, my lady," he said, about five minutes later. The bandage wrapped around her entire back, over her shoulder like a sleeve and in the front just below her breasts.

"Thank you. And no need for this 'my lady' stuff. Please," she asked, putting a hand on his upper arm.

"Of course, ma li ka tey." He nodded and walked out of her cabin. She breathed shakily and reality came crashing into her.

She was free. She was free! Laughing with relief, she leaned against a wall. She was free of whips, and scars, and...well, the point was, she was free. After almost a week in that wretched city she was finally...free.

She smiled to herself and pulled on the outfit laid out for her. Finding a ribbon, she tied her hair into a braid. Satisfied with her appearance, she stepped out of her cabin and found her way to Edmund's cabin.

Charlotte opened the door quietly and saw Edmund facing a wall handing a small object. As she got closer, she realized that it was the necklace he had gotten her for Christmas.

"Edmund? What are you doing?" she asked, stepping toward him. He turned to her, his eyes were rimmed with red.

"Ed, are you okay?" She put a hand on his shoulder and he just shrugged it off, and went to sit on his bunk. She went and sat next to him.

"Ed, please. Talk to me," she pleaded. She was getting irritated.

"I can't believe what he did to you," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. He stared at her and grabbed her shoulders. "I let him take you! I let him hurt you a-and rape you! I didn't do enough to keep him away." He put his head in his hands, and shook his head.

"Edmund Pevensie," she said sternly. "It is not your fault and don't you dare go blaming yourself. What's done is done. I am free. Don't worry about me. I'm fine, but I'm worried about you." She looked into his eyes expecting to see sadness still embedded in his eyes, but saw anger. He stood up and glared at her, his hands clenched into fists.

"You're worried about me? How can you think about me when you've gone through so much more than I have! I'm fine! It was one silly wound!" he very nearly yelled. She flinched away from him, but the fire that had long since been put out, was rekindled inside her. She stood up and faced him.

"I can't believe you! One silly wound? Edmund, you were stabbed through the side! You were lucky Caruso found you when he did! Otherwise, Damian would've probably thrown you in a bloody cell where you could bleed to death!" She was yelling by now. Her throat felt like it was screaming but she didn't care. She was too furious. "Oh look, I'm Edmund! I have a deep gash in my side, no need to worry about me! I should be thanking Caruso but instead I'm being an irritating prat like usual!" she continued, imitating Edmund.

He stormed up to her and slammed his hands on the wall behind her, effectively trapping her. "You think I'm not going to thank him? I'm extremely grateful, but I'm not worried about myself. I'm worried about you. How is your mental health going to be affected, huh? Are you going to go crazy? I might. I don't know what he did to you in there, but I know it's my fault! I don't know. For all I know, he could have cut off your arm and sewed you back up again!" He grabbed her by her shoulders roughly and looked into her eyes. "I'm worried about you!" he very nearly yelled.

She pushed his hands off her, not very fond of anyone touching her except Caruso, glared at him, and stormed out of his cabin.

Edmund went and sat back at his bunk and put his head in his hands.

"What have I done?" he mumbled, staring into space.

Charlotte thrashed in her sleep, dreaming of the things that thing had done to her. She whimpered and cried, the pains flooding back into her mind and body.

Crack!

Another one. And another. They kept coming, with no cease. It was searing pain, and Charlotte had to bite down on her lip to refrain from screaming. She bit down so hard that she felt the skin break and blood trickle down her chin.

"Why?" She called. "Why are you treating me like this?" This question ordered her harder whips, and a dozen more. Once it ceased, she broke down in terrible, heart-wrenching sobs. Damian came so close to her that she could feel his breath on her face. She cowered, hiding her face in her hands.

"Because you defied me! You would not have me. Instead, you took that barbarian, Edmund," he snarled in her face, spitting at her. "Now, we have business to attend to." And with those words, he grabbed her roughly, she screamed, and the real torture began.

She sat up in her bed screaming, in a cold sweat and then she realized she was not in his manor. She took a breath shakily, and, not caring about the state she was in, walked out of her cabin and down the hall. She knocked on the door. No one answered. She knocked harder, and was met in the face, with a grumpy king with bed head.

"What?" he said obviously irritated. After all, it was three in the morning. "What, pray tell, could you possibly want at this hour?" He leaned against his doorway and yawned, waiting for an answer.

"I-I had a nightmare," she quietly said. She rubbed her arms that had goose bumps on them. She was wearing a sleeveless nightgown to about her knees, and it was cold on the ship.

"Come on in," Edmund said, ushering her inside. He sat down on the bed, and patted the spot next to him, telling her to sit. She crossed her legs as she sat down, and fiddled with her thumbs, embarrassed because of what happened earlier. "What was it about?" He asked.

"Him," she replied. She didn't need, or want, to say his name. Edmund knew exactly what she was talking about. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and just held her there. "I'm sorry for waking you up," she whispered.

"It's alright. Would you, um, like to stay here tonight?" he shyly asked, blushing. They had never spent the night with each other unless one, or both, of them were drunk. It was kind of awkward.

She nodded without making a sound, got up, gathered some pillows and blankets, and started spreading them out on the floor. Edmund raised his eyebrows.

"What are you doing?" he asked. He knew the answer, but he wanted confirmation first.

"Making a bed. What does it look like?" She laughed softly. She certainly wasn't going to share a bed with him. It would be too…awkward, for lack of better word.

"I'm not going to let you sleep on the floor. Come on, in the bed," he ordered. It was a bunk, like hers, so it wasn't really meant for two people. They couldn't lay next to each other without touching in some way. They turned toward each other, their faces mere inches apart.

"What are we doing?" Charlotte whispered to him. It was confusing. They hated each other. So, why was he being nice? Especially after this evening. She laughed to herself, thinking that they fought over something so petty. It was amazing really.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, joking. He smirked at her.

"Edmund, I'm being serious. What are we doing? We hate each other and now we are sleeping in the same bed?" Charlotte stated. It was true, and, to be honest, it kind of scared her.

"You still aren't my favorite person in the world," he said, noticing Charlotte's face sadden. "But that doesn't mean I don't care about you. Alright?" She nodded, and looked up into his eyes. His eyes mesmerized her. They put her in some sort of trance that she couldn't break. Believe her, she had tried.

Her thoughts snapped back to reality and that was when she realized that Edmund was leaning in closer, closer, and then, their lips touched.

Wait, I'm not drunk…is he? No. Then why are we doing this? She thought. Edmund pulled back, feeling rejected obviously since she hadn't kissed back. He blushed, and rubbed his neck nervously.

"Er, sorry. I-I didn't mean t-to-" He was interrupted by Charlotte kissing him on the lips. His eyes went wide before fluttering shut and kissing back. His hands went to her hips, as hers went around his neck, one threading through his hair. He pressed her closer to him, if possible.

She pulled away, but held his hands in her face. "Not now," he started to object, but she put a finger to his lips. "Some other time. I'm tired." He reluctantly nodded, but allowed her to turn her back to him and sleep silently.

No nightmares came to her.

So, I'm not the only one who felt EXTREMELY giddy during this chapter, right? Originally, it was supposed to be longer, but writer's block came to me…OH NO! I'll get an idea sooner or later. Reviews are love(: