Chapter 10: Swords and Books

The Narnian and Terabithian royalties sat at the breakfast table again. Today was her second day at Cair Paravel and her first day of training.

Peter cleared his throat and handed Rosemary a scroll "This is your training schedule, you shall train with me after breakfast, then Susan after morning tea, Lucy after lunch and finally Edmund after afternoon tea." The king declared "And after supper, you are more than welcome to use our personal libraries to study." "But personally Edmund's and Susan's library have the best books," said Lucy.

Rose was not surprised that Susan's library would be so informative, but Edmund's?

The Just King glared at his sister. "As long as she does not destroy any of my books" Edmund hissed as left the table and headed towards his library.

"Today we are going to get you back on the saddle and see what you can do," Peter said as he led her into a meadow. His beloved unicorn trotted along beside them. It felt good to wear casual attire again instead of one of Lucy's heavy dresses.

"This is Snow," Peter said turning to the unicorn who dipped his head toward Rose "And this…" the King said, giving a high pitched whistle "Is your horse."

A young black stallion cantered into the meadow. "He's beautiful," Rose said, gasping as she approached the horse.

Peter rummaged inside a sack and pulled out a brush. "I take it you know how to groom a horse?" He asked, "Yes of course" Rosemary replied taking the brush from Peter and placing it on the horse's mane. "What will you name him?" Peter asked, "Midnight." she replied triumphantly.

It felt so good to be back on a horse again, the wind in her hair, flying over the Narnian hillside with Peter and Snow hot on her heels. Midnight thundered onto the beach and into the sea. Rose slid off the saddle into the cool ocean and threw herself into the waves. She hadn't had this much fun in years. "I don't think that's a good idea swimming in your clothes, Princess," Peter said worried, staring at her from the shore.

Rose pulled off one her boots and hurled it at him "Stop being such a worry-wart" she said laughing "The water's great." Peter frowned but then smiled "Ok, just for a little while," he said as he took off his riding gear and dove into the surf.

"That was fun." The high king said, smiling. "I couldn't agree more" Rose replied, unbuckling Midnight's saddle. "You're more than welcome to come to the stables and go riding," said Peter "Just let the stable boys know." "Thank you," Rose said, smiling back at him.

"Another bull's eye!" Susan cried in excitement "You are excellent at this Rosemary." Rose grinned. This was turning out to be quite the perfect day, she had thoroughly enjoyed all the days' activities. "Your uncle and mother taught you well," said Caspian, pulling out Rose's arrows from the target, "At this rate, you will be able to shoot from horseback."

"Right," said Susan, her hands on her hips "I want you to shoot every target, from this spot." "Piece of cake" Rose replied, confidently as she notched an arrow on her bow. She inhaled, then exhale and began shooting the targets.

One hit.

Two hits

Three…four

"Last one," Rose muttered grinning

Unfortunately, she had gotten overconfident and shot the arrow far too early, causing it to fly left of the target and over the head of an oncoming Edmund, who swore rather loudly.

"I think that's enough for today," Susan said, taking the bow off Rosemary.

"You shot Edmund!" Lucy said, laughing hysterically "Nearly" replied Rosemary, grinning. The two girls sat on the edge of the forest picking all sorts of different herbs to be brewed into healing potions. Lucy had provided Rose with a rather helpful notebook, which included immaculate diagrams of many plants and how to properly harvest them.

"Rosemary!" Lucy shouted, just as Rose reached for a black looking berry "That's nightshade." Rose stared at the berry, "Sorry, I thought it was a blackberry?" Lucy sighed and flicked to a page in her notebook "See, the stalk is different, do you have something on your mind?"

"I have sword fighting with Edmund next" Rose sighed, "I guarantee he's going to make it hard." Lucy patted her new friend's hand reassuringly "My brother may be a bit…much at first, but he means well." Rose smiled back at the young queen. "I hope you're right."

Rosemary walked into the armoury and gasped. Giant suites of armour shone in the afternoon light, shields bearing the Narnian coat of arms were proudly displayed along a sand coloured wall.

She spotted Edmund at the other end of the room next to a table filled with many different swords. She cautiously approached him, eying his sword. "I think I will pick this up pretty quickly," she said, laughing nervously, "I did fencing at school." She picked up a long thin fencing sword and proceed to swish the air around her with fencing techniques.

"A battle fight is completely different from a fencing fight." Edmund said, plucking the sword from her grasp "There are no rules and the swords are completely different." He handed her a large package, "We hand our blacksmith design a sword for you"

Rosemary tore off the brown paper wrapping to reveal a glorious sword. She traced her thumb over the golden hilt of the sword. "It's perfect," She said smiling.

Edmund handed her a large shield, bearing a roaring lion "Wow, this is heavy" Rose said trying to lighten the mood. Edmund ignored her and continued with his lesson.

"As you probably know from fencing this is an attack position," The king said, thrusting his sword forward, "You want to make sure that your shield is still protecting you, but not in your way, understood?" Rose nodded, mimicking Edmund's stance.

They practised stances for what seemed like hours. "Ugh enough already," Rose said, groaning "I want to fight." "You're not ready," Edmund said sternly, "Oh yeah?" Rose replied pointing her sword towards the King "Try me."

Edmund thrust his sword towards Rose, clashing it with her own "You could've hit me!" She shrieked. "That's the idea," Edmund smirked. "Oh, that is it," the Terabithian Princess hissed as she swung her sword at Edmund catching him off guard, "Don't underestimate me."

"Not too shabby for a girl," Edmund said, teasingly as he raised his shield "However, don't think I'm going to go easy on you."

He dove behind her as she lunged forward for another attack. He then swept his foot underneath Rose, causing her to lose her balance and drop her shield. She glared at him, missing his attack and picked up her shield. "Oh no you don't," Rosemary said angrily, chasing after Edmund who had run outside.

Clashes of metal swords and laughter filled the meadow outside the armoury. "Not bad, not bad," Edmund kept muttering. "I thought you were supposed to be the best swordsman in the kingdom," Rosemary said, catching him off guard again and trusting her body against him holding her sword to his throat.

"Hmm…that was good," said Edmund, getting nervous pushing his shield hard against her to avoid her sword getting any closer. "Oh, but I can do so much better" Rose smirked.

She shoved him again with her shield causing him to lose his balance and topple over onto the grass. He landed with a thud and groaned. Rosemary turned her sword around pointing it directly in between Edmund's eyes.

Edmund smirked, slightly impressed "Yes, not bad at all." he said, staring nervously at Rose's sword. Rose pounced on him laughing "I think you meant to say I was brilliant," She said laughing as she flung her arms open.

There was a loud whack followed by a deep groan and Rose discovered that she had hit Edmund square around the face with her shield. "Shoot!" She said gasping "Edmund I'm so sorry!" She bent down closer to take a look at his cheek with was turning a brilliant shade of red. Underneath her, Edmund burst out laughing rubbing his swollen cheek with a cunning grin plastered onto his face.

He lunged forward grabbing her arm, pulling her to the ground, trapping her underneath him, his hands encircling her wrists ensuring she couldn't escape. "Number one rule of war, Rosemary," He said triumphantly "Never show sympathy."

Rosemary sighed, frustratingly trying to wriggle out of his grasp, "Goddammit Edmund!" she shouted, puffing "Ok, I lost this time." She lay her head back into the grass breathing in the scent of the meadow, Edmund stared at her, his onyx eyes boring into her green ones. It was at this moment Rose realised he was still on top of her. "Um…you can get off me now," she said nervously.

Edmund cleared his throat, "ah, yes, um sorry" he stuttered, standing up hastily, "Um…good…good work. Rose handed him her sword and shield, muttered a quick goodbye and hurried out of the room.

"Was it left or right?" Rose muttered to herself as she hurried down a long corridor. She had been attempting to remember which room was Lucy's library as she was wanting to study differences in nightshade further, so she didn't accidentally poison someone.

"Since Lucy is the youngest, maybe her one is at the end" Rose muttered to herself. Her footsteps echoed in the quiet corridor as she hurried to the last door and swung it open.

The library was enormous, thousands of books were neatly stacked in shelves running around the entire room. "This looks like something from Beauty and the Beast," she said quietly to herself. She hurried along to the first bookshelf peering at all the spines, however, none of them appeared to be in English. She frowned looking around to see where Lucy was.

A loud click made her jump. She looked toward the noise to see Edmund hanging from a large ladder that ran along the shelves. He frowned and arched an eyebrow at her. "Whoops," she said, awkwardly smiling "Wrong room." She turned towards the door.

Edmund let out a sigh. "What book do you need?" "Oh…um" Rose stuttered nervously "Do you have anything on nightshade." Edmund's eye widened, "You better not be planning to use it on anyone," Edmund said sternly, "Oh no I'm trying to avoid that" Rose replied. Edmund pushed off one of the shelves and the ladder glided to the other side of the room. He pulled out a dark green book and handed it down to her. "Plants and their Deadly Doppelgängers by Glinda Berri" he declared, climbing down from the ladder, "Oh wow thanks" Rose replied heading back toward the door.

Edmund cleared his throat, "If you so much as bend a page I will make you train extra hard tomorrow." Rosemary gulped, "Erm, yes your majesty" she replied as she hurried out of the room.

Finally a new chapter out, thanks again for the support

Mashedspudy