A/N: Hey, you guys! Thanks to the following people:
Allie Danger, Hella Monetza, Narnia and Harry Potter 4EVER, Guest, Guardian of Imagination, Daisy 54154, lucypotter14, Counting Airplanes, kaia, StereoHearts64
I love you guys! Oh, and thanks especially to lucypotter14 for reading the beginning of this chapter earlier today at school and approving of my idea! Love ya, girl!
Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia in any way, shape, or form. Pity.
-Chapter 11-
~Miraz's POV: 3rd person~
King Miraz spoke angrily to his lords. "You have all made me look like a fool!" he growled in his thick Telmarine accent. The lords at the table on either side of him listened intently to their king. "I will not tolerate this again! The next of you to speak for me will spend the night in a cell!"
The Telmarine king continued on, pointing out the flaws in each of the people around him in his anger. "Now we need to stop focusing on my bravery and begin thinking about what we are going to do if something goes wrong. We will be subjected to battle no matter what, most certainly, and we need to find out where the Narnians have their weak spots."
"My king," Lord Sopespian said. He looked straight ahead of him, by the trees and brush in front of their meeting tent. Miraz continued yelling. "My king," Sopespian said again. He tapped the false king's shoulder and whispered, "King Miraz!"
"What?!" he exclaimed, turning to Sopespian harshly.
"His Majesty may want to see this," the lord replied, pointing to the woods beyond their tent. They couldn't hear what was going on, but they could see quite clearly.
Right before their eyes was King Edmund walking next to Princess Avaline. Each moment their pace became slower and slower until they finally stopped. Edmund turned to face the Telmarine princess, still talking all the while, until Avaline stopped short and said only a few words. It seemed that the two seemed thoughtful for a moment. What happened next was what made King Miraz's decision.
His daughter, the sweet, caring, always-modest Princess Avaline, leaned forward as King Edmund cupped her cheek, and suddenly their lips touched. They kissed in such a passionate way, it wasn't difficult to see that they felt strongly to each other. Anyone could see a relationship forming between the two, even if they themselves didn't know it yet.
"Ah, so that's how it is," King Miraz murmured, rubbing his hands together thoughtfully. He stared for a moment more before he said, "General!"
General Glozelle snapped his eyes to his king from where he had also been watching the beautiful Princess Avaline. "Yes, my lord?"
"See to it that Queen Prunaprismia and Prince Skandar arrive here at the base by morning," he ordered.
"Is that all, sire?"
"No," the king answered slowly. "I want you to make sure King Edmund has said his goodbyes by this evening." He smiled evilly and focused his gaze on the Just King, now gazing into the princess' eyes adoringly. "I have a feeling he won't live to say them by morning."
~Avaline POV: 1st person~
"Edmund," I murmured, pulling away from his touch. His hand cupped my cheek and his lips were close to mine, though not quite touching.
"What is it?" he asked, pulling back a bit farther to examine me. He looked into my eyes and saw the confusion, the hurt, the pain I was feeling. And beside all of that, he saw the betrayal I felt at the kiss I knew he would deny participating in. Edmund knew what he did to me. He knew that it hurt me to see him, let alone to touch him, but yet he was forcing me into doing the one thing I wanted most, and the one thing I knew he wanted least. Or did he?
"Oh," he whispered, taking a step back from me and removing his hand from my skin. "I see."
I glanced around us and gasped as I realized where we were. "Edmund," I said, trying to stay calm. He didn't listen, he was zoned out and looking at the ground where he was kicking a rock silently with his right foot. "Edmund," I said again, reaching over to shake his arm.
He looked up. "Hmm?"
"Look behind you," I whispered. He did, and gasped at what he saw. My father was smirking the most evil smirk I have ever seen on him while rubbing his hands together. I didn't know what to think. Either he was planning attack, or he was planning assassination. I honestly think I preferred the first.
"What do you think he wants?" Edmund asked under his breath.
"I don't know," I replied. I watched as the Telmarine king turned his eyes from us and looked at General Glozelle. He was ordering something; I could tell by the way his eyes suddenly turned slightly more serious than they were previously.
We watched a second more before Edmund turned and grabbed my hand. "Let's go." And with that we left.
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"Oh my goodness, whatever happened?" Lucy exclaimed, running over to me and her brother. We were walking up the path to Aslan's How, frowning.
"Ask him," I said angrily, glaring over at Edmund. He returned my look by glancing at me, confusion clear in his eyes.
"Edmund?" Lucy asked, her forehead wrinkling in perplexity.
"Miraz. He accepted," Edmund answered. We both continued walking until we reached the archway before the How.
"No!" I exclaimed, causing him to turn and look at me. "Don't you dare blame this on my father. He didn't do anything; you kissed me in front of him!"
I practically saw the light bulb go on over his head. "Oh, so that's what this is about?" he asked. "I thought that's what you wanted!"
"It was, but not in front of my father! Do you even know what this means?" I questioned him angrily. I didn't wait for an answer. "It means he knows how I feel about you. And he doesn't really care whether I'm his daughter or not. He's going to do whatever it takes to break me."
Edmund stared at me, all anger cleared from his face and replaced by the shock of what I had just told him. Lucy gasped, her eyes wide in bewilderment. "A-Avaline," she said. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, Miraz will do whatever it takes to hurt us, to break us apart. Even if it means he has to kill." Lucy suddenly stood up straighter as if being struck by lightning and ran into the stone building. A few moments later, Peter appeared outside with her.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"King Miraz wants to break us apart," Lucy explained. "Avaline says he'll do anything to do it. He would kill one of us."
"We cannot let that happen," Peter said. He looked around us, and then motioned for us to follow him as he made his way inside Aslan's How.
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"Cakes and kettledrums!" Trumpkin exclaimed. "That's it? That's your next big plan?" We all looked at him, confused. "Sending a little girl into the darkest parts of the forest… alone?"
"It's our only chance," Peter said harshly. The High King really didn't like it when people questioned his plans.
"And she won't be alone," Susan spoke.
"Haven't enough of us died already?" Trumpkin asked, looking around at both of them.
Trufflehunter reached out and tried to calm his friend. "Nikabrik was my friend, too. But he lost hope. Queen Lucy hasn't. And neither have I," the badger said.
"For Aslan!" a few Narnians shouted.
The DLF looked to Lucy. "Then I'm going with you."
"No," Lucy said soothingly, putting a hand on the dwarf's shoulder. "We need you here."
"We have to hold them off until Lucy and Susan get back," Peter continued, trying to ignore the dwarf objecting to his arrangements.
"If I may," Caspian began, "Miraz would be subject to targeting myself and Avaline first if we were to end up in battle against them. This means that Avaline should be carefully concealed somewhere-"
"Somewhere that he couldn't find her," Edmund blurted out. Everyone in the room looked at him, confused, and he looked down at the ground in embarrassment.
"Err, yes.Somewhere that he couldn't find her," Caspian agreed awkwardly. He directed his gaze to me and winked with a slight smile on his face. I rolled my eyes before he continued. "But as he will also be searching for me, I think I should go with Lucy and Susan… to keep them safe."
"And yourself," Peter added.
"Yes. And myself," Caspian agreed.
"Okay, so we're all settled and ready?" the High King asked.
Everyone said yes before we all yelled, "For Aslan!" and went off, minding our own business.
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"Tomorrow is the duel," Susan said quietly.
She was sitting on the edge of her cot, Lucy and I sitting on the floor in front of it, quietly. The Valiant Queen and I both nodded absentmindedly.
"We need to find something to wear that will protect us in case we do go into battle," she said.
"Yes," I whispered in agreement. The three of us were feeling awfully quiet right now, and the fact that Peter was going to fight King Miraz tomorrow morning wasn't exactly helping anything.
"Well," the Gentle Queen said, hopping up from her cot. "Let's get up and find something. Why sit here like dead slugs when we have work to do?!"
Lucy and I exchanged glances. Susan got so crazy sometimes. "Alright," Lucy said, getting up and pulling me along with her. She actually was able to pull me onto my feet from where I was sitting on the ground with my legs crossed. Who knew that a thirteen-year-old girl that probably didn't even weigh ninety pounds could pull up a sixteen-year-old girl who did? "You know Susan, not everyone has the same fascination in clothes as you. You're lucky that Avaline does, because otherwise you'd be stuck with me." Susan laughed at her little sister and moved over to my bag.
"What size do you wear?" she asked me. I shrugged, because to be honest I really didn't know, nor did I care. I simply put on whatever fit. "Okay, well do you mind if Lucy tries on one of your older dresses and I try on one of the newer? I think we should be about the same size."
"Sure," I replied. What else was I supposed to do? So I grabbed my bag and laid out all the dresses it contained on my Susan's cot.
"Oh, goodness, these are so gorgeous. I haven't seen anything this beautiful since we came back to England at the end of the Golden Age!" Susan exclaimed while Lucy rummaged through her own satchel and grabbed a dress.
"Susan, I grabbed one for both of us from the treasure chambers at Cair Paravel."
"Oh, but how did you know to bring them?" Susan asked.
"I just had a feeling you'd want something else to wear, and I, on the other hand, would need something else to wear," she replied, giggling while Susan's face turned red. With those thoughts pushed aside, Susan and Lucy tried on their old dresses. "Oh, bother!" Lucy exclaimed.
"What is it?" Susan and I asked together.
"My old chainmail doesn't fit," she said sadly.
"Oh well, you won't be in the actual battle anyway. Remember? You're supposed to go see if you can find Aslan with me," Susan told her.
"Yes, but you get to wear your chainmail!"
"That is because I am older than you, therefore I get to be in the battle if need be."
Lucy sighed in defeat, knowing already that she wasn't going to win this. So she put back on her old red dress she was wearing and tied on her white corset over it. Meanwhile, I was going through two dresses that I found appropriate for our situation. I finally decided upon a dark aqua dress with puffy sleeves until my elbow, where they were tight and fitting to my arms. The puffs in the sleeves had white designs stitched onto them, as did the corset. The skirt had a slit from my lower hips to the floor on each side of the dress where, while walking, a white underskirt was visible. I had black flats to match; I didn't want my white ones to get soiled. Susan was lending me an extra woman's chainmail top that she retrieved from the treasure chambers at Cair Paravel. I would put it over my dress, and it would be a half-sleeved top.
Susan put on yet another purple dress, only this one had more color to it and it was much darker than the old dress. She too had a half-sleeved chainmail top to put over it. Lucy didn't have to wear any chainmail or a new dress since neither of the ones she brought for herself fit. She didn't mind too much though, she mostly wanted to just find Aslan and get the battle over with. So, with those things in mind, we packed up our clothing, stored it away for tomorrow, put on our other clothes from earlier, and hung around to talk until time for bed.
Soon after, we decided it was time to go to sleep, seeing as we had to prepare for the battle coming early the next morning.
A/N: Thanks to Hella Monetza and lucypotter14 for helping me out of my horrible writer's block and giving me guidance on what to include in this chapter. You girls are awesome!
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