AN: I am SOOOOOOO glad I finally got to update! I've been just dying to do so but my laptop cord was broken and there was a whole bunch of other stuff going on...phew...glad that's over! And I hope you like the chapter! Also, don't hate me for this, but just to warn, there's another sort of cliff-hanger at the end of this chapter.
For one half-second shy of two and a half years, I was dumb.
I did not speak.
Not a word.
My own life was threatened and not a single syllable was coaxed from my lips.
And now....
What have I done?
Oh, what have I done?
I was so scared, I wasn't thinking, I didn't mean to...
Edmund!
I look over at him-he isn't dead.
He's not even pale or sickly.
Thanks be to the Lion, I think-exhaling deeply.
He stands up straight, he doesn't hunch over as he fights any soldiers who come too close.
Perhaps the half-minute didn't matter?
I want to believe that is the case but I can't shake the feeling that when it is least expected, that horrible half-minute will come back and haunt us.
Will we ever be free?
Because I have spoken; my guilt is questioned and, at least for now, they wont burn me.
My eldest brother, Peter, clings to me for a few moments while I weep into his chest harder than ever.
I don't think he realizes that I spoke too soon.
He thinks I've done it-that I've saved them.
He doesn't understand why I keep whispering, murmuring into his warm, protective shoulder, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry...."
He must think I am simply in shock and will calm down soon.
When I finally pull away from my eldest brother-before Edmund can come forward and embrace me, too-I race over to where the silver shirts still lay near the unburnt straw.
I race back to Peter, flinging the silver shirt over his body.
His face glows with a strange sort of white-gold light for a moment and the shirt seems to flash-like silvery-blue lightning.
It stops: something changes.
Somehow I know now that Peter will never be a swan again.
That this is the form he will keep for always.
Next-it ought to be Lucy's turn now (but she isn't here), though it isn't finished, I throw Edmund's shirt over him.
The glow comes again but when it has faded, there is something wrong.
Where the sleeve is not completed, my younger brother's arm sticks out as white as snow.
Feathers sprout.
A wing like that of a painted angel.
Like a swan's wing but large enough for a human boy to bear.
I see the truth now, Edmund shall have no left arm.
Only a swan's wing.
Once all the commotion and fighting was over and Susan had thrown the two shirts over her brothers, holding the littlest shirt-for Lucy-safely in the fold of her right arm, the crowd stood gawking at Peter and Edmund. Then they turned back to Susan and blinked in amazement. The former princess Susan, the mute wife of their crown prince, had spoken? And who were these two Narnian men who had come to her rescue?
"My name is Peter, crown prince of Narnia; I am the rightful high king now that my father, King Frank, has passed away." Peter announced standing tall and giving the crowd-and Miraz and his wife-a fierce look. "My brother and I as well as our youngest sister, the princess Lucy, have been under a terrible enchantment from which this woman-" He motioned over at Susan. "-has just delivered us. This woman, is none other than our royal sister, oldest daughter of King Frank, the princess Susan of Narnia."
"I can speak now," Susan said softly, sounding distant and weak, her voice raspy from lack of use for nearly two and a half years. "I am innocent-I haven't harmed either of my poor babies-and this man speaks the truth, I am their sister; I am the princess of Narnia."
Using the arm that wasn't a wing, Edmund reached over to comfort his sister who's shoulders were simply shaking themselves to bits during her little speech. It was no wonder the poor girl was so frightened; her own husband had allowed her to be put on a stake to burn in front of her subjects!
Glaring over at Miraz, Peter exclaimed angrily, "And since you have had the audacity to dare put your hands on our royal sister and attempt to kill an innocent high-born Narnian woman, You shall not only give us guards for safe passage back to our own country but we demand four horses as well!"
"We do?" Edmund's forehead crinkled slightly, impressed by the forcefulness his brother spoke with.
"Wow." Susan muttered in a dazed voice, surprised beyond all reason at how grown-up her brother sounded. He really did sound like a high king and as soon as they did something about getting that horrible white witch out of their childhood home, Cair Paravel, he would be.
"There are only three of you." Miraz pointed out sulkily, pouting slightly-upset that after all the work he and his wife had done to get Susan onto that stake, she was being so easily rescued.
"You will be providing a horse as a gift for our youngest sister as well although she is not present." Peter explained to him in a very clear, no-nonsense tone. "But first you will be so kind as to get her highness, The princess Susan of Narnia, a dress to wear before she catches her death." It had not escaped his attention that his poor sister was wearing nothing but her undergarments and that the air was chill enough so that even after she stopped shaking from fear, she would still shiver a good deal.
Edmund snatched a warm-looking cloak of purple wool off of the shoulders of the nearest soldier and gently placed it around his sister, planting a reassuring kiss on her cheek.
"Hey!" The solider protested, though he dared not do anything more in all of the confusion going on.
As it was, Miraz was only trying to think of a way that he could kill all three of the Narnian brats and get away with it but before he could come up with anything, Caspian-having gathered up enough courage to peer out the window again only to see Susan standing on her feet, beside two young Narnians one of whom was the man she had been with in the garden before-came outside and ran over to his wife who had apparently just been declared innocent of her crimes.
"Susan!" He cried out, panting for breath as he rushed towards her.
Though she still loved him, Susan felt nothing but pure disgust for his childish display of faith, or rather, the lack of it. Faith only when it seemed safe wasn't really faith at all. He had a lot of growing up to do, that was for sure. On the day he believed her for her and not for what others said or tried to dissuade him into thinking, that was the day she would be able to respect him again. For now, she barely acknowledged him and leaned closer to Edmund for comfort.
"Who are you?" Peter-holding up a sword-demanded when he saw Caspian approaching.
"This is my husband, Peter." Susan said coldly.
Peter looked like he might kill him right then and there. "How could you let them do this to her? Your treatment of my sister is nothing short of-"
"Your sister?" Caspian gasped, blinking rapidly from deep confusion. He hadn't heard Peter's announcement before because the window had been too far away. Was it possible that the man he had taken for his wife's secret lover was really only a close relative she had been missing?
"Yes." Peter gritted his teeth. "My sister." He looked over at Edmund and nodded. "Our sister, actually."
"What is wrong with his arm?" Caspian blurted out, noticing that one of Edmund's arms was white and soft, more like a bird's wing than a human's limb.
Susan's eyes filled with tears, not for her husband or for any amount of anger and resentment she may have been feeling towards him at the moment, but over her great sadness that she had not fully rescued Edmund, the one she had been so set on saving. She still thought of her younger brother as a boy misled and not as a young man who'd willingly betrayed them; she wanted nothing more than to release him from all his pain. And the wing seemed to be nothing but a bitter reminder than she could not do so. It stuck out like a swore thumb not only in her own eyes, but in those of others as well.
What Edmund said next, however, showed that he viewed the matter a little differently. The bird wing his sister could see only as a lingering curse she had been unable to break, he simply saw as a testimony of his sister's great love for him and Peter and Lucy; she could have just spoken and saved herself-like he'd suggested-but she hadn't done that, she had loved them too much. "There is nothing the matter with it," His voice was firm and resolute. "what you see is merely a symbol of a sister's unselfish love for her family."
Caspian opened his mouth to apologize, both to Edmund and to Susan but before he could say anything, Peter went over to Susan-opposite side to where Edmund was comforting her-and put his hand on her shoulder, lightly resting his head on her's for a short moment. "Come on, Su, let's go home."
"Susan I-" Caspian tried in vain as his wife shook her head at him and allowed her siblings to lead her down to the four horses that had been arranged to carry them back to Narnia in spite of Miraz's attempts to avoid giving into their demands. He had no other choice short of starting a war with Narnia and though he had no doubt they would win-what with Narnian troops being busy batting an evil witch at their capital-he doubted his nephew, heir to the throne, would willingly let him declare such a war, not after what had just taken place now. Caspian wouldn't make the same mistake twice; allowing what was closest to his heart to be destroyed because of false accusations. They were white horses-as white as a flock of swans in the summertime.
The journey back to Aslan's camp was long and though at first, still in a state of shock and even grief-as well as no longer being used to talking freely when she wanted to-Susan didn't say much, she eventually remembered that her years of silence really were over-even if she had spoken a half-second too soon-and talked to her brothers, telling them everything that had happened to her.
Peter had been absolutely furious with Caspian long before he'd heard his sister's story and now that he had heard it he was livid. How dare he treat poor Susan in such a manner! He was so deeply grieved over his all his sister had been put through, that as she finished her account of what had happened in the dungeon, he could not keep in the emotion in his voice or his eyes from which he cried heavily.
As for Edmund, his reaction to the story was no less intense that that of his brother but he showed it in a quieter, graver sort of way than Peter did. His tears were no less bright, but they certainly made less noise. It didn't come into his head to comment on Caspian's stupidity-Peter did enough of that for the both of them-rather his comment was that some honour really ought to be given to Caspian's tutor, for he seemed to be the only one in all of Telmar who kept faith in their princess.
"We could make him a duke of something, once we get rid of Jadis." Peter suggested, in a cold tone as he was still too angry with his brother-in-law to sound pleasant.
"I don't think he'd like to be a duke." said Susan, speaking very softly as if she was talking more to herself than to anyone else. "But I bet he would like to be a tutor again, to have his own study, to teach pupils...I think he really loved his teaching..."
Peter nodded deeply, tightening his hold on the reins slightly. "Of course, Su, whatever you think is best."
"We could set up something for him, in the castle...when we get it back...couldn't we?" She asked, sitting up a little straighter on her horse and looking out towards the dimly-lit horizon.
Edmund assured her they could but his attention was soon taken away from her when he saw the sun rising. He partly expected to turn into a swan again, having gotten so used to it, and couldn't help feeling a tremor of pure delight run up and down his spine when he-other than his winged arm, which hung uselessly to the side, somewhat tickling his horse's neck-remained completely human. He wondered if Peter felt as excited as he did; judging by the small smile that crept up onto his brother's formerly tight face, he must have.
Susan smiled at them. "It's good to see your faces in the daylight again."
"It's good to see yours through human eyes." They answered almost at the same time in the same tone of voice.
In all of this, strange as it may sound, even though Susan had mentioned her children to them, it had completely slipped the minds of both Edmund and Peter to mention that they and Lucy had been looking after an infant whom they, too, had named after their father just as she had named her first little son. It is a wonder that they hadn't put two and two together and realized, even by the end of the journey as they came into view of the very tree Caspian had taken Susan from so long ago, that the boy they'd been looking after was their own nephew. Thinking that surely someone-most likely Miraz and his wife-had done something terrible to Susan's children, they gave up those two baby boys for lost and were unable to think anymore of it without intense sadness, of which, they'd had more than enough by this point in their lives.
But when they arrived at the tent and saw a little swan-Lucy-sitting outside their pavilion, on a spread-out blanket with a little squirming baby crawling around it, Susan felt her heart stop. For of course, she recognized her son, little Prince Frank, at once. Frank, did not know his mother at first sight and, very happy to see his uncles again, crawled over to them, but Susan paid this no mind and simply scooped him up and hugged him as hard as her tired arms would allow as soon as he came near enough. Then, with a kiss on the baby's little head, she placed him into his uncle Peter's arms, took out Lucy's silver shirt from where she had secured it in the folds of her dress (for of course she had a dress to wear again now) and threw it over the swan that had been her sister.
Moments later, a little human Lucy nearly two and a half years older than when Susan had last seen her, stood before them, her face and shirt glowing brightly as she beamed at them happily. The two sisters met in a tearful embrace, neither able to remember when they had last felt so much joy, having missed one another so greatly.
Back in Telmar, Caspian somehow or other managed to get a full confession out of his aunt, uncle, and even the archbishop who turned out to be in on the scheme to rid Telmar of an unwanted mute monarch. Afterwards, before he and his horrible wife and the archbishop were to be handed over to justice themselves, Miraz was forced to tell Caspian where his sons were. Although he believed Frank dead after casting the baby down the well, the other son, Caspian the eleventh, had not yet been thrown down it because Miraz hadn't had a chance to ride all the way down to Narnia yet and was only hidden away in a very high seldom-used tower room.
When Caspian took his second-born son out of the tower, the poor baby was nearly starved to death because of course Miraz and Prunaprismia had given no thought to feeding a child they were going to have hurled down a well soon anyway. Wasting no time, he found both dairy maids who knew how to made enriched milk for the infant and Telmarine court women who had had a baby recently enough so that they still had a little milk in their breasts to spare for a child in grave need. It took a few days before the child was well enough both so that they knew for sure he would indeed live a long and healthy life as likely as not and that he was able to be subject to the journey down to Narnia so that Caspian could take him to see his real mother again. And of course, he also meant to beg for his wife's forgiveness though he knew he did not deserve it.
Entering into the camp he felt as worthless as a small ant on the ground and wondered that none of the centaurs and fauns polishing armour and swords, giving him such hard looks as he walked down the tawny green paths towards the royal pavilion where he was told Susan and her siblings lived, thought to crush him. Perhaps they simply felt they could not do it because of his martial ties to their princess in spite of his faithlessness-also, the fact that he carried such a thin, sallow-looking, helpless baby in his arms helped, too.
The tent's flaps were turned up and inside, there sat Susan, Peter, and Edmund around a large Lion who had just come back into the camp the night before-Lucy was half-on the side of him and little baby Frank was seated comfortably in his great velveted paws.
Aslan, Caspian thought-gulping heavily and holding little Caspian the eleventh a little closer to himself; remembering what his tutor and his childhood nurse had told him about Aslan, surely he will be very angry with me for not protecting Susan as I should have, maybe he will tear me to bits with his terrible paws, they are velveted for that little baby there, but they needn't be for myself.
Surprisingly, though perhaps not so much for those who knew Aslan better than a Telmarine Prince who has only limited sources on the matter, the Lion said nothing at all to Caspian and simply stood up and wandered away with Edmund and Lucy (who carried baby Frank in her arms) and walked a little ways off so that he could speak to his wife. Peter followed behind them but did not go as far as they did, rather he stayed pretty much right outside the pavilion, leaving the flaps still partly open so that he could keep an eye on his sister in case she needed someone else there for moral support.
Susan took the baby from her husband's arms and comforted the poor little thing who was not nearly so rosy-cheeked and playfully happy as his older brother was but she did not speak to her husband.
"Susan," he said, barely able to look her in the eyes as he spoke. "I know I've done you wrong, I've been so stupid...not to see it...but I know now that you would never do anything to hurt me or our children or Telmar or...anyone..."
"You know that now?" Susan said bitterly, blinking back tears as she gave the baby a gentle pat on the back because was making a sort of strangled sound like he wanted to burp.
"I should have known it before I just-" He started pathetically.
"Yes, you should have but you didn't." said Susan, her glare hardening on him as the baby let out his burp and started wailing until his mother's comforting rocking soothed him into a calmer state of mind. "I thought you loved me, Caspian."
"I did-I mean, I do." He told her, unsure of what else to say.
"If that were true, you wouldn't have let them tie me to that stake." Susan reminded him in a stinging tone. "You would have spoken for me, you would have been my voice when I had none."
"I was weak, Susan," said Caspian, stretching out his arm slightly as if he wanted to touch her but didn't think she would let him-he was probably right in thinking this. "but I do love you, I never meant to-"
"To what, Caspian?" Susan demanded with a pained expression on her face. "To let your people burn me for crimes I didn't commit? Crimes you knew I wasn't capable of doing?"
"I know it's stupid, but I saw you and your brother in the garden that night and I didn't know who he was and I saw him holding you and I thought-" He turned red in the face and began to stammer nervously when he said this.
"Dear Aslan, give me strength." Susan muttered sharply under her breath, unable to believe what she was hearing.
"And then after that...I don't know...I didn't even know who...I was stupid and weak...please forgive me."
Before she could refuse or forgive and before Peter could come uninvited to his sister's defense, there was a great clamor that came from the middle of the army camp and everyone rushed forward-those who where in tents left them-to see what was going on.
Jadis, the white witch, the former stepmother of the royal children, was being carried into the camp by several vile creatures at her command on a great golden litter without a canopy.
Susan's blood ran cold when she caught sight of the witch for the first time in so long; close to her person she held a bow and a quiver of arrows, she wasn't sure if they would come in handy or not, but she felt she really must have some means of protection from this horrible creature.
Standing up from the splendid litter which had been lowered to the ground, walking towards Aslan as she cast her cold glance at all of the good creatures and people she walked passed, Jadis announced her reason for arriving. "You have a traitor in your midst, Aslan."
Standing tall and proud and wonderfully golden all over, Aslan's deep voice answered the shrill witch's. "His offence was not against you."
"He is mine, Aslan." She said, smiling a slow, scary smile. "His sister spoke before the two and a half years were over and the shirt was not even fully completed for him-she may have the other two, the royal wench has won them fairly at the hands of the enchantment but-" Jadis turned and pointed straight at Edmund with her middle and index fingers. "-that boy is mine, he is mine and he shall die. He is my property."
In one swift move, arrow properly on the bow and the string pulled back, Susan stepped in front of her younger brother, pointing her weapon at the witch. "Try and take him, then."
AN: PLEASE REVIEW! (Thank you)