Sorry, sorry, sorry – I'm a horrible updater! Here's a double update that will hopefully go some way to making-up for it!
Chapter Twenty-Six;
A flurry of activity sprang up around them immediately at the order. The slave traders sprang upon them essentially, with less than gentle hands and malevolently gleeful expressions.
Despite surrendering however, their pride would let none of them willingly be clapped in chains so easily. They struggled against their captors' holds, futile though it may have been, protests ringing clear in the air.
"Get your hands off me! – Let go!"
Edmund snapped around at his younger sister's cries, his eyes smouldering darkly in anger. Lucy struggled as valiantly as her namesake, against the two men that grappled with her. But in the end, she was no match for their strength. The irons were slapped upon her slim wrists where she stood.
"Lucy!" Edmund shouted as he struggled hopelessly against his captors, to try and help his sister. "Let her go!"
But the slave traders were deaf to all threats or demands.
"Bring those two," the slaver leader indicated Eustace and Lucy with the dagger, "To be sold at market," he said, as he dragged a whimpering Eustace along by the ear. He shoved Eustace off roughly to be held by one of the other slavers.
"And those – "
"Pug – wait!" a muffled voice cried, interrupting the slave traders' leader – Pug's words.
Pug looked with an expectant frown at the hulking form of one of his injured men clumsily regaining their feet.
"Make it quick Ban," Pug grumbled impatiently.
Edmund swallowed, his jaw clenched tightly as he saw the man, Ban stand and sway slightly. Two hard fierce eyes glared at Edmund over the hand that was still clapped firmly to his gushing nose.
"Before you even think of sending that one anywhere, just wait a moment Pug," Ban spoke vehemently. His voice was muffled behind his hand, yet the venom in it was unmistakable. The sheer hate smouldering in Ban's eyes was almost palpable.
Edmund refused even to cower slightly as he met the fierce glare the burly man was directing at him as he advanced.
"That one ruined my face!" Ban spat angrily. Edmund maintained his look of stony indifference as Ban advanced with calculated steps. Edmund could feel Rose's gaze on him, intent and worried as Ban lowered his hand to reveal the crooked slope of his still bleeding nose.
"Look - she broke my nose!" Ban shouted.
Edmund's expression of deathly composure fell quite spectacularly, as he realised that Ban was talking about Rose. Ban's hateful glare switched to Rose, and an instinctive stab of worry assaulted Edmund.
Rose narrowed her eyes into two withering emerald points, chin tilted firmly and haughtily in the air as she looked straight at the looming Ban.
"I don't know what you're complaining about. I'd say it's an improvement," Rose shot with burning sarcasm.
The hate in Ban's eyes intensified, flaring at the provocation. Edmund silently willed Rose to remain silent. He could sense that same thread of worried caution in Lucy and Caspian's poses as well. Even Eustace paused his sniffling to glance up.
"Well maybe I'll repay the favour," Ban threatened darkly. The fingers of his other hand curled tightly into a bloodied, iron fist.
Edmund's eyes flickered to Pug thinking the leader would stop the incensed Ban. Afterall, Edmund knew enough about the crude workings of slavery to know that 'damaged goods' were bad for business. However Pug just rolled his eyes in irritated exasperation. It seemed he was used to Ban's heavy-handed tactics and volatile temper. And more importantly, he saw no reason to interfere.
Frantic pulse hammering in his ears, Edmund watched with growing dread as Rose's eyes flashed green fire, riled by Ban's words. She stepped forward defiantly, straining against her captor's hold.
Rose – don't! Edmund's thoughts pleaded silently, but to no avail.
"I'd like to see you damn well try!" Rose yelled back in growing fury, her eyes wrathfully lancing an equally enraged Ban. Edmund inhaled a far from calming breath. His muscles tensed again, as he saw the anger flood Ban's face.
The slave traders all around were glancing eagerly with malicious smirks at the scene unfolding.
Edmund's mind whirred, thoughts firing through his brain like ricocheting sparks. He had to think rationally…reason, reason – it would be the only way to get out of the situation when they had no weapons to defend themselves…reason…think of something!
A snarl of fury sounded from Ban then as the man charged towards Rose, where another was restraining her. Edmund exchanged fleeting panicked glances with his sister and Caspian.
Then Edmund moved.
Reason be damned. He had no option, really.
Rose's fearless bravery had passed beyond the realm of his admiration to her own plain idiocy. She was currently being restrained while trying to defiantly face up to a man that towered above her, was three times the breadth of her and had a grudge to settle. Edmund would berate her later about that – but first of he had to make sure they actually survived until 'later.'
Edmund barely considered before he acted; faced with Rose's senselessness, his own reason fled completely.
Edmund drove his elbow into the gut of the man who was restraining him, who immediately sucked in a pained gasp as he released his hold. Edmund moved swiftly, reaching Rose just as Ban did.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Ban roared.
"Edmund - NO!" Rose cried simultaneously, as she lunged forward only for the man holding her to bodily haul her back.
Edmund had barely a split second. He raised his bound hands in a poor imitation of a defence or attack of some sort. Then he gritted his teeth just as Ban's fist hurtled through the air.
Edmund winced as the pain flared immediately, his teeth knocking jarringly against one another. Vaguely Edmund registered the sharp cries that he immediately knew were Rose and Lucy's. He slowly raised his head, his dark eyes already narrowed in a burning glare.
Ban's bloodied face, with its smugly satisfied grin, floated before Edmund's vision. Ban might not have been able to reach Rose, but the slave trader had seen the distress it caused in the green-eyed girl to witness Edmund being struck, and he considered it was perhaps crueller to punish Edmund.
Edmund stubbornly swallowed back the metallic tang of blood on his tongue and willed the nauseating spinning of his vision to stop. He refused to let the leering face before him have the satisfaction of seeing him even falter.
He was readily restrained once more. His captor, none too pleased by his sudden chivalrous bid for freedom, handled Edmund even more roughly.
"Edmund…?" The timorous whisper of Rose's voice finally broke Edmund's glare from Ban. Edmund's gaze flickered to Rose briefly as he was being towed away.
Rose had paled in a mixture of anger and absolute horror. The lines around her mouth were tight and her eyes with wide with shining worry. Edmund thought he had never seen Rose look so frightened, not even when she had almost drowned first arriving in Narnia.
"You're going to pay for that," Edmund threatened darkly, directing his words to the leader Pug.
"Actually, someone else is going to pay…for all of you."
An unfamiliar voice sounded clearly then. Their gazes all snapped around to watch as a new figure entered into their little scene. The gold chains looped around his neck over his rich clothing, clinked softly as he walked sedately, and his dark eyes swept over them piercingly, before alighting expectantly on Pug.
"We were just sorting out the prisoners," Pug answered the silent prompt quickly. It was clear that the new man with his draping gold chains was their superior.
The slave traders hurriedly began tugging Lucy and Eustace away. Edmund's heart hammered loudly as he clenched his bound hands into white-knuckled fists with frustration.
"Edmund! Edmund!"
Lucy's cries echoed hauntingly in Edmund's ears as his younger sister was wrenched out of sight with his cousin, his own cries sounding as uselessly in this hall that reverberated every tortured plead. Caspian's eyes were suitably murderous as Lucy's lingering shouts tapered off.
Rose's expression was one of pained anguish as she watched Lucy, the girl who had just saved her life, being hauled away with a still wildly frightened Eustace. And the tortured look on Edmund's face, as he could do nothing to stop it, tore at Rose's heart.
"If you harm my sister – " Edmund began to force the dangerous words out when Pug cut across him.
"You'll do what?" he sneered venomously, a cruel light to his eyes.
He knew Edmund was powerless.
"Listen to me, you insolent fools! I am your King!" Caspian yelled, straining forward, his voice echoing loudly.
But Caspian's fierce words were unheeded as his captors shook him harshly to quieten him. Caspian's holders looked very much like they wanted to silence the Narnian King using Ban's methods, but they didn't dare in front of this new man.
The man had watched the proceedings around him with not a trace of sympathy. It was evident he had become so coldly adept at his profession, to not be affected by the desperate cries as loved ones were wrenched apart.
"We'll bring those two to the dungeons," Pug said gesturing towards Caspian and Edmund, flashing Edmund one last gleeful smirk. "But first – what about this one?" Pug gestured over his shoulder to Rose.
Her captor shoved Rose to the forefront, and the nurse's eyes sharpened in anger.
Rose snapped her head around to shout at her holder. "Keep your damn hands to yourself!" she spat violently.
Pug's hand twitched as though he were going to strike her, and Edmund felt his breath hitch in dreaded anticipation. His captors were holding him so tightly, their fingers digging into his arms and shoulders, that he couldn't move an inch this time. But it never came. Pug didn't hit Rose. Instead the slave trader visibly pushed back his anger as he turned to the man.
"Smart mouths don't sell well at market," Pug said ominously. Edmund felt his blood turn cold, like shards of ice were freezing his veins.
If Rose wasn't going to be put in the dungeons, and she wasn't going to be sold at market, then where exactly were they going to put her?
The slightest trickle of fear leaked onto Rose's expression then, as a very similar thought occurred to her. Her gaze flitted desperately towards Edmund for a split second.
Ban loitered eagerly at the side-lines, hoping vindictively to finally be able to exact his revenge, and Edmund almost held his breath. Slavers were despicable people who viewed human beings as nothing more than chattel. Disposable. If Rose wouldn't fetch a profit for them, then…what would they do with her?
Edmund already had watched his sister be dragged away beyond his protection, with his younger cousin. But at least in that situation he knew Lucy was experienced, a skilled fighter. She would be able to protect Eustace and figure out an escape somehow. It was impossible to think that Aslan would let Lucy, the steadfast of them all in her faith, be harmed.
Rose, in comparison, was defenceless. How could she defend herself all alone?
Edmund saw Caspian's grim look and he guessed the elder King was thinking similar thoughts.
The man paused to inspect Rose, grasping her chin firmly between his thumb and forefinger as he scrutinised her face.
"Get your hands off her!" Edmund snarled, casting a fierce glare towards the man. He didn't like the way the man's gaze flitted over Rose; cold and assessing. As though she were nothing.
The man's hand slipped from Rose's face as he spoke directly to Pug, ignoring Edmund. "The eyes are interesting but the hair is dark. The two fair-haired ones you already sent, will sell better. Lock her away with the other two."
Edmund felt relief threaten to overwhelm him for a moment. Strange to feel relieved considering the dismal circumstances, he thought fleetingly. But then he saw Rose's expression, saw the wild flare of brief elation as she met his gaze meaningfully.
She was relieved, too.
Not knowing where Lucy was or what she might be enduring was already shredding Edmund apart from the inside out. He was even worried for Eustace; the cousin he once claimed he would do anything to get rid of!
But the thought that he would have possibly had to endure that same crippling, gnawing worry about Rose as well – was simply, unbearable.
…
They had been fettered hastily together with a length of fraying rope; Rose leading, Caspian last, Edmund between. The slaver that was 'escorting' them to their cell, taunted them the entire way.
"Your two fair-haired friends will soon be off to Calormen for a pretty price – the girl at least anyway," he sneered.
However, the looks he received from his prisoners were so dark, so burning with loathing, that the slaver swallowed nervously and raised his sword menacingly to reassure himself.
"And you three – they'll sell you at the second market later no doubt," he continued callously.
Edmund walked stiffly, eyes narrowed, feeling anger blistering his mouth as he swallowed back the words he would dearly love to fire back at the slaver. That the crew of the Dawn Treader – Reepicheep, Drinian, Rynelf; they would all have rescued them by then. Lucy and Eustace would never have the chance to be sold off to Calormen slave traders, and neither he, Caspian nor Rose would ever be auctioned off like dumb beasts.
He followed silently, memorising each step through this dank labyrinth of grim cells, most empty. He knew Caspian would be doing the same thing, remembering the way out – for when they escaped.
For that was the one visceral thought Edmund was focused on. Escape.
Edmund had been imprisoned in dungeons before; caged behind bars of ice and bound by shackles of frozen steel. Her prison. He had been a boy then; frightened and ashamed. After a few half-hearted tugs at the chain that manacled him to his cell he had given up. Pulled his knees up to his chin and wept bitterly, regretting what he had done and believing that he probably deserved this.
But – now, was different. Now he was as good as a man, with skill and determination. People to protect and loved ones to rescue.
He was reminded of his fierce motivation as his gaze fell on the figure before him. Rose glanced over her shoulder, frowning vaguely. She looked paler than usual, sickly almost, in the gloomy grey light that infiltrated the dungeons.
Edmund softened his look of fierce concentration. She was afraid – he could tell. She wouldn't admit it of course, he knew. But she was.
They stopped finally at what was to be their cell. The slaver stepped forth with a jangling ring of rusted keys.
Edmund edged forward slightly, until his breath stirred the wispy strands of ebony hair that rested against the pale of Rose's throat.
"Don't be afraid of him," he murmured, injecting as much reassurance into the words as he could.
Rose jolted slightly, visibly swallowing.
The slaver cursed loudly as he dropped his ring of keys. He bent and swiped them from the floor before they could get any ideas though. And he fired them all a suspicious glare that involved him scrunching up his face ridiculously.
Rose glanced back at Edmund furtively, as the slaver finally slotted the right key into the lock.
"I'm not," she whispered, the barest hint of a smirk teasing one corner of her lips.
"Right – get in there or I'll use this!" the slaver brandished his sword warningly.
"Then how will you sell us at second market?" Caspian quipped as he passed the man into the cell after Rose and Edmund, when their shackles were removed.
The man blinked, scrunching his face in that ridiculous way again as he seriously contemplated Caspian's question.
Caspian smirked grimly, looking to Rose and Edmund as he jerked his head towards the man who was still invested in his earnest consideration.
The slaver scowled darkly when he realised suddenly, by their bemused expressions, that the question was rhetorical.
He slammed the cell door shut with a clanging bang of horrible finality. The key turning in the lock was like the rattle of dead bones.
"Well it doesn't matter anyway!" he sneered. "Because if you don't sell at market – we have something…special for those left behind." He grinned with an unnerving intensity at them and Rose steeled her jaw.
The three of them glared back at the slaver on the other side of the bars, refusing to appear even slightly intimidated by his ominous words. The man appeared a little miffed that his threat hadn't had the chilling effect he planned for.
"The second market is for labour slaves – I can't imagine anyone wanting a scrawny thing like you for labour. You're not strong enough!" He sneered through the bars at a fast reddening Rose.
"Well come into this damn cell now and I'll show you how strong I am!" Rose snarled, her already curled fist readying to lash out through the bars at the man.
Edmund caught her wrist before she could. Sometimes it was wiser to show restraint, even in the face of such deliberate provocation.
Especially when the other person had a sword, and you didn't.
The slaver laughed contemptuously as he took a long step back – incidentally out of range of Rose, Edmund noted with an inward smirk.
He spared them all one last scornful look before he turned to leave.
"I bet even the mist would spit you back out," he directed over his shoulder in parting to Rose.
Rose's cheeks glowed even more hotly. She mightn't have understood the insult, but she was sure it was a damn insult he had said to her! Any flicker of fear was swiftly eradicated from her expression, replaced by fierce indignation.
"And what's that supposed to mean?! Get back here!" Rose cried after him lividly.
"Rose, calling him back to yell at him isn't going to help," Edmund said sagely, releasing the incensed nurse's wrist he still had clasped.
"He'll get more than my words if he comes back here," Rose seethed as she wrapped her hands around the iron bars.
Caspian blew out a long breath, a smirk ghosting across his lips. "I think Ed can only manage to take one punch a day for you, though," he teased lightly.
Colour flooded Edmund's cheeks then. He was about to warn Caspian discreetly, that ribbing an already riled Rose was a very real health risk when he chanced a glimpse at said nurse.
He expected Rose to be glaring scathingly at Caspian, or perhaps even him. But she wasn't.
Her head was bent low so he couldn't see her face, and her white-knuckled grip on the bars had slackened. But as if feeling the weight of his gaze on her, Rose's head snapped up.
Edmund felt suitably shocked at Rose's expression.
It welled deeply in her eyes, settled heavily on her furrowed brow and rested readily on the worried purse of her lips.
Guilt.
Edmund realised that Rose felt guilty about the punch he had endured for her.
Rose spoke before Edmund could even think to form words about that.
"I'll check your head," Rose muttered as her gaze flitted about him, avoiding his eyes.
"There's no need…" Edmund began placating. He wanted to brush it away as no huge deal. He didn't want Rose feeling guilty over it. He had acted on instinct. Pure and simple. And he'd do it again – without a second thought.
"Please Edmund?" Rose murmured, shifting uncomfortably and Edmund barely stopped himself from gaping as a heat crept round the back of his neck.
An arguing Rose he could deal with, even when her arguments were irrational and she was accusing him of being a wizard and boring holes into him with withering looks. But…this. Her cheeks were glowing red as she sucked in her bottom lip guiltily, eyes round with silent imploring. Coupled with her recent soft words it had the entire effect of making Edmund feel unexpectedly…strange. It also made the prospect of refusing Rose whatever it was she was asking a lot more difficult.
He could still feel the tender spot where Ban had struck him, when his facial muscles moved. He imagined he would have quite the blooming bruise to show for it as well by the end of the day.
"It's really nothing," Edmund tried again before his words were silenced by Rose's withering glare. And there's the Rose I know so well back again, Edmund thought.
"This seems very familiar," she conjectured, looking to Edmund meaningfully, with narrowed eyes and folded arms. "Nurse Kingsley, I'm afraid however is back in Cambridge – so you're stuck. With me."
Caspian made a strange noise then that sounded very much like someone trying not to laugh. Edmund glanced at him with a deadpan expression.
"I think it would be wise to let Rose check your head – to be on the safe side," Caspian said innocently.
Edmund narrowed his eyes marginally, but Rose was already smirking triumphantly.
She glanced about her, frowning lightly with a resigned sigh as she spotted a slab-like rock a metre or so away.
"Well come on – sit down," Rose chirped briskly, gesturing to the sloped rock as she strode across the cell. Edmund would have to sit down for her to check his latest hit, given that Rose stood a good few inches smaller than him.
Edmund resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He turned his withering look on a grinning Caspian instead. "Thank-you for your concern" he muttered insincerely, while Caspian remained unfazed and grinning.
"Do you think you could do something useful now – like try and find a way for us to escape?" Edmund added with a teasing smirk, before he turned to go to Rose.
Edmund knew what Caspian was doing and he was grateful. Immensely so.
Being captured and imprisoned by slavers was a distinctly fearful experience, for even the most seasoned of soldiers. For Rose, the situation was therefore triply frightening.
Both Edmund and Caspian had been able to see it as Rose had turned away from the cell bars, more rattled by the slave trader's cryptic threats than she let on.
It was important to keep morale up – especially from the beginning.
Edmund didn't want to see Rose frightened. Not after all she endured the past while with her fears of the water. She had done everything to get to the Lone Islands, needing the relief of dry land, only to find more terror waited for her.
Edmund sat himself down on the low slab of hard rock. Their cell was a grim place, damp and dark with one barred window high in the wall letting in the only light to their prison.
Caspian started to vainly kick at the door to their cell, the resonating bangs sounding loudly.
Rose arched a brow imperiously, as she paused and turned to Caspian. "What on earth are you doing?" she called over the noise.
Caspian stopped, looking to Rose.
"Trying to ascertain a means of escaping," he called back grandly.
Rose's other brow drifted to her hairline. "How? – By drawing every guard to our cell with all the racket you're making?" she intoned loftily.
Edmund sent Caspian a wry grin from behind Rose's back.
"Have you a better idea then?" Caspian proposed lightly, looking to Rose expectantly.
Rose's superior expression faltered as her cheeks burned brightly. She pursed her lips, turning back to Edmund who quickly wiped the grin from his face before Rose could see it, looking up at her innocently.
"When you break something, don't expect me to fix it," Rose muttered at Caspian over her shoulder, as she approached Edmund.
"Hopefully the only thing I will be breaking is the door," he replied with a grin.
"Your foot seems more likely," she fired back, pausing Caspian mid-kick.
Caspian grinned almost appreciatively before he continued to kick at their cell door. A fond smirk was threatening on Rose's lips even as she stood directly in front of Edmund.
Edmund had barely taken a quick breath when his head was yanked back as Rose tilted his chin up.
"Rose," Edmund muttered, frowning, fighting the need to tipple backwards.
Rose lessened her grip slightly, her eyes narrowed in clinical assessment before she plunked herself down stubbornly on Edmund's right side to get a closer look.
She gingerly prodded his bruising cheekbone – slightly too hard, and Edmund fought the need to wince. He had no idea why she was doing this. It didn't seem very medical and rather more to do with her own curiosity.
Edmund sucked in a hiss through his teeth as Rose's fingers alighted on a rather tender spot…again.
Rose blushed slightly, but her face remained determined. Edmund glanced at her, hoping Rose's jabbing examination would be over soon.
He noticed, rather unexpectedly instead, the look of almost adorable, intense concentration Rose wore on her face when she was carrying out her nursing duties. And Edmund couldn't quite find it in himself to want Rose to stop just then.
Rose eyed the slightly swollen swell of Edmund's cheekbone. Frowning guiltily she could already envision the colourful bruise that would bloom across the tender skin there like a corrupt blush. She had lightly grazed her fingertips over the reddening welt, to discern any irregularities that she might have missed.
Deep down she knew it was nothing more serious that a bruise – but it didn't hurt to be sure!
Rose summoned up her best look of concentration, willing away the blazing blush in her cheeks. It just felt so undeniably…intimate to be brushing her fingertips across Edmund's cheek. To be so close that she could count the light freckles dusting his nose and have the sea breeze scent that clung to him invading her senses. She also saw something she had come to recognise as an unconscious habit in Edmund; whenever he was tensed, a slight crinkle would appear between his brows.
Rose hummed in a distracted sort of way as her fingers seemed to take on a mind of their own for a moment, moving of their own accord. Rose gently brushed the dark hair falling across Edmund's eyes aside a little. It wasn't strictly necessary, but Rose just thought distractedly, how it must be annoying Edmund to have it falling in front of his eyes like that.
Edmund tensed slightly, unsure what to do. He was sure, however, that Rose couldn't possibly be checking his injury anymore, but that wasn't his main concern. That prickling heat was creeping up Edmund's neck again as he cleared his throat and his eyes darted about quickly, looking for a distraction other than the feathery feel of Rose's fingertips brushing aside his hair.
If he wasn't careful, he would soon find himself suffering a serious injury just to satisfy Rose with something to actually do.
"Rose what are you doing?" Edmund said suddenly.
Rose ripped her hand away so suddenly Edmund couldn't be convinced it had actually happened. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks red and Edmund was sure he had heard her actually…squeak.
"Checking that you still have brains left," Rose barked at him in a flustered voice in the next moment though as she smoothed her hands self-consciously over her knees. "There's going to be a very nasty bruise there," Rose told Edmund matter-of-factly as she stood abruptly.
Rose tried her best to quash down any more rising tides of embarrassment. She was sure if her face reddened anymore, she would begin to glow like a hot furnace.
Rose looked stonily at Edmund, grappling for superior ground. "Maybe that will teach you a lesson," she warned him sternly.
Edmund frowned lightly. "I don't deliberately go out to get injured," he protested incredulously.
Rose eyed him coolly. "I never said you did," she refuted.
Edmund arched a brow. "Then what 'lesson' were you implying?"
"Stop getting hit in the head. Try for something a little less vital next time," Rose said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yes Ed, it's basic fighting knowledge – avoid getting hit in the torso and head," Caspian called over to them suddenly, with a rather too cheerful smile, as he stopped kicking.
Edmund rolled his eyes slightly in Caspian's direction, just as the elder King sighed in resignation and stepped away from the door.
"I don't think we're going to escape that way," Caspian murmured, eyeing the steel wrought cell door ruefully.
"I could've told you that," Rose called superiorly.
"Always so pessimistic," Caspian murmured, his gaze flickering impishly for a moment to Rose.
Rose shot him a deadpan look in return. "I prefer realistic," she countered dryly.
Caspian smirked slightly. "How's our patient?"
Edmund resisted the urge to roll his eyes again.
"He'll live," Rose replied, a gentle fond smile threatening her lips as she looked to Edmund, "With nothing more serious than a bruise."
"Ah, the price of chivalry," Caspian said with a grin.
Rose snorted derisively. "The price of idiocy," she corrected sternly, as she directed a sudden frosty look towards Edmund.
"What were you thinking?!" Rose demanded incredulously as she looked down at Edmund. "Ban could've killed you!"
Edmund scoffed disbelieving, "I was about to ask you the same thing," he replied.
Caspian meanwhile positioned himself silently by the door, a knowing grin playing on his lips.
Rose's spine straightened subconsciously. "I can handle myself," she answered stiffly.
Edmund let out an incredulous breath. "Rose you do understand the concept of a fair fight, don't you?" Edmund asked a little sardonically.
Rose rolled her eyes, looking at Edmund aloofly. "Do you think those slave traders were going to be worrying about what was a fair fight or not?"
Edmund frowned. "Why did you stay and hit Ban in the first place after I told you to go down to the boats?!"
"You were about to be cut in two and you actually expected me to stand back and do nothing?!" Rose snapped incredulous, her green eyes round and trembling, the barest trace of hurt audible in her voice.
Edmund felt guilty for a moment as he swallowed. "I am grateful," he finally said, a little sheepishly. He looked up to see Rose was glaring stonily at him. Edmund winced internally. "You saved my life," he added sincerely.
Rose's cheeks pinked as her glare softened. "Well, someone had to," she mumbled and Edmund tried not to smirk as he averted his gaze down.
Rose shifted where she stood before him. "I can get a little…carried away sometimes in the heat of things," she muttered uncomfortably, chancing a glance at Edmund, eyes apologetic.
"Does it hurt very much?" Rose asked unexpectedly, softly.
Edmund looked up at her, could see her chewing on her bottom lip and the tightness in her expression.
"This wasn't your fault," Edmund murmured.
"I could almost punch you for doing what you did," Rose muttered in reply, her voice a little choked. She was trying to scowl at him but failing miserably.
"That would rather defeat the purpose, don't you think?" he quipped with a wry grin in peace offering.
Rose smiled in exasperated fondness, heaving a large sigh of surrender.
Edmund chuckled wryly then and Rose arched a brow in silent question.
"I'm always injured around you," Edmund explained and to his surprise Rose gave a rueful smirk in reply.
"Are you blaming me Mr Pevensie?" Rose teased lightly.
Edmund's grin widened. "No not blaming – thankful I think, that there is always a nurse on hand," he replied tactfully.
Rose made a sardonic sound, her lips twitching into a reciprocating grin.
"Edmund," Rose breathed softly and when Edmund looked up Rose's eyes were round as her teeth tugged at her bottom lip in a nervous gesture.
Edmund raised his brows expectantly in silent question and Rose sucked in a deep breath. Colour seeped into her cheeks as she frowned determinately.
"I-I'm sorry…about earlier," Rose said quietly, her gaze trained on her entwining hands. "I understand now why you said that I had to stay on the ship. You warned me it was dangerous, I didn't listen…I'm sorry – you…you were right."
"What?" Edmund said immediately.
Rose's gaze snapped up, her blush scarlet, her eyes narrowed. "There's no way you're getting me to repeat that."
Edmund shook his head, even as a chuckle escaped him.
A shy half-smile grew helplessly on Rose's lips as she looked at Edmund. "I am sorry," she enforced quietly, the sincerity in her eyes evident.
Edmund looked as though he were considering it. "Will you listen to me in future?" he wheedled.
Rose's eyes narrowed marginally as she inhaled deeply before releasing a measured breath. "Fine," she agreed. "I will listen to you in future – "
"Not just listen, but actually hear what I'm telling you," Edmund interrupted.
"There's no difference," Rose snapped out of habit.
Edmund arched a brow calmly and collected and the lines on Rose's brow smoothed.
It was frustratingly difficult to remain stern with Edmund when he looked at her like that.
"When I warn you something is dangerous, I want you to actually hear me, instead of just listening and then dismissing it," Edmund explained patiently.
Rose's eyes narrowed a fraction further. "I am never going to just do what someone tells me to do, Edmund," Rose told him frankly.
Edmund chuckled lightly. "No," he agreed. "I think that would be impossible."
Rose's features softened when Edmund smiled, and she laughed slightly before she fixed him with as genuine a look as Edmund had ever seen her wear.
Rose took a rallying breath, and Edmund looked to her expectantly.
"I promise in future I will…hear you," Rose said clearly, and Edmund smiled brilliantly in response.
A mirrored smile – she couldn't stop even if she wanted to – claimed Rose's lips. For a moment, she felt as light as air with not a single dark thought or heavy burden to weigh her down. An utterly ridiculous thing to feel given the circumstances, Rose thought.
However, although she would never admit it, the sole cause was Edmund's brilliant smile.
"I'm very – relieved to hear that," Edmund teased lightly, grin still firmly etched on his face.
Rose snorted as she dropped her head, a burning blush on her cheeks. But Edmund could still see the upwards curve of her lips as she ran an embarrassed hand across her brow.