[4 years later]
The soft glow of the morning light seeped into the bedchambers of the royals. Aleisa's eyes fluttered open as the light reached her face, arousing her from her peaceful sleep. With a small yawn she reached up and rubbed her eyes tiredly before looking over at her sleeping husband. She softly smiled as she took in his features and peaceful expression. Peter had grown up quite nicely in her opinion, not that she was bias or anything. His face had thinned out and was now covered with a light amount of facial hair. Some women didn't like that but she actually preferred it. Aleisa saw it as something that gave him a more manly appearance. Knowing that he wouldn't wake up as easily as she did, from experience over the past few years of marriage, Aleisa had to force him awake. She knew most of the ways to effectively awaken him, but some mornings were harder than others. Aleisa placed a hand on his bare chest and began making imaginary designs on the chiseled surface.
"Peter" she coed close to his ear. He only shifted slightly and tightened his hold on her waist. Aleisa smirked.
"Peter, hon it's time to wake up." She continued while pressing gentle kisses across his cheek, down his jaw and up to his nose. Peter slowly began to come back to consciousness and smiled lazily, but kept his eyes closed.
"You missed." He groggily murmured. Aleisa looked at him in confusion.
"And how is that?" she asked. Peter peeked an eye open and smiled smugly at her. She immediately got the hint and grinned back. She leaned over and kissed his lips this time. Peter brought up one of his hands and caressed the side of her face as he continued on with the kiss. After a moment Aleisa pulled away.
"I could get used to waking up like that." Peter told her, grinning madly. Aleisa giggled at his cheekiness and started to sit up in bed. Peter whined but she swiftly avoided his attempt to pull her back.
"We don't have time for that right now. There are important things to get done today, remember." She scolded him with a smile on her face. Peter groaned childishly while Aleisa went behind a screen to change into her dress for the day.
"Why can't Edmund, Susan, and Lucy do it? I'm sure they don't need us." He protested. Aleisa walked out from behind the screen and shook her head at him. He watched her as she walked over to his side of the bed.
"All of us have to be there. Now come on." She ordered and grabbed his hand to pull him up out of bed. Peter reluctantly stood up but grabbed her again once he was on his feet. Aleisa squealed in surprise while Peter beamed down triumphantly at her. He started to lean down to capture another kiss from her but Aleisa giggled again and moved her head out of the way, prying herself out of his embrace.
"Now is not the time, love. Go get dressed please." She scolded and pushed him in the direction of their closet.
"Yes, your majesty." He remarked and sent a smirk in her direction as he walked. Aleisa sighed and shook her head at him. Oh that man…
"Are you sure it is coming from inside Cair Paravel?" Peter asked with a heavy sigh. He was hunched over a large map of Narnia marked with the places were Telmaraine armies had invaded or ambushed, but they haven't succeed yet. For the past few months Telmaraine soldiers had been invading weak points of the country and even ambushing nobles and the royals as they traveled. None of the attempts had been successful, due to the power and loyalty of the Narnian soldiers but the fact that it was happening was still unsettling. Someone had to have been leaking out sensitive information to the enemy. Right now just the Kings, Queens, and their most trusted advisors were in the counsel room. To make sure no one was listening in the posted a couple loyal guards at the entrances of the room.
"That is the only possible answer, my Liege." Orious responded reluctantly. Aleisa looked up at him before glancing back over at Peter, who was standing to her right. Peter tiredly ran a hand down his face.
"Well who would want to betray Narnia like this?" Edmund piped up from Peter's other side.
"And who would have access or knowledge about our movements and developments across Narnia." Susan added. Logically the traitor had to be someone who fit those two requirements.
"If I may your Majesties…." Mr. Beaver piped up. Everyone in the room looked over at him.
"Rion, the new army advisor has become quite suspicious lately. Leaving during strange times of the day, multiple letters coming in addressed to him, and even the looks he throws behind your backs is quite troubling." Beaver listed off. The royals all looked to each other in thought. He definitely fit the bill. Rion would know about those types of things. Some he was put in charge of and others he would have probably heard during a conversation. At first he had been checked out, and had proved himself a loyal citizen of Narnia, but now they weren't so sure. Something had changed.
"Ok, so what should we do? We can't just accuse him of treason without any evidence?" Lucy asked the others in the room, looking specifically to Peter. Peter looked over at Aleisa in silent conversation. He trusted her judgement and would always look to her first for advice. After a moment of silence, while they communicated with their eyes. Peter spoke up.
"Put him under observation. Beaver, you and Mr. Tumnus keep an eye on him if you wouldn't mind." He suggested. The two nodded their heads in agreement.
"But we also need to do something right away. If it is him then we can risk him becoming suspicious. Or if it's not him then we may risk another attack." Aleisa piped up. Peter glanced over at her and nodded his head in agreement.
"So have someone search his quarters?" Edmund suggested. Aleisa smiled and nodded at him.
"I'll do it. And I can take Orious with me to make sure there are no surprises." He continued. Peter reluctantly nodded and looked to Orious.
"We'll do that at the end of the week. Just to be thorough. We can distract him with a false meeting while you do." Aleisa told them. All those in the room nodded in agreement and left.
After the week was over, there was no doubt that Rion was the traitor. Beaver and Tumnus had read some of his letters, containing Narnian secrets. Also Edmund had discovered Telmarane money hidden in the floorboards. However, they weren't expecting a small raid on Cair Paravel itself. Everyone was inside the castle attending to some important business, while Peter decided to go out to the training grounds to blow off some steam. The fact that one of his advisors would sell out his country for mere money sickened him. He had spent a good half hour sword training with Orious and had grown tired. That was until he heard a muted thump behind him. He immediately perked up and paused his swing. Carefully looking around he tried to find whatever had made that noise. The two watched in anticipation as they waited for anything to happen. Suddenly an arrow flew out of the bushes by the wall and embedded itself into Peter's right side. The High King stumbled to his knees in pain. Just as soon as he did a small grouping of Telmaranes raced out and attacked the two of them. Peter painfully stood up and defended himself against the attackers, who were no match for the two Narnian soldiers. Soon enough all the attackers were dead, but Peter collapsed from loss of blood. Orious swiftly picked the man up and galloped towards the healers inside the castle.
"What happened?!" Aleisa frantically asked as she burst into the healing room. One of the nurses had alerted her and the other royals to what had happened, but Aleisa hadn't stayed long enough to listen to the full story. Her priority was making sure her husband was fine. Peter had regained consciousness and was resting on the table as a doctor wrapped his bleeding wound.
"A small band of Telmaranes attacked us while we were out in the training fields. Someone had let them in." Orious told her from where he stood by the wall. There was no way they got in by themselves. Aleisa rushed over and knelt down next to Peter, taking his hand in hers. She scanned him over and made sure that he wasn't hiding any other injuries, as he tended to do.
"Dear I'm fine. Really it's not that bad…." Peter assured but trailed off as he winced painfully while the wound was being bandaged. Aleisa raised a disapproving eyebrow at him. Rion had gone too far.
"You stay here and rest. I'll take care of Rion." She told him with a growl and stood up.
"Aleisa, don't do anything too brash or stupid!" he called out. Even if Rion was a traitor, as royalty they still had to maintain a certain kind of conduct and Aleisa tended to throw all of that out the window when her family was threatened. Plus he didn't want her to go alone and put herself in harm's way. Aleisa paused in the doorway and gave him an innocent look.
"Now why would I do something like that?" she questioned and walked away. Peter ran his hand down his face. Rion was about to have a rude awakening.
The double doors flew open as a furious High Queen Aleisa marched into the room, with Edmund and guards in tow. The army advisors whipped around in surprise, while Rion visibly paled.
"Rion you are hereby charged with treason and conspiracy to murder High King Peter." She told him with an icy glare as the guards moved forward to arrest him. Edmund watched with an amused expression from behind her. In situations like this Peter always tried to calm her down and act properly, however Edmund was all for her fury being unleashed on the poor soul. This snake that had caused so much trouble deserved everything he knew he was going to get.
"By what evidence?" he cried out, trying to hide his fear. It wasn't often that Aleisa got genuinely mad, but when it happened no one wanted to be on the receiving end of her wrath.
"The evidence of the Narnian secrets you tried to send out, the Telmarane money, and the fact that you were in charge of the guards near the walls today. They informed us that you moved them to another location, leaving the wall near the training grounds unguarded." Edmund piped up. Aleisa continued to glare at the man who dared to harm her loved ones and betray her beloved country. Rion swallowed, knowing he was done.
"But my lady….surely…."
"SILENCE!" Aleisa practically roared at him. She was done with his games.
"You are to be executed tomorrow evening." She told him, regaining her composure. Rion glared daggers at her back as she and Edmund turned to walk away.
"I'm only sorry that they didn't succeed in killing your rat of a husband." He called out in anger. Aleisa stopped and swallowed hard, trying to reign in her anger. That did it. With lightning speed she whipped back around and gracefully walked back over towards the man. Edmund knew what was about to happen and had no intention of stopping it. Rion watched the queen warily as she got closer and stood calmly in front of him. Suddenly her fist flew out and punched him right in the nose, resulting in a loud crack as it broke. Rion yelled out in pain and grabbed his nose. With this Aleisa nodded to the guards who then dragged him away. All the advisors looked at her with surprised expressions, bar the ones that had been there a while, they just smirked in approval. Aleisa took in a deep breath and nodded politely to them.
"Gentlemen." She then walked out of the doors and Edmund closed them behind her. The two of them walked down the hallway a little ways before they ended up by a hidden balcony. Aleisa swallowed thickly before shouting out in pain and shaking her hand. Everyone tends to forget that punching people hurts both participants. Edmund chuckled as she looked at him with a glare.
"It hurts like the devil." She whined and shook her hand in pain again. Edmund gently walked towards her and looked at her hand.
"The sod deserved it though." He told her with a smirk. Aleisa chuckled. Edmund looked down at her bruising knuckles and sighed.
"Come on, let's get this looked at." Edmund suggested and gently escorted her to the healer's room.
Peter looked up as he heard the door open. He wore a curious expression when he saw Edmund and his wife walk in, but it changed to worry as he saw Aleisa cradling her hand.
"What happened?" he asked them, slowly sitting up. Aleisa shot him a sheepish grin while Edmund laughed.
"Well, Aleisa here didn't like what Rion had to say so she broke his nose." Edmund told him. Peter's eyes widened as he glanced to his wife that was now being tended to. Peter turned back to Edmund.
"Why didn't you stop her?!" he asked his brother. He knew Edmund was aware of Aleisa's temper. Edmund just shrugged and wore a smirk.
"I wanted to see her do it." He told Peter with a 'duh' tone. Peter rolled his eyes and looked back at his wife. She sent him an innocent smile, and he couldn't help but chuckle.
"What an example we are." He muttered sarcastically, referring to all three of their actions. They all chuckled and Aleisa walked over to sit next to Peter on the table.
"I love you." She told him, hoping to gain forgiveness. Peter shook his head fondly.
"I love you too. Even when you do stupid things." He told her with a grin. They all laughed again. Just another day in the life of the crazy royals. But they wouldn't have it any other way.