Rose

I wipe the palms of my hands against the thin fabric of my shirt, trying to get rid of the sweat. The damp fabric does nothing to help. I give up.

I walk from the center of the training circle to my water and small leather bag. Talla follows close behind. I drink a swig of water before passing the flask to her.

"You're getting faster," she says.

I smile. "You're a good partner."

"You're training extra back at the camp, though, aren't you? I can tell."

I nod. "I like the feel of the sword in my hand, now that I know how to use it. Makes me feel strong. Powerful." I take a fighting stance, my fist grasped around the handle of an imaginary weapon.

She laughs. "You'll be a formidable opponent in battle."

"Rose!" Lewis' voice calls from under the shade of his nearby tree. I glance over and see him wave.

I gesture to him. "Looks like my brother wants something. You can come say hi."

She nods, a graceful movement.

We walk over to Lewis' spot. He has a book in his lap, as usual, with his bandaged leg sticking out and a water flask on the grass beside him.

I grin. "Did you see our fight? I'm getting pretty good, right?"

Lewis nods but doesn't smile back. "You're training a lot."

Talla waves. "Hello, Lewis. Enjoying the fresh air?"

"I guess." He barely glances at Talla before looking back at me. His body is stiff. What's wrong with him?

"Um, Talla." I turn to her. "I'll see you tomorrow at practice, okay?"

She nods. "Of course. I'll be ready!" She shoves my arm with a pretend punch. I shove her back. She's laughing as she trots away, her hooves clopping steadily against the ground.

I turn back to my brother. "What was that about?"

He's watching Talla leave. "Are you sure you can trust her?"

I'm silent for a second, not sure how to reply. "What do you mean? She's a Narnian. An ally. Of course I trust her."

"You've only known her for a week."

"So?"

"It's just..." He looks up at me. "I know you don't like to admit it, but we're different from the others here. Kind of... important?" He grimaces as he says it. "You know what I mean. We've got to be careful, okay? You shouldn't get too close to the others. You don't know what they want."

"What they want?" I clench my fists, nails digging into my palms. "All Talla wants is to be my friend. In case you haven't noticed, we don't have a lot of those."

He doesn't say anything, just stares at me. I can feel anger building in my chest.

Eventually, he mumbles, "I didn't think we needed more friends."

"More friends? What do you mean 'more?' We don't have any!"

"I've got you. And my books." He shrugs.

"Listen, I know we've been through a lot together. But haven't you ever wanted more? Haven't you ever wanted to be... to be normal?" My throat feels tight. "Our whole lives, all we've done is move around and hide. Hide from the doctors and the shops and the schools. Mum and Uncle Peter — they lied to us, all the time, kept us from our dad and the rest of their family and the whole entire world." My eyes burn hot. Don't cry. "Talla is the first friend I've ever had. I'm twelve years old and have never had a real friend."

"You had me," he mumbles again.

I hold my hands out wide, my voice rising. "Yes, I had you. But what else? A bunch of books and two grown-ups and a stuffy ancient professor in a cottage in the middle of nowhere! What were we even supposed to do with our lives? What was Mum's plan? Just hide us away forever, with nobody but each other?" I take a deep breath and let my arms fall, lowering my voice back to normal. "You're my brother, and I love you. But we had a really messed-up childhood. I wish you could see that."

"They were just trying to protect us."

I snort. "Protect us from what?" I shake my head. "They didn't want to deal with telling the truth or facing questions. They just wanted to hide forever." I stand up straighter and cross my arms. "I won't hide anymore."

Lewis glances away from me, back to the training circle. "Careful. You're drawing attention."

"Who cares? They're just soldiers, right? Not as important as the magical humans from Earth." I put my hands on my hips. "If you're so determined to be different, think about this: we had a magical royal destiny in this other world all along, with our father, and Mum and Uncle Peter were never planning to tell us about it."

"You don't know that."

"They had years to tell us the truth, any of it, and they didn't. They hid us, and they lied, and they ran away from the world. We never went to school, never made any friends, never got to just be normal kids even for a minute. It's too late for us to be kids again, to ever be normal, but I am a normal soldier now, and I'll train and make friends and talk to whoever I want to, and nobody is going to tell me I can't anymore. Not you, not Mum. Not anyone."

I stomp away, back to my water flask for a gulp, then to the training center. I already sparred with Talla, but I can take another turn with someone else if I let Raoul know I'm ready. We've had a lot of new soldiers join on both sides, travelling from nearby villages and towns to enlist. They all need partners to fight, too.

I take a deep breath and blow it out to steady my voice before approaching the trainer.