Threads

Chapter 12

Eirene had sunk to the floor, leaning against the door, and tried to use the dagger to pick at her shackles.

She tried a few times, but it was of no use; the tip wasn't small enough. She sighed in desperation. It was then that she heard something outside the door again.

It sounded like it was being unbolted.

"Reep? Reepicheep?" she kept asking over and over. There was no answer.

The unlocking of the bolt stopped, and she heard footsteps instead. Eirene stood up and slowly walked away from the door frame.

The sound of bodies being dragged replaced the silence, and Eirene braced for what was to come. Still in chains and with a meager dagger as her only weapon of defense—she was the definition of an easy target. The only real advantage she had was the element of surprise.

So she stood on in front of the door, ready to lunge at it. She exhaled loudly and dived at the door.

It pushed open without any trouble, leaving Eirene stumbling across the hall, almost colliding with the wall across her. She breathed in as she looked across the hall. The guards that had been stationed at the door were now on the ground, although she wasn't entire sure whether they were unconscious or dead.

Her eyes diverted to both ends of the hall; both empty and dark. There was no sign of mice, nor of the person who had dragged the bodies away.

She brushed her confusion off and quickly stashed the dagger within her boot. Adrenaline took hold of her body. She dashed at the fallen soldiers to retrieve a useful sword. She looked at it, making sure it was the right weight and length for her.

She then began to move the bodies slowly, trying to look for the keys to her cuffs. She found a ring full of keys dangling from a soldier's belt, and tried the one that looked exactly like the key to her chambers. She scuffed when it actually worked in releasing her from the shackles.

Eirene massaged her wrists before returning to an upright position, and one of the soldiers began to stir. Relieved that they weren't dead after all, she bolted with the sword in her hand and sprinted across the opposite direction.

Except for the bodies on the ground, there didn't seem to be another soul in the corridor.

Edmund tried to climb the steps as silently as possible. The sound of clashing swords and shouting men merged with the military alarm, way down in the courtyard. The stairs ended and ahead of him emerged a long hallway.

He tried to make sense of the darkness ahead of him. It wasn't lit by any torches, but he was able to make out the shape of men lying on the floor ahead of him.

He realized that he was too late as he approached the pile of bodies, noticing that the adjacent door was open. He looked inside, but it was desolate. The chimney was lit, but no one was there.

He entered, wanting to make sure it actually was empty.

The room looked turned upside down, dresses and other clothes sprawled on the floor, and books all across. Her drawers were on the ground and the chest was open, too. His instincts told him this demonstrated a stressful situation, but there was no time to figure out whether it was a sign of struggle or something else.

But the air smelled of roses, the scent he had stuck on his nose since he'd met her. Eirene had just been there. He cursed under his breath. Bad timing.

Before leaving, his eyes caught sight of a book that lay open at its midst. He couldn't make out the words from that distance, but he could make out the illustration; the four Pevensie siblings, their infant selves, in front of their thrones.

He parted his eyes from the book when he saw the silhouette of the griffin's wings up in the sky in a sidelong glance. He sighed in relief; at least the griffin's appearance hadn't taken that long.

Edmund exited the chambers quickly, Eirene's scent still on his nose.

It'd be easier to find her up in the sky; hoping the rain would allow him visibility.

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Eirene began to descend the steps of the spiral staircase of the tower, she could hear the clashing of swords. She leaned on the wall on the final step, spying on what the outside looked like.

She saw Telmarine soldiers, and other soldiers with a purple colored vest. Archenland colors. She saw no other shadows that weren't human.

Before she could look more, an arrow shot past her, landing on the column just behind her. Startled, she bent over and another arrow was shot. The feathers on the arrow were characteristically red. The woman wielding the bow seemed awfully familiar, but before Eirene's mind could patch everything together, an Archenlandian soldier entered the stairway arch.

Eirene stood and met his sword with hers. Eirene kept on attacking, and as the Archenlandian soldier covered himself, he staggered backward, leading her to the courtyard, drenching her in rain.

She disarmed her opponent and kicked the sword away as she saw him crawl backwards. Eirene used the time to look at the courtyard, seeing the archer woman. She had dark hair, and pale skin. She couldn't make much detail, but she seemed too familiar, too similar to a particular dark haired king she'd met before.

It was another second before another soldier made his way towards her, and Eirene could make out the archer's scream:

"PETER!"

She saw a man sprint, blonde and tall. He had a golden lion on his chest.

They are real—

Her mind wanted to race with all the possibilities and the meaning of what she was witnessing, but she couldn't get distracted; not while she had to fight for her life.

They are real, the kings and queens of old—she couldn't stop the thought as she lunged at another soldier— and Edmund…where is Edmund—

She heard Queen Susan shout once again.

"PETER, WHERE IS HE?!"

"I DON'T KNOW! WE NEED TO RETREAT! NOW!" It was the blond man's voice. High King Peter.

"WE NEED TO FIND CASPIAN FIRST!"

When Eirene heard Caspian's name, everything faded away.

The solider she was fighting noticed her grow limp, completely unfocused form the battle ahead of her. The soldier used the distraction to disarm her. Eirene staggered back out of instinct, making her fall on her back.

Her sword was a feet away from her, she realized, but she was numb.

Caspian was somewhere in the castle. The Kings and Queens were all there—

The soldier pointed his sword at Eirene's chin. Eirene raised her palms, but made no other move to defend herself.

Caspian was alive. All these years thinking she'd been left all alone—he was here. The horn had worked—

Eirene couldn't help but to laugh. She hadn't been imagining anything, not all hope was lost—

Rain droplets fell into her open mouth, but she really didn't care about anything else.

Caspian was alive. Caspian was alive.

The soldier flung his sword backwards, ready to hit Eirene's neck.

Edmund panned the sky, over and over again.

His eyes were permanently squinted because of the rain, feeling the droplets like cold nails hitting his face. He tried to look at the attacking soldiers, trying to discern a female figure amongst them.

Judging from his view, the attack looked rushed. The Telmarine soldiers seemed to be young, and the ones in purple vests seemed to lack conviction. His best guess was that the attacking soldiers were Archenlandians; they all seemed to be simple infantry soldiers, not equipped with anything but a sword. In general, they all seemed to be undertrained. Whomever planned the attack had misjudged the setting greatly.

Edmund noticed that most of the bodies in the courtyard were Archenlandians. Perhaps the original number of soldiers invading may have been enough, but they underestimated the military capacity of the Telmarines. Edmund's military training told him that the situation was soon to become impossible to deal with; the attacking troops needed to retreat.

The rain lost intensity, allowing him more visibility just when Telmarine reinforcements were being sent in. Dread filled up within him briefly; where was Eirene? Perhaps trying to locate her from up in the air hadn't been the best idea.

Was she somewhere in the chaos, or hiding within the castle? She was more than a fair fighter, but hiding within the castle was the smartest thing to do. Sneaking away while the turmoil happened in plain sight. Edmund swallowed. He couldn't bring the wolves back. He couldn't bring any Narnian that couldn't fly away here, back to this small scaled bloodbath.

Just as he was about to turn backward, his neck jerked to his side. A female figure dressed in white caught his eye. His heart leapt, he commanded the griffin to fly lower.

As he descended he was able to make her features better. It was Eirene. Finally, he breathed. His eyes weren't pulled away from her, and he saw everything occurring in slow motion.

The swords clashing, Eirene gritting her teeth and eventually her sword flying away as she staggered backwards. Her opponent approaching her, his sword at her throat. A brief moment where he flung his sword backwards, gathering strength for the final blow.

Animal instinct overpowered him, but his rational mind told him that he would be too late to gut the man with his own sword. In a second, he gestured to the griffin to plunge downwards. A tight grimace appeared on his face, when he saw the soldier fly away across the courtyard after the griffin had tightened his claws around him.

Afterwards, the griffin landed. Soldiers came at them immediately; the griffin pecked some of them, and others Edmund dealt with.

As he fought them directly, Edmund realized that his suspicions were correct. The Archenlandian soldiers were undertrained, and most of them he could disarm with only two strikes. The Telmarines fought harder; one of them was the one who disarmed Eirene. If her own people were fighting her, then it meant her uncle wanted her head.

Edmund pushed off the last soldier that dared to fight him, and turned around to see Eirene, rushing with anxiousness.

He only had to extend his hand, and— except that when he turned around, she had already gone.

He descended from the griffin, kicking Telmarine soldiers on the way. Cursing at the wind and now wielding two swords, he set to the task of finding her once more.