Edmund gets injured
The next morning, Peter woke up and found Edmund wide awake, lying stiffly on his back. The only thing that had changed from the way Peter had left him last night was that at some point the younger boy had propped his head on his right arm. "Were you able to fall back of sleep at all?" Peter asked even though he already knew the answer.
The younger boy flinched violently before turning onto his side and offered his older brother a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Yeah," Edmund answered lying through his teeth.
"Mmmhmm, sure," Peter answered to let his brother know he knew the truth without actually pushing him to admit anything.
A few hours later, and the group was on the move. Peter and Orius were leading the group back to Cair Parvel, Susan and Lucy were behind him talking with the beavers and Mr. Tumnus. Edmund followed a few feet behind that smaller group. Surrounding the kings and queens of Narnia were scouts of the Narnian army ensuring that they were all safe, but went almost completely unnoticed. For hours the group climbed over rocks, under braches, through mud, and across a river. Now, with the sun high and beating down hot upon them, they were carefully shuffling across a short mountain ledge. Edmund was just about to suggest the group take a break for lunch once they reached the end of the narrow shelf when tragedy struck quickly. From his spot at the back of the group, Edmund watched as the rocks beneath his sister's feet shifted. Her ankle slipped off the edge off the cliff. Her momentum pulled her hand from Susan's. Lucy screamed in terror as suddenly there was no earth beneath her feet. And suddenly she was falling. As soon as Lucy's ankle slipped off the edge Edmund knew what was going to happen. By the time his sister was in the air, he'd lunged forward. Just as suddenly as Lucy was falling, she was no longer falling. Edmund had his hands tightly around her wrists as Susan screamed, "Lucy!" Peter whipped around to see his little sister dangling in the air and his little brother half daggling over the edge, the sole thing keeping their baby sister from plummeting to her death.
"Pete, stay where you are. I can't very well save two people and if you try to come help either you, Susan, the beavers, or Mr. Tumnus will end up plummeting to your death. Lucy, stop squirming! If you don't calm down and hold still you are going to wiggle right through my grip!" Edmund commanded sounding much more confident than he felt at that moment. "Alright Lucy, I'm going to let go of your right hand for just a moment. I'm still going to have a great grip on your left hand. What I want you to do is reach up as far as you can, try to reach the top of my shoulder. I'm going to get my elbow under your shoulder. Then I'm going to do the same thing on your left. Do you understand?"
Sniffing the young girl nodded and did as her brother instructed. Once he had his hands clasped around the back of his sister's dress and could feel her tiny hands clawing at the back of his neck, Edmund scooted backward a bit and started pulling her up. Soon Lucy was seated next to her panting brother wiping the tears from her face. Edmund rubbed her back.
"Lucy, are you okay?" Peter and Susan cried in unison.
Lucy sniffled, but couldn't form a response.
"Lucy," Edmund said and waited until she looked at him. "Where are you hurting?"
"M-my shoulders kind of hurt," the girl admitted.
Edmund quickly checked his sister's shoulders. He pushed her shoulder blades and collarbone and was happy to find that it did not hurt his sister worse and he didn't feel anything move. He then had his sister raise her arms, she was able to do so without any increased pain. "Okay, Lucy, I think you're shoulders are just sore because of the impact. I wouldn't expect anything less. What else hurts?" Edmund asked gently.
"M-my knees sting," the girl said clearly having calmed down significantly,
Edmund adjusted his sister's skirts and found that both her knees were skinned and bruised, but there was no significant damage. "You skinned your knees up pretty good," Edmund told her as he wet his handkerchief with his flask of water and dabbed away the rubble. He then ripped the handkerchief in half and tied them around her knees. "That should help until we can get off this shelf and take care of it properly. Does anything else hurt?"
"No, thank you for saving me, Ed," Lucy said wrapping her arms around her brother's neck.
"Alright, why don't we try standing," Edmund said as he awkwardly got to his feet and then extended a hand to help his sister to her feet. When they were both standing, Edmund asked, "Does anything hurt now that we're standing?"
"No, I'm okay," Lucy said.
"Good, that's awesome. Pete, why don't we get off this shelf, and then we should probably take a break for some lunch, cool water, and a nap?" Edmund suggested tensely.
The group slowly continued on and Edmund kept a hand on Lucy's elbow until they finally reached a forest outcropping where they weren't looking down at sharp rocks hundreds of feet below. Edmund volunteered to fill all the flasks with water, Orieus and Peter went with some other members of the Narnian army to make sure the area was safe, and Susan and Lucy prepared sandwiches for the group. Once they all got back, they stretched out on the shaded grass and ate. Once they finished the meal, Peter hopped up.
"We should really keep going. We're so close to Cair Parvel and I'm sure we'd all love to sleep in warm beds this evening," Peter stated firmly.
The group moved on, but as the rest of the group pressed on with renewed energy, Edmund trudged slowly behind. The gap between Edmund and the rest of the group widened exponentially over the next three hours until finally, a scout team at the back of the group almost ran into the young prince.
"King Edmund, are you quite alright?" a minotaur asked gruffly.
"Yes, yes, I'm quite alright," Edmund answered. "Just exhausted."
"Cyrus, go get High King Peter," the minotaur instructed his comrade. A leopard took off before Edmund could even argue.
"I'm fine, Aloysius, honestly, there's no need to get Peter involved," Edmund said with a sigh.
"King Edmund, why don't you sit down. Your brother will be here soon. If you refuse to tell me what's wrong, maybe he'll be able to get it out of you," the minotaur said obviously not believing the boy was truly fine.
"Please, just call me Edmund or Ed. King Edmund sounds way too formal," the boy requested as he sank onto a tree root.
"If you insist, Edmund. Will you please tell me what's wrong?" the minotaur asked.
"Nothing's wrong, honestly," Edmund insisted.
"Edmund, I can see the pain in your eyes. You're struggling to catch your breath and no offense, but you weren't moving that fast. If you tell me what's wrong, I might be able to help you. If you insist on lying to me, maybe your brother will be able to get some information out of you, but I can't in good conscience let you suffer," Aloysius stated bluntly.