"Who would dare to do such a thing?" Was the first sentence the young king heard and woke to. It took him a moment or two to collect his memory and remember what happened, but he kept his eyes glued shut. Just in case somebody in the room didn't want him to hear their conversation. "And that happened so long ago as well, it is long forgotten to our people!" Came a smaller, more youthful voice- and yet in this time the voice sounded very angry. The said anger did not sound fitting for the sweet voice. "There's no use in pondering about this aloud unless you have some sort of idea. Besides," it was at this time Edmund began recognizing the voices, the one speaking belonging to Peter, "our priorities should be set to Ed until he is right enough to speak on the matter himself." It got quite silent after that, so King Edmund decided it would be wise to open his eyes.
Upon doing so, he realized he was lying on his bed, a large bandage rapped around his wound. The arrow lay in a towel on the night table beside his bed, and he noticed the arrowhead to be missing.
"Pete?" Edmund called, seeing Peter first. Right away of course, everyone in the room turned to him and he was able to match the voices to a face. Susan, Lucy, Peter, and then General Oreius and Mr. Tumnus, who had not spoken. Both Tumnus and Oreius bowed their heads to the king, Susan and Lucy rushing over to lightly sit on his bedside. Peter stayed standing, holding tight to something Edmund could not quite make out.
"What happened, exactly?" He found himself asking the five others present- to which they all exchanged glances before turning back to Edmund. Their General Oreius was the first to speak. "Someone present in the Throne Room had somehow gotten a bow in..," Oreius looked rather guilty at this, "and planted this arrow in your side, My Liege." Edmund furrowed his brows together; "how? And who did this?" He began sitting up with his words, but winced slightly as he felt the injury tear against itself. Before Susan or Lucy could frantically push him back down, he was fully sitting and facing them all, wanting and needing answers. The Just King really at this point wanted to know where Lucy's cordial was at, but thought it would be selfish of him to ask when he could easily heal from an arrow wound. This time, Peter spoke up. "We don't know how or who, Ed. But what we do know, is someone may still be holding a grudge. Either that or still faithful to-" before he could continue, Susan hissed; "Peter. No, not now."
Edmund only cut her off, "No, Su. I have the right to know everything you do." And he then gestured Peter to continue. The eldest king sighed and did just that. "We believe that it's possible this culprit is still faithful to the Witch." He stopped to let that sink in, but Edmund didn't look phased.
"And if they aren't, what makes you say they hold a grudge?" He questioned Peter, or honestly anyone who would answer. Again, all five exchanged glances before Peter revealed the mystery object in his hand, giving the odd shape to his brother. With a puzzled look, Edmund assessed the object to be a folded piece of parchment.
"This was attached to the arrow, My King." Tumnus said as Edmund found himself opening the parchment. Written in thick ink read the words; 'Traitors must pay'.
Silence fell on the group as Edmund read the three words over and over again. He was utterly speechless. The King wanted to completely forget about what had happened five years ago, but just as he succeeded, this was sent to what- punish his mind once more? Outrageous, frightening, upsetting, and more were all things that could be used to describe how Edmund felt about these three words. When nobody spoke, Lucy felt she should add on, "I'm greatly sorry, Eddie, but I cannot seek out my Cordial.. it's quite odd, but I believe I have misplaced it." She said slowly, seeming ashamed. Edmund shook his head sadly to Lucy, hoping she understood that he wouldn't be angry with her. And yet still, he was speechless. He was forgiven, his mistakes forgotten. Who thought it wise to torment him now? Five long years since said mistakes? All King Edmund knew was he was suddenly feeling overwhelmed by having so many surrounding him at once.
The only thing he could bring himself to say was "I need some air.", as he stood and exited his room. Edmund was expecting more pain from his injuries, and yet he found them more bearable to deal with than the eyes of five different beings on him. Five years it had been. Five. Edmund wasn't some little ten year old, hurt and feeling abandoned by his family. No, he was a king. King of Narnia. Loyal to Aslan. So why now?
After some time, the Just King made it to the end of the hall, now having to decide where he would go from there. Before he could choose, Edmund felt a tap on his arm. Turning towards the source, Edmund found Susan. "Edmund, I know this is stressful, but you can't let it get to your head. We have a kingdom to run, plus a castle to keep in order. Right now we need you to give any information or ideas you may have at who would do this. Otherwise there's no way we can help. Alright?" To this, Edmund could only nod in his admittance of utter defeat. He wasn't sure what else he could do, so as Susan began guiding him through a door and a staircase, Edmund only followed along. Queen Susan was already walking noticeably slower than normal, for her king brother's benefit of course, but Edmund felt as though time was incredibly slow going.
The Just King could feel the pain of his arrow wound getting stronger, as the adrenaline in his veins weakened. Ignoring it, he kept along. The faster he made it to wherever the two siblings were headed, the sooner Edmund could get the chance to sit down. Just as he felt the walk seemed to last forever, King Edmund lifted his head at the sound of his sister lightly knocking on a door. Not a moment later, it opened to reveal a flustered Tumnus.
"Dear ones, she's at the desk pouring over what must be ten books and written parchment." Mr. Tumnus gestured to the younger queen Lucy, who was indeed deeply invested in books and official pages.
Edmund couldn't help but wonder how long he truly had been walking and away from his siblings, if Lucy had already managed to do this. Why could he no longer remember? Susan grabbed hold of Edmund's sleeve, walking with him over to their sister after exchanging words with Tumnus. "Lu?," Susan asked as they approached her, "what are you looking for, Lucy?". The Valiant Queen was clearly exasperated from what seemed was her not being able to find what she wanted. However, she still looked up briefly to respond to her sister. "I'm searching through the records of Beasts from after The Battle. In an attempt, of course, to see which ones we let go free in the trials. I believe that maybe someone we let return to the kingdom as a Narnian citizen could be the culprit." After simply putting this, Lucy turned her head back to her research.
This sparked an idea in Edmund's mind, which he then decided to share considering Lucy seemed bothered by getting no results. With a small bit of adrenaline returning, "Wait, Lucy. That's a good thought. We should follow up on that, but there's an easier way." He took a moment to examine the files his sister read, "there still are the Fell Beasts trials. Those who did not prove to be innocent or loyal to Aslan," Lucy seemed interested, and gestured for him to continue, "therefore, including those are also the cases of Beasts who were not innocent, but were allowed through on warning. You won't find those cases in the parchment you read now, but I can help you get the right files." At this time, Lucy looked very relieved and happy with her brother for helping. Edmund of course was happy to help, and within no time the siblings found the right parchment. Although, as they were sifting through, the king couldn't help but feel the skin around his injury tearing against the bandage. It felt as though it seemed to be festering, growing worse. But the Just King ignored it once more.
Time passed quickly, although Edmund was very glad for the project they invested themselves into. It acted as a time waster, and ended up keeping his mind rather occupied away from his wound. "Here," said Lucy once they found the correct files. Susan seemed rather annoyed at the amount of Fell Beasts they allowed into their kingdom after the trials, but Edmund and Lucy were far too invested to notice. Going through each file carefully, they eventually got to the end, to get no results. Here is where they came to the conclusion that they would have to conduct separate trials with the Fell Beasts in Royal Court once more.
King Edmund chose to begin the second Trials the next day- without telling his siblings the true reason was he was growing more and more exhausted.
Author's note: Hello, dears! I am greatly sorry if this chapter was more on the slow side, I had major writer's block these past couple months! Not to worry though, I believe the writer's block hath passed :)-If you have any suggestions on the story, please comment- if you would like to be a part of making this story come to life, pm me your ideas I would love to hear them- and thank you very much for reading Xx
You know the drill, review, comment, vote, and read my disclaimer in previous chapters Xx