A/N: I'm alive! (falls over having run all the way home from school) sorry for the wait. I posted chapter 15 in a hurry because I wouldn't have time the next morning. I can't believe it's only been ten or eleven days since I published this! It feels like forever…but I've enjoyed every second!
To Capegio: You are one devoted reviewer! Thanks a lot for pointing out my 'prose' and 'verse' mistake (kicks self) I'll go fix it now…
HOLY MOLY! You guys liked the last two chapters a lot…a big thanks to all my devoted reviewers! Your encouragement (and the occasional viewing of the ten minute Narnia trailer) has helped me to write this fic. I hope you all continue to read, and I apologize for my OC's terrible behaviour at the end of the last chapter. I feed them on reviews, you see.
Cifel: 00 must…have…reviews…
Um…yeah…
This chapter is more easygoing than the others. I felt we needed a little light relief between the angst. Seriously, it is necessary…things are going to turn a little nasty for a while…poor Cifel and Edmund…oopsie, shouldn't have said that…
Chapter fifteen
The next morning, after a night of fitful but thankfully dreamless sleep, both boys faced the newday with renewed strength. They had seen no sign of the pack of wolves which had been sent to find them, and assumed their hunters had veered too far Southeast and were searching for them in the woods. They thanked their blessings, and consulted the map in relation to what they could see of the mountains in the distance.
"See here…"
Peter muttered, gesturing with his forefinger at a small ridge between the two largest mountains.
"It looks like a valley of some kind. It may be a bit risky to go down, we'll have no way out if we're surrounded…but it's the easiest way, and we won't have to go over any of the mountains."
Edmund nodded, and looked up to see the two peaks of the mountains Peter spoke of, hazy but prominent among the others in the distance. Peter shielded his eyes from the sun's glare and frowned.
"From what I can see…it's not on the map, but I think I'm right…there's a sort of semi-circular band of trees outlining where the mountains begin and coming round, beyond the mountain range we're nearest to. If we travel through the valley, we should come out at the southern end right beside the beginning of the trees…"
He stopped suddenly, and squinted down at the map as Edmund leaned over his shoulder to see. Peter opened his mouth to continue, before staring at Edmund for a moment and jumping hastily backwards as though he had seen a ghost.
"What?"
Edmund asked, exasperated. Peter moved back to stand beside him and looked him up and down. Edmund looked down at himself, at a loss as to what Peter was staring about.
"What?"
He asked again, annoyed and frustrated now. Peter placed a hand level with the top of Edmund's head and drew it back in a horizontal line until it came to rest at the bottom of Peter's chin. His eyes widened.
"Edmund, you're…you're taller! I swear you only reached the top of my shoulder yesterday! God, you must have grown two inches overnight…"
Edmund blinked, surprised, and realized that he didn't have to tilt his head at such a severe angle in order to meet his brother's gaze. He stepped back, and a grin began to grow on his face as he admired his new height.
"What the hell was in that thing you drank, anyway, Ed?"
Edmund shrugged uncomfortably, eager to change the subject.
"I see you're not coughing anymore, either. Do you feel better?"
Peter blinked, then nodded, a hand unconsciously going to his throat. He cleared it and then spoke again.
"Yes, much better. Who was that boy who was with you, anyway?"
Edmund blinked. He…truly didn't know how to put it into words. Cifel had said he was a subordinate to the Queen, but that was a lie. Was what he had said about being the 'Guardian of the Realm' or whatever a lie, too? There was no way of telling, he supposed. Edmund turned to Peter and shrugged.
"Not sure. He never actually told me."
He felt a little guilty lying to Peter, but it wasn't as if it mattered, anyway. And Peter didn't need to know everything of what went on at the witch's castle, anyway. Edmund shuddered as he thought of it. In fact, some things were better left unspoken. Edmund wasn't sure Peter was ready to know, and he himself was certainly not ready to tell.
An arm wrapped around his shoulders.
"Edmund? You alright?"
Edmund nodded, internally wincing as that look of concern returned to Peter's eyes. This was not what he had wanted. He had resolved to learn to protect his brother and sisters, not cause them any more pain at his hand. It was the last thing he wanted. Even when the witch had offered him the world for them, Edmund had still felt that terrible gnawing guilt in his stomach even as he betrayed them. He never wanted to cause them pain again.
He glanced briefly at a scar which he remembered well on Peter's temple before answering with a wry, but fake, grin which turned out more like a grimace.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."
'I gave him that scar.'
He brushed Peter's hand off him, but Peter did not move his gaze away, still looking at him with that concerned look which made Edmund rile with anger and hatred, more at himself than at his brother.
"Stop looking at me like that!"
Peter drew back as though Edmund had physically struck him, as hurt and perhaps even a little despair entered his gaze. Edmund wished he knew what his brother was thinking. Was he blaming himself, just like Edmund was, for everything that had happened?
"Sorry."
He muttered, moving to stand beside his brother once again and taking the map from his hands, trying to ignore the confusion Peter obviously still felt.
"You were going to show me something?"
Peer took a deep breath, reluctant to let the matter drop, but turned his attention too back to the map.
"Oh, yes. See here? That's where the battle took place."
There was an uncomfortable silence as they both stared at the map, thinking, and neither sharing their thoughts for fear of hurting the other.
Edmund cleared his throat.
"Well, no use standing about. We'd better get going."
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Lucy brought her arm back once again, eyes narrowing and focusing only on the small yellow dot in the very centre of the archery board. Her arms ached. Surely the red section was close enough?
But it could make the difference between giving her enemy a shoulder wound, and spearing them in the heart, never to recover.
With this thought, she tensed, then lashed out, allowing the blade to fly skillfully from the end of her fingers. There was a resounding thud, and Lucy eagerly shielded her eyes from the sun to see if the dagger had reached its goal.
The very edge of the yellow section.
That was good, she consented. Very good. Susan couldn't even get it onto the board…but on the other hand, Lucy couldn't use a bow to save her life. Yes, it was good.
But not good enough.
She moved to run to retrieve the blade, only to find herself held back by a hand on her arm. She turned, slightly frustrated. She was close now, very close, to being ready.
"Lu? Do come back."
"No! I'm nearly there."
Susan looked to the archery board, at the dagger so close to being dead centre. She sighed, tossing her head as her hair flew into her face.
"Lucy, you've been out here for hours. It's almost sunset. Please, come back to the camp. They're serving supper soon."
Lucy wrenched her arm out of her sister grasp, glaring up at her, eyes narrowed. She wasn't a child anymore. She decided what she did, and when.
"How can you think of food at a time like this!"
Susan sighed again, exasperated.
"Time like what?"
Lucy gave Susan an incredulous look, which despite her height, stirred something in Susan's stomach. A terrible weight. She swallowed thickly, took her sisters arm once more and began steering them both back down the hill.
"What are you doing! I have to get it right, I'm nearly there! And then I'll-"
"What possible good will it do, Lucy?"
Susan cut across her, her voice rising and her hand tightening around her little sisters arm.
"For when Peter and Edmund-"
"THEY COULD WELL BE DEAD! When have we ever been given a reason to trust the witch! What if they're dead, and lying in some ditch somewhere, while we sit back here and do nothing! What if she attacks, what then? We'll all die…"
Lucy, aghast, reached up on tiptoe and soundly smacked her sister around the face with all the strength she could muster. She watched in desperation as her Susan clutched her reddening cheek, her face hidden by her hair.
And then she began to shake.
Lucy stared for a moment, then put her arms around her sister's middle, and they both sank to the ground, clutching each other, Lucy trembling too, from exhaustion, and from the effort it took not to cry.
"Yes, Susan, we will all die. But there's still a chance! There's still hope…I feel that, somehow, we would know if they were dead."
Susan looked down in surprise at her sister. It seemed even as Narnia had changed Susan for the worse, it had changed Lucy for the better. She smiled weakly. Well, at least the whole journey hadn't been for nothing.
"Yes, Lu. Of course, you're right."
She wiped her eyes furiously, frowning and feeling embarrassed at her moment of weakness. Then she chuckled wearily, taking Lucy's hand and leading her over to the board, and stopping to admire the protruding blade which was now sunk almost to the hilt into the centre.
"Come on, I'll get my bow. There's still a few minutes left before sundown."
And Lucy smiled.
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"Hey, Ed?"
An hour had passed, and they had reached the small forest which obscured the decline which indicated the beginning of the valley, between the two mountains. And Peter was absolutely positive he had passed that tree before…at least twice. He watched as his younger brother turned from his perusal of the surrounding landscape, and smiled sheepishly.
"Uh…yes?"
Peter gave him a stern, yet somewhat amused look.
"Are we lost?"
Edmund almost fell over in surprise and indignance, and clutched the map which he had been using to lead them to his chest in subconscious defense of his bruised pride.
"We're not lost! I just temporarily misplaced my bearings, that's all."
Peter sighed and rolled his eyes, while Edmund shifted his weight uncomfortably.
"That's not the only thing that's misplaced..."
Edmund whirled about, eyes narrowing but his eyes twinkling with barely hidden mirth.
"What are you implying?"
"How about your brain, oh high and mighty grown taller but no smarter little brother of mine?"
"Why you…!"
And they were off. Edmund tackled Peter to the ground, and Peter yelped, before recovering and swinging his knees around to knock Edmund's legs from under him, sending him sprawling to the forest floor. This continued for some minutes, with both gaining the upper hand only to be taken down again by and underhand trick the other spontaneously executed.
Soon they both grew tired, and lay side by side on the now sun warmed forest floor, exhausted but elated. It had been years since they had engaged in a 'play fight', as their mother used to call them, and most entailed happy memories, but sometimes they could turn quite nasty. Edmund could recall one time when he had gotten so angry he had hit Peter round the head with a candlestick. He hadn't realized it had clawed feet, his anger had clouded his judgment so.
He still had the scar. He glanced at it again, clear as day on his brother's temple, and shivered.
But he hadn't meant to hurt him, it was an accident!
He said that then, too. But his betrayal of them, all of them, had been no accident. He had nobody to blame but himself, and nobody was punishing him more for it.
Edmund felt his heart sink. Was everything good always doomed to have something bad to contrast? He turned his head to look at Peter, who was looking contentedly up at the sky. Yes, it was still there. The tiniest of faint white lines, no thicker than thread, but it stood out to Edmund more than any bruise could. Running from just above Peter's ear to where his chin began.
Edmund swallowed thickly, and schooled his face into a look of contentment which mirrored his brother's. Peter sat up, picked the map off the ground where it had fallen during the tussle, and consulted it.
"We should probably head South. The witch's castle was to the North of the camp, so it'll probably be our best chance."
"And run into Maugrim and his flunkies? No way. I say we take the long way round and go…" Edmund glanced about, frowning, before his eyes lit up and he took a step in one apparently random direction "…this way!"
Peter sighed, and grabbed his brother's shoulder, halting his planned mad dash down the bank leading to the bottom of the valley.
"Edmund, when you will you ever-"
Edmund rolled his eyes and completed the unfinished exclamation.
"-learn to do as I'm told? When I deem it necessary."
Peter scowled at him, and folded his arms in an uncharacteristically childish manner.
"I was going to say 'listen to me', but that works too. God, I might as well give up…"
"Well, it would save us both some trouble…"
Edmund yelped as he was cuffed upside the head, and pouted before joining his brother in a chorus of light laughter.
"Anyway, let's get going!"
"Oh, by the way…"
Edmund halted, turning to look questioningly at Peter as he spoke.
"Maugrim is dead. I killed him."
Edmund nodded, relief entering his gaze.
"Oh, good. He was a slimy little bastard, that one."
"Ed!"
"What? It's true."
"Just…watch your language, that's all. Mother wouldn't want us to become delinquents the moment we leave her sight."
With the sobering thought of what their mother would say if she could see them now, Edmund bounded down the steep bank, meandering skillfully between the thicket of trees, and Peter let out a shout of protest as he followed; before slamming into his younger brother's back as Edmund suddenly stopped abruptly.
"Uh…which way were we heading, again?"
Peter groaned.
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A/N: Wow…loooooooong chapter. Oh dearie me…all that pent up emotion is NOT going to do Edmund any good…ah, the wonders of angst! Peter and Edmund are such fun to write! Their banter is inspired by real life…my own brother can get lost in a single corridor with no doors…pathetic, really but I love him all the same!
I know this was not as angsty as previous chapters, but bear with me. An author needs light relief before she embarks on her next angst shipping…
Cifel: (grits teeth) Review, please?
Galgorus: Must…maul and devour…reviews…
(Laughs nervously) Yeah…review before they decide to eat me instead…