I don't own Narnia or the Pevensies. I just gave you two updates in a day. Well, not technically, but I haven't slept since I last updated, so you can be grateful anyway.

Author's Note: This is the fifty-thousand word mark, and this will probably (though not definitely) be my last author's note. I'd again like to thank each and every one of my reviewers, especially those who write long, juicy reviews. Like EllaJ.W, for instance, who practically wrote me an essay. In any case, thank you for taking time out of your lives to make writing this more fun for me. Not that it wasn't. But who doesn't love reviews?

We're winding up to the (hopefully) spectacular finish here, which is hard for me to write, so please be patient. I love all the support I get from you guys. Also, if you've got anything you'd like to see explained, any problems you see, any amusing typos (see my last author's note for a humiliating example), please don't hesitate to let me know. Or, if you'd like me to write a sidefic with any scene that wasn't written out, tell me and I just might do it. Again, many many thanks to you all, I'm just as surprised about the length of this as you are. If I hadn't told you, I started this fic on a bet with Mooze: we were going to see who could get to five thousand words. Since I'm at ten times that now, I feel that I've won. Mooze, if you're out there, drop me a line. And without any further blabbering, here you are. Chapter thirty four.


They shot through the hallway, past the alcoves with the dead dwarves, down both staircases and into an utterly dark room.

" Susan! Edmund!" Peter called into the darkness, stumbling forwards. Lucy, realizing her brother wasn't quite yet in his right mind, scurried back up the staircase to the last wall-mounted torch, pulled it from its holder and hurried back. Peter was still standing, waiting for an answer.

There was another scream, nearer this time, but it came from a doorway somewhere to their left; the room, Lucy could now see, was another hallway. She thrust the torch into Peter's hand because he showed signs of taking off again and she didn't want him to trip. He gave her a brief nod of thanks, already sprinting off towards the door and wrenching it open. Lucy followed at a run.

Another staircase spiraled down into pitch-black, and Lucy knew they must be getting to the very bottom of the old castle. They descended it quickly, hurried footsteps echoing in the cylindrical chamber, and it seemed to go on forever before they emerged in what looked to be an antechamber of some sort. A candle-holder was suspended from the ceiling but it gave off only a dim orange glow. Lucy barely had time to register that there were several doorways leading off this room before one of them (the one on the right) burst open and someone tore through, crashing violently into Peter's side and sending both figures sprawling on the stone floor. The light in the room changed dramatically, whirling shadows whipping across the walls as the torch went flying out of his hands and extinguished itself. Lucy ran forward, drawing her dagger, but realized that it was Edmund, face hidden because he'd buried it in Peter's chest as his body shook with sobs.

Susan hurried through the door a second later. In the bad light she looked very white and very ill. Peter was nearly in hysterics, clutching Edmund to him so tightly that Lucy was afraid he would break the smaller boy's arms.

"What happened?" asked Lucy, moving forward in the dark to stand by Susan. Her sister placed a hand on the wall as if to steady herself, her face drawn.

"We found the dungeons," she said quietly, barely audible over Edmund's muffled cries and Peter's terrified whimpering. "Found a room…oh, Aslan!" Lucy quickly moved to catch Susan as she pitched forward.

" Susan?" she asked anxiously.

"Sorry," said Susan weakly, steadying herself. "Found a room, and a whip, stains on the walls… never seen Ed so scared…"

Lucy stole a glance at Edmund, who was now curled in Peter's lap, the elder of the two cradling his younger brother to his chest. Ed looked nothing short of petrified. Frightened tears streaked his freckled cheeks and his face was alarmingly pale, his shoulders still shaking with suppressed emotion as he leaned against his brother with his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"Oh, Aslan, how could we let it happen?" murmured Susan, her voice almost cracking. Lucy hurried over to her brothers, reaching out to catch Edmund's hand in her own. Even through the leather glove he wore, she could feel him trembling.

"Ed, Ed, it's all right," she told him. Peter looked unable to speak, his arms bone-crushingly taut around his brother's shoulders. Edmund looked up at her, opening his eyes. His pupils were tiny, scared pin-pricks, his gaze watery but unwavering, as if he wouldn't let himself look away from her. She knelt and felt Susan come up behind her, hovering. "You're safe now, Ed, it's all right."

He blinked hard, breath hitching.

"N…no, I don't…I don't want…" he began, sobs breaking his voice up. He seemed completely unable to stem his tears.

"It's all right," repeated Susan, kneeling on his other side. He bit his lip so hard it drew blood, a little crimson path trickling down his chin. For a moment he looked as if he was going to speak, but he looked at the floor instead.

"I'm s…sorry," he choked out after a long time, his voice raspy from crying. Lucy squeezed his hand reassuringly.

"You're okay now, Edmund," soothed Susan, tucking an errant black curl behind his ear tenderly. "Nothing's going to hurt you. We're here."

"I kn…know," he stammered. He sniffed loudly. "I'm sorry. I'm…such…such a weak…"

But his statement was cut off by his own surprised yelp as Peter crushed him in a brutally tight embrace, the older of the two finally finding his voice again.

"Don't ever say that, Edmund," he said fiercely. "Don't ever let me hear you say that again."

"I'll just…say it when you're not around, then," Edmund teased feebly with a watery chuckle. Lucy laughed; Susan smiled and Peter shook his head despairingly, pressing Ed to himself one last time before Susan helped the younger king get shakily to his feet. Peter got up on his own, scabbard scraping along the stone floor and making Lucy twitch. They stood there in the darkness for a moment, their original quest almost forgotten. It was left unsaid, but they knew there would be no more talk of splitting up and searching.

"We…we should get going," said Susan finally. Noticing that Ed's eyes flicked fearfully towards the door they'd come from, she shook her head. "We don't need to go in there again. We can search the rest first and come back if we need to."

"S'dark," mumbled Ed.

"I think I dropped the torch when you er…came in," said Peter.

"It won't do us much good anyway," said Susan practically. "If it went out, we can't light, none of us is tall enough to reach the ceiling lamp. Ed and I had one with us but I think we left it back…back where we came from."

"I could go and get it," offered Lucy, albeit with a little reluctance.

"No," her sister replied quite firmly. "I don't want you going in there either, Lucy. No, we can find our way back to the stairs in the dark, then find another one if we need to come back."

"Right," said Peter, glancing at Edmund before he led the way out of the room and into the inky blackness of the spiral stairwell. For the next ten minutes they struggled up the stairs with no light, stumbling and faltering. Once, Lucy tripped and just barely caught herself but skinned her knees badly, the heels of her hands aching. It seemed like an eternity before they finally emerged into the dark (but wonderfully level) room at the top. Light from the other stairs spilled out into the room, briefly silhouetting Peter as he doggedly began to climb the next two flights of stairs.

All of them were at varying degrees of exhaustion by the time they finally reached the room with the dwarves. Edmund, presumably due to his weakened lungs, was wheezing too much for their comfort and so they made him wait a few minutes before carrying on. Lucy explained that they'd already been in the room when Ed and Susan looked ready to explore, and the four of them moved to the doors at the end. Instead of choosing the large ones that led to the other hallway and the armory, they took a smaller door on the left. Peter almost slammed it back shut when it revealed more stairs, but it was only a short flight – eight steps, Lucy counted – so he merely grunted, shrugged and headed up.

This was another hallway, but it was much narrower than the others had been. It also had windows, which was extremely strange. Lucy stuck her fingers in one as she passed it and it felt just like dipping her fingers in a freezing bath. Outside, she could see fish swimming by, their scales glittering in the blue-green world at the bottom of the lake. She judged that they were in one of the spires, about halfway up. Hurrying to keep pace with her siblings, Lucy wiped her wet fingers on her outer tunic and again checked to make sure she had her cordial and dagger.

The entire castle was still dead silent and it almost felt criminal to be inside it, as if they were disturbing a funeral. Oddly, though, the lack of noise was more unsettling than sounds would have been, because she strongly suspected now that the dangers of the palace lay not in its guardians but in its ability to draw upon its visitors' intrinsic fears. She wondered briefly about telling Susan what Peter had tried to do, but decided against it. Not only was she not sure her sister would believe her, but she half doubted it herself now. It just wasn't something he would do. Swallowing hard, she reached out and grabbed Susan's hand. The elder queen looked back in some surprise but smiled gently, squeezing her hand and pulling her along after their brothers.

Together, thought Lucy. That's what matters. We're together.