Peter decided we would put on a tournament, which I thought an excellent idea. If Calormenes show their power through gilding themselves, Narnians are more than happy to prove their worth on the field. This was how we were going to make a diplomatic show, until Susan stuck her nose in.

'You're not going to compete, are you?' She said to Peter after the ball on the first night, when he had declared the tournament open.

He stared at her. 'Of course I am.' Lucy and I stared at Susan too. What a ludicrous question to ask.

'Peter, please don't,' she said.

He drew himself up. 'Why ever not?'

'Please don't embarrass Rabadash. Everyone knows you're the best swordsman in the world, and he's trying so hard to please us and make a good show. It will just come off as poor sport, because you're so good.'

An example of why when I need a diplomatic second I always choose Susan. Peter blushed a bit at her calling him the best swordsman in the world, and started muttering things like 'Don't know about that' which meant that he was well flattered.

I frowned at Lucy. She egged me on with a gesture. 'What about me then?' I said, 'If Peter's the best swordsman in the world, then I'm not. I could compete against him, my victory being somewhat less assured.'

Susan threw me a look that was both sharp and pleading at the same time. I challenged her with an arched brow, then subsided with a sigh. I didn't think I'd make any headway—Susan had that stubborn tilt to her head. Probably it will be better to observe Rabadash from afar anyway, but something unsettles me. Perhaps it is the way Susan is already bending us to suit him. Perhaps it is the fragility of his ego. Peter beats me at swordplay on the regular and I don't go off pouting. For too long, anyway.

So we left the Narnian show to our lords, and hoped they would do Narnia proud.

Tumnus brought the matter to our attention. We were discussing the tournament and the events, and he coughed.

'What is it, Tumnus?' Peter said. 'You know you are free to always speak your mind.'

'Yes,' said Tumnus slowly. 'But this is rather delicate.'

'Even so,' said Lucy.

He heaved a sigh and laid out the tournament bracket on the table. 'Lord Peridan has been invited to compete, like every other lord of age. But the way the tournament has been arranged...'. He passed a hand over it to indicate. We leaned forward and I saw it at once.

'Oh,' I said.

Peter frowned and leaned forward to see. Then he saw it as well. He glanced at Susan, who was frowning in confusion. Then he traced the lines for her. If Peridan won all his bouts and Rabadash his, they would face each other in the final bout. She gasped and covered her mouth.

'Oh! No—this cannot be. We must change it.'

'We can't,' said Peter. 'Everyone has trained, people have traveled, everything else is perfectly organised.' Tumnus nodded dolefully.

'The only answer would be if someone withdrew,' Tumnus said.

Susan turned to me at once. 'Edmund, you know Peridan best.'

'Which is to say hardly at all,' I said. I had to keep reminding them of this. Where they got the idea that he and I were best friends I couldn't say.

'Even so. You have to stop him from competing. If it comes to pass...'

'Honestly though, Su. I've seen him fight—it probably won't,' I said. I tried not to remember Peridan showing up for muster. The whole affair had been so painfully embarrassing.

Susan shook her head and cut across them. 'But even that it might. I couldn't bear it—it would seem like they were fighting for my hand, and I don't want that.'

I glanced at Peter, and he waved in a gesture that said to humour her.

So I called him to my bureau and told him to withdraw. I hated doing it. He came in bright eyed, enough that I dared to say 'Lord Peridan. You are very prompt.'

'As one should be when there is a summons from the King,' he quipped, a wry note to his voice.

I arched a brow, surprised to see this side of him. I decided to test him. 'Indeed. I am very busy and important, and I hate to be kept waiting.' I held my breath, hoping he wouldn't shrink under my teasing.

But he grinned. 'Well, you ought to get straight to business then.'

I laughed, both because he was funny and because I felt a certain victory in cracking his shell. But then I had to turn to the matter at hand, and his mask went straight back up. He grew quiet and stiff again.

I managed to pull his story out of him. 'I wanted to show you what I was maid of. You probably don't remember, but years ago, when you first visited the Lone Islands, there was an exhibition tournament held in your honour. I should have been invited to compete, but I was not. I went out for the army, but I performed miserably. I am better than that. I wanted the chance to prove it.'

I sat back in my chair and rubbed my mouth. Peridan never speaks about himself, and his speech belied more than just shyness. His final words, 'I wanted the chance to prove it' echoed in my brain.

'I know something about that,' I said.

He looked up and met my eyes. In a flash of a moment, I felt we understood each other. Thus I knew this meant far more to him than Susan's consternation meant to her.

'Keep your place in the tournament,' I said. 'If my sister's paramour is too fragile to withstand a challenge, perhaps she should know that now. It is hardly fair to ask you to cater to him.'

Relief flooded Peridan's face.

Susan was predictably upset. 'You said you were going to take care of it!' She cried.

'No, you made me take care of it,' I replied.

'Rabadash will think we are baiting him,' she fretted.

'If he takes that much offence at a tournament, do you really want him?' I challenged.

She fell silent, fretting her fingers in her lap.

'I heard Peridan's story. He just wants a chance to compete. Robbing him of that would not be fair,' I said

'So Peridan wants to fight, but he doesn't want to fight for me.' She lifted her head and tossed her hair, her eyes flashing.

I pursed my mouth. Pointing out that Rabadash was likely for his own ego as well wouldn't help the situation. In spite of my sympathy for Peridan earlier, frustration flashed. Susan is hurting because of his stubbornness and stupidity, and she's lashing out, and now we have Rabadash. And Peridan could have fixed this.

I keep wondering why I've taken against Rabadash so strongly. I've tried to talk to him a couple of times, for Susan's sake really. She and Lucy always say I'm too quick to judge people. Although Peter says he trusts my instincts. But he is Susan's paramour, and after all she's done for me I at least owe her a cordial conversation with her suitor.

Except there's nothing to talk to him about. I tried to engage him in talking about the tournament, which was bound to be interesting. Peter and Lucy and I had spent a good hour debating the chances of each Narnian, speculating about the Calormenes and discussing the finer points of tactics. Rabadash, however, was so stilted and dismissive I won't even bother detailing the conversation. I observed him more closely. He treated Lucy with a shade of condescension—not enough to draw out her anger, but just enough to pique her. He treated her as though she was cute and quaint. He flattered Peter with many blandishments (not that Peter fell for any of them), and seemed to understand that the High King deserved his respect. Clearly, he understands very little about Narnia and its four thrones.

'I really do detest him, but I can't put my finger on why,' Lucy observed. We were riding together at the back of the train.

'I can't disagree with you,' I said, watching Rabadash reach up and pluck a flower from a tree to offer it to Susan. As we passed a moment later, Lucy reached up and patted the branch of the tree, murmuring a thanks to the dryad spirit for not causing a fuss. The leaves of the tree rustled; the dryad was giggling with Lucy.

'I suppose the question is whether we would have been as bothered about anyone,' I observed.

'I wouldn't have,' Lucy said at once. 'I like Peridan.'

'You are very decisive about someone you barely know,' I said.

'You say I am the best judge of character you know,' she replied lifting her nose in the air. 'And anyway, you like Peridan too. I know you do.'

'I like what I know of him,' I said. 'But that's scant. 'He's very secretive in his way.' I narrowed my eyes, watching Lord Peridan riding by himself. I had a wild impulse to invite him to ride with us.

'I think that's more self preservation than anything,' Lucy said. She nudged me. 'You know, like you.'

I laughed through my nose. 'Fine. Peridan passes the test; Rabadash doesn't. Why?'

She pursed her mouth and tilted her head to one side. 'He is secretive too,' she said. 'I can't say I'm any clearer on who he is, what he likes or dislikes. Why even he wants Susan. Apart from her beauty.' She rolled her eyes at this.

'Are you jealous?' I teased.

'I certainly wouldn't want him slobbering over me!' And here she looked so revolted that I burst out laughing. Peridan turned to look, and I met his eyes, still smiling. He flashed the briefest smile back before turning his head. I opened my mouth to call out to him, but the words never came.

Peter dropped back to join us. 'What are you two conspiring about?' He inquired.

'Why do we have to be conspiring?' I said, but Lucy said in the very next breath 'We are trying to determine why we don't like him.' And she nodded to Rabadash.

Peter grew quiet as he too watched the prince. 'Hm,' was all he said. I raised my eyebrows at Lu.

'Ha!' She cried. 'So we're all in agreement.'

'All of us except Susan,' Peter said.

Which gives me pause. Why can't Susan see what we do? Could Lu and Peter and I all be wrong? I doubt that—I can't think of anyone we've all three of us been wrong about. And if I do say, Susan's sentimentality can get in the way of her judgment all too often. So I don't think it's us.

I had just about put this away when Susan visited my rooms, and I feel obliged to record that conversation. She was in her plain nightdress with her hair down, and she looked much more like herself than when she was all tarted up for Rabadash.

'To what do I owe this honour?' I said, pouring us both goblets of wine. I needed another to stave off the pounding headache that was building behind my temples after a long evening of small talk with the Calormenes.

'They don't like him, do they?' Susan asked as she took her goblet. She watched me over the rim of it.

'That's not really for me to say,' I hedged. I didn't need to say more than that, though. She sagged.

'I've heard the whispers,' she said between gulps of wine. 'Everyone asking why it's not Peridan. Well I wanted it to be, but he never asked. So now there's Rabadash, and he's asked already.'

'He has?!' I exaclaimed.

Susan blushed. 'Not properly. It was more talk in the heat of the moment. But I think he plans to.'

I slumped into a chair and rubbed my mouth. 'How do you feel about that?'

'I feel like it's nice to be wanted!' She shot back.

I ought to have warned her how complicated it would be, the Queen of Narnia marrying the Crown Prince of Calormen. Where would they live, and rule? I should have warned her of his character, and the foreboding that grew in me every time I looked at him. But she looked quite sad, really, and I wondered if Peridan had broken her heart a little bit. I leaned forward and patted her arm.

'Please help me, Ed,' she murmured. 'I know they don't like him.'

'But you do?' I said.

'I only want the chance to find out,' she replied.

Every day the plot thickens. Originally I didn't think much of Peridan's chances in the tournament. I remember his poor performance at the muster, and the way he sulked about it. So much pomp and very little prowess.

Except in the tournament I saw—we all saw—a very different fighter. Peridan brought strategy, agility, and skill to his first bout with Lord Dar, and all the others after. He double wields, and now I find myself quite keen to learn the skill. There is so much trickery involved if you're good, and Peridan showed that off. He can switch which sword is attacking and which is defending almost mid-parry. Even Peter was impressed, and as he applauded Peridan's skill, he turned to me.

'I thought he couldn't—' he began.

'I know,' I agreed. 'This is quite the surprise.'

Which means, of course, that Peridan and Rabadash meeting in the final bout seems more and more likely. Rabadash is a skilled fighter himself, and despite his showing off, when he gets down to business he is dangerous. He also has a totally different style because of his scimitar, and that throws a lot of his opponents off. Peter and I had a protracted discussion about how Peridan might fare against it.

Rabadash grows bolder each day. Today he requested a formal audience. We sat on our thrones while he issued a very flowery invitation to come to Calormen, the unspoken aim being that we would draw up marriage contracts in Tashbaan.. Peter had the presence of mind to say we would confer, and we adjourned to our antechamber.

Lucy burst in and stalked right over to Susan. 'You can't really mean to go!' She said.

Susan, who had been looking rather stunned, drew herself up. 'Why shouldn't I?' She said.

'Because—because!' Lucy spluttered. She gestured to me and Peter helplessly.

'This is developing rather…rapidly,' Peter said slowly.

'Isn't that good?' Susan said. 'Better to have a man who knows what he wants.'

'Yes, but when it's Rabadash!' Lucy said.

'I'll not have you be unkind to him,' Susan said. 'I like him. I mean to go.'

'You—you do?' Peter said.

'We have to think of marriage sometime,' Susan said, folding her arms. 'We have to assure the future for Narnia.'

I winced. A courtship with the crown prince of Calormen was hardly going to assure a future for Narnia. Susan did not see me, though Peter did.

'If I'm plain, Susan, I don't like it. I don't trust him,' he said.

'Nor me,' said Lucy.

'Then trust me, and that I know what I'm doing.' Peter hesitated, and she pressed, 'You said you would stand by our choices, that we were not to be pawns but to follow our hearts. Well, my heart leads me to Calormen.'

Peter stared. Susan threw me a pleading look. I rubbed my eyes with my thumb and forefinger.

'You can't promise we can make our choices and then arbit the choices,' I said, my voice heavy. Lucy made a sort of choking noise. I glanced at her. 'You know so much is true, Lucy.'

She chewed on her lip, her brows coming together.

Susan went over and touched Peter's arm. He looked down at her, screwing up his mouth. He turned back to me. 'You really think this is a good idea, Ed?'

Something constricted in my chest, but Susan was still looking at me with pleading eyes. I sighed. 'I'm saying my opinion—all our opinions—are immaterial. Susan gets to make the choice. You can't go back on your word.'

'I can't go back on my word,' Peter repeated in a blank voice.

Susan tossed her hair. 'That's settled then.' And she strode back into the throne room. We followed her and took our places while she went to Rabadash and clasped his hands. 'My prince, my heart's desire is the same as yours. I will come to Calormen.' And Rabadash smiled, flashing all his teeth. He bent his head to kiss her, and she tipped her face up to him, and I think they would have fallen into some sort of passionate embrace before the whole court had Peter not cleared his throat. Rabadash released Susan and stepped back.

So we are going to Calormen, it seems.