Disclaimer: I own Vaslin, but nothing else.
Chapter 7:
Vaslin raced after Caspian, Peter, and Susan as fast as his human legs could carry him. The High King turned towards the direction of the gatehouse, but Susan stopped. Vaslin paused as he and the prince caught up with her. The Telmarine King's nephew was clutching at his bleeding arm.
"Peter!" The High Queen exclaimed, clearly unhappy that he still thought they could see their plan through.
"Our troops are just outside!" He reminded her. "Come on!"
He took off outside, towards the gate. Vaslin exchanged a despairing glance with his adopted sister, then took off after their brother, knowing he'd need backup when the soldiers came. Caspian and Susan were on his heels.
"Now, Ed, now!" Peter called up to Edmund who was fighting a soldier on his tower. "Signal the troops!"
"I'm a bit busy, Pete!" The Narnian King shouted back, straining against his attacker.
The blonde haired boy quickly dispatched two guards that had come up behind him. It wasn't long before he, Vaslin, Susan, and Caspian reached the wheel that controlled the gates.
"Peter! It's too late." Susan pleaded. "We have to call it off while we can."
"No, I can still do this!" The High King argued stubbornly, turning the wheel.
Vaslin, the prince, and the High Queen watched as the first Telmarine soldier entered the courtyard, a torch in his hand. More were behind him.
"Help me!" Peter ordered.
Susan and Caspian joined him, the former wolf drawing his sword to prepare to fight off the approaching soldiers.
"Exactly who are you doing this for, Peter?" The girl asked angrily.
As guards began to flood the courtyard, Edmund's torch flashed, signaling the troops that their time had come.
"Charge!" Glenstorm's cry came from beyond the gates, loud and clear.
"Hurry up!" Vaslin urged the others anxiously. He knew that even with the little sword training Edmund had given him before the battle, he'd never be able to hold the soldiers off. If I were a wolf still, I'd be tearing those Telmarines apart.
The battle cries of the Narnians came from just beyond the drawbridge. The first, weak set of gates were slammed open loudly, likely by a minotaur. Feet and hooves pounded on the drawbridge. The main gate was open high enough for them to charge through. Peter, Susan, and Caspian turned towards the blooming battle.
"For Narnia!" Peter cried.
And for Aslan! Vaslin silently added.
He raced alongside Glenstorm and the troops as they began cutting through the Telmarines. Peter, Susan, and Caspian engaged into battle as well. Vaslin saw the mice scampering around, taking soldiers down from below, undetected.
The former wolf himself found it not too difficult to take down the Telmarine soldiers. He was suddenly thankful for Edmund's training, knowing he'd have been killed by now had they not spent a couple of hours going through the motions of sword fighting. The enemies, on the other hand, had been poorly trained and their strength in numbers seemed to be their only advantage.
"Archers!" Someone shouted. "Pick a target!"
Oh, and their crossbows.
"Take aim!"
There was a scream as Edmund picked an archer down into the courtyard.
Vaslin and Peter both looked up, quickly noting that the boy stood next to the whole row of archers and didn't seem to have noticed.
"Ed!" The High King warned.
The younger boy turned to his right, spotted the archers beside him, and took off. He made it inside a tower and closed the door just in time for the archers to release their arrows, which nailed into the door.
Vaslin glimpsed Miraz overlooking the battle, a dark coat over his bedclothes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Peter and Caspian start making their way up towards the Telmarine King.
The former wolf silently wished them luck, turning his focus back to the battle down below. A Telmarine soldier tripped on a mouse and Vaslin thumped the man in the face with the hilt of his sword. He ducked beneath a swing from behind, kicking his new attacker in his private regions. The man fell to the ground in agony.
A minotaur fell from above, creating quite a ruckus as he landed.
"Sire, behind you!" Came a shout from Reepicheep the mouse.
Vaslin whipped around just in time to block a sword to the face. He dispatched his attacker and called his thanks to the mouse.
It was but moments later when Trumpkin fell from a tower, hitting a Telmarine soldier before he lay still on the stones of the courtyard.
No. Vaslin realized in horror that they were losing.
Someone cut a large lantern down from above. The former wolf dodged to the side just in time, the lantern landing between him and the form of Trumpkin.
A creaking came from the gate and he turned to see that the wheel was spinning; the gate was closing. One brave minotaur was quick to throw his muscular body between the gate and the ground, holding it open with all of his might.
But it was time to leave.
"Fall back!" Peter cried above the sounds of the battle. "We need to retreat! Now!"
Vaslin heard his brother order Glenstorm to get Susan out of the battle. He watched the centaur haul her atop his back.
"Caspian!" She called back to Peter.
"I'll find him!" The High King promised.
Of course we have to save the prince. The former wolf thought bitterly. It was Caspian who'd given them away, after all. But Vaslin also knew that he wouldn't leave without knowing his siblings had gotten away. So if Peter was staying to look for the rash prince, so was he.
He raced after the High King, who kept shouting orders of retreat to the Narnians.
"Vaslin, go!"
"Not before you!"
He glimpsed Edmund and his gryphon soaring above the battle, safe for the moment.
Caspian suddenly burst through one of the doors in the courtyard, aboard a horse. Two others followed him. The professor was aboard one of them. Peter climbed atop the empty saddle of the third horse as it passed by them.
"Vaslin!" He cried.
"Go!" The former wolf ordered. "I'll be right behind you!"
"Now!" Miraz suddenly shouted.
"Fire!" Someone else ordered.
Arrows rained down into the courtyard. Horrified, Vaslin raced after the horses. Narnians and Telmarine soldiers alike fell to the arrows of the archers, their cries ringing out. Just after Peter's horse got past the gate, the minotaur holding it open took a hit. Vaslin slipped by him just as he collapsed.
As the gate crushed the minotaur to the stones, the massive body took Vaslin down with it. He tried to get back up, but found his ankle was trapped beneath the minotaur's pinned chest.
He was stuck!
Reepicheep and a couple of other mice raced underneath the gate. The noble mouse turned to look back at him and the Narnians who'd just reached the lowered gate. He could see emotions fly through the mouse's eyes.
"Reep, go!" Vaslin ordered, pulling on his ankle- it wouldn't budge. But it hurt a lot.
Before crossing the drawbridge, Peter turned to take in the sight behind him with horror. His eyes landed on his adopted brother with horror.
"Vaslin!" He gasped.
"Run for your life!" A Narnian shouted to him as arrows continued to rain down on them. "Save yourself!"
"Peter, I'm stuck!" Vaslin met the High King's gaze, albeit terrified. "You have to leave me!"
Peter turned to meet Susan's gaze from across the drawbridge, torn. Glenstorm lowered his head in mourning, answering the unasked question.
Vaslin pulled against his ankle, but the resistance was stronger than he was. Pain rippled up his leg and he cried out through gritted teeth as a loud snap sounded from the joint. Sweat trickled down from his hairline, into his eyes. He wiped at it with one hand.
"Peter. Go." He begged between breaths, though he was fairly certain he wasn't heard over the pained cries of the Narnians behind him.
A few brave souls turned to fight back, already knowing they wouldn't get through the closed gate.
"Peter! The bridge!" Reepicheep cried suddenly, leaping over the growing gap between the two halves of the drawbridge as it lifted.
"Go!" Vaslin shouted. "Narnia needs you!"
The High King turned back to his only way of escape. He gave his horse a kick and it galloped towards the drawbridge. It made it just in time, leaping across to safety just before the gap became too large to cross.
The last Vaslin saw of his adopted brother was his back as he rode away into the night.