A/N: Well, what you've all been asking me for is here. I do hope you enjoy it. Just a quick special shout out to Lara86, whose review for the last chapter was the story's 100th review! Thanks to all of you who comment, your reviews keep me updating!
Part Sixteen:
Line after line of identically clad soldiers stood, ready for action, across the field. A great mass of mounted warriors nudged their horses onward. Three lone figures – two male and one female – stood at the very edge of the stone ruins where a great duel had just taken place.
One young man was hunched over, favoring his left shoulder. The other, dark eyes blazing with worry and trepidation, was hovering closer than was necessary to his brother. The last stood, bow at the ready, facing the advancing enemy with a small frown on her face.
Behind the eldest Pevensies, Prince Caspian sat astride Realeza, waiting for the signal from King Peter. The latter was watching the Telmarine riders advance across the field, waiting until they reached a predetermined point before he could act.
There.
The Telmarine riders had drawn abreast of a rock formation in the field between the stone ruins and their lines. Peter turned abruptly and looked toward Caspian.
Immediately, the prince turned in the saddle and nudged the horse beneath him into a gallop, riding beside Glenstorm into the How. Breaching the main chamber where a Narnian force was assembled, he cried out, "Narnians! Now!" and then turned Realeza and belted toward the underground tunnels they had extended under the field of battle.
He continued the counting he had begun when Peter looked toward him.
Outside, Peter muttered under his breath. "Five, six, seven…" until he reached ten. Then he called out, "Be ready!" Beside him Edmund swung his two blades lightly, having trouble standing still. Susan raised her bow higher, sighting in on the lead rider.
Seconds later, there was a low rumbling sound and the ground began to shake beneath their feet. Ahead, the field gave way under the weight of the horses and their riders, sending most of the first wave crashing into the collapsed tunnels below.
From two nearby, carefully-crafted ramps, Narnians surged upward and out onto the field of battle, surprising the Telmarine riders and giving them their first glimpse of the Narnian army's true numbers.
Susan was the first to fire, her red-fletched arrow soaring with frightening speed toward a Telmarine who had escaped the falling earth. He fell from atop the horse and was lost in the thundering of hooves and falling ground.
Trumpkin must have waited for that signal because immediately following the Gentle Queen's shot, a volley of arrows rained down from the ledge above the How and disappeared into the Telmarines' midst.
Peter, hard-pressed not to fidget like Edmund was doing, watched as the infantry lines beyond the fallen earth drew closer. It was time. He raised his sword, much like he had done at Beruna, and swung it forward, point jutting toward the enemy lines.
Overhead, a small swarm of gryphons soared forward, clutching stones tightly in their talons. The stones became deadly projectiles as the gryphons swooped down and released them on the Telmarines. One rock could take out ten men with ease, and many took out more as they crashed through the ranks.
Shields did nothing to halt the destruction caused by the heavy stones.
But even the ground and the rocks could not dent the superior numbers of their enemy and as the troops came still closer, Peter breathed deeply and looked to Edmund, nodding lightly at his brother. His gaze lengthened toward Susan and he silently willed her to take care.
Then he turned and with a cry of "For Narnia, and for Aslan!" -- he ran.
The High King was soon surrounded by Narnians running beside him, and then by both Narnians and Telmarines as the two lines merged into a chaotic melee of bodies, swords, shields and stinging and killing blows.
The shouts of dying and the guttural cries of adrenaline-fueled warriors filled the air of the field and the thundering hooves of horses, Fauns, and centaurs mingled with the clashing of metal on metal.
Peter swung Rhindon with a strength born of necessity and knew he'd collapse just as soon as the battle was past. For now, his determination was enough to keep him moving, thrusting, swinging, dodging and blocking.
He lost count of how many Telmarines he had taken down and lost track of Edmund, who he thought he'd seen atop a horse with a drawn crossbow. Susan too had slipped his sight.
A particularly skilled swordsman suddenly drew him from his thoughts and nearly took his head off. Note to self, don't get distracted, he thought as he brought his blade around from right to left and blocked a strong blow aimed at his chest, deflecting the blade down and away from his body.
He looked up and realized he was fighting Caspian's instructor: General Glozelle. Gritting his teeth against the growing pain in his shoulder, Peter ducked a strike toward his head and whipped Rhindon across his body, hoping to hit the man in the legs.
Glozelle was too fast and dodged the blow by diving off to the right. Peter stood back up and raised Rhindon in front of him as the man, who had regrouped quickly, stood facing him.
"You didn't seem happy with your King's decision to cheat," Peter panted, arm holding Rhindon steady, but not if he kept dueling a man who was obviously more than your average soldier.
The Telmarine general frowned. "I abhor dishonorable combat," he said, hesitating and lowering his sword fractionally. Around them, Narnians and Telmarines alike stayed back, unsure if either of their leaders wanted their interference.
Peter raised an eyebrow. "And you don't abhor a battle that goes against a challenge stipulation? You know as well as I do, Queen Susan did not fire the arrow that took your King's life."
For a moment, he thought Glozelle was going to respond, but the man's attention appeared to suddenly shift from him to someone behind him. Peter, keeping one eye on the man, shifted to see where his opponent was looking.
He spied Caspian, thrusting his sword into the belly of a soldier and then spinning and slicing his blade across his body, sweeping another man across the chest.
Turning back to Glozelle, he spoke again. "Shouldn't your allegiance be to him? Not some murdering Lord?" He took a step closer to the general, who still hadn't lowered his blade, but wasn't attacking either.
He could feel the surrounding Telmarines who were watching the events transpire out of the corner of their eyes and was cognizant that they might follow Glozelle and that could work to their advantage. If he could sway this man…
His hope was lost when the general raised his sword. "You won't win me over with fancy words, Narnian High King," he said. "My allegiance is to my people and they are not the same as yours."
Peter turned his body just in time to avoid the thrust to his torso, and pushed out with Rhindon to drive the incoming blade further from his body. Glozelle came in with another strike, this one across his body and Peter was forced to back away to avoid it since he couldn't block it without a shield.
He vaguely heard a shout from behind him, but it didn't register in time and he felt a heavy weight impact with his back. Suddenly finding himself falling forward, he slammed into the Telmarine general, just missing the gleaming blade the man held.
The two toppled to the ground, with Peter on top, and Glozelle immediately used his free hand to shove at the High King and roll him to the side, grunting as the younger man's armor dug into him.
Whatever had hit him hadn't been penetrating, Peter thought with relief, but the relief was short-lived as pain in his shoulder forced a cry from his lips and he jerked as Glozelle shoved him aside.
Momentarily dazed and still struggling for breath, he looked up to find the general standing above him, sword raised and poised to strike. He would have swung, and Peter was in no condition to dodge, but another sword suddenly connected with the man's back just enough to halt his attack.
Peter looked past the man and saw his brother's frightened, wide eyes staring at him – his two swords raised, one above his head, the other in front of him. Seeing Peter was breathing, albeit with difficulty, and didn't appear to be dying, his eyes lifted to meet Glozelle's.
"I suggest you get away from my brother, and do it quickly," he said, voice edged with steel as hard as that his blades were forged from. Glozelle, having turned to face him, stiff from the pain of his wound, looked to Edmund's right where Caspian had appeared.
It seemed like royals were coming out of the wood-work to save their High King.
Knowing he was outnumbered and perhaps even outclassed, he shifted his eyes to a few Telmarines who had been waiting in the wings. They immediately surged forward, giving the man the chance to disappear into the swell of combatants.
Peter struggled to his feet, swordless, and dodged a blow aimed for his neck. He keep moving, searching the ground for Rhindon, but not seeing the great sword. A sword hilt suddenly appeared in front of him. He followed the arm up to see Caspian smiling grimly.
"I believe you were looking for this?"
Peter gripped it with a frown and then immediately thrust it past Caspian's right side and into the chest of a man whose sword was raised above his head to come down on the unprotected back of the young prince.
As the High King pulled the blade back toward him, Caspian let out a puff of breath and a muttered thanks before turning and engaging once more in battle. Soon, Edmund, Peter and Caspian were spread out again.
Ripping an arrow from a nearby body, Susan took a second to look at it before notching it on her bowstring and letting it fly into an advancing Telmarine. She had long ago run out of her own arrows and had taken to pulling spent ones from the dead littering the field around her.
It was hard to dodge the flying arrows and slicing swords, but she had managed to avoid serious injury thus far, though her battle dress was showing bloody patches from flesh wounds.
Sending another arrow flying into an enemy, she turned to search for her next shot – and came face to face with a Telmarine, sword clenched in his fist, standing a foot away from her.
The man's helmet had either been removed or been knocked from his head, and his eyes were wild with battle lust. The blade came forward, thrusting toward Susan's middle, and she only just managed to move aside and bring her bow down to push the blade away.
She cringed, worried that the sword might render her weapon useless, but it was enough of a glancing blow that the great bow seemed to be undamaged and she brought it back up and smacked one end into the man's chin, snapping his head back and knocking him to the ground.
Without hesitation, she ripped the nearest arrow from the ground and thrust it forward, killing the man before he could raise his blade against her again. For a moment, she didn't move, the shock of watching the life fade from the soldier's eyes stopping her in her tracks.
A body suddenly slammed into her and knocked her to the ground. She could hear a dull thud just beside her, and turned her head to see a spear imbedded in the ground, shaking from the impact.
"Are you all right, Su?"
Her older brother pulled her to her feet, voice trembling as he held her at arms length, searching for a serious injury to explain why she hadn't been moving, nor noticed the spear flying at her chest.
"I'm fine," she said, shaking. "I…fine, Peter."
She shoved him forward, away from her, and leapt back herself, both just avoiding another incoming spear. They turned as one and took in the advancing line of Telmarines, still in perfect formation, fresh and all carrying long shields and spears.
The next wave was upon them.
Peter took a moment to survey the field before glancing to Susan and then calling out, "Back to the How!"
The two siblings bolted toward the dark maw that meant safety, if only for a short while until the Telmarines would breach it and follow them into the sacred place.
Peter, being taller, normally would have been in the lead, but his wounds – both the blow from the crossbow bolt and the older wound from Jadis – were bleeding again, and were slowing him down.
Susan watched with wide eyes as a loud crash heralded the first of many incoming stones that began crashing into the How, knocking chunks of earth and stone down into the entranceway.
She skidded to a halt just atop the ramp that led down into the sanctuary, her brother actually bowling into her and nearly taking them both to the ground. Caspian and Edmund ground to a halt beside them and the four exchanged looks.
Peter was the first to turn and take in the neat lines of Telmarines in every direction, surrounding the beleaguered Narnians and gradually forcing them closer and closer to defeat.
Edmund gripped Peter's shoulder suddenly. "Why don't we show them why we are legends, Peter?" He said quietly, eyes shining with a strength Peter remembered from the times they had fought to save Narnia during their reign. He looked to Susan, the same fire in her eyes and to Caspian, who might not have been a legend yet, but was sure to become one whether they won today or not.
"Let's," he said, turning fully to face the advancing troops.
Beside him, he saw Caspian hand Susan a long dagger that he pulled from his own side. She smiled as she gripped it, knowing it would do more good at close range than her bow, since her arrows were spent.
As one, the four began to jog toward the nearest line of Telmarines and when they reached them, there was a great clash of metal and shouts of fiery determination from the Narnians.
Glenstorm and a Faun exchanged glances as their monarchs leapt into the fray with renewed vigor. The former knew that High King Peter must be close to collapse. He doubted the others were fairing much better.
Gathering themselves, he and his fellow Narnian issued battle cries and jumped – literally – into a line of advancing soldiers. The men couldn't shift their spears quickly enough to catch either being as they fell into them, slashing with their broadswords.
It was enough to break that line, at least.
Unbeknownst to the fierce centaur, nearby his wife was being triple-teamed by a group of Telmarine soldiers. Her bow lay on the ground meters away and she had resorted to a small dagger and her front hooves as weapons.
The men were slowly wearing her down with small, but painful, wounds and it wouldn't be long before she would falter. Her heart thudded as she thought of what her death would do to her son and husband.
A fourth man came up on her right side, bow drawn and aimed at her back. She spotted him out of the corner of her eye and spun lightly on her rear hooves, putting her back to him. Before he had a chance to take advantage of her new position, she shifted her weight and kicked out hard with both of her rear legs.
Both of her hooves connected solidly with the soldier's chest, hitting with a sickening, wet, crack. The man sailed backward ten feet and landed in a heap, dead before he hit the ground, his chest caved in from the force of the blow.
She quickly settled her feet and moved to turn back to her other adversaries, but that moment of inattention to them was enough.
One of the men found the opening he had been waiting for and the female centaur cried out as his blade pierced her side. She heard the answering cry of her husband, and over the heads of her attackers, caught his gaze.
He was separated from her by many an enemy and no matter how many he took down in his fury at his wife's plight, more took their place. He could only watch as the Telmarine ripped the blade back out and made to deal a killing blow.
Then, there was a glint of silver and red and a loud battle cry.
Two swords flashing, King Edmund the Just cut down the man who had stabbed the centaur and then turned toward the two others who were moving in for the kill.
With a glare that could have frozen a great lake, he stood before his wounded subject and narrowed his eyes at the men. "So you like ganging up on someone far less armed than you? Why don't you try fighting someone equally armed?"
He spun one of his blades and waited for them to attack. It wasn't a long wait.
Edmund raised the sword in his left hand to block a strike coming for his head from the taller of the two men, then slashed across his body from left to right with his other sword and caught that man under the arms and across the chest.
The second man, in the time it took the young King to strike down his companion, managed to bring his own blade to bear and thrust it with surprising speed at the center of the Just King's chest.
Edmund used the momentum of his right arm's swing after metering out death to the first man, and brought his left blade down as fast as he could, twisting on his left foot and only just deflecting the thrust.
Unfortunately, the deflection wasn't far enough and the blade caught him in the left shoulder, digging a furrow across the shoulder and upper arm. He nearly lost his grip on the sword in his left hand, but somehow managed to hold onto it.
He heard his brother's voice call out to him as he winced and jerked away from his opponent, breath coming in a pained gasp. He also heard Glenstorm shout out and knew the two were fighting their way toward him.
Edmund met the gaze of the man, whose blade bore the young King's red blood on its tip. "You'd die for that beast?" The man asked. "Why? You're human. Why do you defend these creatures?"
The Just King straightened his back. "She is not a beast. She is a wife and a mother. And yes, I would die for her."
Raising his blades, he planted himself firmly between the female centaur, who had collapsed to the ground and was trying to staunch the flow of blood from her wound.
"My…my King," she whispered. "You are too important."
He ignored her and parried the next strike thrown by the Telmarine.
Just as Peter reached him, Edmund dealt the killing blow to his opponent and immediately grasped his left shoulder with his right hand, the sword hilt in that hand quickly becoming slick with blood.
"Edmund!" Peter said, voice pained seeing his brother wounded, fully able to sympathize with the feeling. Although they were opposites in appearance, for once they were sporting nearly identical shoulder injuries.
While Edmund was right-handed and could fight with just one blade, his preference was to fight with both hands and this wound would hinder him in battle. Peter decided it was time to fight side-by-side.
The younger King shook his head at his brother. "I'll be all right, Pete," he said. "It didn't go through the shoulder, more like a glancing blow. But we need to help her." He was already moving to Glenstorm's wife and kneeling. "Cover us." He reached down to the plain white shirt he wore underneath his mail and tore a long strip off of it to use as a bandage.
He could sense Peter taking up a firm battle stance behind him as he looked at the female centaur's side. "You are lucky," he said to her, grimacing when she grit her teeth in pain. "Had this been even a little to the left, it would have been mortal."
She nodded and looked up as her husband finally broke through the lines.
"Glenstorm!" she whispered as he reached her side.
"Willowwind!" he cried, grasping her hand in his own. Turning to Edmund, he bowed to his liege. "My King. I can never repay you for what you did. Thank you."
Edmund stood from where he had finished bandaging Willowwind's side. "Your family has suffered enough in this," he said. "It was in my power to help. You would have done the same for me."
Glenstorm pulled his wife upright and the two drew themselves to their full, impressive heights. Scooping up a fallen soldier's sword, Peter handed it to Willowwind.
"Just a little longer, Willowwind. Lucy will find Aslan, and he will help us. Just hang on a little longer."
She nodded and pulled the sword from his grasp.
Rearing up on his back legs, Glenstorm charged the nearest Telmarine line and his wife joined him, the two centaurs a sight to behold, even wounded as they were.
Peter and Edmund stood side-by-side and ready to meet the next foe. While they hadn't fought together since their last campaign years ago, during their reign, the ability hadn't faded far from their memory and it took very little time for them to synchronize and tear through their enemy with graceful movements.
To anyone watching, it was like the two brothers were of one mind. When one left himself momentarily unguarded, the other instinctively knew and covered that side.
If one brother moved forward, the other moved backward to stay with him. They spun a web of defeat in their wake, and before long, the Telmarines began to avoid the two Kings and their attackers grew fewer.
"Ed, I think we're scaring them," Peter panted, wanting to clutch his chest where the wound given to him by Jadis was roaring in pain. His left arm was beyond painful and bordered on unmovable.
From just behind him, Edmund let out a pained chuckle. "I think we are," he said. He might have continued, but a great wave of shouts of surprise, mingled with those of fear, erupted from their right and both brothers turned to see what had caused it.
Their eyes widened in surprise and they turned to each other. "Lucy! She's done it!" Peter yelled, a combination of relief and surprise in his voice. Although why he was surprised (it was Lucy, after all), he couldn't have said.
Caspian gasped as a sword sliced into the back of his left leg. It was only a shallow cut, but it had him stumbling backward and before he could stop his backward momentum, he was falling.
With a pained cry, he hit the ground on his back, momentarily winded. He'd fallen into a collapsed tunnel and lost his grip on his sword. He wasn't sure if it had come down with him, or if it was still up on the battle field.
When he regained his senses, he sat up and his eyes widened.
About to spear him through the chest was General Glozelle. The man had let out a battle cry as he raised the spear, but it was cut short when he realized whom he was looming over.
"Caspian?" the man's arms lowered slightly and the spear fell with them.
"Sir," the young prince said, using the form of address he was accustomed to with his former weapons instructor. He eyed the spear in the man's hands. "Do you really plan to kill me?"
Glozelle looked from Caspian to the spear and his eyes narrowed with indecision. "I should. But…I…" he stepped back a step, spear lowering even more and whispering. "But when I look at you, I still see the little boy with his father's sword, as tall as he, asking me to teach him."
Caspian struggled to his feet, standing across the collapsed tunnel from Glozelle. He was no longer that little boy; he was actually a inch or two taller than his former teacher.
"You don't have to keep fighting, sir," Caspian said. "The Narnians are not the beasts you were always taught to believe. They have honor and they have just as much right to live free as you and I."
The dark-haired Telmarine general lowered the spear still further.
"Caspian, you do not know what you ask," he said. "This is treason."
The young prince chuckled darkly. "I don't know, do I? My uncle tried to murder me, I'm sure you know, I saw you lead the archers who were sent to do it. Would it be so bad to abandon rulers such as he? If you could kill me then, why not now?"
Glozelle's hands clenched and the spear rose.
"I had no choice," he cried out, angrily. "What was I supposed to do? Refuse a direct order from my liege? He would have had me imprisoned, killed. I'm a soldier, I followed my orders."
The prince took an angered step forward. "I've learned much with the Narnians. I've learned what true strength is, I've learned what true acceptance is, I've learned what true faith is and I've also learned how to be truly gentle. I've learned to be a ruler. You have learned to be a murderer and a blind follower. I'm offering you a chance to be more, even though you meant to kill me in my sleep."
The battle raged in Glozelle's eyes. He wanted to believe the young man, and frankly, witnessing the Narnians' High King in action, and how he had more valor and honor at sixteen than Miraz could have had in three lifetimes, he felt himself wavering.
The spear lowered completely now and Glozelle let out a puff of breath. "My allegiance has always been to the Telmarine King, or Lord Protector," he said out of the blue. "You are neither of those. But you could be. And I think, I would very much like to have you as my liege."
Caspian let out the breath he had been holding and nodded in relief. Before he could respond, there was a sudden rumble and a great big root erupted from the earth behind Glozelle and wrapped around his middle, jerking the man back with a surprised shout and smashing him into the hard-packed dirt.
He fell limp to the ground and Caspian, eyes wide, stepped forward in shock, hurrying to man's side. Reaching for his neck, he found a steady pulse and determined the general had been knocked out. Battle still roaring above him, he sighed.
"Not a great way to reward your decision to side with the Narnians," he said ruefully. "Forgive me for leaving you, but you'll be safer here anyway." He stood and backed up, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening above him. A hand suddenly appeared beside his head and he looked up into King Peter's eyes.
"Come on, the trees are awake," the High King said with a weary smile as he helped Caspian scramble up the crumbled earth. High above them massive trees trembled and swiped at whole lines of Telmarines, scattering them like pebbles.
Caspian's eyes were riveted to the trees as they thrust their roots into the ground and sent them barreling through earth to collapse the enemies' catapults before the machines could do more damage.
The Narnians were cheering, shaking their weapons into the air in triumph as the Telmarines, in complete chaos at the trees' appearances, flocked away and toward the river.
Peter grimly shouted, "Follow them!" and his order was echoed around the field as Edmund and Susan joined them. "We will end this today. The trees tell us to go to the river. So we go."
Nodding, Caspian and the Pevensies joined the swarming Narnians as they raced after the Telmarines.
A/N: More to come still, stay tuned!