I looked at his perfect, beautiful face. I looked at the freckles gently dusting his face, deathly pale with the lack of blood in his body. I leaned forward, and I swept back his sweaty black fringe. He stirred restlessly under my administration.

He lies there in the infirmary bed, in an empty ward. He would look dead, if it wasn't for the worryingly slight signs of his breathing.

I gazed at his thin body. Unconsciously, I drifted forward, towards Edmund's bedside. I stood next to him, staring at his limbs, staring at his torso buried under thick linen covers. Now, under close observation, I saw that he has lightly muscled arms, speckled with a just a hint of black hair. His torso and legs are covered by the sheets. I pulled them back curiously.

I studied his body, encased in pyjamas. I bit my lower lip without knowing it. And then I pulled the covers over my brother and walked away.

I walked towards the solid oak doors at the north end of the infirmary. They are edged with carvings. It depicts Narnia how it was before the White Witch's cruel reign; beautiful, filled with 'mythical' creatures, happy and bountiful. These doors in this castle must date back to King Frank's and Queen Helen's time. Edmund would've loved to know that, being the little bookworm that he is. I shall tell him, when he wakes up…

As I reached the doors, they opened. Susan, my least favourite sister, rushed into the ward, with Lucy close on her heels. The entire royal court followed them anxiously.

"Oh, Peter! Is he alright?" Lucy's anxious face, flushed from the effort of running from the throne room to the infirmary, gazed up at me.

Susan, wringed her hands together, muttered fitfully to herself. "Oh, this is my fault; I should've made him stop! I shouldn't have made him promise, what was I thinking? I knew he would just disobey me, but what could I do? Oh, Edmund!" she wailed.

I stared at her. Things were falling into place in my head; I was thinking furiously.

"You mean – you knew about what he was doing?" I couldn't bring myself to say those words. I could feel myself building up to a shouting match.

Susan nodded. Her eyes were wide and fearful.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

I was shaking with anger. My hands were bunched into fists, and my knuckles were turned white.

"We could've stopped this - months ago! He wouldn't be lying there, with no blood in his body, while he fights off death!" I screeched at Susan. Lucy, ignoring our fight, unbuckled the cordial from its leather holder, and ran towards Edmund. She frantically un-stoppered it, and like that moment so many years ago on the battlefield, she poured it carefully into his mouth. A little colour returned to his pallid cheeks. His breathing comes easier. Lucy visibly relaxed.

I and Susan stood our ground. You could've seen the tension crackle between us. We stood in the centre of the infirmary, five feet apart, while Edmund lies in a white linen bed, with Lucy crouched next to him; she looked so scared, but yet so defiant.

"Why didn't you tell me?" My voice was low, menacing. I stepped forward, my eyes never leaving hers.

"Because I promised." Susan lifted her chin defiantly, but the quaver in her voice betrayed her.

I was too furious to say anything. A red mist descended before my vision. I cannot believe that my sister's honour was compromised before my brother's health – did it really matter that much?

I turned to the masses of on-looking courtiers. I had enough rational thought left to send them away from any court scandals.

"Out!" I commanded, pointing at the corridor. They scurried away from the wrath of their High King, leaving Susan to brave it alone. I struggled to contain my anger. I was livid; fuming. Strolling over to a broad window under the pretence of casualness, I deliver the first verbal barb in this war.

"Tell me, Susan, what matters the most; the life of your younger brother, or your honour?"

Susan glared at me in disbelief and indignation. Her plump pink lips were twisted into an unattractive grimace, and her eyes were steely. But I looked harder into her eyes, and I saw a deep, churning ocean of hurt, and betrayal. This cleared my mind, just a bit: but I couldn't stop.

"I can't believe that you didn't tell us! I can't believe that you would let him do that, and not try to stop him! I just can't believe it!" I exploded lividly. "Just because you promised not to tell us!"

Susan, trembling, opened her mouth hesitantly.

"Don't you dare defend yourself! Don't even dare!" I shrieked at her. "You would let him die!"

Susan cowered under my onslaught. She looked terrified; but I also saw a resigned expression mixed with hurt. Through my haze of anger, and I realise now, hatred, I felt hands wrap around my upper arms. I barely felt them. I shook them away, like I would bat away flies on a hot summer's day.

Then, I heard a cry behind me. The voice is desperate and heartbreakingly moving. I can hear the sadness woven into every syllable.

"Peter, stop!"

This voice cuts across my infuriated mind. It drained all of my anger from me. My shoulders relaxed, my knuckles and hands flattened out. I blinked my eyes and the magenta mist turns to red, then pink, then it disappears. The fight, the raw anger that pushed me on vanished into itself until it became a tiny ball in the centre of my chest. I can still feel it; it's volatile, like a volcano.

Lucy moved round into my vision. She looked petrified, but still she moved to Susan's side and embraced her. Lucy buried her tear-stained face in Susan's waist. Susan hugged her back, but maintained eye contact with me.

I saw betrayal in her crystalline blue eyes. I saw hurt, and anger, and disgust.

But I also saw hope. And understanding.

Maybe, just maybe, I would be forgiven. And maybe, just maybe, I would forgive her.

Susan turned. She swept out of the infirmary with Lucy dragging at her skirts.

I am left alone.

Well. I think that was my longest chapter so far!!

Word-count for this chapter: 1,043

I wrote this chapter in a different tense, so I apologise for any mistakes.

I don't think that was terribly brilliant. I'll probably say that every chapter, but oh well.

I'm definitely going to carry on with this story now. I have it allllllll planned out, heheheheh…

~PearlsOfWisdom

(Yes, I changed my name. I'll probably change it again to pearlsofweird, my LJ name. You can friend me on there if you have an account too!)