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Chapter 15

Behind Walls of Stone

Sound was everywhere. Overwhelming, moving sound that ricocheted off of the walls and into the crevasses of Cara's burning head. She could see the blurred image of Alvaro struggling yards away, his high pitched shrieks and stomping hooves adding to the madness of her overwhelming dream.

Small patches of light filtered through the gaps of the wooden doors; the beams exposing the floating dirt and dust whirled around by Alvaro's struggling body. Cara tried to focus her eyes on the bodies that moved around her, but they were quick and shadowed by dark armor. Feeling a small trickle of sensation run down the side of her cheek, Cara attempted to lift her shaky fingers towards her head. She met resistance. Coarse rope rubbed against her aching flesh, the thick twine cutting deeper into her skin.

Trying to avoid the darkness that threatened to engulf her, Cara opened her eyes wide and searched the room. The outlines were skewed, but with steady concentration the High Queen was able to distinguish four soldiers attempting to quiet Alvaro, while many others lined the walls. One of them she recognized. His face was barren of any helmet or armor, and his eyes shown with a sadness that seemed to be lacking in all the others. Cara searched her memory for the man that looked at her with kindness—searched her memory for the reason why she was now tied to a chair and bleeding profusely.

It all happened quickly. Cara reached the front courtyard only moments before the gate fell onto the back of Asterius and crushed him into the ground. Then arrows began to pour from the skies, killing Telmarines as well as Narnians. Soldiers crammed against each other as they rushed to the sides of the courtyard, their fists banging against the now closed gates.

Cara pulled Alvaro towards the one archway that was wide enough to house the two of them, but soldiers were fighting for its protection as well, their swords keeping Cara from entering the small area. Lacking any sort of protection, arrows pierced her instantly, their sharpened ends diving deep into her shoulder and legs. Cara screamed in agony and fell forward, her eyes catching sight of those already dead upon the ground.

Alvaro reacted instantly to the cries of pain that escaped his Queen's mouth. With flattened ears he wheeled around and charged the Telmarines cowering under the archway. The men yelled in protest and fought to jab Alvaro's armor and legs, but the horse moved forward completely undeterred, his weight crashing into those before him. Soon Cara was beyond the reach of the arrows, but the soldiers around her continued their relentless attacks.

Gathering her quickly fleeing strength, Cara returned a counter attack, her sword moving around Alvaro's body. The horse fought as well, his massive body pressing soldiers against the stone walls and his hooves pushing others into the ground.

Finally the last soldier fell; his body crumbling under Alvaro's hind feet. Breathing heavily, Cara turned her eyes to the mass of death scattered across the courtyard. Narnians littered the ground, their blood and weapons mixing with those of the Telmarines who were not lucky enough to escape their own arrows. Cara's hands began to shake from both weakness and fear, her sword clanking against the hard stone as it slipped through her fingers. She watched in horror as her last comrade was slain by one final arrow. Soon silence spread across the castle, Cara and a few Telmarines the only survivors.

"Peter," Cara whispered as images of a bloodied High King entered her mind. Wildly, Cara urged Alvaro into the courtyard, the horse tripping over the dead that scattered the ground. With little thought, Cara slid from Alvaro's back and began to fumble over bodies, her eyes searching for any sign of Peter.

Above her Miraz and his men slipped from the balcony, all secure in the belief that no Narnians survived. With one last order to clean up the mess, Miraz returned to his chambers and entered his bed with little thought or worry concerning all that happened during the night.

As Cara searched through the mass of crumbled bodies, an ache began to burn through her body. Still pierced by an arrow, her shoulder became weak and heavy, while her legs pulsed with fatigue and pain. Struggling not to panic, Cara slumped into the ground and covered her face with her hands. The only bodies around her where those of Narnian soldiers, bringing peace to her mind that Peter was safe, but that peace was squashed by the realization that she was now alone, trapped within the barren stone walls of the Telmarine stronghold.

Overtaken by fatigue and dizzy from her wounds, Cara collapsed completely onto the ground and closed her eyes. Blood trickled from her shoulder and leg, its loss causing weakness to overwhelm her. Alvaro stood beside his Queen as darkness gripped her mind and pulled her into a world filled with distant sounds and blurry light.

Nearly two hours passed before the soldiers made their way to where Cara had fallen. Alvaro was now lying beside her, his body and breathing nearly as quiet as his Queen's. Working slowly, the Telmarines grabbed bodies and flung them into carts, collecting weapons and armor as they went. Alvaro watched them intently, his eyes moving quietly back and forth from behind his armor.

The horse remained perfectly still until two soldiers moved to grab Cara. Both men jumped back in surprise as Alvaro clamored to his feet and stood defensively before them. Their alarm lessoning, the soldiers made their way back to Cara's body. Alvaro shook his head in protest and pawed the ground before him.

"He's a jumpy one," the Telmarine closest to Cara said with a slight laugh.

"Well if we don't get a handle on him, we won't be able to chuck the rest of the bodies," the other responded as he eased towards Alvaro. The horse reacted instantly, his hooves lunging towards the soldier in an attempt to push him back. Stumbling backwards the soldier let out a small cry, which caused his companion to let out another deep laugh.

"Too much for you?" he asked as he continued to laugh. With a glare the other soldier turned and called for more to come and help. Soon Alvaro was surrounded by five Telmarines, all attempting to gain control of the unruly horse as he continued to rear and avoid their grasp.

During the struggle, Cara began to wake from her semiconscious state, the outside noises delving into her dreams and pulling her from the darkness. As her mind grasped hold of the world around her, the burning pain from her wounds shot into her conscious. Cara let out a deep moan of agony and attempted to roll away from her aching shoulder.

"We got a live one," the Telmarine closest to her yelled as he pulled his sword from its sheath and poked her with it.

"Just finish it off," a distant voice responded.

"It's not an it," the first soldier responded as Cara rolled and exposed her feminine face to the man. "It's a her."

"Is it a Narnian?" the soldier shot back in a harsh tone.

"Well, yeah," came the reply.

"The kill it!"

The soldier closest to Cara shot the other a glare before rolling the Queen flat on her back and raising his sword into the air. Cara's eyes struggled to open as the arrow in her shoulder punched deeper into her flesh and a bout of nausea ran through her at the new sensation of pain.

"Wait!" a voice called just as Cara's eyes were able to focus on the blade above her. She watched with shallow breaths as the blade disappeared from view and a new soldier towered above her. His voice was soft and commanding as he gave orders to those around him. Cara attempted to remain conscious as she felt her body being lifted and moved, but her mind quickly began to fade until all she could hear was Alvaro's panicked calls and all she could see was the warmth of the brown eyes that danced above her.

They were the same eyes that were now watching her intently from across the room. Cara's stared back, her dark pools pleading silently for him to free her hands. The soldier pulled his gaze quickly away and placed it on the still fighting Alvaro, causing Cara's chest to swell with lost hope and fear. Still moving in a daze, the High Queen glanced around the chamber, her eyes brimming with small tears and her body shaking with fatigue and pain.

The sound of a distant door banging opened caused Cara's eyes to snap back to where the soldier stood. Now beside him was a tall man with broad shoulders and a stern, dark face. He watched Cara with a smirk as she attempted to lift her head fully and look at him.

"Who is she?" the man questioned those around him.

The soldier that saved Cara stepped forward and nodded his head in respect. "She wears the armor of a royal, your Highness. I thought you might wish to bestow your gratitude upon her," he answered softly. Cara watched the man, whom she could only guess to be Miraz, step towards her. She lifted her chin in defiance as he stopped before her, his mouth turned in a look of disgust. Saying nothing, he sank to his knees until his eyes were level with hers. "Your people will die," he whispered as he moved closer to her face, "just as you are about to."

With a small sneer, he stood to his full height and walked until he was standing behind the chair that Cara was tied to. "This is what we are dealing with," Miraz said to his men. "Barbarians that send women into battle. Feeble. Sad. Weak women," he continued as he clutched the arrow still in Cara's shoulder and ripped it backward. Cara screamed in agony and attempted to keep the bile in her stomach from spilling onto the floor.

Too weak to cry, she fell forward, her teeth gripping tightly to her bottom lip. The soldier with kind eyes watched the scene silently, his face trying to hide the disgust that bubbled in his chest.

"My Lord," the soldier said suddenly.

"What Glozelle?" Miraz asked as he walked in front of Cara and made his way towards the door.

"Might I try to expel some information from her?" he responded after a moment of silence. Miraz looked back at Cara, his mind working its way around Glozelle's question.

"Very well," he finally answered. "Inform me of any news, and get that ridiculous animal under control," he finished as he gestured to the fighting form of Alvaro. Glozelle bowed as Miraz marched from the room and out of sight.

"Untie her," Glozelle ordered two soldiers.

"General?" a soldier asked with hesitation.

"Do it," he responded. "Then leave us alone." The soldiers watched their General in silence before moving quickly to Cara and cutting her arms and legs free from the tight rope. She fell forward immediately, her shaky hands barely catching her body before it hit the ground. Soon she and the Telmarine general were left alone in the vast room. Alvaro still moved about with agitation as he tried to push his way through the wood that enclosed him, but his struggles subsided as he watched Glozelle inch slowly towards his Queen.

Cara flinched away from Glozelle's hands as he reached down towards her. "If you wish, I can leave you here to die on the dirtied floor of your enemy's barn, or you can allow me to tend to your wounds and try to think of a way for you to escape," he explained in a tense voice. After a moment of silence he reached towards Cara again.

This time she did not attempt to move away.

BBBBBB

Lucy stumbled forward and out of the How. Walking towards her were Peter and Caspian, both wearing fowl expressions. Behind them was a pitiful number of Narnians, all looking as forlorn and lost as their two leaders. The young Queen moved her eyes quickly over the group, her mind instantly taking note that Edmund and Cara were missing.

"What happened?" she asked Peter softly, fear rising in her chest.

"Ask him," Peter responded immediately as he gestured towards Caspian.

"Peter," Susan interjected, her voice filled with fatigue and her shoulders slumped forward in defeat.

"Me?" Caspian asked as he looked to Peter disbelievingly. "You could have called it off; there was still time," he continued as Peter turned towards him and stopped walking.

"No there wasn't thanks to you," Peter shot back in an even tone. "If you'd kept to the plan, those soldiers—Cara," he choked out, "might still be alive." Lucy covered her mouth at Peter's words, and her heart restricted in her chest.

"And if you'd just stayed here—like we both suggested—they definitely would be," Caspian replied, his voice rising with each word. Peter glared back at the Prince, his mind and heart refusing to admit that the deaths lay upon his shoulders.

"Cara trusted my judgment and followed my orders. If you had done the same Miraz would be dead and Narnia would not have lost her High Queen," Peter shouted back.

"This isn't even about the soldiers," Caspian said with a huff.

"Then what is it about?" Peter asked in defiance, his eyes drilling into the Prince.

"This is about her—her and your inability to admit that her blood is on your hands— not the hands of any Telmarine," Caspian explained.

Peter's heart clenched at Caspian's words, the truth behind them drilling directly into his core. "Cara knew what this entailed," Peter finally responded.

"She knew exactly what this entailed," Caspian agreed. "That is precisely why she thought we should stay within the walls of the How," he quickly added.

"You called us, remember?" Peter responded as he stepped closer to Caspian.

"My first mistake," Caspian replied, his face filled with us much hate as Peter's.

"No," Peter said with a bitter laugh as he turned to walk away. "Your first mistake was thinking you could lead these people."

"Hey," Caspian shouted at Peter's back causing the High King to whip around. "I am not the one who abandoned Narnia." Peter's face grew red at Caspian's words, his heart beating with anguish.

"You invaded Narnia," he said as he walked back towards Caspian. "You have no more right to be here than Miraz does," Peter continued as Caspian pushed passed him and towards the How. "You. Him. Your father. Narnia is better off without the lot of you!"

Caspian stopped suddenly and pulled his sword from its sheath. Reacting instantly, Peter gripped Rhindon and met Caspian's blade in mid air as it swung towards him.

"Stop it!" Edmund's voice said from behind Peter. Lucy tore her gaze from Peter and Caspian and allowed it to land on the rumpled form of Edmund as he jumped down from the back of a griffon. Peter turned at the voice as well, hoping rising in his heart that Edmund had returned with news of Cara.

Lucy pushed passed Peter as she made her way quickly towards Edmund, her arms wrapping tightly around his torso once she reached him. "Hey," he said softly as he hugged his sister back. "Someone needs your help." Lucy pulled back instantly and watched with wide, worried eyes as Glenstorm lowered Trumpkin softly to the ground.

Working quickly, Lucy pulled her cordial from her belt and popped open the golden lid. After only one small drop, the eyes of the dwarf fluttered open. "What are ya'll standing around for," he asked as he looked into the faces of Edmund, Lucy, and Susan. "The Telmarines will be here soon enough."

Peter watched as Caspian turned on his heel and disappeared silently into the How with the figure of Nikabrik trailing behind him. With a sigh of frustration, Peter made his way quickly to Edmund. "Did you see anything," he asked softly. The young King did not need to speak, for the look in his eyes indicated that his last sweep over the castle was fruitless. Peter's body instantly felt cold. His eyes fell to the ground and his skin became clammy and pale. She was gone. It was over.

"Pete…" Edmund whispered as the High King moved away from the group and into the valley. Behind Peter Narnias began to step forth from the How, the sounds of their tears echoing in his mind. Soon sentences combining High Queen and dead reached him as well, the words making Cara's death frightening real.

Unable to control her tears any longer, Susan grabbed hold of Lucy and allowed a sob to escape her mouth. The young Queen followed suit, her small hands latching tightly onto her sister's dirtied gown.

"She just disappeared," Trumpkin said from beside Edmund as he watched the despair unravel around him.

"Sorry?" Edmund asked in confusion. Trumpkin let out a small sigh before turning towards the King.

"We were near the bridge controls when she just vanished. She wasn't actin right the entire night, her eyes all unfocused and her fighting sloppy. Then she just…poof," he explained as he gestured with his hands. Edmund watched silently as the dwarf left his side and made his way into the How with Lucy and Susan following close behind.

While running his hand through his unruly dark hair, Edmund turned to Peter, who now sat near the middle of the valley, his golden head gleaming just above the tall grass and swaying flowers. As Edmund watched his brother stare unseeingly into the distance, he could not help but fear Peter's will to fight died along with Cara.

BBBBBB

"Why are you doing this?" Cara asked softly as Glozelle tended to her aching shoulder. She was lying on her stomach with a small blanket under her and her back completely exposed. The general's hands were unwavering as they cleaned the blood from her back and tended to her wounds.

Cara's question was the first time the general ever heard her speak, and the innocence of her voice caused the general to freeze his actions and advert his eyes from her naked skin. After a long moment of silence, Glozelle returned to his work and spoke with a calm, warm voice. "I was given the order to murder Caspian the night the Lady Prunaprismia gave birth."

"Yet he fled before you managed to accomplish your given task," Cara added when silence once again enveloped the room.

"He would be dead…" Glozelle whispered, his voice trailing off at the end.

"I am atonement, then," Cara said softly to herself. Glozelle said nothing in response, his hands working expertly as he wrapped Cara's shoulder in a tight bandaged and began to clean the blood away from her calf and thigh. Although the arrow was now broken, fragments of wood remained deep in her thigh and trickles of blood oozed out the side. Glozelle crouched beside Cara, his upper body holding her still as his fingers worked their way into the wound.

Attempting to ignore the pain, Cara buried her head into the crevasses of her arms and bit down onto her exposed flesh. Waves of heat and nausea washed over her body creating beads of sweat to form upon her forehead and along her hair. Small tears trickled from her eyes as her body began to shake with pain. "Peter," she whispered, his image the last figure she was able to latch onto before her mind gave into the pain and darkness overtook her.

Cara awoke to Glozelle gazing down above her. "You must get up," he whispered and wrapped his arms tightly around her back. Cara winced as her shoulder moved forward under the general's fingers. "Your wounds are bandaged, but all exposed skin still wears dried blood and bruises. Miraz approaches and it must look as if I have interrogated you," he explained as he lifted Cara from the ground and back into the chair. Sweat continued to streak her face as her stomach constricted due to the unwavering haze that surrounded her.

Glozelle moved away from her just as Miraz entered the barn trailed by a small group of men. His eyes swept over Cara before landing on the quiet form of Alvaro, his back free of his golden armor. With a small smirk, he turned his dark eyes to Glozelle and nodded in appreciation.

"I hear you were as successful with the wench as you were with the horse," he said as he began to walk towards Cara, who was now bent over in pain and attempting not to vomit.

"Your Highness," Glozelle answered with a small bow. "Lords," he continued as he nodded to the other men in the room. "Their only stronghold is that mound of rock only a few miles from the river, which is far from defensible. Because of this, they plan to form another attack on the castle, this time with full numbers."

Miraz laughed at Glozelle's words and looked to Cara. "This is your plan, little Queen?" he asked before turning to the men behind him. "Let us surprise them this time. Let us trap them in their stone mound—a perfect tomb." The men looked to each other before returning their eyes to Miraz and nodding.

"We support your decision," a small, measly man in the front answered. "You're Majesty." Miraz smiled smugly and looked to Alvaro.

"The horse is yours," he said softly to Glozelle. "For your good work." Glozelle nodded in thanks, his eyes looking to Cara before quickly returning to the King.

"And the girl?" he asked as Miraz turned to leave, which caused him to stop and took intently at Cara.

"Kill her and return the body. She can announce our arrival."

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