I don't own Narnia or the Pevensies. After some thought, I've redone the end of this chapter.

The call was loud and startling, and even Lucy almost jumped when the horn's sound leapt out into the room, bright and clear and rich, but she held her composure and the note, forcing all the air she had into the neck of her sister's gift to sustain the sound. For a split second, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing, too stunned by the noise to continue. Then Valin suddenly screamed and wrenched away, and Lucy sprawled on the ground before him, completely exposed to attack from the swarm of guards near them.

Peter reached her before them, though, and she heard swords clash over her head before she had recovered her own dagger and slashed out from the floor at the nearest guard's feet.

Across the room, removed from the melee that the wedding guests were watching with much interest, Susan had reached the present table, while her entourage of guards clustered about unhelpfully behind her. She calmly pulled out the long silver box and reached into it, feeling for the handle of her bow and the arrow Lucy had readied for her. Peering over her shoulder, one of the guards hesitantly asked,

"What are you doing?"

"Stand back," she warned him.

"What?"

"Move!"

It was a command, and he obeyed hastily, which was the smart thing to do – a second later, the blade-tipped end of Susan's bow swung out into the space he'd occupied only a moment before, her fingers already flourishing the arrow into place, her arm stretching back and making the silver ribbons on her wedding gown flutter in the air. With a zing, she released it, a tilted shot that soared diagonally over the heads of the wedding guests, reached its peak and swiftly plunged into the mêlée on the dais.

Lucy heard the shot coming and could have shouted for happiness at the knowledge that her sister had joined the battle. The arrow had clearly been aimed for Valin, thus the arced shot, but there was no clean attack on him from such a distance and it struck a guard instead, felling him nearly on top of Lucy, who was still trying to regain her footing after falling down to blow the horn. Above her, Peter fought to overcome three guards and defend his baby sister as well as to attack Valin, as the Promise Potion forced his will to that end; his eyes were lit with a strange mix of battle wrath and the glassy glow of the Potion's hold.

Finally, rolling out of a dodge from the hack of a guard's sword, Lucy managed to pull herself up by an opponent's belt and join the fray. Her goal now was to prolong the fight and protect her family until the horn's help arrived, which she felt it must - the blast had been magic, she had felt that herself. To prolong the fight, they needed as many swords as they could get, and for that, she needed to heal Edmund, who still lay unconscious on the ground, forgotten in the guards' rush to stop Peter from attacking their king. And for that, she needed her cordial, which was currently on Valin's belt. Ducking under the swipe of another blade, she made for him, her short blade dancing among the guards, her swift feet keeping her out of harm's way for the most part.

But just before she could reach him, a blade sliced a swift path in front of her, and she jumped backwards only to feel a horrible pain explode in the back of her right leg. Crying out in pain, she stumbled backwards and nearly collapsed, saved only by her bumping into yet another guard, who shoved her away and raised his sword to strike only to find it blocked by Peter's. She tumbled to the ground in a haze of pain and confusion, with mayhem in her ears, unable to make out what was going on and feeling blood beginning to stain her skirts. Above her, a soldier swung his club and managed to clip Peter's head, sending him pitching forward into another, who threw him down to the ground and stamped on the wrist of his sword arm, pinning it to the ground cruelly. Valin had scrambled back out of all of their reaches. And just then, she realized just how mad this was – they were three ill-equipped warriors, facing hundreds of armored guards. Only a miracle had even kept them alive until now. Only a miracle would rescue them.

Back at the gift table, Susan fought to recover from the attack her first arrow had provoked – swarmed by guards, she used her weapon to the best of her advantage, but her bow was truly a long-range weapon even with its bladed tips, and they were beginning to overcome them. In desperation she ducked down to thrust the tip once more towards a guard, but missed the chink in his armor, instead hitting the steel plate, and he used the gap in her momentum to wrest the bow out of her hands and cast it aside. Moments later, she found herself wrenched upright, arms twisted behind her back painfully and forced to stand still as the guards picked themselves up off the ground.

The scene slowed. The wedding guests who had stood up to get a better view sat down. The rush of guards eased from a swarm to a trickle as they pulled all of their captives to their feet, leaving Edmund where he'd fallen on the dais, still face-down and motionless. Peter continued to struggle, the potion holding him to his word though the three guards who restrained him prevented him from keeping it. Two others wrenched Lucy to her feet and looked to their king for direction. And the room gradually fell near silent.

But not quite.

Two different kinds of footsteps were sounding into the room. One was the somewhat distant, insistent marching of a great crowd. Another was a single set of scrambling footfalls, and predictably, the page boy burst in once more, out of breath, jumping backwards in alarm at the reorganization of the room and the many fallen guards.

"Ah…Your Majesty?" he said uncertainly. Valin, who had opened his mouth to speak to the guards nearest him, shut it and looked up in impatience.

"What is it?" he growled.

"It's the wedding guests, sir, they've just come through the gate and they're headed into the castle. But…"

"Excellent," Valin said, cutting him off. "Then we shall save this last demonstration for when they arrive, and my wedding can at last begin."

"But Your Ma…"

"Silence!" Valin snapped. "Clear the bodies from the dais. Escort my feisty little bride back to her place. When I've finished with her brother, she shall process across his blood and we shall wed, and drink to a future of prosperity in her home country."

The marching of feet grew louder in the background as the guards shoved Susan forward, forcing her to move back towards the start of the white carpet and her place for the ceremony. Lucy was made to stand between two guards below the dais, where she could still see Peter and Valin, the former bleeding and defeated, the latter with his sword out and black eyes glinting hungrily. The remaining guards dragged the bodies of their compatriots out of the way, Edmund's with them; Lucy bit her lip anxiously, wondering if they might already be too late to save him. Or perhaps…she almost allowed herself the thought…perhaps it was finally too late, not just for him…but for all of them.

In the back of the room, the doors flew open, and a most unexpected battle cry filled the air:

"For Narnia! For the Lion!"