Requiem

"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her…She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life…Strength and honour are her clothing…She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness…Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."

~Proverbs 31:10-28

~o*o~

It was that night that King Lune threw a banquet.

Peter and Edmund were oblivious to the meaning of it, but Susan, Lucy and Deidre seemed to be skeaming and Emdund noticed. His fears were solidified when King Lune stood up and held his glass goblet aloft.

"A few months ago four children came into this land. Sadly one of them missed his fourteenth birthday. I declare a toast to Lord Edmund, may he have many more birthdays!"

King Lune drank the toast, then threw his goblet onto the floor and watched it shatter into a thousand sparking pieces.

The room was filled with cheering and Edmund turned red and tried to disapear. Then Susan and Lucy stood up, wispering to eatch other and unferling a banner. It was a beautiful banner, a royal blue ground and a white unicorn leaping across it.

Lucy steped forward, her hands clasped behind her back, "This unicorn symbolises wisdom, a proper banner for our just and noble brother."

Edmund would have gone completely beneth the table if Peter hadn't grabed him by his collar and made him stand. The room cheered again.

"Three cheers for Lord Edmund!" Peridan yelled, "hip hip horray!"

Edmund looked around widly, Peter was grinning.

"Hip hip horray!"

Susan was laughing.

"Hip hip horray!"

Lucy was so happy she couldn't make a sound.

~o*o~

"Wasn't that wonderful?" Lucy asked after they sat down.

Susan didn't answer. She had her eyes fixed on Deidre, the queen's face was pale and her fork had dropped unnoticed on her plate.

Susan stood up, walked over to her and whispered something in her ear. Deidre nodded, stood up and she and Susan left the great hall quietly. The king looked worriedly after them.

"What happened?" Lucy said, poking Edmund who was sitting next to her.

"What happened what?" Edmund asked, braking off a conversation with a faun across from him.

"Susan and Deidre," Lucy said, "Why did they leave?"

"Oh," Edmund looked after them, "nothing."

"But they must be doing something!" Lucy said, tugging his sleeve as he restarted his conversation with the faun.

She got no reply so she sat staring down at her plate, wondering.

"Peter?" Lucy asked, over Susan's empty chair, "Where'd they go?"

"Nowhere in particular," Peter said, "I suppose."

"You're all keeping something from me!" Lucy exclaimed. "What is it?"

Peter didn't answer; he was discussing swords with Martin.

A half hour later Lucy could bear the suspense no longer and bounced up from her chair, colliding with Clyte.

"Whoops, sorry, milady!" Clyte exclaimed; "Lady Susan asks that you get her cordial and bring it to the queen's chamber as quickly as possible."

Lucy ran, the urgency in Clyte's voice drove her on. She flew up the stairs, her hair flying, her gown sweeping behind her, her little shoes pattering on the hard marble. The hallway their room was off was dark and she nearly missed the door. Then she found it and burst into the room.

She stopped in the middle of the room, where was that cordial? She was the only other person that knew and now she had forgotten. She bit her lip and suddenly remembered.

Quickly she grabbed it from under Susan's pillow and ran back down the hallway to the queen's apartments.

When she reached the door, she knew something terrible had happened. The door was open, a beam of golden light lay across the floor. A maid stood in the shadows, crying softly. Lucy took one look at her and darted into the room.

Deidre lay on the bed, her eyes were closed and her face was white. Her beautiful brown hair threw the light like silk. Susan knelt next to her with the queen's hand in hers.

Wordlessly Lucy held out the cordial, but Susan shook her head.

"No," she whispered, "It's too late."

Lucy stared down at Deidre's peaceful face. Those beautiful eyes would never open again, that mouth would never laugh. The tears blurred Lucy's eyes and she knelt next to Susan.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, "it was all my fault, if I'd only been able to find it sooner…"

"No," Susan said, "it's not your fault, she was gone so soon."

Suddenly from behind her came a plaintive sound, like the bleating of a lamb. Lucy blinked the tears from her eyes and looked around.

A maid stood holding a new baby. In the corner was another maid holding another baby.

"What?" Lucy gasped, "I didn't know! Twins?"

"Yes," Susan said, "twins, both boys…she made me promise I'd watch over them."

Lucy, on tiptoe went to look at them.

One was asleep, but the other one looked at her seriously. They had downy hair, that was almost colorless, and big blue eyes. They did, Lucy thought, look like miniatures of King Lune through and through, but they had a Deidre look to them too, especially the younger one. He certainly thought there was no time like the present.

The very thought made Lucy cry again.

~o*o~

A grave was dug in the old burying ground outside of Anvard.

The funeral procession wound its way through the streets and the whole population watched them go and mourned with them for the young Queen who had been so beautiful and kind. They remembered her well. They remembered her at her wedding; the joy in the king's eyes. They remembered the year of the plague, when she had risked her own life to bring heeling to the sick. They remembered her when she rode through the streets to accompany her husband on the hunt. They remembered how she had driven down this same road at this same time in a white carriage on her wedding day.

Now she was dead.

The hearse bearing her rolled forward over the muddy road. It had been covered with black roses and six black horses pulled it. Their steps seemed too quick and light. Behind the hearse rode the king with his two brothers. Behind them, rode the four children.

All wore black, all were silent. The only sound to be heard was the rumble of many horse hooves and the soft weeping of the people who watched them go. The only flash of color was the bouquet of white lilies Lucy clutched.

Warm wind lifted the girls veils and blew them streaming aside like ghosts. Spring had arrived and just when life seemed the brightest, darkness had come. The trees were just tinged with green. The fields were tinted with bluebells and crocuses.

Her gravesite was surrounded with flowers.

The coffin was lowered down and King Lune knelt to crumble a handful of brown earth on it.

Equus bowed his head, "Earth to earth,"

Lucy scattered her handful of lilies and stepped back.

"Ashes to ashes,"

King Lune's shoulders were bowed.

"Dust to dust,"

Susan squeezed her eyes shut and remembered Deidre's two motherless sons.

"In sure and certain hope of the Resurrection into eternal life," Equus finished, throwing his grey head back and looking up towards heaven.

~o*o~

The two princes were named Cor and Corin and a week after they were born Equus blessed them.

"A day will come," he said as he looked at Cor, "that this boy will save Archenland from the deadliest danger in which ever she lay."

King Lune's eyebrows shot up and he looked enormously pleased.

"What will the danger be?" Lord Bar asked, he was there, despite all of Peter's warnings.

Equus looked up, "no one is ever told a story that is not his own. It is not for you to know."

Lord Bar's dark face darkened.

A/N This is very hard; to let go of this wonderful character. I've always felt very badly about King Lune's wife's death, but now that she has a personality and I've gotten to know her, it's even worse.

On a happier (or maybe sadder) note, the next chapter is the last of this story. The next, and last, story of the trilogy covering The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe will be coming right up.