Daughter of Eve, Niece of Thomas
By JalendaviLady
Timeline: A few days post-The Last Battle and beyond.
Disclaimer: The movies belong to Walden Media and the books belong to the current holders of the C. S. Lewis's estate.
Note: I am going to try to do pairs of one current Susan and one flashback chapter released fairly back to back. I am a couple of chapters ahead right now but may be slow posting them simply to not end up with a giant time gap again thanks to Real Life.
Chapter 6: Tower
Five weeks in, High King Peter had taken an army into the Narnian woods to root out whatever bits might have been left of the White Witch's own forces.
Young Queen Lucy was in what passed for school in Narnia, which meant she, Gertlus, and any other court youngsters sitting down on the rocks beside the beach learning Narnian history, and how not to anger a centaur, and all those other things Mr. Tumnus was quietly telling her older siblings as needed.
Queen Susan spent her days seeing to the basic running of Cair Paravel. She'd had to help their mother around the house back in England, and she thought she was figuring out what she was doing fairly well given the circumstances.
Which left King Edmund up in the throne room with Mr. Tumnus at his side, sorting through grievances and basic court politics.
Susan was walking through the corridors after a long day of sorting through this and that and what room might be usable for the school on days when it rained. Lucy was long ago in bed; Peter and Susan had both insisted that the youngest Pevensies keep to some sort of royal bedtime, for their own sakes.
She wandered up towards the high towers. The night sky was still so unfamiliar that she knew she needed to just sit under it from time to time, just to get used to it.
Edmund was already there, looking over the edge at the sea far below.
"Ed, be careful. And aren't..."
"I couldn't sleep. You and Peter aren't the only ones who need time to think."
She walked over to him. She thought he'd been crying recently, but she couldn't tell for sure. "About what?"
"Everything. Everyone. 100 years of ignored slights all at once." He leaned heavily on the stonework. "And they all expect me to be able to fix it. Even Peter expects me to fix it."
"Personally, I think they're mostly all glad someone bothers to listen and is trying to set things right at all. Especially after what we have all just gone through."
"It is not that simple, Su." He looked up at the stars.
It felt like a cold breeze whipped over the castle then. "You're worried they will find out exactly what deal Aslan had to make."
He looked down and nodded.
"Aslan trusted you to do this."
"He's not the one arguing over what happens to land inherited from people who were turned into statuary."
Susan flinched.
"Everyone in the country is hurting, one way or another."
Clicking on the steps. "I am deeply sorry to intrude, your majesties, but the night is half gone."
"Thank you for the reminder." Susan smiled at Mr. Tumnus.
"King Edmund?"
"Yes?"
Hooves clicked nervously on the stonework. "We know."
Edmund's face was blanched white in the moonlight. A second later, he started trembling.
"The trees have ears, your highness. And the beeches are indeed gossips."
"Well, that's that." Susan patted her brother on the shoulder. "It's foolish to worry about something that already happened."
"And now nobody is going to trust me again, Susan. And Peter's how far away with the army right now?"
"I must beg your pardon again, but I think you both have misunderstood me."
"You don't need to beg pardon from me, ever." A little color had returned to his face. "What do you mean?"
"The trees are gossips. The word was traveling through the camp as we were marching to war, and it's been traveling through all Narnia since then. I suspect that it spread with the news the High King was gathering an army to cleanse the wood, if not before." More clicking. "So it appears to me that everyone coming to you for judgment, King Edmund, knows what happened. Perhaps even in detail. And yet they accept your decisions as valid. No one is waiting until High King Peter returns."
Edmund sat down on a stonework bench, clearly dumbstruck. Susan sat beside him.
Mr. Tumnus turned to walk down the stairs again, took a few steps, and then turned to face them again. "And if it matters to you, as it does to me, I knew when I accepted these from you." He tapped the end of one of his horns as it glinted in the starlight.
They both sat in silence until they could not longer hear his hooves.
"Ed?"
He turned to look at her.
"You need sleep. I need sleep. There are things to be done tomorrow."
He nodded.
She wrapped an arm around her brother's shoulders and they walked downstairs together.