A/N: Once more, special thanks to all reviewers!!! I would be in a sorry state if you didn't take the time to leave a note of encouragement. ;)

--Chapter 11: Arrest--

Windmane positively refused to let me leave the infirmary—or even my bed—the next morning no matter how hard I begged and implored her otherwise.

"I'm fine!" I cried. "Honestly! Look! I'm awake! And I'm not tired anymore! There's work to be done! A murderer to catch! Peter's courtship to spoil!"

I winced as Windmane gave me The Look.

I knew I shouldn't have said that last one out loud.

"What if I order you to let me leave?"

Windmane gave me a cool look and glanced at the door.

"Then I would beg your pardon and reply that the High King's orders are to disregard yours."

I scowled and glared at the wall to my right. Blast. Peter would have told her that. He was as irritatingly protective as Susan—just in a different way. But as I lay there, incredibly awake and ready to rise and having nothing else to do, I decided to run over the facts again.

Irwin had to be the murderer. I was certain of it. After all, the 'fair' Iliea might be able to pretend to swoon at my brother, but surely she didn't have the stomach to poison someone in cold blood. Did she? And then there was Ther…he had been behind Iliea, newly arrived in our company. Surely both Iliea and Lord Irwin's attentions would have been on him from the moment he walked up. And Irwin could have done it so easily. Simply poison his wine beforehand and then switch glasses somehow.

I wondered briefly if Corin had been in on it, perhaps bribed to draw me away so Irwin would have time to switch the glasses, but then dismissed the thought as the last remains of my delirium from the previous night.

Something was nagging at my mind, though. Something that had to do with waking up. I had remembered just this morning, right before I opened my eyes. Voices. Someone had been speaking to someone else right before Lucy healed me with her cordial. Two voices, one chastising the other for something. I closed my eyes and tried to remember just what the voices had said.

"Stop that noise at once."

That wasn't it.

"There. He'll be all right now."

Impossible.

"Idiot. That's the wrong one."

"My apologies. It was my fault entirely."

That's it.

My eyes snapped open. The second speaker, the one who had apologized, had been Lord Irwin. There was no mistaking his thick, Calormene accent. And the apology…the 'wrong one' must have been me. He was apologizing, admitting it was his fault, for poisoning me instead of…Peter! Of course! It all made sense now! I had suspected it was Irwin, of course, but this was proof!

I was out of the bed and halfway to the door before Windmane could turn around. She began to protest, but I was at the door by the time she could get anywhere near me, and by the time she reached the door I was already gone. I raced down the corridors, wondering where I could find Peter, or—even better—Lord Irwin. Turning one corner, I almost knocked down Peridan, the Captain of the Royal Guard.

"Peridan! Just the man I wanted to see! Has Irwin been apprehended yet? He hasn't escaped, has he?"
Peridan gave me a strange look.

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed, Sire? You should be getting rest after last night."

I grimaced and looked away for a fraction of a second. Had Peter gotten to everyone?

"There's no time for rest now. Not when Narnia's safety hangs in the balance by a thread."

"Sire?"

I leaned forward, glancing over my shoulder, and then spoke slowly.

"Has Peter questioned Lord Irwin?"

Peridan shook his head slowly, watching me like I was some kind of wild beast that might bolt at any moment.

"Nay, my lord. Nor did he give any order to detain him. Are you certain you're all right? You have a wild look in your eyes."

I tried to look a little less wild, but probably failed miserably. I always ended up looking rather wild when I was excited.

"Take a few men and escort Lord Irwin to the throne room. Search his quarters. I'll go get Peter and bring him as soon as I can convince him I'm not about to die."

"Sire?"

I shook my head and put a hand on my hip, right where my sword hilt should have been. But Susan had insisted that it wasn't very diplomatic to wear swords to fancy dress balls or feasts, so Peter and I had left ours in our rooms. I hadn't had time to find it, since Darm had escorted me directly to the infirmary. I let out another sigh as I felt the absence of its weight by my side.

"Blast. I can't very well go tearing around the castle searching for a murderer without a weapon, can I?"

"Sire?"

Peridan was watching me with a very strange look on his face. I bit my tongue and realized that I'd been voicing my thoughts, something extremely uncharacteristic of me.

"Bring Irwin to the throne room. I'll have Peter there as soon as possible."

With that, I turned and began walking as quickly as I could toward my chambers, leaving Peridan staring after me, very likely quite confused and skeptical as to whether I was in my right mind or not. Even I wasn't quite certain on that point.

My chamber was half-way across the courtyard from the infirmary, so I decided to cut through the Apple Orchard, the one where I'd first met Corin but a few days before. Passing through, I caught sight of Corin and Fio. Fio was juggling, and Corin was sitting under one of the trees, laughing and trying to juggle a few apples—and failing rather miserably, I might add. I felt a tug at my heart, and hesitated, longing to join them, but knowing I couldn't. My mission was of the essence. Before I could get away, however, Corin saw me.

"Edmund!" he shouted, leaping to his feet and bounding toward me. "They wouldn't let me see you in the infirmary, and Windmane said you'd be in bed all day. Did you fight your way out? Are you all right? What happened at the ball, and why won't anybody tell me what's going on?"

I gently pushed Corin aside and kept walking. He followed.

"No, yes, I was poisoned, and I'm not sure. And you say grownups ask too many questions."

Corin halted when I mentioned the poison. It was so sudden that I stopped too, and looked back at him. His face was white, and there was a sick, almost frightened expression on his face.

"Poisoned? Like that boy in the kitchen?"

I nodded, but then shrugged, wondering what was the matter with him.

"Yes. I'm all right now, though. Lucy's cordial took care of that…I say, is something the matter?"

Fio approached from behind and put a hand on Corin's shoulder. She gave me a chastening look, though I wasn't sure why. Corin swallowed, and then breathed in deeply.

"Nothing's the matter. We were worried about you all morning. That's all," the prince said quickly, grinning halfheartedly. "Want an apple?"

I shook my head.

"No-o. Regrettably I'm in a hurry. I can't play today, Corin. Perhaps later, all right?"

Corin nodded, and then Fio gave him a gentle push back toward the Orchard.

"I'll be back in a second, Corin. I'm going to walk with Edmund for a minute."

Corin gave her a curious look, but then nodded.

"All right. But if you're gone for more than five minutes I'm going to come looking for you."

I began walking hurriedly toward the other side of the Orchard. Fio kept pace with me, and after a moment, I asked, "Was it just me or was Corin behaving strangely?"

Fio sighed and shook her head.

"It was the mention of poison. King Lune warned everyone not to tell him about it, but I guess you wouldn't have heard."

"Why on earth? Did he think it would be too traumatic for Corin or something of that sort? He was there when the first incident happened. Come to think of it he acted rather strangely then, too."

Fio gave me a look.

"You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"King Lune's wife—Corin's mother—was killed by a deadly poison in the hands of a power-hungry madman."

Understanding suddenly dawned. My pace faltered for the slightest of seconds, and then I continued on, staring straight ahead.

"Oh. I see."

Fio gave me another look.

"'Oh. I see'? That's all you've got to say?"

"What should I say?" I asked, giving her an apologetic look. "Corin obviously doesn't want to discuss it at the moment, and I've got to find Peter or we'll never catch this murderer!"

Fio didn't speak. I turned to look at her, and saw that her face was dark with anger.

"All right, then. Go find your murderer. It's not as though Corin needs you or anything."

I began to protest, but she cut me off with a glare.

"You know that he calls you his brother, don't you? The brother he never had? And that he practically worships the ground you walk on?"

I shook my head wordlessly, at a loss in my surprise. I really did want to go and talk Corin out of this mess I'd gotten him into. If King Lune had warned everyone not to mention the poison, then it must be a pretty serious thing indeed to the prince. But what was more important, I wondered: comforting Corin, or saving him and his other parent from a deadly murderer? The answer was painfully obvious. Besides, I could always speak with him after we apprehended Lord Irwin.

"I'm sorry, Fio," I said to the girl, stopping before an archway and putting a hand on her arm. "I'll go and find him and sort out this whole thing—right after we put this murderer behind bars. Theoretically speaking, of course."

Fio's glower continued for another moment, but at last she looked down and sighed.

"Do as you wish, King Edmund. But don't forget about Corin in all this. He needs an older brother more than anything else. Especially since said older brother was almost killed the same way as his mother was."

I nodded with a sort of hidden grimace at the idea of being any sort of relation to my dear troublemaking prince of a friend, and then turned.

"If you'll excuse me, Fio. I'll find you and Corin later; I promise! Look after him for a while, will you?"

"Of course I will," she replied sharply. "Someone's got to watch out for him when there's a murderer loose."

I winced at the fierce note in her voice and began striding off toward my chambers again. As I rounded the corner of the archway, I nearly crashed into Princess Iliea. She let out a little scream, jumping back, and the color drained from her face as if she'd just seen a ghost.

"I'm sorry to frighten you, milady," I apologized, bowing clumsily and stepping around her. "I'm afraid I'm rather in a hurry."

"No trouble, King Edmund. I…I'm pleased to see you looking…so well," I heard her voice answer from behind me, sounding strangely flustered.

But, as I had told the princess, I was in a hurry and had no time to wonder about her tone of voice. At last, I reached my bedchamber. My sword was lying just where I'd left it, stretching across my bed, long and slender and beautiful to my eyes.

As I strapped it on with smooth, familiar motions that I'd used so often my hands needed little prompting, I sighed in relief, feeling secure now that my weapon was by my side. Secure, not only against my enemies that might be lurking in the shadows of Cair Paravel, but also against Peter, and whoever else would challenge my being out of bed.

Armed and feeling whole again, I departed from my chambers and began searching for my elder brother. Luckily, I had not far to go, for turning a corner on my way to the throne room (the likeliest place to find him), I nearly knocked him down such was the force of our collision.

"Peter!"

My brother stared at me like I was a ghost (just as Iliea had), and then frowned fiercely as his eyes flickered to my sword.

"Edmund, what are you doing out of bed? I specifically told Windmane that you were not—"

I held up a hand and stopped his flow of reprimands in the hopes that my news would make him forget about my escape.

"Peter, I have proof that Irwin is the murderer."

As I had hoped, this statement made Peter freeze in the middle of his next sentence.

"What?"

I began walking toward the throne room, and, just as I'd expected, Peter followed.

"I'll tell you about it when we get there. I sent Peridan to arrest him and bring him to the throne room. They'll be there soon."

"But Ed…"

I stopped and turned back to look at my brother. He had a worried look in his eyes, and I groaned inwardly. Surely he wouldn't press the case now. Not when there was so much to be done.

"Peter, I'm fine. I promise. Forget about the poison. As long as Lucy's handy, we needn't worry overly about anything of that sort."

Peter raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"I wasn't worried about you, Ed. It's your hasty accusation of Lord Irwin. I wish you'd come to me before sending Peridan to arrest him. What if you're wrong? This could create a diplomatic disaster!"

My heart plummeted for a half-second as I wondered. What if I was wrong? Surely my speculation wasn't proof enough to charge a man with murder. But then, I recalled the way he glared at me and Peter, and remembered the words I had heard as I awakened. I just knew that it was him.

"I'm not wrong, Peter. It's Irwin. I'm sure of it."

Peter nodded slowly, and then shrugged, resting his hand on his sword hilt and beginning toward the throne room with a determined stride.

"Well, if you're sure. I'm sorry I'm being so dogmatic about this, Ed, but…" he paused, and then shrugged again. "I just can't bear to see an innocent man condemned as guilty."

"He's not innocent," I argued, walking quickly to keep up with my older brother's long stride. "Just wait. You'll see."

TBC………