Caspian seemed to know what Alyssa meant for him to do. He walked over towards Miraz, Peter's sword at his side. Before he left, however, Peter made him stop. "Caspian, may I?"
"May you what?"
"Kill Miraz, of course."
"Why?"
Glaring at Miraz, Peter said, "For hurting Darby, of course. For hurting the love of my life."
Darby's eyes opened wide.
Alyssa intervened. "I love how you love my friend, Peter, but Caspian needs to do this. He needs to avenge his parents' deaths."
Peter thought about it for a moment, but he agreed to it. "Go on, then." Alyssa nodded her thanks and pushed Caspian forward.
He stumbled into the arena, but after that he seemed to gain strength. Miraz, though badly hurt, seemed like he still wanted to do single combat. So, Caspian obliged.
Their battle was rough. Miraz may have had a ton of sword experience, but Caspian had enough natural talent so they were evenly matched.
Finally, when Alyssa was about to jump in and defend Caspian (for she loved him so), Caspian sliced Miraz, and Miraz fell to his knees. Caspian seemed to hesitate, but only for a moment. He raised his sword, aiming it at Miraz's heart.
"Perhaps I was wrong," said Miraz. "Maybe you are like me after all." He hung his head.
Caspian let out a yell and plunged his sword into a random patch of grass in the arena by Miraz. Leaning low, Caspian talked to him. Though she couldn't hear him, Alyssa knew what he was basically saying.
"I will never be like you…Keep your life. But I am giving the Narnians back their kingdom."
He walked over to Alyssa and stood close to her. "Did you really want me to kill him?"
Looking up into his eyes, Alyssa said, "No." They began to close their eyes and move closer to each other…
"ALYSSA! CASPIAN!"
Caspian winced. Alyssa flipped around. "What, Mallory?"
"Miraz!"
The two flipped around and saw what Mallory and everyone else was seeing.
Miraz collapsed in the middle of the arena, an arrow sticking out of his side. His advisor stood behind him, looking both horrorstruck and triumphant. He flipped around to face the Telmarine soldiers. "TRAITOR! HE DIDN'T SPARE MIRAZ, HE KILLED OUR KING!" Rushing back to the soldiers with a few lords, the Narnians stood with their mouths open, completely taken aback by this event.
"EVERYONE, PREPARE!" yelled Peter. Caspian and Alyssa ran below the ground, where more Narnian soldiers were waiting. Maddie and Edmund drew their weapons, as did Logan and Mallory. Maddie and Mallory, having a crossbow and a bow and arrows, ran up to join Susan and the other archers. Darby pulled out her new sword and stood next to Peter. Griffins flew overhead, carrying boulders. Everyone was waiting for Peter's signal.
The Telmarine army was advancing. Peter was counting out loud while Darby was signaling to the griffins to fly over the Telmarine soldiers and drop their boulders.
The Telmarines, too, flicked boulders at them with the help of their catapults. The ground shook as everyone prepared for battle.
They had just called their cavalry, which was gaining on the Narnians by the second. The sound of the horses' foot beats could not be heard over the landings of the makeshift bombs.
Finally, when Peter reached ten, he yelled, "FOR NARNIA!" and took off. Darby followed him, along with Edmund and Logan.
At that same moment, the ground collapsed, causing hundreds of Telmarines and their horses to fall and struggle beneath the ruins. Susan gave the order, and all of the archers, including Maddie and Mallory, sent their arrows flying at the Telmarines. Needless to say, it worked.
Two openings on both sides of the mess of Telmarines appeared, and out came the other Narnians, with Caspian and Alyssa in the lead, both on horseback. Together, they, along with the Narnians following Peter, surrounded the fallen Telmarine cavalry and began to battle.
From up above, Mallory shot arrow after arrow, taking careful aim to not hurt anybody on their side. She tried to keep a close eye on Logan, but found it difficult in the midst of a battle.
Maddie was doing the very same thing as Mallory. Her entire body was getting quite sore from keeping her posture for so long. A couple of times she found her eyesight in little black dots, and she swayed on the spot. Trumpkin would then help keep her balance by holding onto her arm and telling her to close her eyes and unlock her knees; he really was such a Dear Little Friend.
Darby lost herself in the fighting. Over and over she sliced and hacked away at any Telmarine who dared to go near her.
Still on horseback, Alyssa too sliced and hacked at the Telmarines who approached her. She tried to make sure that all the Narnians were okay, but she couldn't protect everybody.
After several minutes (or perhaps it was only seconds) of fighting, more Telmarines began to march in on foot. Swearing, Darby looked around for Peter. When her eyes found his, understanding passed through them.
"RETREAT!" he bellowed. "BACK TO THE HOW!"
No Narnians dared to ignore his instructions; they were badly outnumbered. Everybody ran as the Telmarines began to advance. Alyssa's horse staggered and collapsed, a Telmarine arrow sticking out of its side. Sad but fearful that would be her next, Alyssa bolted off the dead horse and ran to catch up with everybody else.
That's when it happened. Right before everyone was going to run inside the How, the Telmarines set off more catapults. As they hit the How, large boulders began to fall, sealing off the entrance. Some of them even fell upon a poor Faun who had been trying to get in. The Narnians were horrorstruck…and then someone screamed.
Above, Mallory had slipped off the ledge. Maddie grasped onto her hand, trying to keep her up. Trumpkin grabbed Mallory's other hand, and together they managed to get her back up again…before she stumbled and fell a second time, dragging Maddie with hr. The two landed on a lower ledge, disoriented but not hurt. They went down to join everybody else.
As Susan and Trumpkin joined them, Darby looked around at everybody there…everyone who had become friends to her this trip to Narnia. And also those who had been friends with her from Earth… All around her, Narnians stood, waiting to follow her and her friends' example. Darby looked into all of her friends' eyes…They were ready to give up everything to help Narnia.
Darby charged forward, flagged by Maddie, Mallory, and Alyssa. To think that not even a few days ago they didn't remember anything at all about Narnia. But now, fighting side by side, they will never forget it.
Every Narnian fought with new vigor. Caspian and Logan saved the D.L.F. from being stabbed. Peter and Edmund stood back to back, fighting off intruders. Susan ,though alone, fired arrow after arrow at those unfortunate people who came across her. Reepicheep and his Mice fought through the Telmarine ranks.
It was as though something awoke. All of the trees began to move and fight, helping the Narnians, sending the Telmarines fleeing to the river.
And all the Narnians followed, shouting "FOR ASLAN!"
