When the Youngest Goes to War 4
The High King of Narnia sat on his throne. The windows were dark, but he had not called for light. He sat alone, thinking of the battle he knew was only days away. The first battle his youngest sibling, his baby sister, would fight in. Of course, her first reason for being among the army was to heal soldiers as they fell, but Peter was no fool. He knew Lucy would have blood on her hands by the end of that day. He did not want his sisters to have that weight on their shoulders. He had learned to weigh each life he took against the Narnian lives he saved; Edmund did the same, he thought. Susan would never be able to, and Lucy…Queen Lucy the Valiant, Aslan called had her. He had known this day would come. Peter had supposed it would, but he wanted to put it off as long as possible. Lucy's innocence was so precious to him. He hoped her faith would live through her first battle. But of course it would; Lucy had seen the aftermath of battle many times. It was not the horrors of blood that he wanted to protect her from, but the horror of taking life. He did not want her to wake from the dreams he had after Berunda; the feel of a sword sinking into the body of another living creature; the sound of their dying grunts and the warm spray of blood that splashed up, across his face and coated his armor, the smells that haunted his sleep for weeks later. Granted, it was mostly Edmund's blood that turned his dreams to nightmares…
"Peter?" As though called by his thoughts, Peter saw Edmund standing in the doorway near the dais where the four thrones sat. Peter looked at him, unable to form words for what he was feeling. "Are you angry with me?"
Peter's smile was grim, but it was a smile. "No Ed, I'm not angry. I am far from content, but that is not your fault."
Edmund took a few steps farther into the room, coming to sit on the edge of the dais, near his brother. "You know I'll take care of her, right?"
"Of course you will, Ed."
"Alright." Edmund answered quietly.
"What is it, Ed?"
"Maybe you should take charge of her." Edmund spat out abruptly, looking as though the words choked him as he spoke.
"Why?" Peter inquired.
"What if I get her killed, Peter? What if I'm not good enough? You're one of the best swordsmen I know. You'll be able to protect her."
"You would put your queen in my protection." Peter stated, as though he was confirming a perfectly normal statement. Ed just looked at him, eyes hollow. "No Ed. You would hate yourself forever. And anyway, I doubt Lucy would allow it. For one thing, she already gave you her word of where she would be during the battle. And secondly, there are two ways she might take that; one is that she would know you didn't have faith in yourself, and so would stay with you to prove you were good enough. The other is that she would think she was a liability." Edmund's eyes widened. "I guess that didn't occur to you?"
"No," he replied. "But Peter, I can't let anything happen to her."
"You won't." Peter replied with confidence, rising to his feet and moving to sit next to his brother on the floor. "You love her too much, just as I do; just as we should. And if you must take a blow meant for her, you will. And she will be there to heal you, because she loves you just as well."
Edmund looked into the eyes of his brother and king. "Thanks, Peter."
He just nodded in response, and they sat in silence a while.