Reposted from AO3, for the 2023 Narnia Fic Exchange
Written for Syrena_of_the_lake and Starbrow. Reposted tags below, including AU.
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: Gen
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Characters: Edmund Pevensie Lucy Pevensie Peridan
Additional Tags: Dragons Alternate Universe - Dragons Golden Age (Narnia)
Assume that the :strikethrough: is as if I've striken that text from The Horse and His Boy.
From The Horse and His Boy
Here the army halted and spread out in a line, and there was a great deal of rearranging. A whole detachment of very dangerous-looking Talking Beasts whom Shasta had not noticed before and who were mostly of the cat kind (leopards, panthers, and the like) went padding and growling to take up their positions on the left. The giants were ordered to the right, and before going there they all took off something they had been carrying on their backs and sat down for a moment. Then Shasta saw that what they had been carrying and were now putting on were pairs of boots: horrid, heavy, spiked boots which came up to their knees. Then they sloped their huge clubs over their shoulders and marched to their battle position. The archers :strikethrough: with Queen Lucy, :strikethrough: fell to the rear and you could first see them bending their bows and then hear the twang-twang as they tested the strings. And wherever you looked you could see people tightening girths, putting on helmets, drawing swords, and throwing cloaks to the ground. There was hardly any talking now. It was very solemn and very dreadful. "I'm in for it now—I really am in for it now," thought Shasta.
Then there came noises far ahead: the sound of many men shouting and a steady thud-thud-thud.
"Battering ram," whispered Corin. "They're battering the gate."
Lucy slid off Tiamat's back and pulled off her gloves. Edmund had already dismounted and was spreading the Archenland map on a nearby tree stump. Peridan pinned the map down with stones at each corner.
Their tiny company was spread out along the slope, several catching a quick bite and everyone drinking their fill. She glanced back over her shoulder just in time to see a rabbit disappear down Tiamat's gullet.
"Glutton."
Tiamat whipped her blue speckled head around and her long, forked tongue flicked away a bit of blood on her chin. "Ed said we were supposed to have a morsel. Should I regurgitate and share with you?"
"Don't call him Ed. You know he hates that."
"Then he can stop calling you, Lu."
"You are so aggravating!"
Tiamat winked a yellow slitted eye. "I am. If you'd rather ride a dumb horse to the Anvard siege..."
Lucy shooed the dragon off. "Just keep an eye on Prince Corin and Shasta and not your next snack!"
"Lu?" Edmund called.
"Yes, I'm coming." She tucked her gloves into her belt and stepped over to his side.
"You have my attention, brother. It's just…"
"Uncanny," Peridan muttered.
Lucy scanned the crowd, searching for the two boys. "It's not a coincidence. Aslan's paw is in this, plainly."
"And we must continue to trust that. We can't lose Shasta, if that is indeed his true name, a second time." Edmund's face hardened. "Nor can we spare anyone to keep them here whilst we go on to Anvard."
Lucy nodded. "Even though I don't have a rig to carry two passengers, Tiamat said she would fly them back to the Cair. I could take a horse, join the archers…"
Edmund shook his head. "It is good of her to offer, but we need her here, and you dragonback."
Lucy arched an eyebrow and Edmund let out an amused huff. "Please do not tell her I said anything complimentary for she shall be even more insufferable."
Edmund and Tiamat did not get on very well.
"I do wish Atamagai was here." Edmund's eyes lifted north to the horizon as if the hope expressed would make the old kirin magically appear.
"He's best where he is," Lucy answered. Peter and the bulk of their army were at the Ettin border with Laidir providing much needed firepower. She and Edmund had called up whatever of their reserves remained to march to Anvard. Susan needed to be able defend the Cair and while Jemny could masterfully devise any strategic defence, the golden dragonet could not implement it herself. Atamagai wasn't interested in fighting much any more but he could protect their keep until reinforcements arrived. And a heavyweight dragon longer than the tallest tree curled up in front of your portcullis was a serious deterrent, even if he was merely basking in the afternoon sun.
Peridan was tracing his finger on their treacherous route up the mountain pass. "What's the latest word from our scouts? You were speaking with the Eagles?"
Edmund pulled his attention back to the map. "They reported that Rabadash's troop have ceased their effort to assault the castle's walls. They are now cutting down a tree."
"Battering ram, probably," Peridan said. "Rabadash is too impatient to try to construct a ladder to scale the Anvard outer wall."
"When they failed to sweep into the keep, they should have just turned around and gone home," Edmund replied sourly.
Lucy crossed her arms across her mailed chest. "And we still don't know if they brought a dragon-bow?" Tiamat wasn't a fire-breather as Laidir was. She and Tiamat could do a lot of damage through sheer terror and sowing chaos, but that also meant getting close to Rabadash's two hundred very well trained soldiers. A few dozen arrows would only annoy Tiamat but a well-aimed boulder or spear hurled with enough power could cripple or kill her.
Edmund shook his head. "We've not seen one, though we did hear from our spies that the Calormene inventors were working on a pult and a heavy crossbow that could be broken into pieces and moved swiftly by horseback. Rabadash knew Jemny alone could not have protected Susan and that Laidir was north with Peter. But also he knew that he might have to deal with Tiamat and Atamagai. He surely brought some means to do so."
"Unless he really is that much of an idiot," Peridan retorted.
"Reliance upon an enemy's stupidity is not sound strategy," Edmund replied. He tapped the map again, pointing to the foot of the pass on the southern, Archenland side of the peak. "There's some forest cover here. We'll form our line there and move on Rabadash from the rear. Lu?"
"That side of the mountain will be in shadow in a few hours. Send word when you begin your descent and then we'll fly over."
She shrugged so the full quiver settled more comfortably against her back. Tiamat also carried a full complement of arrows in her harness. Lucy could fire one arrow from the air at every single one of Rabash's two hundred cavalry and have plenty left over. A skilled archer aboard a quick, clever dragon with an appetite for destruction was devastating and no one was better at it than she and Tiamat.
"I'll tell our scouts that if Rabadash looks to be near breaching the Anvard gate, they should alert you, Lu."
She nodded. "That's a risk worth taking. We can swoop in, try to smash the battering ram, and at least scatter their horses."
A shadow loomed over them. Tiamat snaked her long neck in to study the map. "I do love horses." Her tongue flicked over her savage looking jaw and a gooey bit of saliva began dripping down.
Edmund hastily swept away the stones and rolled up the map.
Lucy scratched the dragon's chin. "My dear, if we save Anvard today, you won't even have to share."
"I see one—two—three eagles wheeling in the gap by Stormness Head. One is the oldest of all the eagles. He would not be out unless battle was at hand. I see him wheel to and fro, peering down sometimes at Anvard and sometimes to the east, behind Stormness. Ah—I see now what Rabadash and his men have been so busy at all day. They have felled and lopped a great tree and they are now coming out of the woods carrying it as a ram. They have learned something from the failure of last night's assault. He would have been wiser if he had set his men to making ladders: but it takes longer and he is impatient. Fool that he is! he ought to have ridden back to Tashbaan as soon as the first attack failed, for his whole plan depended on speed and surprise. Now they are bringing their ram into position. King Lune's men are shooting hard from the walls. Five Calormenes have fallen: but not many will. They have their shields above their heads. Rabadash is giving his orders now. With him are his most trusted lords, fierce Tarkaans from the eastern provinces. I can see their faces. There is Corradin of Castle Tormunt, and Azrooh, and Chlamash, and Ilgamuth of the twisted lip, and a tall Tarkaan with a crimson beard—"
"By the Mane, my old master Anradin!" said Bree.
"S-s-sh," said Aravis.
"Now the ram has started. If I could hear as well as see, what a noise that would make! Stroke after stroke: and no gate can stand it for ever. But wait! Something up by Stormness has scared the birds. They're coming out in masses. And wait again ... I can't see yet ... ah! Now I can. The whole ridge, up on the east, is black with horsemen. If only the wind would catch that standard and spread it out. They're over the ridge now, whoever they are. Aha! I've seen the banner now. Narnia, Narnia! It's the red lion. They're in full career down the hill now. I can see King Edmund. There's a woman :strikethrough: behind the archers :strikethrough:. Oh!—"
The Horse and His Boy
It was impossible to shout above the whistling wind and the din of the battle below but Lucy seldom needed to give instructions to Tiamat. The dragon saw and heard better than she could and knew how to position herself and her rider to maximum advantage and to rain down terror on any enemy below. Lucy's job was to just stay onboard and keep firing as Tiamat swooped, swerved, and pivoted about. How the nimble dragon was able to fly backwards, Lucy could never understand.
Lucy felt a Calormene arrow bounce off her mail shirt and let loose another arrow, trying to ignore the heavy dart that had embedded in Tiamat's left wing.
"There," Tiamat cried, hovering just above the melee. Rabadash and Edmund were exchanging furious blows – the Prince was very skilled. But then the Prince foolishly jumped onto a mourning block at the Anvard wall. Lucy tightened her knees around Tiamat's girth and loosened arrows at Rabadash.
Beneath her, Lucy felt Tiamat tense and gather herself. Tiamat could pluck Rabadash off the block and slam him into a mountain peak but he still carried a sword that could be lethal if he kept his wits and didn't drop it.
But in her bloodlust, Tiamat might not see the danger. The dragon closed her wings and dove toward the portcullis. "Tiamat! NO!" Lucy screamed. "Don't! Go for the…"
Tiamat extended her talons forward, grabbed the battering ram in her claws, and with a bone-rattling surge, flung the contraption against the castle walls.
The dragon pulled out of her harrowing dive and flapped upwards, laboring, but still hale, and out of the range of the arrows. Lucy pivoted in her seat, notching an arrow, searching for another Calormene target.
With the ram gone, the Anvard gates swung open and Lucy saw King Lune and his knights and soldiery pour out.
"What about Edmund?" she shouted. The surviving Calormenes were throwing down their swords and bows. She looked about wildly, trying to assess their own casualties and find Edmund. She didn't see Thunderfoot among the giants and hoped he had not fallen.
"The King's fine," Tiamat called back. "It's a rout and Rabadash got hung up." Tiamat swerved again, so suddenly, if she'd not be strapped to her rigging, Lucy would have flipped right off her back.
"Hung up? What do you mean?" Lucy yelled. "Tiamat, we have to go back!"
Across the battlefield, four Calormene horses were careening away from the carnage. With a powerful downstroke, Tiamat followed them. "You promised me horses and said I didn't have to share."