Author's Note: Thank you as always for your kind reviews everyone!! You have no idea how much I appreciate your words. I just want to let you know this chapter does quite a bit of POV hopping. I'm sorry in advance but I really didn't know how to write this next section purely from Rebecca's or Joy's perspectives. Also, I teared up editing it, so you can tell me if you cried or I'm a silly sap. Enjoy!
Chapter Eleven
Rebecca and Susan waited at the top of the battlements as Trumpkin and Peter descended to the small window ledge outside the doctor's study. She heard Caspian whisper "Doctor Cornelius?" before climbing over the edge and sliding down the rope. Landing on the narrow ledge, she crept over and opened the window. She turned back when she was inside so she could help Susan through the window frame.
Once inside the room, she saw books and papers all over the place. They were scattered all over the floor and desk and many books were haphazardly sticking out on the shelves. Caspian picked up a pair of spectacles and looked at Peter. "I have to find him." A new determination had filled his eyes, and Rebecca figured the spectacles belonged to Doctor Cornelius.
"There's no time," said Peter. "You need to get the gate open."
"You wouldn't even be here without him," argued Caspian, "and neither would I."
Peter turned to Susan, silently debating what to do. "You, Rebecca and I can deal with Miraz," she said.
Rebecca shook her head. "No," she said, "Susan should stay here."
"I can help you with Miraz," said Susan, "then I will get out of the way."
"I can still get to the gate in time," said Caspian. He looked once more at Susan and then quickly left the room. Trumpkin followed him, headed for the gatehouse. Rebecca, Peter, and Susan waited the designated ten minutes before heading to Miraz's chambers. As they were leaving, Rebecca spotted a drawing on the desk.
It was a portrayal of the Pevensies with a slit through the chest of Peter's horse, like it had been cut with a small knife or an arrowhead. Beside the stack of parchments, was one of Susan's arrows. Rebecca grabbed it and caught up to the others in the hallway. She handed the arrow to Susan, who gave her a questioning look, and Rebecca pointed to the study. Susan seemed tempted to ask about the arrow, but Peter motioned for them to keep walking, and so they did.
Two guards came around the corner in front of them. Peter pulled Susan behind him, and he and Rebecca rushed forward. The guards had barely stopped walking when Peter and Rebecca cut them down and shoved the bodies into an alcove. Up several steps, they heard voices on the other side of Miraz's door. Peter and Rebecca stood on both sides of the door, with Susan on the other side of Peter. Rebecca recognized one of the voices and mouthed, "Caspian" to the others. Peter grabbed the door handle.
"I don't want to do this," said a woman's voice. Realizing Caspian was being threatened, the three charged into the room with their weapons ready.
"We don't want you to either," said Susan. The woman who had spoken was sitting on the bed and had a crossbow pointed at Caspian, who in turn had a sword pointed at Miraz's throat, and Miraz was standing beside the bed and in front of the window. At the sight of the three intruders, Miraz threw up his hands.
"This used to be a private room," he said with annoyance. He briefly looked at Rebecca, and fear lit up his eyes. The Protector thing! Rebecca decided to use it to her advantage, and she stalked towards Miraz. He took a slight sidestep and Rebecca lifted her sword.
"Well, well, if it isn't Miraz," she said. "The Usurper himself."
The woman turned around and aimed the crossbow at her. Rebecca froze at the foot of the bed.
"What are you two doing?" said Peter. "Get back here, Rebecca! And you!" He jerked his head at Caspian. "You're supposed to be in the gatehouse," he said.
"No!" exclaimed Caspian. His aunt turned the crossbow back to Caspian. "Tonight, for once, I want the truth." He walked towards his uncle, forcing him back against the wall with his sword blade. "Did you kill my father?" he demanded.
Rebecca gasped, and Susan stared wide-eyed at Caspian. The room went quiet, until Miraz practically growled, "Now we get to it." A rush of anger took over Rebecca's senses and she moved around to the other side of Caspian, her sword at the ready.
"You said your brother died in his sleep," said Pruneprismia.
"That was more or less true," said Miraz quietly.
Rebecca's mind spun at the revelation.
"Caspian, this won't make things any better," said Susan.
"Peter, we're losing time," said Rebecca, keeping her sword trained on Miraz.
"How could you?" asked Pruneprismia as she lowered the crossbow.
"For the same reason you will pull the trigger," said Miraz and he raised his hand, "for our son," and Caspian's sword pricked his neck.
"Stop!" screamed Pruneprismia.
"Stay right there," said Susan.
Miraz advanced towards Caspian, forcing him to back away from the window. "You need to make a choice, dear," he said, glaring at his nephew, "whether you want our child to be King, or do you want him to end up like Caspian here," he paused, the blood running down his neck, "fatherless!"
"No!" Pruneprismia screamed and fired the crossbow. Caspian dropped his sword and grabbed his arm after the arrow found its mark. Susan fired as Miraz ducked out the door, the arrow sticking in the side door.
Rebecca ran after him. "Miraz!" she shouted. She entered a small side room and found Miraz about to duck out the doorway. He froze when he saw her, his face going white. Rebecca stopped running and pointed her blade at him. "You know who I am, and you know what I can do," she said. "Stay right there!"
"A Protector," the colour slowly returning to his face. "You are the one with the compass." Rebecca stopped, her sword inches from his chest.
"Compass," she breathed. "You have it." With a rush of anger, she shoved the sword towards him, and he backed against the wall. "Where is it?!" asked Rebecca. Suddenly, hands grabbed her by the shoulders. "No!" she cried.
Miraz ducked under her sword and ran out the door.
Rebecca spun around and saw Peter. "Let him go," said Peter. He grabbed her forearm and dragged her back into the bed chamber, where Susan was wrapping a strip of cloth around Caspian's wound. Pruneprismia was gone.
"We have to get out of here," said Peter urgently. Susan tied off the knot and they ran down the hallway and then down the stairs. Rebecca only hoped he meant they had to get out of the castle.
Edmund tossed his torch back and forth out of boredom, flipped it once, and went back to the repeated motions of before. Joy had forgotten the most difficult part of a planned attack: the waiting.
Suddenly, a terrifying scream ripped through the night. Joy whipped out an arrow as Edmund dropped the torch over the stone rampart! "Oh no," Joy gasped, "Ed!" They ran to the rampart and spotted it on a balcony further down the tower wall. Then, the door below them opened, and a Telmarine soldier stepped out.
"Stay here," whispered Edmund, and he ran into the stairwell. Joy kept an arrow trained on the soldier, hiding behind the rampart, but then the soldier turned on the torch, right in his face. Clanging bells tolled in another tower, and Joy felt something had gone terribly wrong. She aimed and fired. The soldier dropped the torch and grabbed his arm, right when Edmund jumped out the window below Joy. She ran into the stairwell and down the stairs. Before she stepped out onto the balcony, she spotted another soldier climbing up towards her.
"Hey!" He shouted up at her and aimed his crossbow. Joy whipped out another arrow and fired, not bothering to check if the arrow hit it's mark before running onto the balcony to help Edmund. The soldier had him pressed against the rampart.
Joy took careful aim, for one wrong slip and she would lose her friend.
"Now, Ed, now!" shouted Peter from the courtyard below. "Signal the troops!"
"I'm a bit busy, Pete!" called back Edmund. Joy looked around for the torch and found it lying between Edmund's feet. She quickly fired her next arrow at Ed's opponent, hitting him squarely in the back, and he dropped onto the floor. "Thanks," said Edmund before he grabbed the torch and pointed it towards the woods.
"Gotcha!" The soldier Joy had shot at in the stairwell grabbed her from behind. She screamed and kicked at him. She dropped her bow and struggled as he dragged her towards the stairwell.
"Hey!" shouted Edmund and he swung the torch at his head. Once, twice, finally knocking him back into the stairwell and Joy went free.
"Thanks, Ed," said Joy breathlessly and picked up her bow where she'd dropped it.
"No trouble," he said and looked at the torch. He clicked a button and his face fell. "Oh, no." He clicked the button again.
Nothing happened.
Joy looked down at the courtyard and saw that the others were gathered at the gate. Peter was spinning the wheel to open the portcullis. "Hurry up, Ed," said Joy.
Edmund started hitting it against his palm. "Come on!" he said, looking ever more frustrated. Still nothing, and Joy had a horrible feeling this plan was going terribly wrong.
Pushing aside her frustration at Caspian for alerting Miraz and at herself for letting Miraz get away, Rebecca followed the others across the courtyard to the wheel which would open the gate. "Peter, its too late!" said Susan. "We have to call it off while we can."
"No, I can still do this!" said Peter and he strained at the wheel. "Help me!" Rebecca and Caspian sheathed their swords and gathered around him. Rebecca looked back and saw a flaming torch coming out of an open doorway.
"Peter! Look!" she shouted and pointed. Peter looked over his shoulder. A flood of Telmarine soldiers were charging out of the door, down the steps and into the courtyard. They were running towards them, many with swords at the ready.
"Exactly who are you doing this for, Peter?" asked Susan, helping him turn the wheel. Peter made no reply. Rebecca knew she had to do something. She looked from the oncoming Telmarine soldiers to her friends and then Joy up in the tower.
Joy must have read her expression for she shouted "No, Rebecca!"
Rebecca drew her sword, but Peter grabbed her arm, halting her before she could take a step. "I'm coming with you," and they ran towards the advancing soldiers.
"Rebecca!" screamed Joy.
"For Aslan!" shouted Peter.
They ran as hard as they could across the cobblestones. Rebecca silently begged Aslan not to let them die right before the first soldier reached her. She cut him down with one slice as he tried to get past her. Running to her left, she cut off the next one, and ran to the right to do the same. Out of the corner of her eye, Peter was fighting two soldiers at the same time and fighting magnificently.
Then, the soldiers started surrounding her, some leering at her while others looked on with murderous expressions. Alard fired down on the soldiers with his crossbow to help and he managed to take down several soldiers but the flood of Telmarines never ebbed. Rebecca fought until a soldier tripped her and she lay sprawled out on the cobblestones.
"Give up, Protector!" said one soldier, whom Rebecca saw was missing two front teeth. She spat out the hair which had come free from her braid and looked up when, by some miracle, they started running away from her!
Shouts and hoofbeats hitting cobblestones came behind her, then she heard Peter shout "For Narnia!" The Old Narnians had made it, but did they have enough time? Rebecca stood up and focused on the soldier in front of her, slashing left and right, and she finally got him with a blow to the chest. Pulling her sword free, she looked around the teeming courtyard.
She saw Susan firing at soldiers, even throwing the arrows with her bare hands. She couldn't believe Susan was fighting and briefly wished she'd done that more often back in the Golden Age. Next, Rebecca saw satyrs and fauns were leaping up on the balconies, trying to get to the archers overlooking the courtyard, all armed with crossbows. A tall soldier cut off her view and Rebecca resumed fighting as he tried to grab at her arms.
Talking Mice ran between her feet and took down another soldier with only their tiny rapiers. The tall soldier got a good grip on her arms and started dragging her away. Rebecca struggled and kicked, slashing her sword, and creating holes in the ugly, Telmarine-made armour. With no avail from the soldier, she finally screamed, "Peter!" Peter ran over to her, right in front of the well at the centre of the courtyard and hit the soldier squarely in the head with his sword hilt. He fell hard on the steps as Rebecca stepped away. "Thank you," she said gratefully. Peter nodded, and then two charging Telmarines forced them to break eye contact, and they resumed fighting.
As soon as the soldiers had charged into the courtyard and Edmund had given the signal, he and Joy ran across the battlements and ended up on the roof of the Keep. From here, they could see the entire battle going on below. Joy silently thanked Aslan that Rebecca and Peter were still alive after that crazy run towards the Telmarine soldiers. Below the two, on another lower level of balconies, there was a line up of soldiers with crossbows. "Take aim!" shouted their commander, and Edmund quickly sat up.
"Ed, what are you doing?" whispered Joy.
Edmund swung his legs over the roof and slid down towards the soldiers. He hit the soldier, knocking him over the railing and sent him smashing down into the courtyard.
"Ed!" shouted Peter below.
"Look out, Edmund!" called Joy from her perch on the roof.
Edmund looked at the line up of archers and ran into the castle, kicking the door closed behind him as the archers fired their crossbows at him. Joy quickly straddled the roof and fired down two arrows of her own at them. The first arrow glanced off a soldier's helmet, and he looked up and spotted her sitting astride the roof.
"Look! A girl!" he shouted while pointing at her.
Joy swung her leg around and ran back down the battlements that she and Edmund took up to the roof.
"After them both!" shouted the commander. "Kill the boy but take the girl alive!"
Joy ran into the castle. It was the topmost level with a dark, narrow hallway greeting her as she climbed inside. She walked cautiously down the hallway, while her heart was pounding in her ears. Footsteps plodded to the beat of her heart down the hallway. Spotting a small window, Joy climbed out as an approaching sentry came out of the staircase and she ended up on the roof of the Keep again.
"Peter, we have to call off the attack!" she thought as she ran. "Please!" She ran onto the battlements, with three burly Telmarines following close behind.
Rebecca's muscles screamed at her as she swung her sword for what seemed like the five hundredth time, and another Telmarine soldier hit the cobblestones. She suddenly noticed for the first time that she was standing near the stables and wondered how she had travelled across the entire length of the courtyard. Another soldier approached her, and the question was pushed out of her mind. In the corner of her eye, Rebecca could see Peter climbing up the steps and heading towards where Miraz was standing, on the balcony overlooking the whole courtyard. The usurper was staring at her, and Rebecca thought he looked evil.
"Alright, Protector," said her Telmarine opponent "Give up and you won't be killed." He pushed her back against the stable door. "Once the order is given, I can't guarantee your life."
Rebecca pushed him away. "What order?" she spat out the question and lunged again.
"The order to kill all you Old Narnians of course!" he said. He ducked under her swooping blade and knocked her off balance and she staggered backwards, hitting the stable wall so hard she couldn't breathe. "Give up, Protector." He grinned like he had the upper hand, and he knew she would surrender. However, Rebecca had other ideas.
"Never!" she said, and she swung her blade at him, caught him in the ribs and he went down. As he fell, she saw someone else fall from a window in the gatehouse. "Trumpkin!" she screamed.
The Dwarf landed on his head and then lay still on the cobblestones. Rebecca ran over to him, but before she reached him, she heard the heavy rattling of a chain. Looking up, she saw the Telmarines hacking at the chain which was holding up the portcullis. "No!" she cried and ran over to Trumpkin. He was breathing very slowly, and lay unconscious on the floor.
"Fall back!" shouted Peter. His words echoed across the courtyard and several Old Narnians began running for the gate which to Rebecca's horror she realized was being held up by Thatches the Minotaur. Rebecca saw Peter run off the threshold and down the steps into the courtyard again. "We need to retreat! Now!" A centaur started running up behind her.
"Wait!" she called and lifted up Trumpkin. "Take him with you!" Muscles straining, she handed the dwarf to the centaur, who nodded and continued running towards the gate.
"Get her out of here!" came Peter's voice again. Glenstorm rode by with Susan on his back, and out the gate.
"Caspian!" called Susan.
"I'll find him," said Peter.
Rebecca told some mice to stop fighting with a Telmarine and pointed towards the gate. Peter ran up to her. "Get out, now!"
"Peter, I won't leave you now," was all Rebecca could say before she threw herself at a Telmarine fighting a leopard. She looked around quickly and noticed Caspian had vanished. There wasn't a sign of him in the whole courtyard. Half of the Old Narnians were running towards the gate now, but Rebecca could see Thatches' legs buckling under the weight of the portcullis.
Joy was running as fast as she could. Her heavy skirt kept on trying to trip her, so she grabbed fistfuls of it and ran with all her might. She saw Thatches holding up the gate as she ran up some tower steps and out onto a rampart and agony filled her. Did this truly have to happen to her friend? Was Rebecca alright? She wanted to cry with defeat. Why did any of this have to happen? What had gone wrong? She stood with her back to the doorway, breathing heavily. Her only way out was jumping from the rampart or climbing over the stone turret to the next rampart and the roof beyond that.
"Alright, Protector," said one of her pursuers. Joy slowly turned around and saw all three of them with their crossbows lowered to her. "Come with us and you won't be harmed."
Joy took a step back, standing as close to the edge as possible. "What are you going to do with me?" she asked.
"Take you to Miraz. After that," the speaker shrugged "who knows?" A soldier behind him muttered, "Torture chamber" loudly enough so Joy would hear it.
"No!" She kicked at the speaker and ducked as the other two fired their crossbows. She ran to the turret and climbed over it as the speaker grabbed his nose. She dropped down onto the roof again.
"After her, you cowards!" ordered the first one.
Then, the flapping of wings filled the air behind her. "Watch out!" shouted another soldier.
"Joy!" shouted Edmund but she couldn't see him. Something with talons grabbed Joy by the arms and legs and lifted her into the air. A gryphon! Joy looked up and saw a welcome face peering over the animal's shoulder.
"Ed! I sure am glad to see you!" she called up to him. The gryphon dropped her gently onto a tower roof and landed beside her. Joy turned to Edmund, sitting on the gryphon's back. "What happened to you?"
"I'll tell you later. Come on," he said, and gestured for her to join. Joy climbed on, her limbs trembling with exhaustion. Wrapping her arms around his stomach, the gryphon took off again and they looped back over the castle.
At the end of the courtyard, the stable doors flew open and out rode Caspian with a gray-haired man riding behind him, and a spare horse beside him. He was looking at Peter, who nodded. Rebecca understood the message and started running towards the gate.
"Now!" called Miraz from the balcony of the Keep. The hissing of arrows filled the air and one after the other hit Thatches and the Old Narnians trying to get out of the gate.
Rebecca ran with everything in her. A leopard bounded alongside her as they headed for the gate. Thatches was struggling. Rebecca was seeing blood coming out of his numerous wounds, but he seemed to be trying to lift the portcullis. "Bec!" Rebecca turned and saw Peter riding towards her. She ran towards him, and he reached down to grab her hand.
His fingers slipped through hers and he rode out the gate. The minotaur fell! "No!" shouted Rebecca, and she jumped back from the portcullis as it landed inches away from her feet. Mice crawled under the gate and ran towards the bridge. The trapped Old Narnians ran to the gate, shouting and pleading. Some tried to climb the grated surface.
"Save yourself!" cried a faun before getting an arrow in the back and falling to the cobblestones.
Rebecca rushed to the gate. "Peter!" she screamed.
"Rebecca!" shouted Peter. He quickly dismounted and ran to the gate, looking panic-stricken.
"Peter," Rebecca grabbed his hands through the bars, their wedding rings shining in the torchlight. "I, I don't know what to say."
"We'll do something," said Peter, his composure completely undone, "there must be something we can do!" Tears filled their eyes, and Rebecca blinked them back to study his face once more. Looking down at their joined hands, she pulled her right hand away and twisted off the ring. "No," he grabbed her hands, "keep it."
"They will keep me alive, for now," said Rebecca. She forced the ring into his hands. "Its possible they don't know we're married, and I won't let Miraz use me as leverage to make you surrender!"
Both of their gazes were filling with tears.
"I can't leave you here," said Peter brokenly.
"Aslan will see us through," said Rebecca, feeling strangely calm. "You should go before you get hit."
Peter sighed and reluctantly took the ring. "We will get you out of here," he said determinedly.
Glenstorm's eldest son, Moonfir, turned to them. "Protector, we need you."
Rebecca nodded and gave Peter one last look. "I love you," she told him.
His eyes were shining with unshed tears, and he was clutching her hands as tightly as possible. "I love you, Rebecca."
"Peter! The bridge!" called Reepicheep from across the drawbridge.
With visible agony, Peter pulled himself away from the gate and mounted the horse again. Rebecca watched, gripping the bars as the two jumped over the rising drawbridge and disappeared out of sight. Blinking back her tears, she drew her sword and looked out at the approaching Telmarines.
"Come on, Narnians," she called to the few remaining animals, fauns, satyrs, and centaurs.
"In the name of Aslan!" shouted Moonfir. They ran through the raining arrows and fought the few remaining Telmarines. Old Narnians were falling all around her. After taking down a third soldier, an arrow caught her in the arm and Rebecca dropped her sword. Two Telmarines grabbed her on both sides and started pulling her towards the Keep. A third one picked up her sword and said, "Come along, Protector," in a mocking tone as Rebecca struggled and kicked at the guards. Then she saw a gryphon flying overhead.
They took one last loop over the castle when Joy saw something in the courtyard that made her blood run cold. Many Old Narnians, lying dead in the courtyard, and, there was Rebecca! Being dragged up the castle steps to the door by guards! "Ed," she gasped, "its Rebecca!" She pointed to the courtyard below. "We have to save her!"
"Down," said Edmund, and the gryphon swooped downward. Arrows started flying at them, and the gryphon squawked with pain as the arrows cut into its wings.
"Joy," shouted Rebecca, straining against the guards, "don't! Aslan willing, I will be alright!" The guards forced her into the castle doors, and Joy lost sight of her.
"Rebecca," called Joy softly, and then she dropped her head on Edmund's shoulder, sobbing. Wobbling through the air, the gryphon flew over the battlements and after the others. They landed at the edge of the woods where Edmund pulled the arrows from the gryphon's wounds. Then, he sent it back to the How while they waited for the others.
Joy sat at the base of a tree and continued to cry. Rebecca was as good as dead behind those walls. Edmund sat down beside her. "Joy, Pete will think of something, he always does."
"But, but," Joy choked back a sob. "You saw all the bodies. How are we supposed to break her out? Sneak in again?!" Joy dropped her head onto her knees and Edmund put a comforting arm around her shoulders before the others reached them.
Peter looked furious and devastated and didn't say a word as he dismounted. He soon noticed Joy was staring at him, silently begging him to do something. He shook his head sadly and ignored Caspian as he tried to speak to him before he stalked off into the woods. Susan slid an arm around Joy's shoulders as they followed him. Alard walked up beside Joy and patted her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, and Joy nodded, unable to speak past the lump in her throat.
It was going to be a long walk back to the How.
