Silence || The Chronicles Of Narnia

31: You can tell us now

"E - Ed?" Peter murmered once his brother had managed to calm down enough to allow Peter to relax.

"Hmm?" Edmund hummed in reply, leaning heavily against his older brother, his head resting against his chest and his arms wrapped around his waist.

"What - What happened?" Peter choked out, sounding unsure.

Edmund completely froze in his arms, taking a deep breath and slowly shaking his head. "No." He whispered, trembling. "No."

"Ed listen." Peter said quickly, tightening his grip around his brothers shoulders. "It's over. You can tell us now, you did what Jadis told you to do, you kept it a secret until it happened, but now it's over, I promise. You have nothing to worry about."

Edmund swallowed hard. "But the witch is still-"

"We'll deal with her as soon as we can Ed." Peter said with a nod. "Now please, tell me what happened, I have to know Ed. I need to know."

Edmund shifted slightly in his brothers arms before sighing. "If I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell the girls as well." He mumbled.

Peter nodded in understanding. "You want me to go and get them?" He asked.

Edmund hesitated a little.

"No, I won't leave you." Peter decided. "You reckon you're strong enough to come with me?"

Edmund nodded. "Yeah I feel fine." He breathed.

Peter smiled and gently helped Edmund to his feet, grabbing a cloak and wrapping it tightly around his shoulders. "Come on."

They found Susan and Lucy, along with Aslan, in one of the nearby sitting rooms, and the second they walked through the door, Lucy's eyes went wide. "Edmund!" She cried, dashing across the room and into Edmund's arms, taking him by surprise. But he pulled himself together a second later and hugged her tightly back, taking a deep breath and burying his face against her hair, relieved to be able to do so.

It wasn't long before Susan joined in the hug, and Edmund couldn't help but smile, resting his head instead against Susan's shoulder even as he kept his arms around Lucy.

After perhaps five minutes, Susan and Lucy eventually pulled away, leaving Edmund staring at Aslan, who after a moment stood and walked over to him, giving him something of a smile.

Edmund's face fell and he carefully yet hesitantly wrapped his arms around Aslan's neck, burying his face against his mane and trying his hardest to keep back his tears. He wanted to say something, to thank Aslan, but when he opened his mouth, no words came out, but Aslan seemed to understand. "I know." He whispered, his voice alone managing to calm Edmund down, it being the only thing, besides Peter's voice, that could.

After a moment or so Edmund slowly pulled away, keeping his hands buried in Aslans mane for the time being.

"Are you going to tell them?" Aslan asked gently, not pushing for an answer.

Edmund took a deep, shaky breath and nodded his head. "Yeah." He whispered.

Aslan have him a nod and a smile. "You have much courage." He said gently before leading him over to sit on one of the sofas, Peter following quickly behind and sitting beside him, whilst Susan and Lucy walked across and sat on the sofa opposite, Susan gripping Lucy's hand.

"We won't rush you." Peter reassured his brother, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Edmund took a deep breath and glanced at Aslan. "She - she won't hurt them if I do?" He choked.

Aslan shook his head. "You have kept your promise that you wouldn't tell up until it happened." He said. "But now that it's happened, you are free to say what you wish. But if the witch has a problem with that, I doubt she'd try anything if I explained it to her."

Edmund nodded before taking another deep breath, and after feeling Peter's hand tighten on his shoulder, he opened his mouth. "When I was with Jadis," He said slowly. "She explained that her - her wand is connected to me, because I'd been - been stabbed with it. She then went on the explain that she needed my life, to restore the wand."

"She wanted to restore it?" Susan questioned, sounding slightly shocked.

Edmund nodded slowly. "Yeah." He choked. "But she needed my life, so for the last week, my scar has been bleeding, causing me pain, reopening at odd times, you name it. As the days went on, the more of the wand was restored, until it was fully restored when..." He paused, swallowing hard.

"When?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

"When I was stabbed." Edmund choked, igorning how Susan's eyes went wide and how Lucy gasped, not to mention ignoring how tight Peter's grip on his shoulder was getting. "The witch told me that before it happened I had to go - go somewhere where you wouldn't find me, so that when it happened, I'd die instead of being healed. I didn't tell you what was going on because she threatened to kill you if I did, I - I'm really sorry I kept it from you, and no doubt caused you all a lot of worry, not to mention panick when I ran off-" He swallowed hard before turning to Peter. "And I'm so sorry I - I knocked you out." He practically sobbed. "I - I just couldn't let you find out. I'm so, so sorry."

Peter took a deep breath and shook his head. "No Ed." He whispered, voice full of shock. "You don't need to apologise."

There was silence for a while before he spoke again. "So, you've been suffering in silence all this time?" He whispered.

Edmund hesitantly nodded his head. "Yeah." He whispered, tears in his eyes which he refused to let fall.

"Oh Ed." Peter choked, before wrapping his arms around his brothers shoulders and pulling him as close as he could, burying his face against his hair and taking deep breaths to try and calm himself, and well as running his hand up and down Edmund's neck to calm him. "Oh Ed."

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