An Unexpected Romance

Chapter 18

The three minutes are up.

Miraz rises, shifting his weight uncomfortably on his injured legs. Peter dawns his shield and sword. Edmund offers him his helmet, but he refuses.

"Peter-" I start, but Peter puts his hand up to stop me.

"I know, Y/n," he says. "Did you mean what you said?"

"Of course."

"Trust me," he says with a determined look on his face.

I nod.

"Peter?" I say.

He turns back at me.

"Miraz is most vulnerable mid high swing," I tell him. "If you can get him swinging his sword high, you can knock him to ground. That's going to give you the greatest advantage. Small movements and dodging blows are your friend right now. You've got this."

He looks a bit surprised at my insight. I smile lightly at his confusion, and he continues toward his angry opponent. The men make more physical contact this round. They take swings at each other's heads with their shield and armored arms. Peter takes a brutal beating almost immediately. Miraz hits him with his elbow across the face multiple times in a row. Peter backs up and braces for Miraz's final blow. As Miraz shoves his shield at Peter's chest, he catches it in his hands and twists it, catching Miraz's arm and pinning it behind his back with the shield.

"AHHHH!"

Miraz pulls one of his arms free and elbows Peter in the face. He throws Peter to the ground and swings his sword over him. Peter dodges his swings, kicks him in the side of the knee and stabs him with his blade, bringing him to the ground. Peter hovers over Miraz with his weapon in hand.

"What's he waiting for?" I say to Edmund.

"Now's not the time for chivalry, Peter!" Ed yells at his brother.

Miraz laughs at Peter's hesitancy.

"What's the matter, boy?" Miraz hisses. "Too cowardly to take a life?"

"It's not mine to take," Peter breaths out. He looks to Caspian, offering him his sword. I look to Caspian as well, and he walks forward, taking the sword from Peter.

Not a single noise is heard beyond the shuffling of Caspian's feet on the rocks. I hear birds chirping eerily in the background, Edmund's shaky breathing next to me, and the wind rusting the leaves on the trees around us. Caspian raises the sword above Miraz's head.

"Maybe you have the makings of a Telmarine king after all," Miraz says with a look of prideful condescension.

Caspian screams and stabs the blade into the grass.

"Not one like you," Caspian says sharply. Peter breaths a sigh of relief and Edmund's face shifts from tense to relieved.

"Keep your life, but I am giving the Narnians back their kingdom," Caspian says with tears in his eyes. He walks back to us and our armies cheer.

I look up at Susan on her perch above us. I can't see any tears, but I know from her facial expression she's holding back tears of relief, joy, and pride at both her brother's and Caspian's actions. Ed, Peter, and Caspian turn their backs and head towards the How. I sense something is off even though we've technically won. I furrow my brow, and bring my hand to my sword.

"Y/n?" Edmund says behind me. "Are you coming?"

"Ed..." I trail off.

Suddenly, Miraz drops dead in front of me.

"Edmund," I say very firmly but quietly.

Still no one has noticed what's going on, but I look up at Susan and the archers. She makes eye contact with me and nods, knowing what I'm seeing.

"TREACHERY! They shot him!" The Telmarine advisor point you at the archers. "THEY MURDERED OUR KING."

I look at the boys, and they take off to take out the Telmarines closest to us. I sprint back to the How to grab my armor and mount a horse. Caspian mounts his horse as well. The Telmarines catapult large rocks at our armies and charge. Our archers ready their arrows at Susan's direction.

"Caspian, it's time," I say. We turn and run into the How on our horses. We meet the majority of our Narnians underground.

"Narnians! Charge!" Caspian yells and we make our way quickly through the underground tunnels. The army follows us, and we start counting.

"One...two...three...four..."

We continue underground.

"Five...six...seven..."

I take a deep breath to calm myself.

"Eight...nine...TEN."

We all club down the supporting pillars as we ride, creating a massive ravine behind us. The Telmarines fall into it, most dying or getting trapped immediately.

The archers release their arrows, taking out most of the front row of the remains Telmarines.

"CHARGE!" Peter demands and all the Narnians above ground attack from the front. Those of us underground come out from behind, surprising the Telmarines from the back.

I see Edmund come flying towards me on his horse firing his crossbow that he somehow acquired at the soldiers trying to crawl out of the chasm. Our griffins fly above, carrying archers firing down below and massive boulders dropping them on the catapults.

"Back the the How!" I hear Peter yell. I look around in confusion. As we start running back, the Telmarines take down the How with their catapults. They have us completely outnumbered. Edmund runs towards me and helps me off my horse.

"Come, my love, this is the moment," I take his hand and we run to meet Peter, Susan, and Caspian. We draw our swords and look at Peter as our leader. I look out to the hundreds of soldiers we're about to face and back at the Pevensies. I remembered my words to Peter earlier. I know in my heart that they're true. It's not our time, and we will do this. I feel a rush of adrenaline and courage course through my veins out of nowhere.

Peter charges forward and we follow, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for Narnia. I trust myself and my skill, as I have no other real choice, and immediately begin taking down Telmarines on the ground. I'm doing fairly well, taking down five, six, seven Telmarines. I quickly begin to tire but know I don't have the choice to become weak.

I start swinging low to conserve my energy. I'm also shorter than all of the soldiers, so it's easier for me to duck and make them jump than go for headshots. I take down the soldier in front of me and turn to take on my next challenge when something hits me in the back of my shoulder.

I stumble forward and bring my hand to my shoulder. I pull it away and see blood on my hand. I had been hit with rock fragments from the catapults.

Great.

Now I'm injured on my strongest side and tired. I keep fighting, but every move sends tingling pain across my skin. I swing at a soldier in front of me, hitting his side, but I feel a blade slice across my calf.

"Ahhhh," I cry and fall to my knees. I stab the soldier in front of me and he falls down, but at he falls, I feel a sword enter my lower abdomen from behind. I gasp and look down, and I see the blade come through my stomach and be pulled out again. I stay on my knees for I don't know how long. It felt like hours, but it couldn't have been more than ten seconds at most.

"Y/N!" I hear someone call my name in the distance. Everything was swirling around me, and my ears were ringing terribly. I hear the Narnians cheer loudly and feel the ground shake violently.

Lucy. I think. She did it.

I let myself smile, and fall to the ground. As I lie there I try to remain conscious, but I feel blood spilling over my hands and know I won't be able to long.

"FOR ASLAN!" I hear.

Aslan. He's real, and he's here.

I decide to trust Aslan in that moment, believing that he is watching out for me, and close my eyes and fall asleep.