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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐌𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐏 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐒 hid the vibrant colours of the sunrise in the sky. The swirling darkness spiralled up and lingered in the air like a local raincloud, but the rainfall from the day before had made way for a clear sky. The soil however, was still muddy and every time Peter took another step, his boots made just as much as a squishy sound as the hooves of his horse.

From this distance, Peter couldn't tell whose bodies were now a smoldering pile of bones and ashes, and he felt nauseous and dreadful that he had no idea what had happened here. He cast a glance at Rosaleen and Lucy, both seated atop of his horse Atlas and in a state somewhere between dozing and dreaming, but both jolted awake when the squishy sound of the mud turned into the wooden clack of Anvard's drawbridge.

Peter and Rosaleen had come across Lucy when they had set course towards Cair Paravel to deal with the Rosaleen Reflection, but when they had seen Lucy's distress and haste, they had already known that the citadel of the four thrones had fallen before she had even said it. The three of them had set course towards Anvard instead but with the menacing sight of the dark smoke in the distance, they had no idea what to expect as they reached the guard tower.

Had King Lune accepted their formal apology? Or was the burning pile the result of their two armies clashing?

Peter swallowed to fight away the lump in his throat while Rosaleen fiddled with the reins of the stallion and Lucy shifted a bit uneasily as she sat behind Rosaleen.

'High King Peter,' the guard said with wide eyes focussed on the lion's head of Peter's sword, but it wasn't until the guard bowed from his waist that Peter knew it was a good sign and he let out a breath of relief.

'What happened here?' Peter asked while the guard let his eyes wander over Rosaleen and Lucy; bowing a second time when he recognised the Valiant Queen of Narnia.

The guard followed Peter's gaze towards the smoke cloud. 'There was a battle, your Majesty. The Narnian army got ambushed by the Calormene Empire. Archenland honoured the allegiance and we won, but only barely, there were many losses.'

'The Calormene Empire,' Peter repeated between a huff, his eyebrows deepening into a dark frown and the guard nodded slowly.

'King Lune, King Edmund and Queen Susan could give you more details, your Majesty. They're inside the citadel.' The guard stepped aside to let them through and Peter's frown disappeared when he heard his siblings' names; they were alright.

Peter led his stallion further by hand over the cobbled path, shifting his gaze to his side to look up at Rosaleen as he could see from the corner of his eye her hand ghosting over one of the scars that reached till her neck. They had found Lucy's healing cordial and Rosaleen's twin swords in the secret fortress of Stormness Head, but the gashes on her back hadn't healed completely; they had turned into a maze of scars.