outburst ~ edmund pevensie

VIII.

The ride back to the How was eerie. Sobs wracked Grace's body as she leaned against Peter's back. She couldn't save him. He was gone. Some tears slipped down Peter's cheeks too, but he wouldn't show it. Grace and Peter were one of the last to arrive, and Edmund and Lucy breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the small girl behind Peter. The horse came to a stop, and Grace slid off. Edmund came to her, and she limped to him before collapsing in his arms, her sobs screaming through the quiet air once again. He just held her, no idea what the matter could have been. Until he saw it. Glenstorm, standing with only two sons, and his wife weeping in the How. He pulled her tighter against him and allowed her to soak his armor with tears. Lucy stepped forward.

"What happened?" She spoke to her brother, who walked angrily beside Caspian.

"Ask him." He shot a look at the prince, who stopped.

"Me? You could've called it off, there was still time!" He blamed Peter.

"No there wasn't thanks to you! If you'd have just kept to the plan, those soldiers might be alive right now." The words caused Grace to freeze, and listen.

"And if we had stayed here like I suggested, they definitely would be!" Caspian's voice was becoming hoarse.

"You called us, remember?"

"My first mistake." Caspian seethed.

"No, your first mistake was thinking you could lead these people." Peter pointed to the remnants of the troops and started to return to the How.

"HEY! I am not the one who abandoned Narnia!" Peter's hand moved to his sword.

"You invaded Narnia. You have NO MORE right than Miraz. You, him, your father! Narnia's better off without the lot of you!" Peter screamed at Caspian, who now had his back turned to him. A shout was heard as both boys drew their swords, pointing at each other's throats. Edmund moved to help lower an injured Trumpkin to the ground, and Grace decided to intervene.

"STOP IT!" Her voice carried as she limped in between the swords. She turned to Lucy, her voice now soft. "Can you tend to Trumpkin, please?" The girl nodded before running to kneel by the dwarf. Grace turned back to the boys, looking at Peter.

"And you.. You have no right to blame anyone but yourself! If you had just listened to others, so many things could have gone differently. I warned you that this plan wouldn't work, but you shoved me aside! And then when things started to go awry, like I had assumed it would, you were too stubborn to call it off!" Peter shrunk within himself, as if he were being scolded by his mother. Grace turned to Caspian. "And you! We had a plan! Whether it was a good one or not, we had one! And you couldn't even follow it. I didn't know you needed supervision to free a friend from his cell! I'm very sorry about your father, but you were reckless, and you were stupid. It's both of your faults that those Narnians are dead." Grace began to limp into the How, her shirt beginning to be stained with her blood, when she turned back to the guilty royalties. 

"Both of you need to STOP trying to prove yourselves. You're acting like children. No one wants to follow a child into war!" She finished, and finally made it into the How. Trumpkin had awoken, thank Aslan, and startled the group into preparing for the Telmarines. Grace headed to the infirmary. She lowered herself gently to the table as the faun began to tend to her injury. Luckily, the cut wasn't too deep and she could continue her training the next few days, she just needed to proceed with caution. As she thanked the faun and began to walk to the dining area, she was stopped by Edmund. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she expected a lecture.

"Hey, no eye rolls. I'm not here to lecture you." Edmund laughed, getting an eyebrow raise from Grace. "I just came to check on you, your side seemed pretty bad." Grace smiled lightly at his concern.