The Call - Edmund Pevensie

1

"If the moon is awake, then you are awake my Luna." My father's words rang in my ears as I paced my room, my gut riddled with anxiety. Despite the fact that the moon was high above the world, me and half of the castle were awake as at that very moment I knew my aunt was giving birth to my baby cousin just several rooms away.

While most people would consider the birth of a cousin an amazing thing, I couldn't get rid of the gut feeling that said something was very wrong.

Since I'd found out Aunt Prunaprismia was pregnant all those months ago, this feeling had not left me alone. I rarely slept anymore, constantly afraid that at any moment someone was going to come into my room and take me, but especially my brother Caspian, away. After all, I didn't trust my Uncle Miraz to tell me the sky was blue without lying. I knew our Uncle was ambitious to a fault, and he'd had his eye on Caspian's throne since our father had died. If my aunt gave him a son tonight, my uncle would finally have a reason to take out Caspian. The only person standing in the way of his and his son's throne.

The door to my room swung open and on instinct my hand flew to my sword sheathed at my side. It'd become habit to have it on my body at all times, even the middle of the night. My body relaxed as I realized it was just the professor, but my relief didn't last long.

"Your Highness, your aunt has given birth to a son." I felt the color drain from my face. "We must get your brother and leave immediately." I didn't say anything, I didn't need to. I just nodded.

Grabbing my cloak as I left and throwing the hood over my head to shield my face, the professor and I went as quickly as we dared to Caspian. The professor went straight to his bed while I stood by his door, hand on the pommel of my sword. My mind was reeling with the fact that this was really happening. Caspian and I were really about to flee our home for fear of our own uncle. It sounded like the plot of one of those boring plays the professor made Caspian and I learn about growing up.

"Five more minutes," I heard Caspian mumble and had to stop myself from running over there to shake him awake myself.

"You won't be watching the stars tonight my prince," the professor said hurriedly. "Come, we must hurry." I turned to see the professor practically drag Caspian out of bed towards his wardrobe. He saw me standing at the door and gave me a look of confusion.

"Professor, what is going on?" he asked.

"Your aunt has given birth... to a son," the professor explained. He opened the wardrobe and I saw Caspian's face as he began to understand what was happening. The professor disappeared into the wardrobe as I left my post at the door to follow him. Instead of Caspian's clothes, the back of the wardrobe had been opened up to reveal a secret passage that I knew lead down to the stables. When I joined the professor, Caspian was still standing outside looking shell shocked.

"Cas, come on," I urged. His head snapped back to his door like he heard someone coming, then sprung into action. He closed the wardrobe doors just enough so he could still see through a small crack. Just as soon as he'd done that, I heard the door to his bedroom open. Not one of us moved for fear of alerting whoever was there. One creak of the wardrobe and it was all over.

I recognized the sound of a dozen crossbows being fired almost immediately. I couldn't see outside since Caspian was blocking my view, but I didn't need to. My stomach rolled violently at the thought that if the professor and I had been a second later, those arrows would have killed Caspian. And probably us as well.

Our Uncle had officially sent orders to have Caspian killed.

I felt a tug from the professor which I passed on to Caspian. We both turned and followed the old man down a flight of stone steps, the smell of hay and horse manure growing stronger the further down we went.