The Next Four Months

Chap eight

(A/N) you guys better appreciate this! I was reading a guide to emergency childbirth at around 2am! Also I stupidly didn't think about the language I was using in the last chapter! Susan wouldn't call them contractions!!

(Edmund)

It had been at least an hour, things were mad! I knew they'd attack- they did make it blatantly obvious something was going to happen soon but, for a brief second, they stole our idea. By half an hour there were bodies everywhere, blood pooling congealing into the flagstones, roars and screams, red and black, clinks and thwips it was utter madness. I blinked and another telmarine was there, right in my face, not even a second let up between each strike. I ducked the tall soldiers blow, striking out across his knees with my own sword. The man howled and almost collapsed on top of me another bordered him and swung the silver blade towards my throat, changing his tactic at the last second to hit me over the head with the flat. He knocked me hard, my balance thrown straight off, clattering to the ground. The telmarine smiled down at me, I smiled back unnerving him, he had not a clue a Minotaur stood ready to take his head off. Another scream of death. I headed straight for he stone stairs, I had to know who was causing this attack in order to be able to stop it, I dashed for them jumping over dismembered bodies and dodging blades quickly. A growl sounded and Thornpaw the jaguar arrived at my side leaping lithe up each step.

"Sire?" He questioned in a voice that always sounded like a growl.

"We need to know who started this, we have to pick him out!" I yelled over the constant racket of the battle below. The jaguar nodded and trotted to the balcony at my side.

They were everywhere, hundreds of them, black on red spilled across the courtyard, every visa me body involved in some kind of attack, I didn't know where to start this. I'd been kidding myself, I didn't know what to do, where to find the commander of a battle, Peter always knew his enemy and when Lord Miraz had stood in this position he had known his. All I had to go on was Susca- she was definitely not leading the battle. As much as I seriously did not want to admit it I wasn't the one to lead this, neither was Susan we needed Peter- the one person we didn't have.

"Any thoughts your majesty?" Thornpaw asked, watching me with his bright eery yellow eyes, he didn't regard me very highly he trusted Peter and only Peter to rule this land. I wanted to drizzle out some rubbish and hope he'd believe it but his family had fought wars with telmarines as long as they had an ancestry, Thornpaw would know I was talking gibberish.

I was saved by a sound, it was like a hunting horn. I looked around at the crowds of raging soldiers below, searching for the source of the sound, I was sure it was familiar.

Then it clicked.

"Susan!" I glanced at Thornpaw, needing a leader, needing to know what to do. My sisters were in trouble, but they needed me here. Thornpaw smiled his icy glare fixed,

"Go, you were never built to be a general."

I did, before he could change my mind I ran, not even sure where I was going. The sound hadn't left a trace, only a memory. I knew however where the girls were meant to go, the underground bolt hole two miles from the castle. I knew the way Lucy would go, the way she would lead Susan and I took chance like a bloodhound on the trail. Heavy armour clinking and clanged as I ran the path. Down the stairs, corridor with the plant pot, down those stairs along the back corridor. I panted out the instructions to myself muttering under my breath. I kept on running down the long back corridor. The door to Susan's room was wide open, a good sign. I followed the twists and turns to the letter before realising my plan had failed.

I saw the blood as I ran past the door, then stopped and peaked in, all the contents of my stomach lurched. There were four dead telmarines. One shot with a cross bow, one had his throat slit, the other stabbed in the back and a final with a broken neck. The floor was red with blood. A twelve year old and an expectant mother couldn't have done this. Bile rose in my throat when I saw their sick plan. As usual the telmarines had murdered their own, tried to make it look like my sisters were being helped but Susan's winter cloak lay on the floor. I lifted the bottom of it to find the hem was wet, the cloak was red so I couldn't tell but what was it if not blood.