For King and Country ⭒Caspian x Reader⭒

Chapter 23

The door to my room clicked shut as Una hurriedly slid the bolt into place. I turned in a small circle taking in the chamber I hadn't seen in so long.

Before the battle, I had laid out a dress on the bed to wear to Erik and I's engagement ball that was to be held after we returned. The gown still lied on the bed untouched; a thick layer of dust over the velvet fabric and every piece of furniture around it. The room was like a moment suspended in time, but a moment curated for a different girl from a different world. Sorrow seemed to live in that room; memories of the heartache of many different origins swam through it.

"Now," Una said, checking behind the large tapestries covering the windows, "We can talk."

"Una," I sighed sinking onto the bed; a cloud of dust rising around me, "Why hasn't anyone killed that bastard yet?"

"The soldiers have switched their loyalty to him," Una sat in a chair opposite the bed, "They've taken on his crest and given him their allegiance."

"Why?" I said, rising to look out the window on the grounds below. Soldiers seemed to patrol every square foot of the estate. Where they there to keep people out or me in? Maybe both.

"Money," Una said, her mouth a thin line, "All it took was a few extra gold pieces and Erik's commands became law."

"I don't see how Alexander has survived this long," I whispered, in fear someone had their ear pressed against the door, "I don't know of any poison that can drag someone along for such a stretch of time."

"Erik has been giving it to him in small doses," Una's eyes looked like they were far away, "He banished all of Alexander's testers, but one of them snuck into the kitchens and tried his food one day, and fell ill immediately...They were put to death for defying his orders."

A sharp pain went through my chest, and my hand flew to my heart as if I could catch it as it broke even further, "I can't believe this is happening..."

"Erik allows me to tend to Alexander so your mother found an herbalist who has been supplying us with some things to lessen the effects...I don't know how much longer it'll be till even those aren't enough."

I leaned my head against the cold pane of glass and watched raindrops slide down the window. Everything was crumbling around me. I lost Caspian, and my brother was all but dead. How long till Erik started picking off the rest of us?

"Tell me..." Una began, "Narnia-" Her words cut short as tears glistened in her eyes remembering her homeland. The signs had been there for years in her stories about Narnia. I thought the stories were just tall tales, but there was a cavern in her heart that bled for anyone who looked close enough.

"It's the place of dreams," A small smile formed on my face as I traced my finger along the windowpane; the moisture on the window turning into small designs in the wake of my hand, "I didn't want to leave."

So many words wanted to burst forth, but the pain in my heart grew every moment I remembered those I loved—Caspian, Morgan, Peter, Titus, and all the others who had cared for me.

"Tell me about him," Una came up to the window, standing opposite of me.

"Who?" I feigned ignorance. If I didn't speak of him, then I wouldn't have to invoke the truth—that he was no longer in my life.

"The King...Caspian," Una said; the lines in her face deepening as a sympathetic smile formed on her face.

My fingertips brushed over my lips as I thought of him; wanting to feel the warm press of his mouth again.

There was so much to tell of Caspian; how kind and brave he was. Would I tell her of how he pursued me against all odds? Or of how my heart changed from stone to flesh at the tenderness he held me in?