Trials of Faith

Chapter III

Chapter III

"Stop right there, Pevensies. There's a toll to use this hallway. Oh? Don't have the money to pay for it?"

"You're going to have to hold me back, Peter. I swear I'll kick his-" Edmund starts.

"Edmund!" Peter scolds. "Honestly, if you had said that, you'd sound like them." He nods towards Jacob. "Come on, we'll just take the longer way." He mutters to Edmund. Turning the other way, he begins to walk back down the hall, only to be stopped as more of Jacob's friends appear. They are trapped.

"Get out of our way, you prats!" Edmund hollers.

"Hey!" Peter yelps in surprise as someone comes up behind him and knocks his books to the ground. Papers scatter to the ground. Peter finally reaches his breaking point.

"That was my Latin homework, you-you jerk!" He yells, unwilling to curse, but finding himself very tempted to. Muscle memory kicks in, and he falls to a defensive position, back-to-back with Edmund.

"What? Are the Kings of Narnia gonna pound us into oblivion?" Jacob jeers.

"I'll show you King of Narnia!" Peter growls. He dodges Jacob's punch with ease, and grabs the boy's shirt, pulling him close. "Don't you ever, ever, mock Narnia again, or so help me Aslan, you won't live to see another day."

"And if you lay a finger on me or my brother again, I will make your death slow and torturous."

Edmund is stunned to hear his brother say such a thing. Peter, normally gentle and laid-back, is angrier now than he has ever been. Jacob, seeing most of friends have deserted him and he is thus outnumbered, runs off.

Edmund approaches his brother cautiously and places a hand on his shoulder.

"I-I need to be alone." Peter says, walking towards their dorm.

"Fine," Edmund replies. "I'll meet you later."

***

Peter sits heavily on his bed and fiddles with his tie, thinking back to the fight. He had never been angry before in his entire life. He realises with no small amount of shock that he was so angry that he could have killed Jacob. Sure, maybe Edmund didn't know what happened in the only class the brothers didn't share-math (Peter had always had a head for numbers and was doing university level work)- and when he was alone, but Jacob had done far worse, and Peter hadn't been nearly as angry. Peter's eyes dart to his bedside table, and take in a small picture, done in coloured pencil that Lucy had given him, depicting Cair Paravel.

And suddenly, a stab of longing hits his heart. More than anything, he wants to be back in Narnia, where he was the High King and none questioned his commands, not some little hapless school boy who didn't have any authority. He picks up the picture and stares at it intensely. Suddenly, the door opens, and Edmund enters the room. Peter quickly sets the picture back on the nightstand and makes like he is studying his Latin.

"Hey." Edmund speaks, breaking the heavy silence.

"Hmm." Peter says 'absentmindedly'.

"We just gonna pretend that didn't happen?" Edmund asks sardonically.

Peter sighs. He had hoped Edmund would let it go, but that wasn't going to happen.

"What do you want me to say? 'I'm sorry?'" Peter runs his hand through sweat drenched hair. "I'm not a liar. And, it scares me to admit this but: I'm not sorry." He stands abruptly. "I'm going to get a shower."

"Can we talk about this?" Edmund asks, once again shaking his head in disbelief.

"Look, I get it. You think I've changed. I can't help it, Edmund. I'm just so angry...angry at myself, angry at being back here and," Peter looks down at floor, ashamed to admit the last thing.

"Angry at Aslan." Edmund finishes.

"Yes." Peter affirms in a guilty manner..

"I get it, Peter. We've all changed since our return, but that's nothing we can't handle. Besides, we've all had our fair share of doubts about Aslan's motives, as I said earlier. Even Lucy, though she won't admit it. Even her faith has been shaken, but we have to get past this. We don't have any other choice." Edmund says.

"I want to go home." Peter says plaintively. Edmund knows he is not talking about their house in the suburbs of London, nor is he talking about Professor Digory Kirke's house.

"Me too." Edmund says, barely audible.