beloved | e. pevensie

Chapter One

Swords clashed, the afternoon sunlight glinting off the edges of the blades, momentarily blinding me as I watched. Both soldiers pulled back their weapons to attack again. I leaned forward in anticipation when someone knocked on my door, making me jump.

"Princess?"

Odysseus opened my chamber door slightly.

"Come in," I said, rising from my seat next to the window.

He smiled. "Watching the sword fights again?"

"I wish I could join them," I sighed wistfully.

"Ah, well, you could easily keep up with them, Your Highness," Odysseus said proudly.

"Even so, I wish I could do something more than practicing in the cover of darkness and hiding my sword in my wardrobe."

I ran my hand through my thick, brown hair. If I had done it in front of my aunt, she would have scolded me but with Odysseus, I didn't have to act like a princess if I didn't want to.

Nurse was sent away when I was seven, because she told us stories. Now that she was gone, the stories still rang in my head. I wasn't sure if it was because they were forbidden or because they left me with a sense of guilt.

Before my great, great, great, great grandfather, Caspian I took over Narnia, it was ruled by the four kings and queens from all the fairytales and stories. Then they disappeared just as they had come and the Telmarines took over. My people.

"Aubree?" Odysseus said my name a second time and I realized I had zoned out.

"Oh, I'm sorry, what?"

"I was asking if you wanted to talk about it." He looked down at my hand.

The silver ring felt like a weight on my left hand. Three days ago, my uncle announced that I was engaged to the child my aunt was carrying, if it was a boy. To carry on the royal line, he said, but it was more of an elaborate threat.

Everyone had clapped and cheered that night, while my aunt smiled, a hand rested on her bulbous belly. Caspian and I had exchanged looks across the table. If this child was a son, I would live to be his wife and my brother would die, as the real next line to the throne.

I hated that ring. And I told Odysseus behind my bolted door just how much I loathed it.

After I finished, he told me to hold out my hand. In it, he placed a ruby handled dagger with a small, delicate-looking blade. I ran it along the edge of my finger and wiped the drops of blood on my brown dress, lightly staining it.

"I'm sorry I got your hopes up, Princess," Odysseus said in a thick voice.

I looked up from my new dagger. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'm the one who's taught you how to read and write and how to survive and fight because I believed there would be a way out for you. But now there's nothing I can do for you." A tear trickled into his dark beard.

I placed a hand on his shoulder. "You have been an incredible teacher, this is just one test I'm going to have to take on my own."

Odysseus wiped another tear from his face. "You are far braver than I, Aubree, to accept such a fate."

"I haven't accepted it," I said. "A fate without my brother is worse than death."

Those words echoed in my head as Caspian and I walked in the courtyard before dinner. He told me that he and his own tutor, Dr. Cornelius, had a similar exchange.

"We can only hope for the best, Cas." I kept my stride in line with my brother's.

"If it's a girl, Uncle Miraz will kill us both." Caspian glanced at the guard standing next to the main courtyard door and then lowered his voice. "We need to leave."

Fear trickled down my spine as I considered the dangerous thought. "Leave?"

We had never been beyond the gates before. Uncle Miraz should have taken Caspian to meet the other tribes he would rule over but our uncle had been trying to prolong the time before my brother's kingly training. All I had were maps Odysseus had made for me and the stories he told me about what it was like outside.

"I cannot let you marry a boy half your age, only for him to push you around. And I certainly can't let you die."

"There's no way to know if we'll survive if we leave," I insisted. "Every option is a death sentence."

Caspian grabbed me roughly by the shoulders, forcing me to face him. "Listen to me, Aubree. I'm not going to sit back and let him take the throne that's rightfully ours," he hissed. "You have to trust me."

"I do trust you," I whispered. "But that doesn't mean I don't worry. The throne was never meant to be mine. If you die, Narnia will go wayward." I gripped my brother in a fierce hug. "You are far more valuable than me."

"How can you be so smart and so stupid?" Cas asked in a husky voice. "You don't understand your own worth."

"The job of the princess is to protect the king," I quoted. "Yours is to stay alive long enough to make an impact."

"Children."

Uncle Miraz stood on his balcony overlooking the courtyard. "Come in."

The guards opened the doors and we stepped wearily inside. Stone cooled air wrapped around us, raising goose bumps on my arms, Like always, when I reached my uncle, I curtsied, my long hair brushing the edges of my gown that laced the floor. My brother bowed his customary bow next to me.

"Take dinner in your rooms," he said when we rose. "Your aunt is not feeling well. Summon your tutors to eat with you if you wish."

And just like that he walked away. No room for questions, comments, or arguments. Swift, quick, concise, just like the beard on his chin.

I headed to my room, feeling all of the guards' eyes on me as I rounded the corners. I didn't call Odysseus, I wanted to be alone.

After the lock was bolted, I reached under my mattress, feeling around for the history book Odysseus used. A gold lion was emblazoned on the cover. I gently stroked the edges of his mane.

My brother still viewed the stories as the fairytales but to me, they were history. Narnia didn't belong to me or the Telmarines. And that idea alone should have me killed, not hiding with a silver ring on my finger.