Ch 21: Like Arrows

Edmund limped back to Asha, Leina, and Corisande. His arm ached too much to hold his sword upright anymore and the tip dragged across the marble floor.

His sisters ran to him, smashing against him in a hug that stole his breath. Ed dropped his sword and closed his eyes, putting his arms around his sisters and holding them tight.

When he opened his eyes, he found Asha smiling tearfully at him over his sisters' shoulders.

The girls stepped back, beaming. "Edmund, that was the most amazing thing I've ever seen!" Lucy cried. "How long have you been back in Narnia?"

Two months? Three? More? Edmund had forgotten.

"How did we get back?" Susan wondered.

"That was Edmund's doing," Asha said softly.

A group of Narnian dryads approached, and then there was too much activity for him to ask what she meant because the dryads were healing her. He felt the sting in his side fade where Heren's man had cut her.

When they turned to him, he gave a start, but a pair of them linked hands over his wounds. They, too, stopped bleeding and knitted together.

"How ...?" Susan started to ask.

Struggling for the words, Edmund related everything that had happened to him since his return. His siblings' eyes went rounder and rounder. Finally, when he spoke of his betrothal to Corisande, Peter's gaze shifted to the Telmarine girl in disbelief.

Corisande went pink and her gaze fell at once to the floor. She looked like she might faint from lack of breath as she gave a shaky curtsy. "Y-Your Majesty," she said in barely a whisper.

Peter nodded. Then his gaze went back to Edmund, who stood less than two meters from Asha's side and felt it must be acres. Asha explained that he carried a part of her magic now, and that made him susceptible to dryad magic.

"Was that what brought us back?" Lucy wondered.

"That," said Nalis, walking toward them, "and the Deep Magic." He looked to Edmund. "I saw you defend the High King's throne, sire, even when he was not here." He bowed, and when Oreius approached to stand beside him, Oreius bowed as well. "I have never seen such an act of love and honor," said Nalis.

Oreius had never looked so glad as when he embraced Peter. "Welcome back, my king. The stars changed last night, but I was afraid to hope." He drew away with his hands on Peter's shoulders. "I feel a new age has begun."

Edmund and his brother and sisters made their way to the dais. The Narnians had crowded before it, smiling and eager. When he and his siblings sat on their thrones, the stained glass windows of the great hall shook with the roar of Narnian voices.

- # -

Peter walked beside Edmund along the beach. "Why would you do such a thing, Ed?"

"There wasn't exactly anyone else to stop them from invading Narnia. Marriage was the only thing I could think of to prevent it."

They heard voices ahead, and he saw Asha, Corisande, and his sisters chasing one another along the sand. Peter stared ahead, his gaze on Asha as she spun and raced after Susan, laughing. "I thought you loved her."

Edmund followed Asha with his eyes. He could sense the smile in her heart, the feeling of friendship as she sprinted after his sisters. "I do. More than I knew, brother."

Peter scoffed. "Let me deal with Telmar."

Edmund stopped dead, staring at him.

Seeming to realize Ed was not with him any longer, Peter halted and turned back. "You heard me."

Someone cleared his throat behind them. They turned around.

Aslan stood on the shore. "It is good to see you again, Peter. Your return has saved Narnia once again." He gave Peter an affectionate smile.

Peter and Edmund knelt before the Lion.

"Rise, Edmund. I believe there is a box waiting for you by the laurel tree." Aslan nodded toward the end of the beach where the women were.

Edmund went where the Lion directed. Aslan stayed behind to speak with Peter. When he reached the laurel tree, Ed saw the carved box that had held Asha's letters at the base of the tree. Wondering how it had gotten there, he bent and opened it.

Inside lay a carved wooden ring. Edmund scooped it up and ran to Asha.

- # -

Corisande had been happy to release Edmund from his vows. Peter assured him that Telmar wouldn't dare attack Narnia with its kings and queens returned to their thrones, and he'd begun a long series of letters back and forth with Corisande's family and the Telmarine nobles.

Now, Corisande stood in a forest clearing beside his sisters and Leina, watching him with a smile on her face. She spoke freely with him, and with his sisters and Asha also, though privately Ed thought Peter still scared the poor girl out of her skin.

Peter stood on the other side of the clearing with Nalis and Oreius. A mass of Narnians (and many Selbarani who had remained loyal to Asha) had crowded into the remaining space. Far off, he heard the rush of the sea. The trees bordering the clearing rained flower petals down around them, but as soon as the crowd parted for her, Edmund had eyes only for Asha.

When she took his hands, he felt as if he'd been waiting his whole life for this one moment. Everything faded out as he stared into her eyes. He was vaguely aware of someone speaking the words that would make her his, but he didn't need them. They had belonged to one another for years.

He slid the wooden ring onto her finger and closed his hand over hers. When the dryad elder who married them asked him to kiss her at last, Ed touched her face and stared at her. She smiled back. He knew she sensed everything in his heart, just as he knew the fierce joy in hers.

"Your Majesty ... Majesties?" the elder dryad said uncertainly.

And then, Ed couldn't wait another moment. He took her face in both hands and kissed her. He barely heard the cheer that rose from the spectators. It didn't matter. Nothing else mattered. He had Asha. He had his family. And he was home.

~ The End ~