Chapter Fifteen: Taking the Castle, Part Two

Lily quickly found herself wishing that she had studied the castle layouts a tad better. Her part of the plan was to get to the gatehouse with Caspian, and that was the layout she had studied. She remembered the general direction of Miraz's chambers, but couldn't seem to find her way there. Either by happy accident, or bad luck, she ran into Peter and Susan and no longer had to worry about finding her way.

"Lily!" Susan gasped in surprise as she turned the corner and came face to face with her protector. "What are you doing here? You and Caspian are supposed to be in the gatehouse!"

"I know, but we found the Professor and he said something that led Caspian to taking off after his uncle. I tried to stop him but I lost him in this maze of a castle." She never was good at navigating the large things. Why did they have to have so many twists and turns, why couldn't they have simpler layouts!

"When did you last see him?" Peter asked.

"Not more than five minutes ago. He can't be that far ahead of us. If you two are here then we've got to be close," Lily said.

Susan nodded. "Yes, the room should be just down that hall."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

The three quickly started off down the long hall. As though to prove that they were indeed on the right track, the sound of Caspian's voice trailed out of the room and into the hallway, faint but still recognizable.

"-sad. The first time you show any backbone, and it's such a waste," Miraz was saying as they entered the room.

He stood with Caspian next to the bed, the tip of Caspian's sword placed right below his Adam's apple. His aunt was seated in bed, watching her husband and nephew exchange words while she loaded a bolt into a crossbow. Once it was loaded, she pointed it at Caspian.

"Put the sword down, Caspian. I don't want to do this," his aunt said as she pointed the weapon at her nephew.

"We don't want you to either!" Susan ordered as she and Lily both drew their bows and pointed a pair of arrows at the older woman.

"This used to be a private room," Miraz muttered, taking in the sight of the three new people.

"Caspian, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the gatehouse with Lily." Peter questioned, taking a step further into the room.

"No!" Caspian cried, not taking his eyes away from his uncle. "Tonight, for once, I want the truth!" Narrowing his eyes, the young prince looking intently at his uncle and asked the one question that had been burning at the back of his head since the Professor had made his comment. "Did you kill my father?"

A faint smirk appeared on Miraz's face as the question hung in the air. "So… now we get to it."

Caspian's aunt paused, looking away from her nephew—though the crossbow remained pointed at his chest—and turning instead to her husband. "You told me your brother died in his sleep."

"That was more or less true," Miraz replied, speaking so casually about the matter.

Gritting his teeth, Caspian took a few steps forward, forcing Miraz in front of the window. "Did you kill my father?" he asked again, though the answer was already implied.

Susan, taking her eyes off of Caspian's aunt, turned towards the prince. "Caspian, this won't make things any better."

"She's right, Caspian. There are other things, bigger things, that need to be done tonight," Lily reminded him.

The longer they stayed in this situation, the more likely it was for other parts of the plan to go wrong. If they didn't handle this soon, all of this planning will have been for nothing.

Caspian didn't listen, though, just continued to glare at his uncle. Miraz saw the state of his nephew, the emotions that ran through his features, and decided to act on them. "We Telmarines would have nothing had we not taken it," he said. "Your father knew that as well as anyone."

Caspian's aunt lowered her crossbow slightly, looking at her husband with a mixture of shock and disgust. "How could you? Your own brother?"

Miraz snapped his head towards her. "For the same reason you will pull that trigger!" he spat before turning towards Caspian once more and taking a step forward. "For our son!"

"Stop!" Susan demanded, moving her bow from Caspian's aunt and aiming it towards Miraz instead. "Stay right there!"

He didn't listen though and continued to walk towards Caspian who backed up. "You must choose. Do you want our child to be king? Or do you want him to be like Caspian here? Fatherless?" In a show of power, Miraz took another step towards Caspian and forced the tip of the sword into his neck causing a small bead of blood to spill onto his chest.

Caspian's aunt gave a cry of "No!" and pulled the trigger of the crossbow, sending the bolt flying. Startled by the outburst and quick movements, both Susan and Lily fired their arrow and missed. Susan had tried to hit Miraz, who had slipped out of the room through a hidden door in the wall, while Lily had tried to change targets too quickly and ended up burying her arrow in the bedpost. Peter made a run after Miraz but the door had been locked. Lily and Susan ran to Caspian, who had been hit in the arm by his aunt's bolt.

"Let me see it!" Lily ordered, pulling his hand away and ripping the fabric of his sleeve to get a better look at the wound. The tip had just grazed him and the cut wasn't deep. Grabbing a dagger from her belt, she cut a long strip of fabric from the bottom of her skirt.

"It's not so bad, just a scratch," she said as she started wrapping the fabric around Caspian's arm. "That will have to do for now," she added as she knotted the strip and pulled tight so that it wouldn't move. Caspian flinched but didn't say anything.

"We need to go," Susan said, speaking loudly so as to be heard over the wailing of Caspian's aunt. With Miraz gone, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the castle was alerted to their presence.

They needed to get out of there while they still could.

Peter turned around and nodded. Sheathing his sword, he rushed past Susan, Lily, and Caspian and into the hallway. The four ran until Peter suddenly took off down a side hallway.

"Peter!" Susan cried, "What are you doing? We need to leave!"

Peter stopped for a moment, a wild look in his eyes. "Our army is just outside! We only need to let them in!"

Without waiting to see if the others would follow him, Peter turned back around and continued down the hallway before disappearing to the right. The three looked at each other, Susan having a bad feeling while Lily was conflicted. She just wasn't sure if there really was enough time to go through with the plan. Finally, she decided that she couldn't just leave Peter behind so she took off after him. Behind her, she could hear Susan let out a huff before following as well.

Up in the tower, Edmund stood with his back to the battlement, flipping his torch in the air and catching it, while Georgie was looking out towards the castle. It had been a good ten minutes since they had seen the others sneak into the castle and Georgie was beginning to worry. He could have sworn that they should have been moving forward with the plan by now.

"I think something's wrong," he muttered quietly.

As if on cue, a loud scream erupted from somewhere inside the castle, filling the silent night with its cry of anguish. Edmund, who had once again thrown his touch into the air, jumped slightly and jerked his head. The torch gave another flip as it knocked against his hand before falling through the crenel and tumbled to the tower below them.

"Smooth, Ed!" Georgie scoffed as they both looked down at their only way of communicating with the raiding party outside the gates. To make matters worse, the sound of the device hitting the ground was enough to draw the attention of a guard who made his way towards the strange object before picking it up and examining it. Flicking the switch, the soldier turned the torch on and sent a beam of light up towards the sky.

"We have to get it back!" Edmund whispered as they pulled back from the crenel.

"No, I thought we should just leave it," Georgie whispered back sarcastically before trying to devise a plan. It was too far of a drop for them to jump down, they risked breaking something. As if to make matters worse, the bells started ringing, alerting the whole castle to their presence.

"I'm really not going to like this," Georgie muttered, shaking his head slightly before turning towards the crenel and slowly lowering himself so that he hung by his fingers. "I'll take care of the guard, you get the torch," he instructed before dropping.

Being as tall as he was, the drop wasn't as far as he had originally thought, but that didn't mean that it was still a pleasant one. He landed on the guard, bringing both of them to the ground. He didn't knock out the guard, however, and the two instantly started grappling with one another for control. Georgie somehow managed to knock the torch out of the man's hands just as Edmund appeared, having taken the stairs.

"Ed, do it now! Signal the troops, now!" Peter cried suddenly from below them in the courtyard where he paused momentarily to take out two guards who had tried to intercept him.

"We're trying!" Georgie yelled back as the soldier he was fighting slammed him against the walls of the tower.

Edmund looked down, watching as his brother took off towards the gate. Things seemed more desperate than they had thought and he could feel the pressure rising as he tried once more to get the torch to turn on. He shook it hard and continued to flick the switch on and off in the effort to get the light back.

"Peter, it's too late!" Susan called as her brother reached the wheel that would open the gate. Lily got there shortly after and together she and Peter started to push. It was made of thick wood and difficult to move. Even with both of them using all their weight to try and move the lever, the gate barely rose.

"Lily, Peter! We have to call this off while we still can!" Susan said once more, desperately trying to reason with the pair.

Peter looked up and locked eyes with Lily. Her brows were furrowed as she tried to push the heavy wheel and lift the gate. She wasn't going to be the one to make the call. She was the protector; he was the King. Though she could feel the truth in Susan's words, if he ordered them to see this plan through, she would back him. Peter seemed to realize this as he turned to face his sister, a desperate expression on his face.

"I can still do this! We can still do this! Help us!"

Though Susan didn't look happy, she set her face and moved quickly over to the wheel and started helping her brother. Caspian hurried over as well, standing next to Lily and helping her turn the wheel as well. With their combined efforts, the wheel slowly began to turn and the gate started to rise.

Above them, Georgie managed to knock the guard out and quickly ran to help Edmund who still hadn't managed to get the torch back on.

"Just smack it!" he said, his tone frantic.

"I've tried! It's not working!" Edmund replied, smacking the top of the torch with his palm.

Georgie grabbed the device from his friend sharply. "Not hard enough." Three times he knocked the torch against his leg harshly before trying the switch.

The light flicked on.

Both boys gave a cry of joy as the beam shone in their faces strong and bright.

"Signal the troops! The gates almost open!" Georgie said as he handed the torch back to Edmund.

"There's the signal!" Lily cried as they locked the wheel in place. Seconds later, the Narnian's swept into the courtyard and headed towards the guards that had started to spill out of the castle. The four standing by the gate all shared at look before drawing their weapons.

"For Narnia!"

Author's Note: So sorry this is late. I've been called into work on my last couple of days off so I've had next to no time to right. I hope you all can forgive me. As for part two, I hope that you guys liked it! The next one has all of the action. I hope that the transitions are fine and make sense. Thanks so much for the reviews: Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967, Kate07, and Isadora-Greenhall. Just you wait, we aren't even close to Lily being done, hahaha. And I almost just want to go with Geucy now just because it just sounds so weird, you know what I mean. XD Thanks so much for all the follows and favorites as well. I'll see you guys all for part three next week! Hopefully, on time!