~ by Amanda Tkaczow
Dressed in a cotton nightgown, a silk robe and slippers, and holding a candle, the Gentle
wandered the torch-lit halls of Cair Paravel. The young queen greeted guards on duty whom she passed as she made her way to the Great Hall, home to the Four Thrones. Were it any other night, the castle guards would have asked why the Gentle ventured abroad so late at night, but tonight was unlike any other.
Narnia had seen only six months of the reign of High King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just, and Queen Lucy the Valiant. For ones so very young, the four children handled their various lessons and royal duties with amazing grace and considerable wisdom. Well, so most Narnians thought. In truth, ruling Narnia was a great stress on the Four, although they took care to conceal this from their new subjects. They had known it would be difficult, especially since they were children, so they had set to learning in earnest. However, there were times when the stress would catch up with them.
When Lucy became stressed, she would excuse herself and retreat to her room in order to vent and recover her composure in privacy. Edmund would go for a ride when he became overwhelmed. Susan took to the archery range, but Peter tended to lose sleep.
And Peter had not been getting much sleep that week.
After they discovered the High King out past midnight three times, the nocturnal guards wisely chose to mention it discretely to his siblings. The Gentle graciously thanked the guards and asked to be notified the next time they saw the Magnificent out of his chambers at a late hour. So now Susan was making her way to her older brother to find out what was troubling him.
The Gentle found the Magnificent perched on the rail of the balcony off to the side of Lucy’s throne. It made Susan edgy only because she was afraid Peter would succumb to sleep and fall from the rail. She walked up beside her brother and set her candle on the rail.
“I hope you do not plan to sleep here, Peter,” she commented. “Because it is a little ways down; the rocky terrain that would do considerable damage to your person. And I know for sure that I do not want you hurt because you couldn’t keep your eyes open.”
The Magnificent turned and tiredly smirked at his sister, who smiled softly in return. The
siblings turned their gaze towards the beach. The moon’s silvery light set the sand aglow, and both moonbeams and starlight danced in the waves that lapped the shore. A soft breeze rustled the trees and Trees’ leaves alike, tossing the eldest Pevensies’ hair. Susan let the silence linger for a few minutes before she broached the subject that they needed to discuss before Peter dropped from exhaustion.
“What’s wrong, Peter?” she asked gently.
He didn’t meet her eyes and instead kept looking at the beach. “I don’t know,” he answered quietly.
The Gentle leaned on the rail. “Yes, you do,” she countered in her motherly manner.
She looked at her brother again. The tension was practically seeping from his being. Susan placed a hand on Peter’s arm to draw his attention. The High King turned towards his sister. He could see the concern etched in her soft features.
Taking a deep breath, the Magnificent explained what was keeping him up. “It’s the Lone Island delegation.”
Susan nodded. Their arrival and Peter’s sleep problem correlated. “Their attitude is what’s stressing you,” she stated.
He nodded. “Their expectations are slightly outrageous.”
Susan smiled. “You mean because they thought we—children—would have Narnia running like clockwork in six months? That there should not be any sort of disorganization or dissent within our own people who just emerged from a century of winter that, at times, required submitting to Jadis in order to live?” she asked sarcastically.
The young queen achieved her goal—the High King genuinely smiled. “Oh, that might be a couple of reasons why,” Peter replied in kind.
“Well, then they should get a dose of reality. Perhaps they should join us during our security meeting tomorrow,” the Gentle suggested.
The Magnificent tilted his head in thought. “Agreed, but perhaps not the security
meeting—don’t want them taking the information that can be gained there and use it against us. How about our morning weapons training and court? That way they get an idea what we have to deal with every day.”
Susan tiredly beamed. “I agree. Now, will you stop stressing about the dignitaries?”
Peter gave a lopsided smile and shrugged. “I’ll try.”
“Ask Aslan for help.”
The High King raised an eyebrow. “Channeling Lucy now, are we?” he asked in jest.
The young queen made a face at him. “Maybe, or perhaps Narnia is having a tremendous affect on me.” She patted his arm. “Come now. It’s about time we got some sleep,” she said as she straightened up.
Peter swung his legs around and eased off the balcony rail. Susan reached for her candle, which was more of a stub now. The two put their arms around one another, and they walked back to the elder’s chambers. The Gentle didn’t leave the Magnificent’s side upon reaching his chambers.
“Su, what are you doing?” he asked when she followed him in.
“Making sure you get to sleep,” she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Peter glanced at his sister suspiciously. “You don’t need to do that,” he said cautiously.
Susan smiled mischievously. “Oh, yes I do.”
Swiftly, the Gentle closed the large oak door and began to tickle the High King. Peter yelped in surprise and made to get away from his sister’s fingers. Susan managed to corral him towards his bed, and when Peter started to fall over, he grabbed his sister’s hand and pulled her down with him. Once they were both on the bed, Peter started tickling his sister in retaliation. Susan did her best to muffle her screeches and laughter so she wouldn’t wake the castle. The elder Pevensie tickle fight continued for about ten minutes before they lay back in exhaustion. Peter started to drift off, so Susan moved to tuck him in. Once her brother was settled in for the rest of the night, she smiled at him, then silently left his chambers and went to bed herself.
Tomorrow would bring its own troubles, but tonight her family would slumber in peace.
***
Peter woke suddenly from a deep sleep. He glanced around the room he shared with his wife. He shifted on the bed as he listened to the silence, and he softly groaned. The wounds the High King sustained during the battle with the Ettinsmoor Giants were still tender. It took the Magnificent a moment to realize why he woke up. As gently as he could, Peter extricated himself from his wife and covers, donned his robe and slippers, and made his way to the Great Hall.
As he suspected, Susan was out on the Great Hall’s balcony off Lucy’s throne. Over the years, the two elder Pevensies had developed a connection. Whenever either one of them was up late due to some sort of stressor, the other would wake to lend an ear and advice.
Susan was standing by the rail, her long raven hair cascading down her back. Upon closer observation, Peter noticed his sister’s shoulders were trembling.
“Su?”
The Gentle turned to face her brother, and when he caught her gaze, he saw the sorrow and anger in her tear-filled eyes. Anger was the more prevalent of the two, though. Susan had the gift to turn her anger into tears instead of lashing out physically or with words.
Peter opened his arms to his sister, and she eagerly took the invitation—being careful of her brother’s still-healing wounds. The High King enclosed the Gentle in a secure hug and rubbed her back in a soothing manner as she cried into his shoulder. The queen wept hard for a number of minutes.
As soon as Susan began to calm down, Peter pushed her gently to arm’s length and helped her wipe the tears away. The Magnificent waited until the Gentle met his gaze again to voice his concern. “Tell me what’s wrong, Susan.”
Anger flared in her moonlit ice-blue eyes. The Gentle set her jaw, took a deep breath, and let it out fast through her nose in attempt to keep the tears at bay. “I was so blind, Peter. I went to Tashbaan thinking Ed and I were just going to be negotiating a trade agreement. Lucy even had a bad feeling about my going, but I ignored her because I was eager to get out of the Cair for a while.” Susan stopped her ramble when her words caught in her throat. The queen swallowed as she regained some composure before she continued to let out her emotions. “I should have listened to Lucy, for as soon as we were shown to our rooms, Rabadash made it clear he would not allow me to leave the city. The so-called Prince did not care that I already had a husband and child! It took a deceptive plan thought up by Mr. Tumnus and the other Narnians in our party to get us to the Splendor Hyaline so we could go home, but then a war was nearly started. Peter, why was I so blind?!” The distress was clear in the Gentle’s voice as she quietly wailed the last
sentence.
Peter took his sister firmly by the shoulders when she began to cry again and started to
hyperventilate. “Hey,” her brother resolutely said. “Calm down. Breathe with me, Su.”
Susan followed her brother’s slow respiration. Within a couple of minutes, the eldest queen was breathing (with occasional sniffs) at a healthier rate that didn’t make the High King worry.
“Now,” Peter began comfortingly. “We all make mistakes, do we not?”
Susan nodded.
The High King nodded with her. “I know it’s hard to believe, but even the Kings and Queens of this very country make mistakes when nearly everyone outside of Narnia expects us to be perfect,” he said jestingly.
The Gentle gave a wet laugh that lit up her entire face in the full moonlight.
Her brother smiled with her. “I’m sure no one blames you, Su. You haven’t gotten out of Cair Paravel much of late. Have you asked Aslan to forgive you and to grant you peace?”
Susan bowed her head and shook it shamefully. Peter reached out and lifted her chin to bring her gaze back to his.
Gently and softly, the High King said, “Ask Him. As Lu has told us many a time—Aslan wants to help. He’s just waiting for you to give the go-ahead.”
A warm smile graced the Gentle queen’s features. “Thank you, Peter.”
The Magnificent enveloped his sister in another hug. “What are brothers for?”