soldier, poet, king || e. pevensie | slow updates

the soldier • 27

there will come a soldier, who carries a mighty sword. she will tear your city down, oh lei-oh lai-oh lord

The other knights picked her up onto their shoulders, bringing her to one of the taverns in the lower city. Cheering and whooping, the group of knights all sat down at a table, laughing about nothing — as usual.

The barmaid came over to them, asking their orders. Zavier ordered ale all around, not even checking with anyone else.

"Coralia, you ever had a drink before?" Ruzan joked.

"You forget I've worked in a tavern for years of my life, and lived in one longer. I was the only waitress and bartender, and my father was never around. You do the math."

The barmaid returned with all their drinks on a tray, handing them to each knight. Coralia thanked her, taking a sip of her drink. Her face scrunched up at the taste. "This is awful." She said plainly.

"I thought you'd had it before."

"I have, but this specific one is really bad."

"I'll take it!" Peodum reached across the table, but Coralia pulled the mug away.

"I never said I wouldn't drink it, asshole."

The other knights cheered, all draining their mugs in seconds. Coralia was a little behind them, but not by much. She hadn't ever drank this much. The only time that came really close was when she and Dantus had smuggled some ale from the tavern and gotten drunk at his house. But she was two and a half mugs deep now, and none of the men seemed fazed at all. They just kept ordering more rounds. Coralia could hardly keep up, but she couldn't deny that she was having fun. And she wasn't about to be the first one to back out.

The door swung open, the bell on it ringing quietly. All the knights' heads turned to see who it was, and everyone stood up with the loud scraping of chairs across the floor. A jumbled mess of "Your Grace", "Your Majesty", and "My King" came from the table. King Edmund waved it off and pulled a chair up to the table next to Coralia. She handed him her fourth mug silently. He leaned over to his bodyguard.

"You look terrible," Edmund whispered to her.

"Thanks. You don't look that great yourself, Sire." Coralia huffed, turning her head away from him.

"No, I mean you look drunk."

"That's because I am, genius."

Edmund didn't fight her on that. Coralia scolded herself. She should be proud tonight. She couldn't let anyone get in the way of her victory today. He didn't say anything else. He drank the mug she'd given him, but nothing more than the one. Coralia couldn't bring herself to do a fifth, so she tried to let herself enjoy the rest of the night with no more. Edmund cancelled the next day's morning training, which was even more cause for celebration.

It reached the wee hours of the morning, and the men were still not done. Coralia eventually had made it to six mugs before nearly throwing it all up. The men were nowhere near stopping, but Edmund convinced them that they'd all die after their tenth mug of ale, so the men all stumbled out the door.

Edmund paid for the drinks quickly, tossing the barmaid a very generous tip to make up for how rowdy the knights had gotten.

Coralia had some remaining habit in her mind to walk next to Edmund to protect him, but in her state, it was more of him making sure she didn't fall over.

They made it to the steps of the castle, but there was no way any of the knights were going to make it up them. The men were stumbling and falling up them, trying not to laugh at each other. Of course, that only made them laugh harder. Peodum fell to the ground, clutching his stomach as he wheezed.

Coralia was leaning onto Edmund, taking each step up carefully. She had an arm hooked around his waist, his hand barely resting on her back to make sure she didn't fall backwards.

She made it up the steps, but it was just infinitely more stairs up to the servants quarters in the attics. The narrow stairs allowed for them to go one at a time, so Edmund walked behind her the whole way up, keeping his hands floating behind her back. They made their way all the way up the stairs and down the hall to her bedroom. She stopped outside the door.

Coralia's thoughts were muddled. She wasn't in her right mind, and had lost basically all logic. She meant to thank Edmund when she turned around, but her balance was still off. She lost her footing and fell right into his arms.

Bad, bad, bad, bad.

In the dim candlelight lighting the hall, she could hardly see Edmund's face. She could see, however, the flush appearing on his cheeks.

They stood frozen like that, his arms instinctively wrapped around her body, her arms thrown over his shoulders. Her eyes flitted across his face.

He was the first to move. Coralia was worried he would release her and leave her standing in the hall. He only moved her hair out of her face, leaving his hand resting on her jaw. She threaded her hand into his hair, and he glanced down at her lips.

That was her answer. She stood up onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips softly against his. After another moment of silence and staring into each others eyes, he took her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, bidding her goodnight.

As soon as he was gone, she heard a muffled "fucking finally."

She squinted towards where the voice had come from, to see all of the knights spill out of Peodum's room, grinning. She hurried over to them, shoving them back into the room. "You can't tell anyone. I'm serious, that was a mistake."

"Didn't look like one," Ruzan muttered.

Coralia hit him lightly. "Well, it was. And now I have no idea how I'm going to face him tomorrow. Well, in six hours when I have to go dress him for breakfast."

"Just go now, and keep him undressed!"

"Which one of you just said that, because I swear I'll have your hide and make it into a rug for the Great Hall—"

"Relax, we won't tell anyone. Just go to bed, then in the morning pretend you were too drunk to remember. It's fine." Zavier seemed to have sobered up quickly enough to be somewhat logical.

"Alright. That seems closest to some type of plan. Now go to sleep, and stop being stalkers."

•

yass!! also again: i AM researching but i am also making up stuff and yes she was surprisingly sober after being drunk let's blame it on her magic and yes the knights should probably be DEAD by now but they r too cool to die

anyway dantus chapter next, our man is a full time author now what will he do! the answer is never leave his house ever again