Alliance

Chapter 40- Vale

Vale

Latin

Goodbye

-

flow away on the river,

stay no longer than stay the breaking waves.

-

"Done saying goodbye?" Sanya asked, on Moonlight's back- she hadn't wanted to take her horse to battle, but she'd insisted (Philip had translated)- most of the Narnian army behind her.

"We've already set out, if I wasn't done saying goodbye, there's not much I could do." Peter replied with uncharacteristic bite, atop Ephre, his Unicorn, who was prancing ahead with pride. He loved the majestic equine, but she only made herself known before battles and wars, when he really needed her. Somehow, that made him love her more.

Sanya would've raised her hands in surrender if she hadn't been holding onto the reins. "Only trying to be nice. Unless you forgot, I just left my children alone, and my husband has gone to rescue his sister from a man who tried to rape me as a child. So I could be quite unpleasant too. But I'm choosing not to be, because I'm a nice person."

"So you can be a bitch, but you're choosing not to be?"

"Being a bitch takes effort and I'm not up to that, so basically yes." She shrugged.

"I'm sorry." The Magnificent decided to say, instead of puzzling over his sister-in-law's 'to be or not to be' bitchiness. "I'm quite on edge too, you know, and I'm trying to avoid people so that I don't blow up at them."

"Well, considering that I'll be riding with you the entire journey, lucky me."

"I'm sure I won't be too much of an ass."

"I hope you're not, because it'd be an awful shame if I had to kill the High King before we even reach the battle." Sanya shrugged, eyes teasing. Anything, anything to take her mind of her internal agony, of the thought of someone else feeding and bathing and taking care of her babies, of the fact that she wasn't sure if she'd ever see them or Edmund again. It was very possible that the event that would lead him to grieving the True was to happen soon.
She was sure that riling Peter up would help with his own troubles as well.

"We never did get to have that duel of ours, did we?" Peter asked as he turned to her, a glint in his navy eyes.

“No. I became with child.”
Oh, she hoped Selene was alright. She was awfully fussy, especially when Edmund was not around. She was a toddler, yet had already made several of her nurses cry.
Jem had had to console them, as most of the making-them-cry was done while he was around.
Oh, thinking of her sweet Jemmy made her chest hurt. He had cried into her cloak while telling her goodbye. Sanya never cried, but she had definitely felt a tear as she finally pulled away from him and Selene, whose little mouth had been pouting and wobbly, confusion and tears in the eyes she had inherited from her mother.

“Excuses, excuses…”

“How in the world is me having a baby an excuse?"

"Well, it pardoned you from having to participate, so it is an excuse."

"I didn't duel you because I knew that whether I was pregnant or not, I'd beat you in a second." The True shrugged casually, fully aware that what she said was- well, true.

"And I'm supposed to be the cocky one?"

"Just being truthful, Peter."

"When we set up camp for the night before we reach the battle field, we're having that duel." Peter declared, urging Ephre to go faster. He was half-glad that Sanya was being so un-her- it took his mind off stressing and worrying and missing. He wondered if she was doing it on purpose, to help it. "You up for it, dear sister-in-law?"