A/N: So, I said I wouldn't update until June but then I saw the number of votes I have. I have 1000 VOTES on this story! I am too, too happy for words so, as a thank you, I'm posting this chapter. I can still remember the day when this story had 999 views and I was eagerly waiting for it to turn into 1000. Now, I have 1000 votes and nearly 50000 views!
So, a shout out to OanaTanasoiu who was the 1000th voter and also to all the people who had filled in the 999 placed before the mile stone.
Now, excuse me while I go and do a happy dance. Hope you all enjoy the chapter and do let me know what you thought!
Chapter 24
Fear, Love and Rage (Part: 1)
Some people believe that there are only three basic emotions one can feel.
Fear, love and rage.
These three are the driving force behind any action one takes. These three are in themselves sufficient to sustain each other. Each can fuel the other two. They form an endless cycle to keep each other existing. All the emotions are in essence made up of fear, love and rage in different proportion.
A man can live his entire life fueled only by these three.
All my life, be it in shadowlands or be it in here, everything I haD ever done, my motivation was, in the end, one or more of these three.
I ruled the way I did because I loved my people and my family that always stood by my side.
I fought the battles the way I did because my heart raged against anyone who was my people or my family's enemy.
I worried and pondered because I feared for my people and my family's well-being.
At this moment, as I stood against my enemies, side by side with my friends, I had all three burning within me, urging me on. They were like three different reserves of fuel and energy waiting to explode and fill me up with their reasons and motivations, asking me why I had not yet really begun the battle.
Behind me, two of the mightiest armies of all the worlds stood; ready to tear apart the enemy at my single command. All the three emotions were ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice.
My eyes, however, remained glued to the scene unfolding in front of me. Tash now stood towering over even the giants of his army. His army was in chaos and he absorbed power from that chaos, that panic. It only made him stronger. He practically inhaled the emotions of his followers and then with a mad glint in his eyes he opened his beaks and let out a massive screech.
Never had I ever heard a sound as repulsive as that. Imagine nails scratching a blackboard. It was like that but a thousand times worse. Every single hair on my body stood up straight for a moment. My ears were protesting and it looked like someone was slowly but painfully slicing my brain with a blunt knife. It was all I could do not to fall to the ground withering in pain with my hands on my ears.
It was a sound meant to bring us to our knees and fill our hearts with nothing but fear and despair.
Miraculously though, after the first initial pain, it had a completely opposite effect. Just as I saw Edmund fall down screaming in pain with his hands covering his ears across the field from me, the fear within me unleashed its drive. Almost like a whisper, it told me to kill, to rip apart anyone who hurt my loved ones.
I was scared for my brother's well being in that moment and that fear within me made me give the signal to the people who stood behind me. In a single moment the battle cry of two armies rang out and the ground shook as Narnians and people of Charn merged into a Tsunami of destruction reaching out towards the soldiers and warriors of Tash.
Only after fighting near about half a dozen grotesque creatures did I encounter the warrior of Tash's. It was Lady of Green Kirtle. Beside me, I could almost feel Caspian bristle with suppressed rage. This was the woman who had murdered his wife and enslaved his son for so many years.
She was quickly joined by none other than Miraz. They both had their eyes on Caspian. Caspian gave me a look and I understood his meaning very well.
Miraz had wronged him but the Emerald witch had murdered his wife and enslaved his son. He despised Miraz but he hated the Emerald Witch a lot more than him. The priorities were clear. I was to take down Miraz. Caspian had other scores to settle.
Before Miraz could attack Caspian, I launched my offense at him. He was reluctant to leave Caspian, I knew but this was battle and we did not always get to pick our fights. Just as Miraz's full attention came to me, I lost track of Caspian and the witch's battle.
Last time that I fought Miraz, we were both bound and restricted by customs and rules. That was not the case this time.This time, we were on the battlefield and in battles there were only two rules. One, don't get killed. Two, kill the opponent.
So, that's what I strived to do.
Miraz was an accomplished warrior, no doubt. He was using his superior weight and strength against me just as ruthlessly as I was using my speed and agility. He was using both his shield and sword against me. His only aim looked to batter me. I blocked his sword with my shield just as he tried to bring his sword down on my arm. In the same second, I thrust Rhindon forward hoping to stab him through the neck. He too brought up his shield just in time. Twisting out of the way of his next strike, I swiped at his neck again. Again he blocked but I did manage to make a rather nasty cut on his face. It was not fatal or even dangerous but it did seem to anger him. This could go either way.
His next blow was brute strength, a result of his anger and I just managed to get out of the way. My shoulder did get a painful blow though and pain shot up my arm. It was the shoulder Caspian had just fixed. It was throbbing painfully but it was at least still working. Miraz did not miss a beat and started throwing all his blows towards my injured shoulders. I had to duck out of the way again and again because it just wasn't possible to use my shield effectively against the onslaught.
Knowing my defense was not in a very good state at the moment, I chose the best mean of defense; a good offence. I had one chance. If I missed, I would lose the opportunity. Miraz would be on his guard again. He was so focused on my shield arm that he did not have much time to react properly to my attack. I feinted an attack on his shoulder but just as he brought up his shield, I thrust Rhindon down towards his abdomen.
Till date I had no idea who had forged Rhindon but whoever had, had done a marvelous job. The Telmarine chainmail had no chance as my sword just broke through the leather and metal and stabbed him right in his gut. His momentary shock was my chance as I kicked him in the shins, stepped on his shield arm and rained down blow after blow on him. He did put up a fight but it was not long before I managed to disarm him. There was no question of hesitating. Without stopping for even a moment I brought down Rhindon right on his throat. He was dead before I had yanked my sword out.
Once that fight was over, I looked around me once more.
No creature of Tash's army came to attack me. It was due to the soldiers of Charn. Knowing they couldn't kill the warriors, they had taken up the job of protecting the Narnian warriors from the random soldiers of that army. The armies of Narnia and Charn engaged the bulk of Tash's army. This left the warriors of both the sides and Tash.
Around me, I could see Kanell and Xati take down one of the other two giant warriors of Tash's army. Oreius with another group of soldiers was dealing with the last giant warrior of that side. Jadis, as of now, was not engaged in any fight but I could see her looking shrewdly at Velma who was taking down a hag-like creature that was one of their warriors.
"Peter!" Lucy gasped coming to a stop beside me.
I was too winded to reply so, a nod was my only reply as I silently checked to make sure if she was alright or not. She opened her mouth to say something when a noise to our left interrupted her. As one we both turned to look and what we saw felt like a punch to my gut. The emerald witch had her long dagger thrust up inside Caspian's heart and was cackling madly in glee as she slowly turned it. Before I could respond, an arrow from beside me whizzed across the distance between us and lodged itself firmly in the witch's mouth. She could only gurgle up a few mouthful of blood before Caspian, with the last of his strength brought down his sword on her head. Her skull cracked up in half and she fell dead just as we reached Caspian.
A logical part of me kept telling me that Caspian was not really dead. He was just going back to Aslan's country. But I could not help but be heartbroken to see the man I had grown to consider a brother dying.
Caspian managed to breath out only a few words before he closed his eyes. "Bring Ed back. I'll be waiting."
Lucy, beside me had tears running down her cheeks too but she was the one to say, "Let's go Peter. The sooner this is over, the sooner can we be with him again."
Nodding I stood up from my place beside Caspian and walked away to the next enemy.
That became a pattern.
Kill an enemy and walk up to the next.
See an ally dying and walk up to the next.
Lucy was now by my side at all times now. How long the battle went on? I had no idea. What was happening with the rest of the army? I had no idea. What was Tash doing? I had no idea.
So naturally when out of nowhere I came back to my senses, I was momentarily disoriented by the onslaught of awareness. Lucy was still by my side and that at least was comforting.
Without knowing how, I just knew the status of the battle. The remaining warriors on our side included Swanwhite, Velma, Lucy and I. On their side though, it was now only White Witch. Well, if you excluded Edmund from both the sides. Tash on the other hand, more than made up for the lack of warriors. Even while I was thinking all this, I saw him pluck Velma off the ground with his beak and shake his head, Velma with him, so vigorously that Velma's arm which was in his beak tore off and her body fell back to the ground.
Though she was still alive, I knew there was no saving her. Besides, the leader of Charn's army let out a ferocious cry and rode out towards Tash. Either way, we all were clear about what to do. As one Lucy, Swanwhite, who had joined us at some point, and I turned towards their remaining warrior, White Witch.
If that man managed to keep Tash busy, then we had a very good odd of winning this battle. It was a three on one now. White Witch was ready for us. She had her sword and her scepter both out.
Even though there were three of us, she kept her eyes on Swanwhite and said with a sneer, "You just are a bit too fond of losing, now are you?"
Swanwhite's lips pressed into a thin line and she grabbed her sword more tightly. I knew Swanwhite's greatest guilt was losing the war against White Witch that had enslaved her country in a hundred years of winter. However, it was Lucy who answered. "The same can be said about you too Jadis."
The smirk on my sister's face was one that would make Edmund proud of her. This was a smirk just made to rile up the enemy. As much as I was enjoying taunting the witch, I knew that we were thin on time. The moment Tash would be free; he would turn his eyes to us. Stalling right now worked only in her favor.
Swanwhite was the first one to attack but the witch was ready. In a second she blocked Swanwhite's sword against her scepter and slashed at the Queen's middle. Lucy shot an arrow at her but she ducked and then swirled around and blocked my sword with her own. Mentally devising a strategy I decided that the only way to get her down was for me and Swanwhite to engage her in direct fight while Lucy waited. Just as we had her blocking with both of her hands, Lucy would shoot her.
As I met Swanwhite's eye she gave me a curt stare and I knew she somehow knew what my plan was. Same was with Lucy.
White witch was a talented swordswoman, there was no denying that. She matched both of us blow for blow. Swanwhite now had a gash running down her cheek and I had a bleeding shoulder but she was still unscathed. Finally, just as she decided to take a risk and tried to stab Swanwhite with her sword while blocking the former's sword with her scepter, I attacked from behind. Swanwhite just managed to twist out of the way to avoid the stab but she did end up getting a nasty cut on her side. Meanwhile, I managed to completely severe one of the witch's shoulder. Only a bit of skin and a little tendon was holding her wand arm to her shoulder. She staggered and let out a shriek but just as she turned around to face me, something behind me caught her eyes. It might have been a fluke so I did not turn around.
What made me turn around though was Swanwhite as she screamed out. "Lucy! Watch out!"
Throwing all caution to the wind, I turned around.
"You will feel my pain."
The hag's warning rang out in my ears just as the one warrior I had not taken into account came into play. Before Lucy could ever heed Swanwhite's warning he raised his sword and slashed it left to right across Lucy's throat.
As I saw that sweet, innocent face of my sister, her expression still confused, maned by the soft brown locks roll away from her slumping body, all the fear within me left. It was no longer fear that fueled me.
A dam burst within me and something new entirely burned. Running on pure rage, I cried out my fury as Rhindon clashed with Shafelm. Across the locked sword I looked up at the dark red eyes of my sister's murderer.
He only grinned a malicious grin that was so unnatural on his face.
On Edmund's face.