Rowyn breathed in the ocean breeze and held it for a moment before releasing it. With her legs crossed beneath her and her eyes resting shut, she balanced on the edge of the bridge that overlooked the ocean.
Every morning she awoke at dawn to meditate—something that Aslan taught her to do many years back—in order to calm and tame the fire in her . . . to keep her gift at bay.
It had been five years since she and the Pevensie siblings became Kings and Queens of Narnia and Aslan met with the now nineteen-year-old once a month to help her learn more about her gift.
Rowyn took in another deep breath and released it. Letting the air fuel the fire in her chest and then dwindle it as she let the air out. She focused her hearing on the loud ocean waves as them crashed into the rocks below her.
A suddenly jag in her side made the young girl nearly fall off the edge and burn the person who did it. "Edmund!" She shouted and the fire left her palm. Rowyn glared at the man and slapped his shoulder. "You ass! I could've hurt you!"
Edmund was laughing hard at her frustrated tone as he held her waist from when she nearly fell off the edge. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He said as his laughed calmed down a bit but didn't stop. She glared at him once more and he took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "I just wanted to say good morning." He told her, his silver crown twinkling in the rising sunlight.
Rowyn swung her legs back over the edge and place her feet back down on the bridge. "I can think of a few better ways to say that then nearly forcing me to fall to my death." She mumbled and brushed off the bottom of her pine green dress.
Edmund smiled at the girl and stifled another laugh. "Well, good morning." He smiled at her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they walked back to the castle for breakfast. Rowyn smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist.
Over the last five years, the pair got closer as they soon found out that no one else understood their trauma from the White Witch—their nightmares. Only Rowyn understood Edmund to the extent that he needed someone too and vise versa. They were so close that many Narnians were expecting them to court each other, but Edmund and Rowyn held strictly sibling love for the other.
"Do you think Peter would be willing to train with me sometime soon?" She asked, moving her head to look at him as they passed by their people who sent them bright smiles—which they returned.
Edmund looked down at her and smirked. "You realize I'm the best swordsman in all of Narnia, right? I'll kick you to the dirt, Peter would accidentally hurt you and freak out."
Rowyn removed her arms from him and pulled out of his grasp. She scoffed playfully. "Oh will you shut up, Peter could kick my ass if he wanted to." She crossed her arms and stopped walking.
Edmund's shoulders shook with amusement as he stopped walking too and turned to her. "I bet you'd love for him to." He smirked at her.
Rowyn's eyes widened and she slapped his shoulder. "Stop that!" Edmund chuckled more and began to make kissing noises towards her. "I hate you."
"You love me." He laughed back and smiled at her.
"I'm hungry." She said suddenly and crossed her arms, glaring playfully at the King. "We should head up to breakfast before Peter eats it all." Rowyn picked up the ends of her dress and began walking the rest of the way towards the castle with Edmund behind her a few steps.
When the pair entered the dining hall, Susan and Lucy looked up at them and smiled widely. "Good morning!" Lucy's smile radiated through the hall and Rowyn couldn't stop the one that form on her mouth as a result.
Rowyn bowed her head playfully and went to sit beside Susan. "So have you thought more about it?" She questioned the dark-haired girl after her family got distracted with eating.
Susan shook her head. "I don't even know the man and he doesn't know me. How could I court him?" Peter had announced a few days ago that Prince Rabadash wished to court Queen Susan to form an alliance with Calormene. Susan took a deep breath. "That was extremely selfish to say . . . I know—if it will benefit Narnia, I'll do it."
Rowyn looked at her saddened expression and placed her hand over Susan's, squeezing it lovingly.
"Why should you have to marry not in love?" Lucy said loud enough for her brothers to hear and join the conversation. "You'd spend your life unhappy because of it."
Peter shook his head. "Having an alliance with Calormene would benefit-"
"Or destroy us." Rowyn spoke up. The sibling turned to her. "What if they view us as a threat and wish to overthrow us from within? We don't know them, Peter . . . They could come in and take our people slave—I made a promise to those Narnians . . . their freedom cannot be taken from them and you know that Calormene believes in slavery." Rowyn clenched her fists as she remembered the stories she heard of Calormene.
After the great war with Jadis, Rowyn's first order of business was to free the slaves the Witch kept. She granted them their freedom and welcomed them into Narnia's loving hold without hesitation. She promised them their freedom was theirs and she would die before she let anyone overthrow that.
Peter fell silent. "I'm not saying to not be cautious," He said after a moment of thick, heavy silence. "But we shouldn't throw an alliance with them out the window because of stories we hear from our maids."
Rowyn took a deep, fiery breath. "You're willing to have your sister be unhappy for the rest of her life by marrying a man she doesn't know—doesn't love? She would be subjected to breeding—to being a courtesan in his eyes-"
"Enough!" Peter shouted loudly. Everyone flinched except Rowyn. Peter took a few deep breaths.
Susan turned towards her brother. "I will meet him, but if he shows any signs of disloyalty or being a threat it will be over—we could form an alliance another way."
Rowyn picked at the grapes on her plate before her as a heavy, heavy, blanket of silence fell over them all. "If you'll excuse me . . . I have other matters to attend to." She stood from her chair and gracefully left the room, with her posture uncomfortably straight.
When she exited the room, she began her decent to find Tumnus who liked to spend a lot of his free time near the sea.
"Hello, Queen Rowyn." The fawn joked when the Queen came to sit beside him on the silk blanket he had laid on the white sand.
Rowyn stifled a laugh. "Oh stop." She pushed the fawn's shoulder with hers. Rowyn had told him many times that she didn't want him to call her Queen Rowyn—it made her feel like he was below her in some way, which she didn't like.
Tumnus pulled an apple out of the basket near his hooves. "I assume given the slight glow of your skin that you and Peter argued again and you didn't get to eat." He said, holding her the shining red fruit.
She took it and nodded. "Yep." She breathed out and took a bite of the apple. Rowyn chewed on it slowly, savoring the sweet juice that flooded her mouth. "He wants an alliance with Calormene, but I don't feel comfortable with it."
Tumnus chewed on a piece of cheese he'd gotten from the basket. "Cause of the slaves?" Her silence gave him her answer. "Maybe if you make an alliance with them, you can work your way around having them free them."
Rowyn chewed another bite. "If I brought it up they would be offended and possibly declare Narnia as an enemy . . . it could start another war." She took a deep breath, calming the fire the burned hotter in her stomach.
"You could threaten them with your gift." Tumnus suggested, half joking. "They would be fools to try to fight against it. Especially, if they know the stories of your mother."
Rowyn turned to him and swallow her bite of apple. "I still haven't mastered my gift . . . Aslan said it could take a thousand years before I do."
Tumnus shrugged. "But they don't know that." He winked.
"Hello, my lovelies." Lucy said as she came to sit in front of them. "Ro, I'm sorry about Peter-"
Rowyn raised her hand to stop Lucy. "It's fine." Rowyn picked at the end of her dress. "I just wish we didn't fight so much . . ." Her voice was quiet before she took a deep breath and smiled at Lucy.
Lucy smiled as well and accepted the cheese Tumnus offered her. "What was your family like, Rowyn?" She questioned with curious eyes.
Rowyn's chewing slowed. She missed her father's often, but she couldn't leave Narnia—couldn't leave the slaves that were being tortured everyday.
"Well, my fathers were very-"
"Fathers?" Lucy asked. "You had two fathers?"
Rowyn nodded and Tumnus grew curious as well. "My father's were great—they loved me, encouraged me to be creative . . . I've never met any two people more in love than them." Lucy smiled at Rowyn. "That's why I hate the idea of Susan marrying someone she doesn't love . . . I know that if I was in her place I would be miserable—to spend your life with someone forced upon you-" Rowyn shuddered softly.
"You make sacrifices for your people." Lucy's voice was quiet.
Rowyn looked down at her lap and nodded. She unknowingly rubbed her wrists—rubbed the scars that were forever embedded in her skin from her chains. "I know . . ."