RUTH:

"Are you sure this is going to work, Ed?" I asked, twirling my sword and feeling very, very hot in the borrowed armor.

"Am I ever?" he replied, an unmistakable, painful uncertainty accenting his voice.

You shouldn't have questioned him, I chided myself. I smiled. "Don't worry. I believe in you. I just don't know if I believe in myself."

"I believe in you," he said with a smile.

I sheathed my sword and hugged him. "Thank you." I looked into his eyes, saddened by the fear in them. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need it."

I lowered the mask of the helmet over my face and stepped out of the tent and made my way to the edge of camp. I took a deep breath and ventured further into the meadow at the border, my gaze sweeping my surroundings.

Oh, Aslan, I hope this works, I prayed. Help me make this work, somehow.

A flicker of grey attracted my attention. I raced toward it, yelling, as deeply as I could muster, "Freeze, stranger!"

As I had hoped, the wolf yelped and ran away, howling. I chased him until he was in range of my newly-gifted dart gun of sorts. I held the tube to my mouth and blew as hard as I could. He cried out in pain and tumbled to the ground, silent. I held my sword to his neck and, careful to hide my face completely, began to question him.

"What are you doing here, threatening my camp?"

His only response was a glare. I pressed the sword tighter to his neck and repeated my question. He still didn't answer, so I changed my approach. I lowered my sword.

"I'm sorry. If you won't tell me, I won't kill you."

"Never heard that lie before," he grunted sarcastically.

"I mean it," I replied. "Don't worry."

When he continued to eye me suspiciously. I sighed heavily, as if I were bored.

"I'm the most skilled swordsman in the entire camp. I once duelled High King Peter and nearly won. Whenever a suspicious creature is sighted at our borders, I am sent to take them down." I sighed again. "But I hate killing. So let me cut you a deal, wolf. If you and your two other wolf friends and your dwarf friend makes yourselves scarce, I'll never have reason to kill you. But if you ever come back, I can and will kill you. I don't enjoy killing, but I would sooner see you dead than my people. Have I made myself clear?"

The wolf grunted. "How do I know that this dart isn't poisoned?"

"Why would I have wasted my time talking to you if it were?"

"I don't know."

I pulled a piece of gauze from my belt. "And why would I do this-" I plucked the dart from his leg. "-and this-" I began to wrap his wound. "-if I just planned to kill you anyway?"

He blinked slowly. "Why are you doing this?"

"I told you," I snapped. "I don't kill unless I have to. That's why I'm just giving you a warning. You can either rip this gauze off and pretend I tried to kill you, or you can tell your friends what I told you. But if I see any of you ever again, I will kill you, without another warning. Are we clear?"

"As day." The wolf rose to his feet, and we were eye to eye. "Thank you, sir."

I nodded. "Don't come back."

"I promise I won't," he said, sprinting away.

I rose to my feet and began to walk back to camp. The tight binding on my chest to make me look more like a male was suffocating, not to mention the heavy armor in the blazing heat. I kept scanning my surroundings, open to another chance to lecture someone else, but I made it back to camp without seeing anything. They had all retreated.

Everyone in the camp, it seemed, was gathered in the courtyard expectantly, which I wasn't expecting. I fought my dizziness aside and managed a smile as I took off my helmet and let my hair tumble to the ground.

"What happened, Lady Ruth?" the leader of the camp, a centaur named Mericus, asked.

"I do not believe any of them will be back," I announced. "I promised I would kill any of them on sight if they returned."

The crowd cheered, and I smiled a little wider. Cradling my helmet at my hip, I made my way over to Edmund, who led me back to the tent.

"You did it, Ruth!" he exclaimed once the flap was closed.

"Yeah," I said, black spots dancing at the edges of my vision. "I did. Is it really hot in here, or is it just me?"

And with that, I passed out cold.

🦁

It was not long before I came to again. An elderly female satyr, Tulip, the one who had helped me dress in the first place, was at my side, and I was - blessedly - in a loose sundress, the painful binder and thick armor gone.

"Oh, thank Aslan, you're awake, my lady," she said, dabbing my forehead with a cool cloth.

I smiled sheepishly. "Thank you. I suppose I got a little too hot."

"A lot too hot!" Tulip exclaimed, handing me a goblet of water. "Let me fetch King Edmund. He was incredibly distraught when he found me, saying you had fainted. He wanted to help himself, but I figured you would rather a woman undo your, um, costume."

I giggled. "Yes, thank you. This is a lovely dress!"

"It's yours," she said. "It was once mine, but it is now much too long for me. I have shrunk with age."

"Thank you, my lady. I will treasure it always. Especially these hot days!"

She laughed, then went to fetch Edmund. He burst in mere seconds later, thoroughly distressed.

"Are you alright oh my goodness I'm so sorry I should have known how hot it was in there and done it myself and-"

I cut him off with a laugh. "I'm fine, Edmund, its it's alright." I rose to my feet. "I feel better now, I was just a little hot."

"You're taking it easy the rest of the day, alright?"

I nodded. "That's alright with me. But really, I'm fine." I sat back down on the bed and reached for the cool cloth, draping it over my neck. "What's your next plan, since that one worked?"

"Worked? Ruth, you fainted."

"But it worked! Edmund, your plan was perfect, it was just a little hot. Don't be hard on yourself." I reached forward and pulled him to sit next to me. "I'm thinking we stay for a couple of days, and make sure they don't come back. Then we continue on in the direction of the last clue, unless something else comes up. Does that work for you?"

"That's what I was thinking, too," he agreed. "But you're not leaving this tent for another hour, at least."

I pouted. "But I feel alright!"

"I don't want you fainting on me again."

"Will you at least play a game with me, then?" I asked, turning my pout into a grin.

He smiled back. A small smile, but still a smile. "You're sure you want to lose to me?"

"Oh, you're on, Your Majesty," I teased.

We played several rounds of double solitaire, but he was still hesitant to let me leave no matter how much I reassured him I was alright. So I finally gave up, and said I would take a nap while he went to talk to Mericus about what we had decided to do next. As much as I hated to admit it, the extra rest was nice after running through the night. I awoke late in the afternoon, just as the sun was beginning to dip in the sky.

I stepped out into the camp, enjoying the cool of the grass beneath my toes and feeling swept away to a different time, when the world of Narnia was still so new, and when Edmund was apologizing for a different reason. But this time, there was no anxious Peter preparing to be king. He was already king, High King, and excelling. There was no Lucy crying for her mother. Quite the opposite, she enjoyed her freedom, and her ability to convince Susan to give her a little more freedom with each passing year. There was no Susan, longing for home but staying just to take care of her family. She still took care of her family, but she had learned to let go and let the younger ones learn. I smiled at the thought of everyone's growth... well, everyone's except mine.

It had seemed as if everyone else had forgotten about England. I tried to, but try as I might, no amount of forgetting could cleanse the images of bombs and suffering from my mind. No amount of forgetting to prevent the reminders of my injured father from rising to the forefront of my mind every time Lucy tended to a soldier wounded in battle. No amount of forgetting could erase the pain I still felt from time to time when Lucy came to me to help her solve a problem she didn't want Susan to know about, knowing Lucy could just as easily have been my own sister. No amount of forgetting could erase the pain I still felt when I feared failing to protect Edmund, the way I failed to protect my own brother. No amount of forgetting could erase the pain I still felt when Susan asked me to braid her hair because I still did it best. I couldn't forget the way the Pevensies could. But perhaps that would work out to be a blessing. All I could do was wait and see.

Edmund came up to me from my left. "Are you alright, Ruth? I called your name a dozen times."

"Oh, yes, sorry. Just lost in thought."

"What's wrong?"

I smiled. "Nothing, Ed, it's alright. What happened with Mericus?"

"He's grateful for our help, and is glad we were planning to stay a couple of days. And he asked how you were doing."

I narrowed my eyes. "You said I was fine, right?"

"Yes, I just said you were tired. Which wasn't a lie, you slept for hours."

"I did," I admitted with a giggle.

"Would you like some supper? They're very informal here. See that cauldron over the fire? Everyone just goes and scoops a bowlful of stew whenever they're ready."

I shook my head. "I'm not hungry. But you go ahead, Ed, I'll find something to do."

He pursed his lips. "Not hungry? That probably isn't good."

"It's alright, really," I insisted. "I think I'm going to find the lake the man talked about earlier."

"Wait for me to get a bowl, I'll go with you."

"Just meet me there." I dismissed his protest with a wave of my hand and a giggle. "I can handle it, Ed."

I made my way down to the lake and sat on the dock, letting my bare toes dip into the water. A water nymph emerged in front of me, splashing playfully. I giggled.

"Good evening!" I said. "I'm Ruth."

She smiled. "Oh, are you High King Peter's lover?"

I flushed deeply. "I suppose you could say that."

"I'm Ailey."

"Nice to meet you, Ailey. You're one of the few people who's really heard of me."

"You helped with the Tumnus wedding, did you not?"

I nodded. "I did."

"Well, his wife and I were good friends as girls. And while she was courting Tumnus, the two of them would come down to the lake and talk for hours. And Tumnus always liked to talk about you and High King Peter."

"Oh no." My hands flew to my red cheeks. "What would he say?"

"Nothing bad! He would just talk about how the two of you were inseparable, and tried in vain to keep it a secret. Then one day, you two kissed in front of half the kingdom-"

I laughed uproariously. "I still can't believe he did that!"

Ailey smirked. "I have heard that it was you who instigated it. At least that's what Peter told Tumnus."

"Oh, that little-" I couldn't finish my sentence before I began to laugh again, my face hot with embarrassment.

Edmund came then, and sat next to me at the edge of the dock. "What's so funny?" he asked, slurping a spoonful of stew.

"Nothing," I said, wiping tears from my eyes. "Edmund, this is Ailey. Ailey, this is King Edmund."

"Just Edmund is fine," he said with a smile.

"Double meaning?" she teased, a goofy grin on her face.

I laughed. "Yes, so it would seem."

And so the evening passed. Ailey seemed completely fascinated with everything Edmund had to say, and I suspected there was more than polite interest at play. When Ailey disappeared, Edmund and I remained on the dock sitting in the silence for a while, neither knowing what to say but neither wanting to leave. The stars above shone brightly, and I noticed that the stars of uncertainty, joy, and restoration remained in a perfectly straight line, right above our heads.