Fic: On Her Honor as a Knight
Title: On Her Honor As a Knight
Author: animus_wyrmis
Recipient: anachronisma
Rating: G
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers for Horse and His Boy
Summary: When she reaches Archenland, Aravis meets Queen Lucy and learns a few things from Narnia's only female knight.
AN: anachronisma, I know this isn't exactly what you wanted but I hope you like it! Huge thanks for ill_ame for the beta.
The east wing of Lune’s castle was dusty and filled with old furniture. “My wife loved these rooms,” Lune said by way of apology. “Once she and her ladies were gone, there didn’t seem to be much use in keeping them up.”
“Of course,” Aravis answered quietly. She wasn’t sure what else to say to lift the mood. Shasta was better at that sort of thing than she was.
“We’ll be glad to help you clear it out,” Queen Lucy told him, flashing Aravis a reassuring smile. “Ed and I have lots of experience clearing out dusty castles.”
Aravis’s mouth dropped open. Queens were not supposed to clean castles or wash floors or whatever else needed to be done. And she certainly couldn’t imagine the Tisroc (may he live forever) helping anyone carry out old furniture.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Lune said with a bit of a laugh. “But thank you.”
“Come on,” King Edmund said, putting a hand on his sister’s arm. “We’ll talk it over after supper. And we still have to talk about bringing Prince Corin to Cair Paravel for that tournament.”
Aravis trailed them out of the east wing and into the rooms where King Edmund and Queen Lucy were staying. “Are you sure about this Prince Corin business, Lu?” he asked as the door shut. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Lune, but we nearly lost him in Tashbaan.”
“Lost him?” Queen Lucy repeated. “What on earth are you talking about, lost him? Did he nearly get trampled to death by a particularly important procession?”
“No, I mean he nearly got lost wandering the streets when he was supposed to be in his room, studying the rites of Zardeenah. He’s been bragging about it to Aravis all week. I think he’s a wonderful boy, Lu, I do, but I can’t imagine teaching him to joust.”
“Nonsense,” Queen Lucy said. “I’ll teach him to joust myself, and I’ll teach his brother too-and I’ll teach you, Aravis, if you’d like to learn.”
Aravis started. “I-I suppose,” she said. “My brother taught me to fight when I was a child, but of course I had to give it up when I got older.” She didn’t mention why, but King Edmund nodded.
“Narnians aren’t used to women fighting either,” he said. “If it had been anyone other than Lucy trying for a place in the army I don’t think the High King would ever have allowed it, but Lucy’s always been his favorite.”
“Oh, honestly, Ed,” the queen said with a laugh. “Come here, Aravis, help me trace your route to Archenland.”
+
In the weeks following, most of the Narnians returned home. The king and queen agreed to stay-mainly, Lucy told Aravis later, to help Lune renegotiate his relationships with his sons-but they spent most of their time outside, roaming the countryside and meeting the nearby animals. Aravis hadn’t meant to tag along with them, but she and Lucy were quickly becoming friends, and when Lucy introduced her to Lord Peridan, she discovered Peridan had grown up perhaps five miles from her family home in Calavar. Suddenly Aravis found herself in the middle of a group of people she could talk to and who had interesting things to say in reply. It felt, she thought, rather like being back with her brother and his friends.
“Let’s go on a picnic,” Peridan said one morning. “If we’re back before teatime we’ll miss the rain.”
“I don’t mind the rain,” Edmund answered. “I think we grew up with a lot of it.”
“Are you sure?” Lucy asked. “I don’t remember any rain.”
The silence that followed should have been awkward, but it seemed comfortable instead. Aravis made a mental note to ask Peridan about their argument; why was it that the two rulers couldn’t remember such a simple thing as the weather they had grown up with? She’d heard the stories, of course, but she was fairly certain that Edmund and Lucy weren’t actually demons formed from melting snow and ice (and anyway, demons wouldn’t have childhood memories, would they?).
She didn’t get a chance to question Peridan until they were deep into the hilly country north of Anvard, when Edmund and Lucy raced on ahead and left Aravis to walk on more leisurely with Peridan and their lunch. “Lord Peridan?” Aravis asked after a moment.
“Tarkheena?”
“Why can’t they agree on what happened when they were children?”
Peridan was quiet. “Well,” he said finally, “I think because when they came into this world, Aslan sort of blurred their memories for them.”
“Why?” Aravis asked. “Were they bad ones?”
“I don’t think so,” Peridan said. “I don’t know why he did it. I suppose if he wanted us to know he would have told us.”
“You mean it’s someone else’s story,” Aravis said, laughing. “I understand.”
“Understand what?” Edmund asked. He was slightly out of breath; next to him, Lucy was panting.
“That it’s time for lunch,” Peridan said. “And battle plans, I think.”
Edmund groaned. “Again? Peridan, we’ve been over those twice.”
“Third time’s the charm,” Peridan said firmly. He and Aravis opened the basket, and Lucy spread the blanket out over the grass.
“At least we’ve got a perfectionist on our side,” Edmund said with a sigh as he removed a stack of papers from somewhere under his cloak. “We try to go over the battle plans a couple times after every battle we fight,” he explained to Aravis. “Just to see how it could have been better won. Only in this case--”
“The problem,” Lucy finished for him, “is that we’ve been over these plans twice since the battle, and none of us can figure out how to top Rabadash getting stuck on the castle and then turned into a donkey. I mean, even if we’d attacked from here”-she jabbed at the map on the blanket-“like I thought we should, it still wouldn’t have changed much. I think Aslan was with us significantly before supper.”
“Aslan’s always with us,” Peridan said quietly.
“Yes,” Edmund agreed, “but sometimes he’s really here, and I think that’s what Lucy meant. What if we’d attacked from the air?”
“How? Nothing big enough to carry a man would fight with us.”
“I’d always heard there were griffins in the north,” Aravis said. “Couldn’t they carry someone?”
“They’ve never agreed to be ruled from Cair Paravel,” Peridan said. “Not even in the time of King Frank. The terms we’d have to agree with-even if they’d let us talk to them--”
“But could you imagine?” Lucy asked, sitting up straighter. “No one else can attack from the air. We’d be unbeatable. Ed, I think Aravis is onto something.”
“We could send out a pack of knights, I suppose.” Edmund said thoughtfully. “Someone to negotiate a treaty-maybe Sir Otto? It wouldn’t do any harm.”
“He’s gone to Terebinthia,” Lucy said. “I’d want Sir Harry there, he’s good at negotiation-”
“But he’s not noble, they’d be insulted.”
“Then I’d go,” Lucy said. “They can’t be insulted if I go.”
“Would the High King agree to send you so far?” Peridan asked. “You know he worries when you leave court.”
“Since Peter’s been gone in Ettinsmoor for the last few months, I don’t think he’d have much right to worry,” Edmund said. “Besides, he knows what this country needs, and Lucy wouldn’t be facing anything she hasn’t faced before.”
“Yes, there was the attack on Doorn,” Lucy agreed. “And he worries about us all, Peridan. You should have seen the fit he had when Ed wanted to go after a pack of werewolves by himself. Peter was ready to lock him in a tower.”
“Lu-”
“Well, he was, Ed, there’s nothing you can say about it.”
Aravis listened with some shock. This was nothing like the court intrigue at home; had the Tisroc (may he live forever) ever wanted to lock someone in a tower, there’d have been nothing to stop him; on the other hand, she couldn’t imagine him caring enough for a rival to want to.
“Then it’s settled,” Peridan said, making a note on his parchment. “Take the proposal to court. Convince the High King. Lucy and Harry to the griffins. Battle by air. Expand Narnian rule. Lock Ed in a tower. Excellent.”
“Excepting that last part,” Edmund said, “I agree.”
“Here,” Lucy said, “Aravis, here’s the last sandwich. And Peridan, there’s the last of the oranges.”
“Thank you,” Aravis said, and then stiffened when she heard a twig snap. “What’s that?”
“Branch,” Edmund said shortly. He and his sister were rising to their feet, and Peridan grabbed her hand, putting his finger to his lips. Aravis looked around wildly, but she kept calm; she and Shasta had been in worse danger than this before, and she hadn’t made it all the way from Calavar (and with two hundred soldiers at her back part of the way) to be attacked within ten miles of her new home.
In a moment they were surrounded; Peridan pushed Aravis behind him, and she stumbled toward her horse and fumbled for the bridle. She was unwilling to leave her friends, but even if she’d had a sword, she wasn’t sure she would be any use with it.
“Go, Aravis!” Peridan shouted. “We’ll catch up!”
“I’m not leaving you!” she yelled back. She might be a runaway and a traitor, but no tarkheena would leave a king and queen in a battle like this. No tarkheena would leave her friends to fight for their lives-and they were fighting, now, really fighting; Edmund was fighting back-to-back with Lucy, and between them they seemed to be keeping off four men. Peridan had another two, and someone else was coming toward Aravis.
“There’s a knife in my saddlebag, then!” Lucy cried. “And stay back!”
Aravis reached for it-Lucy’s horse shied away but Aravis was good with horses; she caught the reins and, after a moment of fumbling, came up with the knife. Even given the queen’s orders, she was tempted to attack; the Narnians were outnumbered. But as soon as she stepped forward, the tide turned; Lucy dispatched her attacker-a big, burly sort of man in a red coat-and the rest turned and ran as if they’d heard a signal to retreat. Four bodies lay in the grass, abandoned.
“Quick,” Edmund said. “We’ve got to get back to the castle; they’ll be back. Can you ride, Peridan?”
“I think,” he said. His face was white, and Aravis saw that his left arm was bleeding profusely. “I don’t know.”
“We’ll bandage that up here,” Lucy decided. She rummaged in her saddlebag for a moment and came up with a small leather bag. “Aravis, get his sleeve off, would you? Peridan, sit down.”
“I’m sitting,” he said, easing himself onto the ground, and Aravis gingerly ripped his sleeve to expose his arm.
“That looks nasty,” Edmund commented. “It’ll probably scar over and you’ll never find a wife.”
“Thanks, Edmund,” Peridan ground out. Aravis helped Lucy bandage the wound (“Just to hold it until I can really look at it”), and within a few minutes Edmund was helping Peridan mount behind Aravis and they were on their way.
The ride back to Anvard was nothing like their ride that morning. They moved at a steady clip, in silence; after the first twenty minutes a cold, misty sort of rain started to fall. Peridan held tightly to Aravis, and she could feel his nose pressed against her neck. “We’re almost there,” she told him brightly. “And then they’ll fix your arm.”
“Excellent,” he grunted. “Looking forward to it.”
Lucy (who was leading) spurred her mount into a fast gallop, and Aravis and Edmund followed suit. They were coming down on the castle now; behind them, Edmund’s horn rang out. It must have been a call that the guards recognized, because people poured out of the gate to help them off their horses. Peridan was whisked away to Lune’s doctors, and Lucy and Edmund were whisked away to Lune; Aravis was left by herself, to help with the horses.
+
They were all worried about another attack on the castle, but it never materialized, and a small group of knights sent out by King Lune found the rest of the men who had attacked them; they turned out to be an unorganized outlaw band. “Comes from all these mountains,” Lucy explained that night as they dressed for dinner. “They’re easy to hide in.”
“How did you get to be a knight anyway?” Aravis asked from her place on the bed. “Your brother said that wasn’t usual in Narnia, but I thought you were fantastic.”
“Thanks,” Lucy said, smiling a little. “I didn’t expect to, you know-when I first came here, I was told not to fight, that battles were ugly when women fought. So I didn’t think I’d be doing much fighting at all. But then, you know, we didn’t have anywhere near enough soldiers and it occurred to me that war wasn’t any pleasanter if the only Narnians dying were men. So I started training with Edmund, and then I started training with Peter too, and then when Peter started gathering knights together I just sort of fell in with them. I didn’t even think I’d be knighted-I didn’t really care.”
Aravis considered this. “But wasn’t it frustrating to be the only one who wasn’t going to be a knight?”
“A little,” Lucy admitted. “So eventually I decided I’d try. There was a tournament coming up, and I thought I’d try to win that-the winner was to be knighted. But of course it turned out I couldn’t, because Peter thought it wouldn’t be fair to expect the other entrants to fight a queen. He wouldn’t let Ed fight either, so I guess it wasn’t horribly unfair, but we were pretty angry.”
“What did you do?” Aravis asked. “Fight anyway? Did you dress up as a common boy and compete in a mask?”
Lucy laughed. “Not at all, Aravis, that would have been treason, and Peter would have been furious. Anyway, he had a point. I decided to go on a quest. I was going to go west and find the setting sun, and I was going to use the juice of the fire-flowers there to refill my cordial-”
“Your what?”
“My first Christmas here,” Lucy explained, “I received a cordial filled with a healing draught. A drop can cure anything, but it was nearly empty-we’d had so many battles. So I was going to go to the sun and refill it.”
“So what happened?” Aravis asked, rolling over. “What was the sun like?”
“I don’t know,” Lucy said in a far-away sort of voice. “I never got there. I found a garden instead, and Aslan invited me inside and refilled it and sent me home.”
She fell silent. Aravis waited for more, but there didn’t seem to be any. “Well,” Aravis said finally, “if you can teach me how to be a knight, I’ll go as close to the sun as a woman can go, and tell you all about it.”
“On your honor as a knight?” Lucy asked with a smile.
“On my honor as a knight,” Aravis agreed.
Original Prompt:
What I want: Golden Age fic where adult Lucy fulfills knightly duties, including fighting alongside her brothers; Edmund and Lucy as close friends and equals. Lucy-dressed-as-a-boy is a bonus!
Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: Knights, chivalry, heraldry, "lady knight".
What I definitely don't want in my fic: Smut or Lucy/anyone.
Author: animus_wyrmis
Recipient: anachronisma
Rating: G
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers for Horse and His Boy
Summary: When she reaches Archenland, Aravis meets Queen Lucy and learns a few things from Narnia's only female knight.
AN: anachronisma, I know this isn't exactly what you wanted but I hope you like it! Huge thanks for ill_ame for the beta.
The east wing of Lune’s castle was dusty and filled with old furniture. “My wife loved these rooms,” Lune said by way of apology. “Once she and her ladies were gone, there didn’t seem to be much use in keeping them up.”
“Of course,” Aravis answered quietly. She wasn’t sure what else to say to lift the mood. Shasta was better at that sort of thing than she was.
“We’ll be glad to help you clear it out,” Queen Lucy told him, flashing Aravis a reassuring smile. “Ed and I have lots of experience clearing out dusty castles.”
Aravis’s mouth dropped open. Queens were not supposed to clean castles or wash floors or whatever else needed to be done. And she certainly couldn’t imagine the Tisroc (may he live forever) helping anyone carry out old furniture.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Lune said with a bit of a laugh. “But thank you.”
“Come on,” King Edmund said, putting a hand on his sister’s arm. “We’ll talk it over after supper. And we still have to talk about bringing Prince Corin to Cair Paravel for that tournament.”
Aravis trailed them out of the east wing and into the rooms where King Edmund and Queen Lucy were staying. “Are you sure about this Prince Corin business, Lu?” he asked as the door shut. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Lune, but we nearly lost him in Tashbaan.”
“Lost him?” Queen Lucy repeated. “What on earth are you talking about, lost him? Did he nearly get trampled to death by a particularly important procession?”
“No, I mean he nearly got lost wandering the streets when he was supposed to be in his room, studying the rites of Zardeenah. He’s been bragging about it to Aravis all week. I think he’s a wonderful boy, Lu, I do, but I can’t imagine teaching him to joust.”
“Nonsense,” Queen Lucy said. “I’ll teach him to joust myself, and I’ll teach his brother too-and I’ll teach you, Aravis, if you’d like to learn.”
Aravis started. “I-I suppose,” she said. “My brother taught me to fight when I was a child, but of course I had to give it up when I got older.” She didn’t mention why, but King Edmund nodded.
“Narnians aren’t used to women fighting either,” he said. “If it had been anyone other than Lucy trying for a place in the army I don’t think the High King would ever have allowed it, but Lucy’s always been his favorite.”
“Oh, honestly, Ed,” the queen said with a laugh. “Come here, Aravis, help me trace your route to Archenland.”
+
In the weeks following, most of the Narnians returned home. The king and queen agreed to stay-mainly, Lucy told Aravis later, to help Lune renegotiate his relationships with his sons-but they spent most of their time outside, roaming the countryside and meeting the nearby animals. Aravis hadn’t meant to tag along with them, but she and Lucy were quickly becoming friends, and when Lucy introduced her to Lord Peridan, she discovered Peridan had grown up perhaps five miles from her family home in Calavar. Suddenly Aravis found herself in the middle of a group of people she could talk to and who had interesting things to say in reply. It felt, she thought, rather like being back with her brother and his friends.
“Let’s go on a picnic,” Peridan said one morning. “If we’re back before teatime we’ll miss the rain.”
“I don’t mind the rain,” Edmund answered. “I think we grew up with a lot of it.”
“Are you sure?” Lucy asked. “I don’t remember any rain.”
The silence that followed should have been awkward, but it seemed comfortable instead. Aravis made a mental note to ask Peridan about their argument; why was it that the two rulers couldn’t remember such a simple thing as the weather they had grown up with? She’d heard the stories, of course, but she was fairly certain that Edmund and Lucy weren’t actually demons formed from melting snow and ice (and anyway, demons wouldn’t have childhood memories, would they?).
She didn’t get a chance to question Peridan until they were deep into the hilly country north of Anvard, when Edmund and Lucy raced on ahead and left Aravis to walk on more leisurely with Peridan and their lunch. “Lord Peridan?” Aravis asked after a moment.
“Tarkheena?”
“Why can’t they agree on what happened when they were children?”
Peridan was quiet. “Well,” he said finally, “I think because when they came into this world, Aslan sort of blurred their memories for them.”
“Why?” Aravis asked. “Were they bad ones?”
“I don’t think so,” Peridan said. “I don’t know why he did it. I suppose if he wanted us to know he would have told us.”
“You mean it’s someone else’s story,” Aravis said, laughing. “I understand.”
“Understand what?” Edmund asked. He was slightly out of breath; next to him, Lucy was panting.
“That it’s time for lunch,” Peridan said. “And battle plans, I think.”
Edmund groaned. “Again? Peridan, we’ve been over those twice.”
“Third time’s the charm,” Peridan said firmly. He and Aravis opened the basket, and Lucy spread the blanket out over the grass.
“At least we’ve got a perfectionist on our side,” Edmund said with a sigh as he removed a stack of papers from somewhere under his cloak. “We try to go over the battle plans a couple times after every battle we fight,” he explained to Aravis. “Just to see how it could have been better won. Only in this case--”
“The problem,” Lucy finished for him, “is that we’ve been over these plans twice since the battle, and none of us can figure out how to top Rabadash getting stuck on the castle and then turned into a donkey. I mean, even if we’d attacked from here”-she jabbed at the map on the blanket-“like I thought we should, it still wouldn’t have changed much. I think Aslan was with us significantly before supper.”
“Aslan’s always with us,” Peridan said quietly.
“Yes,” Edmund agreed, “but sometimes he’s really here, and I think that’s what Lucy meant. What if we’d attacked from the air?”
“How? Nothing big enough to carry a man would fight with us.”
“I’d always heard there were griffins in the north,” Aravis said. “Couldn’t they carry someone?”
“They’ve never agreed to be ruled from Cair Paravel,” Peridan said. “Not even in the time of King Frank. The terms we’d have to agree with-even if they’d let us talk to them--”
“But could you imagine?” Lucy asked, sitting up straighter. “No one else can attack from the air. We’d be unbeatable. Ed, I think Aravis is onto something.”
“We could send out a pack of knights, I suppose.” Edmund said thoughtfully. “Someone to negotiate a treaty-maybe Sir Otto? It wouldn’t do any harm.”
“He’s gone to Terebinthia,” Lucy said. “I’d want Sir Harry there, he’s good at negotiation-”
“But he’s not noble, they’d be insulted.”
“Then I’d go,” Lucy said. “They can’t be insulted if I go.”
“Would the High King agree to send you so far?” Peridan asked. “You know he worries when you leave court.”
“Since Peter’s been gone in Ettinsmoor for the last few months, I don’t think he’d have much right to worry,” Edmund said. “Besides, he knows what this country needs, and Lucy wouldn’t be facing anything she hasn’t faced before.”
“Yes, there was the attack on Doorn,” Lucy agreed. “And he worries about us all, Peridan. You should have seen the fit he had when Ed wanted to go after a pack of werewolves by himself. Peter was ready to lock him in a tower.”
“Lu-”
“Well, he was, Ed, there’s nothing you can say about it.”
Aravis listened with some shock. This was nothing like the court intrigue at home; had the Tisroc (may he live forever) ever wanted to lock someone in a tower, there’d have been nothing to stop him; on the other hand, she couldn’t imagine him caring enough for a rival to want to.
“Then it’s settled,” Peridan said, making a note on his parchment. “Take the proposal to court. Convince the High King. Lucy and Harry to the griffins. Battle by air. Expand Narnian rule. Lock Ed in a tower. Excellent.”
“Excepting that last part,” Edmund said, “I agree.”
“Here,” Lucy said, “Aravis, here’s the last sandwich. And Peridan, there’s the last of the oranges.”
“Thank you,” Aravis said, and then stiffened when she heard a twig snap. “What’s that?”
“Branch,” Edmund said shortly. He and his sister were rising to their feet, and Peridan grabbed her hand, putting his finger to his lips. Aravis looked around wildly, but she kept calm; she and Shasta had been in worse danger than this before, and she hadn’t made it all the way from Calavar (and with two hundred soldiers at her back part of the way) to be attacked within ten miles of her new home.
In a moment they were surrounded; Peridan pushed Aravis behind him, and she stumbled toward her horse and fumbled for the bridle. She was unwilling to leave her friends, but even if she’d had a sword, she wasn’t sure she would be any use with it.
“Go, Aravis!” Peridan shouted. “We’ll catch up!”
“I’m not leaving you!” she yelled back. She might be a runaway and a traitor, but no tarkheena would leave a king and queen in a battle like this. No tarkheena would leave her friends to fight for their lives-and they were fighting, now, really fighting; Edmund was fighting back-to-back with Lucy, and between them they seemed to be keeping off four men. Peridan had another two, and someone else was coming toward Aravis.
“There’s a knife in my saddlebag, then!” Lucy cried. “And stay back!”
Aravis reached for it-Lucy’s horse shied away but Aravis was good with horses; she caught the reins and, after a moment of fumbling, came up with the knife. Even given the queen’s orders, she was tempted to attack; the Narnians were outnumbered. But as soon as she stepped forward, the tide turned; Lucy dispatched her attacker-a big, burly sort of man in a red coat-and the rest turned and ran as if they’d heard a signal to retreat. Four bodies lay in the grass, abandoned.
“Quick,” Edmund said. “We’ve got to get back to the castle; they’ll be back. Can you ride, Peridan?”
“I think,” he said. His face was white, and Aravis saw that his left arm was bleeding profusely. “I don’t know.”
“We’ll bandage that up here,” Lucy decided. She rummaged in her saddlebag for a moment and came up with a small leather bag. “Aravis, get his sleeve off, would you? Peridan, sit down.”
“I’m sitting,” he said, easing himself onto the ground, and Aravis gingerly ripped his sleeve to expose his arm.
“That looks nasty,” Edmund commented. “It’ll probably scar over and you’ll never find a wife.”
“Thanks, Edmund,” Peridan ground out. Aravis helped Lucy bandage the wound (“Just to hold it until I can really look at it”), and within a few minutes Edmund was helping Peridan mount behind Aravis and they were on their way.
The ride back to Anvard was nothing like their ride that morning. They moved at a steady clip, in silence; after the first twenty minutes a cold, misty sort of rain started to fall. Peridan held tightly to Aravis, and she could feel his nose pressed against her neck. “We’re almost there,” she told him brightly. “And then they’ll fix your arm.”
“Excellent,” he grunted. “Looking forward to it.”
Lucy (who was leading) spurred her mount into a fast gallop, and Aravis and Edmund followed suit. They were coming down on the castle now; behind them, Edmund’s horn rang out. It must have been a call that the guards recognized, because people poured out of the gate to help them off their horses. Peridan was whisked away to Lune’s doctors, and Lucy and Edmund were whisked away to Lune; Aravis was left by herself, to help with the horses.
+
They were all worried about another attack on the castle, but it never materialized, and a small group of knights sent out by King Lune found the rest of the men who had attacked them; they turned out to be an unorganized outlaw band. “Comes from all these mountains,” Lucy explained that night as they dressed for dinner. “They’re easy to hide in.”
“How did you get to be a knight anyway?” Aravis asked from her place on the bed. “Your brother said that wasn’t usual in Narnia, but I thought you were fantastic.”
“Thanks,” Lucy said, smiling a little. “I didn’t expect to, you know-when I first came here, I was told not to fight, that battles were ugly when women fought. So I didn’t think I’d be doing much fighting at all. But then, you know, we didn’t have anywhere near enough soldiers and it occurred to me that war wasn’t any pleasanter if the only Narnians dying were men. So I started training with Edmund, and then I started training with Peter too, and then when Peter started gathering knights together I just sort of fell in with them. I didn’t even think I’d be knighted-I didn’t really care.”
Aravis considered this. “But wasn’t it frustrating to be the only one who wasn’t going to be a knight?”
“A little,” Lucy admitted. “So eventually I decided I’d try. There was a tournament coming up, and I thought I’d try to win that-the winner was to be knighted. But of course it turned out I couldn’t, because Peter thought it wouldn’t be fair to expect the other entrants to fight a queen. He wouldn’t let Ed fight either, so I guess it wasn’t horribly unfair, but we were pretty angry.”
“What did you do?” Aravis asked. “Fight anyway? Did you dress up as a common boy and compete in a mask?”
Lucy laughed. “Not at all, Aravis, that would have been treason, and Peter would have been furious. Anyway, he had a point. I decided to go on a quest. I was going to go west and find the setting sun, and I was going to use the juice of the fire-flowers there to refill my cordial-”
“Your what?”
“My first Christmas here,” Lucy explained, “I received a cordial filled with a healing draught. A drop can cure anything, but it was nearly empty-we’d had so many battles. So I was going to go to the sun and refill it.”
“So what happened?” Aravis asked, rolling over. “What was the sun like?”
“I don’t know,” Lucy said in a far-away sort of voice. “I never got there. I found a garden instead, and Aslan invited me inside and refilled it and sent me home.”
She fell silent. Aravis waited for more, but there didn’t seem to be any. “Well,” Aravis said finally, “if you can teach me how to be a knight, I’ll go as close to the sun as a woman can go, and tell you all about it.”
“On your honor as a knight?” Lucy asked with a smile.
“On my honor as a knight,” Aravis agreed.
Original Prompt:
What I want: Golden Age fic where adult Lucy fulfills knightly duties, including fighting alongside her brothers; Edmund and Lucy as close friends and equals. Lucy-dressed-as-a-boy is a bonus!
Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: Knights, chivalry, heraldry, "lady knight".
What I definitely don't want in my fic: Smut or Lucy/anyone.