cribellate | narnia au;

[She takes a step closer, and Longtusk's ears swivel, but no notion that someone is coming.]

Did he hurt you?

[She looks concerned, deeply.]

Not badly.

[He'd rather take the punishment himself than see it inflicted on someone else.]

Your sister is a good influence on him. At least here in her palace.

And yet I will still not be glad for them if she chooses to marry him.

[She leans against the wall next to him.]

Does the prince like to gamble?

[George doesn't say what he thinks in this moment because that, like smiling, has been trained out of him.]

He does. Are you trying to win me off him in a game of cards?

Cards is hardly my game.

At a horse race.

[The Calormen are famous for their horses, swift and almost impossible to beat at any kind of race.]

[George straightens, frowning.]

Your majesty...the prince has never been beaten in a horse race.

[He looks her over more closely now, scanning her as he would a potential enemy. Physical strength, mental acuity, resourcefulness.

In many ways, he's become a better Shadowhunter under Rabadash.]

What do you intend to bet with?

Not yet. But he will be.

[Lucy is smaller than he is, and light, tiny and fearless.]

I have not decided. What do I possibly possess that he may want?

[He's like a proper jockey, which gives her an edge, but Calormen horses are the finest George has ever seen.]

Your sister. Your kingdom.

He doesn't need gold or jewels or any of that, and now it's a matter of pride for him.

[He considers this a moment, his gaze darting to Longtusk and back to Lucy, his voice flat.]

He'd take your guard.

I do not possess my sister, and my kingdom is far away from anything I could give.

[She thinks, and looks at Longtusk a moment.]

He has a minotaur of his own. And I will not trade people.

[She considers for a long moment.]

Half my cordial.

[George had not expected that Lucy would put up her guard, but he was being practical. Rabadash would love to have a minotaur for a personal guard. Even better than a barbarian.]

Your cordial?

[He's thinking of the juice his gran makes from blackberries, and he can't imagine Rabadash wanting that, so Lucy must mean something else.]

[She nods.]

It is one of the four great treasures of Narnia. It can heal any wound, any illness, and brings any from the bring of death.

[It is very valuable.]

[George's eyebrows lift.]

Aye. That would do it.

Your majesty, I can't let you do that. Not for me. Not something so precious.

[She takes his hands from where they're crossed over his chest, and holds them gently. Her hands are callused, but they're still soft, gentle.]

Yes you can.

For I will not lose.

[He looks at their hands. Hers may be callused, but they still look pale and delicate next to his. He looks at the voyance rune he'd drawn himself on the back of his left hand, the rune that lets him see what others don't.

He takes a breath, squeezes her hands gently, and looks up to meet her gaze.]

I believe you.

Good.

[She smiles brightly, then, takes his hands and brings them to her heart, above her breast.]

When you are free, then we will discuss any loyalties you may feel.

[The gesture is so unexpected that, for a moment, George allows it. But he was too careless last night, and he tugs his hands back firmly.]

Please, your majesty.

I will trust you, but if I give Rabadash anymore reason for anger, I don't know what he'll do.

Very well.

[She will keep her hands to herself.]

I will go now, and know I will find a way to win you your freedom.

[It seems too good to be possible, for him to get out of Rabadash's service in a way that wouldn't provoke retaliation. But if he learned anything at the Academy, it was to trust his friends, and Lucy is the closest thing he's had to a friend since then.]

Thank you, your majesty. I can never repay you for this.

You do not have to.

[She says it before she slips away, her guard following her with a bare look at George, to make sure he knows that he's being watched, but he gives a smile, too. Everyone in Narnia knows that Queen Lucy has a soft heart, but that she also has a gift for loyalty.

It's not the next day, or even the one after that. There are games and dinners and hunts and the whole time Lucy pretends she does not see George at Radabash's side, she pretends she has forgotten, so the day that they go on a hunt it is a surprise when she laughs as she turns her horse around. Everyone is smiling, everyone is having a merry time, even the ones from Calormen.

It is a game when Lucy admires the horses from Calormen, when she starts a conversation about how fine they are, but they cannot match Narnian horses. That starts the game of pride, where Radabash laughs and says that is not possible, even if Narnian horses sometimes speak. Lucy is good at this game, because she's so light, because she knows that Radabash thinks she is a silly girl.

It's easy, then, to make him so proud as to agree to a race. Even more when she raises the terms, and he hesitates when he looks at George, and Lucy insists, and shows her cordial, and greed tints his eye.

Edmund is watching this impassively, and when Lucy mounts her horse he nudges her on the leg. You could have chosen someone else to fall in love with, he tells her, and Lucy shakes her head, but she looks over at George and thinks that love at first sight is a silly thing.

They race.

It's true the horses from Calormen are swift. It's true that they are the best in the world. But Lucy is truly good, and she knows the terrain, and she has nothing in the way of fear.

That, and she has far more to lose.

When she wins, it is not easy. It is only by a half-length, her horse stretching that last moment impossibly, and Lucy is laughing. She can see that Radabash is hiding his fury, that he wants to look good in front of Susan, so he claps her on the back and congratulates her, and she says to send George soon, and turns back to her tent.]

[For the next few days, George thinks of little else than that he is being watched, on all sides. Rabadash keeps George close beside him, and George does his best to keep his face impassive, to do his job as he has done for a year now. It's hard not to look at Lucy, but he's taught himself not to look at any women if he doesn't have to.

On the day of the hunt, he allows himself to watch Lucy as she rides, and she's good. He doesn't know if she's good enough to beat the prince, but he's willing to bet on it, at the very least.

It's even more difficult not to look at Lucy as they haggle over terms, to pretend that it's nothing to him whether he ends the day as Rabadash's property or Lucy's. The race is agony. He's never watched a sporting event with more intensity, and for George, that's saying something.

When she wins, for a moment, what George feels is more pride at her victory than relief. She was truly amazing.

Rabadash's fury is clearly apparent to George, but for once he feels schadenfreude over it more than anything. If Susan were not standing right beside him, George might worry about what Rabadash would do before handing him over, but Rabadash's hands are tied, so he gives George a smile that is barely veiled rage, comments to Susan on sister's fondness for wild things, and sends George off with a wave of his hand.

George keeps his bearing all the way to Lucy's tent, but once he's there, he lets out a great, rushing breath of relief and doubles over, hands on his knees, until his heart stops racing and he can take a proper breath again.]

[She turns when he comes in, and she's stripping her bracers off. Her maids giggle and she sends them out, and then comes over to George and kneels next to him. The rugs are comfortable, and the tent is cool from the warmth of the day.

Her hands come to his arms.]

George.

Breathe.

[He grips her forearms, dropping to his knees as well. Squeezing his eyes shut, he breathes slowly, deeply. When he opens his eyes, they're bright with tears.]

By the Angel, Lucy, you were brilliant.

[It's easy, in this moment, to forget where he is, that she's a queen.]

You must learn to say by the Lion.

[She laughs, but her arms go around his neck, she hugs him tightly, because he is not the only one to forget that she's a queen.]

I am so happy for you.

[George hasn't been hugged in so, so long that he's forgotten how to react. But only for half a second. Then he's wrapping his arms around her as well, hugging her tightly.

The flood of endorphins rushing through his veins comes bubbling out in a laugh.]

[She laughs, and holds him, and presses her face against his, so they are nose to nose.]

You are free.

I promised you.

You may do whatever you wish.

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