narniaexchange | Fic: For Duty's Sake (Reply)

Title: For Duty's Sake
Author: caramelsilver
Recipient: westingturtle
Rating: PG
Summary: King Edmund has to pay the King of Terringesia a quick visit. King Larris has captured his spy.

AN: Thank you to elecktrum for the quick and great beta and to vagabond_pixie for holding my hand and listening to me ramble. Sorry for the shortness of this. School, apparantly, likes to throw you a ton of test in the same month. And I do realize that this isn't exactly what the recepient wanted, but at least Edmund is being very much in charge... I hope you like it.

Original Prompt that we sent you:
What I want:Narnia, Pevensies in charge (Golden Age or not) slice of everyday life.
Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: Preferably all four siblings, courting (optional)
What I definitely don't want in my fic: slash

King Edmund was mad. He was mad at himself for employing such a bad spy, and he was mad at the spy in question for ratting Narnia out after getting caught. And lastly he was mad that he had to travel all the way to Terringesia to sort out the mess, hopefully preventing a war, when he should have been with his brother in the north fighting giants.

He walked fast down the corridor of the castle of King Larris of Terringesia. His guards were having trouble with keeping up. He was nearing the door to the throne room and he didn't slow down, so the guards guarding the door had to quickly open it for him.

What greeted him inside was King Larris sitting on his high throne and Edmund's agent lay in shackles at his feet. Edmund dreaded what he had to do next. He knew he couldn't blow the NIA's cover. He had to sacrifice one of his agents. And to do that, he had to lie to the King of Terringesia in the face.

Edmund carefully arranged his features into a passive expression and asked in an icy voice, "What, exactly, is so important that you had to drag me away from my duty to my country?"

Larris smirked and waved towards the dirty man laying at his feet. "I have something you would perhaps find interesting..." he drawled.

Edmund cast a small glance towards Quinton. He was careful to not let any emotion pass over his face as he reviewed the condition of his agent. Quinton was dirty and dressed in rags. He had burn marks on his arms, and Edmund guessed that he had been tortured.

"And what's that?" Edmund haughtily asked. A look of confusion passed quickly over Larris' face, before he regained composure.

"This man was caught trailing my secretary!" Larris exclaimed. "When questioned he said that the Thrones of Narnia had employed him!"

"Really? And what kind of 'questioning' was this?" Edmund looked at Quinton again. "Torture can make anyone say anything," he said dismissively.

King Larris straightened up in his throne and looked at Edmund and pointed a finger at him. "He said that Narnia was paying him money for telling them what's going on in our administration!"

"What a wonderful tale. My guess is that your 'spy' here, was only going to pick your secretary's pocket, and when he got caught, and you put him under torture, he said what you wanted him to say. Narnia is probably the only country he knows of that isn't Calormen," Edmund said in a lazy voice.

Quinton seemed to know what was going to happen next. He caught Edmund's eyes and nodded. Edmund was glad that Quinton understood, and that made what he was going to say next easier.

Edmund looked at King Larris with a deathly glare. "I cannot believe that you would pull me away from aiding my brother for a dirty street urchin. I have never met this man in my life. My sisters would never even be allowed to be in the same room with someone like him. And if you are even suggesting that the High King of Narnia would hire a spy to keep track of his allies..." He trailed off. "Well, you shouldn't. The High King trusts his friends. And surely we have nothing to fear from Terringesia," Edmund finished.

Edmund knew very well, from the last rapport Quinton managed to send that Terringesia was thinking of forming an alliance with Calormen to try to invade Archenland and Narnia. Larris had been very offended when Susan had declined his offer of marriage.

King Larris had the decency to blush under Edmund's cool glare.

"Now, was there anything else Your Majesty wanted to talk about?" Edmund asked, raising an eyebrow.

King Larris squirmed and shook his head. "No, King Edmund, there wasn't."

"Good," Edmund said. He turned to leave, but stopped and added, "My sister, Queen Lucy will be arriving in three months time to renegotiate our spice trade. We might have found someone cheaper than you." With that Edmund swept out of the throne room, his cloak billowing behind him.

Walking through the corridors he was careful to not change his facial expression and he scared quite a lot of people when he passed them. Not before reaching his ship did he allow himself to smile in relief. He had only had to lie once.

His sisters wouldn't be allowed to be in the same room as any of his spies. No one but Tumnus and he knew who they were. And Peter did trust his allies, but only because of Edmund's reports. Peter would also never hire someone to track a high official because he had Edmund to do it for him.

The only lie he had been forced to say was that he had never met Quinton, when in fact it had been he who had found and hired him. It was horribly bad luck that Quinton had been caught. Up until then he had done a good job. Edmund only hoped that he had planted enough doubt in King Larris' mind so the King of Terringesia wouldn't sentence Quinton to death. Hopefully his punishment would be imprisonment. And when he got out, Edmund hoped he would be able to help his spy.

The End.