AND LUCY GETS IN ON THE LOVIN'! in memory, at least. oh, lucy, who remembers so little but the impressions of what was, what must have been.
after knowing real friendship, susan will probably hesitate to call anyone in england a friend for the rest of her life, but there are girls she knows and likes, and all of them have brothers or sweethearts or fathers off in the war.
"does he talk to you?" annabelle claremont asks when they're sprawled out in one of the comfortable study nooks at their school.
"hmm?" susan says, looking up from charlemagne.
"your brother. peter. does he talk to you about what he did, you know, over there?" annabelle looks at her with huge blue eyes. her fiance is due back in a month. "all those things he did...aren't you afraid of him?"
i have seen my brother rip the living heart from the chest of another being with his bare hands, susan wants to say. after that, everything else rather pales in comparison. but all she says is, gently, "i don't think i could ever be afraid of peter."
- -
"it was just a war," peter says blankly when susan presses him. "the tools are different and it's bigger, but it was just a war. i've killed men for money and i've killed men for honor, for glory, for vengeance, for narnia, for myself, and this wasn't any of those. it was just a war."
"the things you did --"
"i've seen folk -- my friends, my enemies, my lovers, my familiy -- burned alive by wildfire. i've seen people ripped apart by griffins, or minotaurs, or by the trees. i've seen the sea rise up and swallow ships whole. i've had men die at the point of my sword and beneath my hands. i've seen the land break in anger and the heavens strike with hail and lightning; i've seen magic work the unimaginable. at my order -- or not. this was just a war, su, and it wasn't even my war, just one i happened to be fighting in. maybe it was bad, but it wasn't my people, wasn't my country. it's just a war. those don't change."
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after knowing real friendship, susan will probably hesitate to call anyone in england a friend for the rest of her life, but there are girls she knows and likes, and all of them have brothers or sweethearts or fathers off in the war.
"does he talk to you?" annabelle claremont asks when they're sprawled out in one of the comfortable study nooks at their school.
"hmm?" susan says, looking up from charlemagne.
"your brother. peter. does he talk to you about what he did, you know, over there?" annabelle looks at her with huge blue eyes. her fiance is due back in a month. "all those things he did...aren't you afraid of him?"
i have seen my brother rip the living heart from the chest of another being with his bare hands, susan wants to say. after that, everything else rather pales in comparison. but all she says is, gently, "i don't think i could ever be afraid of peter."
-
-
"it was just a war," peter says blankly when susan presses him. "the tools are different and it's bigger, but it was just a war. i've killed men for money and i've killed men for honor, for glory, for vengeance, for narnia, for myself, and this wasn't any of those. it was just a war."
"the things you did --"
"i've seen folk -- my friends, my enemies, my lovers, my familiy -- burned alive by wildfire. i've seen people ripped apart by griffins, or minotaurs, or by the trees. i've seen the sea rise up and swallow ships whole. i've had men die at the point of my sword and beneath my hands. i've seen the land break in anger and the heavens strike with hail and lightning; i've seen magic work the unimaginable. at my order -- or not. this was just a war, su, and it wasn't even my war, just one i happened to be fighting in. maybe it was bad, but it wasn't my people, wasn't my country. it's just a war. those don't change."