Fic: "Serpent's Tooth"

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Title: Serpent's Tooth
Authors: aella_irene and bedlamsbard
Rating: PG-13/R
Warnings: Incest (in universe).
Summary: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Loving your children shouldn't be an option.
Disclaimer: The Chronicles of Narnia and its characters, settings, situations, etc., belong to C.S. Lewis. Some characters, settings, situations, etc., belong to Walden Media. Summary quote from Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina; title from William Shakespeare's King Lear.
Authors' Note: Takes place after the revelation of Helen, Jack, and Richard's affair.



Edmund can hear Peter from down the hallway, his voice a little frantic as Fiorenza Paolucci tries to calm him down.

“How can I threaten her lovers when they happen to be my sons?” he declares. “You did not warn me about this.”

"Well, I did say you had to make it up as you went,” Fiorenza says soothingly.

"What did you do with Rakisa?"

"Osumare sharpened his daggers in a very pointed fashion."

Edmund wanders in, trying to look innocent, and Peter just glares at him. He wonders how long it will take Peter to get over the fact that he knew about Helen, Jack, and Richard and didn’t tell him, and decides that it can’t possibly be that long. On the other hand, Peter holds grudges like rusalkas hold unfortunate men under water until they drown.

"They asked me not too," Edmund says, when Peter walks him up against the wall and demands to know why the hell he didn’t think enlightening him was the prudent thing to do. "I think they wanted to make sure that it was going to be something, not just a temporary thing."

"That's something, at least," Fiorenza says encouragingly, obviously trying to distract Peter. "I don't even want to know what Emery's been getting himself into, or with whom."

"You really don't," Edmund agrees, and she flashes him a sharp look.

"Which does not, of course, mean that I will ignore the news should you deign to inform me," she says.

"The Natarene ambassador's daughter," Edmund says. "The one who left rather, ah, precipitously last month."

Peter puts his head in his hands, significantly distracted. "As if our relationship with Natare isn't bad enough already."

"He didn't get her pregnant," Edmund says quickly, "She just, ah, thought to use his position to see things she shouldn't. Like our drafts for the treaty with Shoushan."

Fiorenza takes a deep breath. "Please tell me Emery didn't -- and tell me the truth, damn you."

"Of course not," Edmund says indignantly. "He came to me. Well, he went to Osumare, who came to me."

"No wonder the ambassador's been looking at me worriedly," Peter says.

"The ambassador always looks at you worriedly," Edmund says. "Anyway, we have nothing to worry about, though I wouldn't get too fond of him. I think he was appointed more for his daughter than for his personal attributes."

"Just tell me Osumare had a serious talk with Emery," Fiorenza says. "Preferably one that involved him being keelhauled through most of the Eastern Ocean."

"Yes," Edmund says, and smiles humorlessly, "And then I did. To his credit, he did at least realize what was going on before she got at anything."

"You're being awfully fair-minded," says Peter, raising a brow. "Are you feeling all right?"

Edmund shrugs. "Well, nothing actually happened, and Emery is now aware of the consequences of being an idiot, so all in all I think it's fair to consider that particular situation a win. Osumare asked me not to tell you unless you asked, General," he adds stiffly to Fiorenza.

"Did he now," she says, "If you will excuse me, your Majesties, I think I need to have a word with him."

"Leave him in one piece!" Peter calls after her. "Terebinthia's getting tetchy again, I need him."

"There will be no permanent -- or even semi-permanent -- physical harm," she calls back, and disappears around a corner.

Edmund makes a faint sound of relief. "Thank Aslan she likes you more than she likes me," he says.

"I don't think she would have hurt you," Peter says reassuringly. "Bad example to the children. Think of Val!"

"I'm not entirely sure Valentine's even aware he's related to me," Edmund says, though he’s not sure whether or not he actually cares. "I think he's of the opinion that you're his father, or possibly Seaworth, or possibly both of you."

Peter blinks. "Someone should really tell him that's biologically impossible."

"He's five," says Edmund. "I don't think he knows the meaning of the words." Darkly, he adds, "And I think Paolucci's trying to brainwash him into thinking we're not related."

Peter’s glare returns. "No, she's not," he says flatly. "If you would show the slightest bit of interest in him, then it might be different. But so far your interest has extended to turning up drunk when she was in labor, so that you couldn't be given the baby, and treating him with slightly less affection than you do the cubs of your Guard. If you want him to know you're his father, try acting like it."

"He may not even be mine!" Edmund protests. "Seaworth and Paolucci are both dark; it doesn't mean anything --"

"You were stuck in a blizzard together for two weeks, and you slept together. After you got out, she didn't see Osumare for another four. He's yours. Deal with it."

"He was a large baby," Edmund sulks. "He could have been late. Or early. He could be yours!"

"Edmund. If you're trying to assign any man who's ever slept with Fio as his father, then you cannot say she's brainwashing him to think that he's not yours!" Peter bellows.

"So you did sleep with her!" Edmund accuses, trying to transfer blame.

"So did Susan! Please don't try to say she's the father!"

Well, there’s a pretty picture, and then Edmund realizes he’s thinking about his sister and Fiorenza and his brain promptly rebels. "He likes you. He spends time with you! He calls you daddy!"

Peter looks as if he’s about to punch him. "Yes, because Helen does, and Jack does, and Richard does, and Victoria probably will, and Cal does! And I spend time with him because he is my best friend's son!"

"So Cal is your son!"

"Will you shut up," Peter bellows at him, which is neither denial nor affirmation.

"No!"

"I can shut you up," says Fiorenza from the doorway, Osumare Seaworth standing behind her, both of them looking furious. "Valentine is your son. And I don't give a flying fuck if you believe it or not, as long as you stop yelling about it where people can hear you."

Peter jabs a finger into Edmund's sternum. "I would be happy and proud to have Val as my son, but since he's not, I'll settle for being his overly indulgent uncle -- yes, and Cal's too! You idiot."

"Um," someone says, Helen says from a secret passage that Edmund hadn't known was there. He turns around, and his stomach sinks, because Val is standing next to her, head pressed against Helen's side, and Helen is looking at him with an expression that suggests she thinks he massacres puppies as a hobby.

"You idiot," Peter says again to Edmund, viciously, and crosses over to Helen. "Come here, Val," he says, picking Val up with a grunt of exertion - children that age are heavy. "Your mother and Uncle Osumare are about rip your Uncle Edmund to shreds; why don't we go down to the fields and see the horses? It's foaling season, and if you're very polite, Sebi may let you ride her. Helen, baby, you too."

Val wraps his arms around Peter's neck, his legs around Peter's waist, and pushes his head into Peter's shoulder.

"I want to watch," Helen says stubbornly, crossing her arms.

"Helen," says Peter, and she regards him for a moment, then sighs, and uncrosses her arms. "Can I just say one thing? Uncle Edmund, as a father, you're fucking awful."

"Want you to be my father," Val mutters into Peter's shoulder.

"'Cause so far," Helen continues, "you've managed to marry off Saiet to a man she wants to kill, made Meisel cry -- she could hear as well, by the way, only she was crying too hard to stand up, and Kitay says that as soon as he's old enough, he's going to join the Red Company."

Edmund’s stomach lurches.

"Language, Helen," is all Peter says, and hoists Val up a little higher. "I'll be your father, Val, if your mum says it's all right, and I don't think she'll argue."

"Absolutely," says Fiorenza, and walks over to kiss Val's cheek. "I'm not angry with you, mushroom," she says quietly. "Not a bit. It's all your Uncle Edmund."

"Don't want him," Val says firmly.

"You're too good for him," Peter tells him. "Fiorenza, I leave Edmund to you and Osumare. If you do kill him, try and make sure it's slow and painful. Helen, why don't you go get your cousins? I think we could all use some time outside the castle."

Helen nods, and runs up the stairs. They stand in awkward silence, until she clatters back down with Meisel and Kitay. Meisel's face is tear streaked, and Helen has, with some effort, hauled her onto her hip. Kitay pointedly refuses to look at Edmund.

"Horses," says Peter with gusto, and holds out a hand to Kitay, who, despite having spent the past five years refusing to get closer to Edmund than ten inches while they walk together, takes it.

Osumare steps aside so that they can all go out the door, saying to Peter, "If you want to take them onto the Rising Sun, tell Mac -- Lieutenant Macquarie -- I said it was all right."

"Thanks," Peter says, though he looks a little pale at the suggestion.

And then they're gone, and Edmund is alone in the room with Fiorenza Paolucci and Osumare Seaworth.

"You bastard," says Fiorenza, and hits him in the solar plexus so hard that he doubles over.

Osumare says something to the Guard members outside the door, then closes it, locks it, and leans against it, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't particularly care," she says quietly, "that you don't like me. I don't like you that much either. But you are upsetting my son. Say he's not yours if you want. But don't you ever make him, or who I've slept with, a battleground with Peter. Not ever. He won't stand for it, I won't stand for it, your sisters won't stand for it."

"I won't stand for it," Osumare adds, and she nods, jerkily.

"Mehcal wouldn't have stood for it either," Fiorenza goes on. "And don't you dare fucking use her death as an excuse, because she would have eviscerated you for this. And I wish Peter was his father! But even if you are a stupid, selfish bastard, I'm glad you gave me him."

Edmund half wants to say he's sorry, but he won't. Not to her. Not to Fiorenza Paolucci, who he has been scared of since they met, and who antagonizes him beyond all expectations, every single time. They were drunk the night they slept together, they couldn't have been anything else, but the one thing he remembers is that she was in control, that she never cracked, not even when he fucked her so hard that one of the slats broke. She came, he made sure of that, but she was in control even then.

"And I don't like you," Fiorenza hisses at him. "And if you ever come near my son again, I'll kill you, and explain it to Peter later."

Osumare doesn't say anything, just smiles nastily.

Naturally, that is when the door slams open and Susan yells, "EDMUND FRANCIS PEVENSIE!"

Edmund flinches so hard that he can feel it from toes to head, and that's when Fiorenza slaps him.

Susan storms past Osumare, who stands back with his hands raised, past Fiorenza, and slaps Edmund.

"YOU'RE DEAD!" she shrieks, so loudly that his ears ring, "DO YOU HEAR ME! DEAD! NOW, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE BEFORE PETER GETS BACK!"

Edmund nearly falls over himself scrambling out into the hall, where even his Guard looks at him like he's something they've coughed up and spat out.

"I'm going to visit Saiet," he says, clinging on to the remains of his dignity. "Now."

"Going to say goodbye to Prince Kitay and Princess Meisel and Prince Val first?" enquires Lucli, and, oh Aslan, they're calling Valentine 'Prince' now.

"No," he says, and heads for his rooms, hoping desperately to be gone before Lu can catch him.

He misses her, thank Aslan, but his horse won't let him saddle her, prancing out of the way every time Edmund approaches with the saddle.

"If you don't let me saddle you," he says finally, "I'll take a normal horse."

"Good," she sniffs.

"Good," Edmund says. "Some peace and quiet on the way will be nice."

Serra turns her back, and he sighs, and goes to saddle one of the horses he usually uses to carry baggage. As he does so, he sees, in one of the distant fields, a glint of sun on two heads of golden hair -- Peter and Helen, with Kitay and Meisel beside them, and Val on a horse too big for him. Peter throws an arm around Helen's waist, and Edmund wonders what it would be like, to be that comfortable with your daughter.

He sees Fiorenza and Osumare emerge a few minutes later, Fiorenza saying something to Peter that makes him throw his head back and laugh.

"We're ready," the Head of his Guard says stiffly, and he sighs and mounts up.