And None Else Beside Me

by: mokatster

Summary: AU. The Queen of Narnia sends her heir to investigate troubling reports near Lantern Waste.

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"Why me?"

The moment the words slipped past his lips, he regretted them. The Queen's eyes flashed dangerously, and her knuckles whitened as she gripped the arms of her throne convulsively. The Prince had to muster all his self-control to keep from stepping back. Even after living with her for all this time, the Queen still frightened him more than anyone else ever could.

He knew she knew it, too.

"I apologize, your Majesty," he murmured, lowering his eyes contritely to the stark floor. He didn't feel shame at questioning her so much as disgust that he was forced to ask forgiveness. A Prince shouldn't have to be made to grovel like a disobedient slave. "I am merely curious as to the change in procedure. The last time it was just the Pack that was sent."

"They clearly did not do their job," the Queen said coldly, and her voice rang throughout the hall. "This threat needs to be eliminated, not merely driven away." She leaned forward, and the intensity of her gaze sent an involuntary shiver up the Prince's spine. Though it was difficult, he forced himself to look directly back into her eyes. "You know them best, Prince. You are the only one with sufficient knowledge to handle this." She paused, and the Prince straightened automatically as she considered him. His self-disgust intensified. Even now, knowing who and what the Queen was, he still had some perverted desire to please her.

"Don't disappoint me, Son," she said, as if she had read this last thought. She stroked the crystal tip of her scepter with her long, white fingers. "I know you hate to see me disappointed."

The threat underlying her words was unmistakable.

The Prince bowed wordlessly and left the throne room, his cloak swishing behind him. He would head to the stables for a mount and then to the Pack's dens to assemble his guard. He would send for several days' worth of provisions; even though a reindeer could bear him to Lantern Waste within hours, the rebels could prove hard to locate.

The Prince tried hard to focus solely on the preparatory details the better to ignore the way his heartbeat quickened and his stomach clenched when he thought of his objective. The Queen had said that only he had the necessary knowledge to eliminate the rebel threat. She had said nothing of his ability.

Was she expecting him to fail?

Icy prickles of fear clawed at his insides. He knew what failure meant. He would not allow that to happen. He steeled himself, allowing his face to settle into a scowl. He hated the rebels as much as he ever had. He would demonstrate that by ridding Narnia of their menacing dissent forever. His stride quickened in determination and he pushed his remaining doubts to the back of his mind, where they would hopefully stay.

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It was snowing again.

The woods near Lantern Waste were as silent and desolate as ever, the thick blanket of snow serving only to further muffle and suppress any signs of life. The Prince had sent several of the Pack to scout at key points throughout the forest; he himself had been skulking in the trees near the Lamppost for several hours. This was where they had always appeared. But the snowflakes now drifting through the air were the only signs of movement the Prince had seen.

He bit back a growl of frustration. Where were they? The Queen's intelligence was never wrong. Those who sent the reports were well aware of the cost of transmitting misinformation.

A sound reached his ears and he froze, feeling all the muscles of his body tense. His hand gripped the handle of the dagger he always kept strapped to his thigh.

A young man had emerged from the trees and was now was creaking and crunching his way to the Lamppost. He was dressed in a type of clothing the Prince found oddly familiar, but he couldn't quite place where such a style could have originated. The Prince watched the man through narrowed eyes as he struggled to the Lamppost and stopped within the pool of light cast by the flickering flame. The man did not lean against the post but stood erect, his muscles tensed as if he knew he was being watched.

The Prince smirked to himself. He began to creep slowly toward the man, his boots making no sound on the freshly fallen snow. He had the Queen's ability to move silently in wintry weather, with no betraying crunch of ice under his feet.

So far, so good. The man still didn't turn.

Quick as a flash, the Prince drew his dagger and leapt at the man. Setting the steel against his ribs, he threw his other arm around his neck. If the man so much as moved, he would either be stabbed or strangled.

The man stiffened, but didn't otherwise struggle or cry out.

"Is it you?" the man breathed.

The Prince tightened the arm around the man's neck in response. "Are you crazy?" he hissed into his ear. "Why did you come back?"

The man didn't respond, and it wasn't because the Prince was cutting off his air supply.

The Prince growled in frustration, resisting the urge to shove the man headlong into the nearest snowdrift. "What part of 'she'll kill you if you come back' didn't you understand? According to the chief, those were the exact words he said to you. He paid a high price for letting you go, I might add. His pelt now adorns her Majesty's throne."

The man sighed, his breath hanging before him in a frozen cloud.

"How long has it been? Since I was last here?"

The Prince frowned. What difference did that make? "I dunno. Years. The Queen is patient. She'll wait until she has all of you."

The man shifted and the Prince released him, sheathing his dagger and dropping his arm down to his side. The man turned to face him, and the Prince found himself staring at his snowy boots in order to avoid that piercing gaze.

Strange, that he should feel just as unnerved in the presence of this rebel as he did with the Queen.

The man scrutinized him for a few moments.

"Why don't you come back with us?"

The Prince barked out a laugh to cover the shock he felt at the question. Why should they want him back?

"Are you insane? I'm on Her side now. I can't just go back." But even as the words left him, he wished they weren't true. He wished it could be different, that he could escape from the icy grip of Narnia's despised Queen. But her hold on him was strong; there was no way to break free. She had made promises to him, and he to her.

The man shook his head sadly. "You could, you know. If you really wanted to."

The Prince looked up, trying to ignore the combination of grief and tentative hope in the man's eyes. He tried to fight against the wave of yearning that rose in his chest. Oh, he wanted to go back. He wanted to go back so much. But he had made his choice a long time ago. No matter how much he wished to turn back the clock, to do it all again, he was stuck with the cards he had dealt himself. He had to live with the consequences, no matter how much pain they caused him.

It was no less than he deserved.

The Prince considered the rebel as the two of them stood in silence. He was different; an air of nobility hung about him that had not been there before.

Or maybe it had always been there, and he had just never noticed.

"You should go, Peter," Edmund sighed. "Take the girls with you. None of you should have come back. I—" He swallowed. "I have to stay here."

Peter opened his mouth to argue, but then froze, his fear-widened eyes looking at something over Edmund's shoulder. The Prince whirled around to see the Queen Jadis, standing in the snow behind him with her wand upraised.

"No!"

Edmund turned back to his brother to push him out of the way, behind a tree or something, but Peter was gone. His hands were pushing fruitlessly against a stone statue of a terrified young man.

"NO!"

"Did you think I wouldn't realize who was behind this?" Jadis hissed, stepping menacingly toward him. "Did you think I wouldn't know who was helping the rebels escape?" Edmund retreated hastily until his back hit the Lamppost. He scrambled around it, ducking behind the statue that had been his brother. It was over. There was no hiding from her.

She moved around the statue and stopped directly beside him, the proximity of her towering figure sending a thrill of terror throughout his body.

"You promised me!" he shouted. He knew it was over, knew it was hopeless to protest, but his mouth seemed to have no connection to the reasoning centers of his brain. This was his last hope—to hold her to her promises as he was held to his. "You said I would be a prince! That one day I would rule Narnia!"

"You are a fool," the Queen spat. "I used you to destroy the Prophecy that would have me destroyed. You think I would let you rule? You are deluded. I am Queen of Narnia, and none else beside me."

She brought her wand down sharply, casting him into darkness.

************

A/N: This is the result of the winter blues that always catch me at this point in the year. Do I think this scenario likely? Not really. But the story begged to be told and I obliged.

I got the idea for the title when I was reading the King James Bible for my English homework. Isaiah 47:10: "For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me."

Also, the bit where Edmund noticed an "air of nobility" hanging about Peter I'm pretty sure is not entirely mine. But I've read so many Narnia fanfictions, I couldn't say where I got it from. If it's an exact phrase snatched from your story, my apologies. If you happen to read this, please let me know so I can give you the credit. :)

Thanks for reading!