In the spring of the 9th year since the High King Peter had begun his reign- Queens Lucy and Susan went out to the fields of Narnia to pick the rare flower called the Hyrula. It bloomed in one meadow in all of Narnia, but was one of the more beautiful flowers in all of Aslan's Kingdom. The petals were a pure white, and flecked with gold. Lucy and Susan were frolicking about in the field, surrounded by the Hyrula flowers, when they came across a dazed girl wandering about. Her clothes were raged and bloody, and she had a long cut across her back. Her hair was choppy, as if it had been hacked off by a sword. And her eyes shone with fear.
The spoke to her, attempting to calm her. She wept tiredly, but would not speak. They brought her home, and cared for her wounds.
Once she was better, and the shock had somewhat worn off, they asked her who she was. She simply shook her head. It seemed she didn't know who she was or where she had come from. She couldn't even speak.
Lucy begged Peter to let her stay; but he was against it at first. Saying that her family must want her back, what if they lost Edmund or Susan? Wouldn't she want them to come home? Lucy nodded, but it soon hit them that she had no idea where she had come from or how to get back home. Wherever home was. They had no choice but to let her stay.
Lucy and Susan instantly took to her, calling her Amber. Edmund was unnerved by her silence at first, but he soon took to her as well, teaching her and caring for her as well.
But Peter didn't have the time to try to understand her, so he didn't even bother. He kept to himself, locked in his study.
To each, it was as if the other didn't exist until that one evening in the late spring. Amber entered Peter's study without permission, and sat in a chair near him just watching. He asked her if there was anything he could do for her, but she shook her head. He meant to send her away, but couldn't bring himself to. She looked too content. So he simply ignored her, and she just sat there watching him.
Hours later he looked up to see that she had fallen asleep in her chair by the fire.
Strangely enough, he hadn't minded her company at all.
Time passed, and she began to return more frequently to his side. At first he was bothered that his personal space was intruded upon, but slowly, he began to enjoy the company. Without really noticing it, he began to talk to her about his thoughts and problems, and she simply listened with a soft smile about her lips.
As the seasons changed again, and summer faded into the crisp autumn, a strange feeling settled itself into each of their hearts.
It seemed, that without realizing it, each had become someone dear to the other.
Peter had been working late one cool autumn night. And Amber slept soundly, her head on his desk. He placed a hand on her forehead and gently whispered in her ear.
"Sometimes, I wish I knew who you were before…"
She danced about in the sunshine of her home, a small village in the mountains of Archenland. She lived with the others of her tribe, the Lackuh, a tribe of healers. Their knowledge was legendary. But they were a peaceful people, and she was the daughter of their Chief. He called her in from the sunshine outside, and told her that she would be going to stay with the King of Archenland at his castle on the coast, to further her studies in healing. She could see in his eyes that he was lying, but did not question him.
That night, she was lying peacefully in her bed within the main hut, until she was jerked from her sleep by the screams of her people. The clash of swords and the smell of fire burned into her skull. Without thinking, she took up a sword and began fighting alongside them, just as her father had feared she would. She knew now why he had planned to send her off. But that all seemed irrelevant now.
She heard the hiss of a blade, fire raced along her back as it was sliced open and her life's blood flowed out. Broken images filled her mind. Her family and friends slaughtered mercilessly lay dead on the streets. The town that their people had built; and put their whole lives into, burning to the ground. Ad she was powerless to help. Then nothing.
She opened her eyes to the soft firelight in Peters study. She closed them again, in an effort to remember the dream she had been having. She had a feeling that it was important, and that it was just out of her reach- but nothing. She couldn't recall anything about it at all.
Time passed at the castle, and soon Amber had become someone dear to all of the Pevensies, as well as to Narnia.
Until one day, when a man came to the castle claiming to be a prince from Calorman. Prince Ajahad. He called her Princess Aryan. He said that she was to be his bride, but that on her way to his palace she had disappeared. He claimed to be so happy to have found her, and shocked that she didn't remember him. He spent a few days at the castle getting reacquainted with her, in hopes of reviving her memories. But all that he accomplished was making Amber feel uneasy, and she avoided him when she could.
Lucy and the others also had a distaste for him, and couldn't wait for him to go back to Calormen.
But the day before his departure, he pulled Peter aside.
"From one royal to another, shouldn't I take the Princess from here? She was after all meant to be my bride."
Peter tried to protest.
"And what are you to her?"
He had a point. And so ignoring the horrified look in her eyes, Peter consented to let her go. She shot him a pleading look, as if begging him to tell Ajahad to leave. But Peter turned away and said simply "It's for the best."
A grin spreads across Ajahad's face. He led his Princess from the palace triumphantly.
She fought to keep the tears from falling. She didn't want to leave. She was scared.
"Princess?" came his voice. She looked at him tennitivly.
All thoughts vacated her mind when she saw the look on his face. His nice cheerful demeanor was gone. In its place was one cold as ice with a smile dripping of venom.
"I really AM sorry Princess." He whispered in her ear, stroking her cheek. Her body stiffened. "But for my plans to be executed, your particular- services- are required." Every one of her nerves were on end.
"Though it will be quite a shame however if you can't remember…then killing you tribe would have been in vain." Her eyes went wide.
She turned to him with fear in her eyes. He simply laughed. It started to rain, falling in heavy drops. He cursed under his breath, stopping the carriage and pushing her from it towards the shelter of a small wood. She shrunk away from his touch. He shoved her roughly; she fell face down into the soft earth.
She glared at him from where she lay.
"My dear girl, all this could have been avoided had only they listened to me. You see I offered them the chance to survive; all they had to do was aid me in taking over Archenland and Narnia. But they refused, and I killed them. All I really needed was one."
She weakly shook her head as she shot him a defiant look.
"My dear-" he smiled eerily, coming closer. "I think you'll come feel very different in the coming days." She shut her eyes tightly preparing for the worst.
"Amber!" Came an all too familiar voice. Her head shot up, and she saw Peter charging through the pouring rain on his great white horse towards her attacker. She was frozen as she watched them fight. Before she even had time to scream she was swept up in someone's arms. She was sitting securely in front of Edmund on his horse. They watched in horror the fight that was going on. Peter had disembarked his horse so as to have easier access to his enemy. He backed him into a corner, but just as he was about to deliver the finishing blow, he faltered relinquishing the advantage. They fell into the shadow of a large oak, and the clash of metal followed by a dieing scream was all that reached her frightened ears. She lept from the horse, catching her ankle in the bridle. She let out a silent scream of pain and agony.
"Amber" Came Edmund's voice as he leapt down to help her.
Precious seconds passes and there was no sound from the thicket. Tears leaked from her eyes.
Suddenly something moved, as if coming from the very shadows itself, and as lightning cracked in the forest, and Peter's silhouette was illuminated. But his steps were slow and halting, and after taking no more than a few, he fell forward to the ground.
In a heartbeat she was at his side. She knelt down and listened for his breath. It was there, but it was faint. She frantically checked for a pulse, but it was dangerously erratic. Her body froze in fear as she tried anything she could think of to help him. But it was no use. He was dieing.
She laid down her head on his chest and cried.
Edmund turned his head away, he was devastated by his older brother's fate, but a king never cried.
Her tears shone wet on her cheeks, like glassy pearls.
Edmund watched the rising and falling of Amber's chest begin to slow, and began to panic. Then something else caught his eye. Peter's chest was beginning to rise and fall as well, steadily, and with rhythm.
Edmund rushed to his side, checking the pulse in his neck. It was faint, but it growing stronger.
But how? The wounds he has seen from far away seemed smaller now. He turned to Amber's pale form. Her dress, where pristine moments before, now shone red with blood. It was as if- as if she had taken on some of his brother's wounds, some of his burden.
He slowly turned to Amber. Who was she?
It had been a week since the accident, and neither Peter nor Amber had stirred. All of Narnia was worried sick. The greatest doctors had been summoned from the four corners of Narnia, but to no avail.
Queen Lucy poured over a great, ancient leather bound volume of Narnia's history in the wee hours of the night. Her candle burned low, her eyes drooped.
"It was said that the Lackuh people possessed the power to raise the dead. But they disappeared from Narnia over 200 years ago…"
A soft fragrance assaulted Lucy's senses as she slowly opened her eyes. A warm spring breeze blew about her heavy winter garments, and the sun shone in her eyes. Upon their adjusting to the light, she was in a field of Hyrula flowers all in full bloom.
She thought she was alone- until she heard a soft voice, like a breath of wind, clear and beautiful. She turned to look at who was singing- the sun shone off of her skin as she danced about. A green dress clung about her torso and fell to her knees. White sleeves of the same billowing material flowed out from her shoulders.
Her light brown hair fell down her back, in two pigtails tied at her shoulders with small white ribbons. Her bright green eyes were turned towards the sky, and a small woven circulet sat about her head. She ran off in the direction of a small village, hair billowing behind her. Lucy turned and followed, curious.
Smoke rose from the chimneys, as people milled about. But none paid mind to Lucy as she walked down the path to the village center. It was almost as if she didn't exist. She turned round and round looking at everyone and everything…
"May I help you?" Lucy whipped around to see who had called.
"Hello?" the girl from the field waved her hand.
"H-hello?" Lucy shakily asked.
The girl smiled in reply.
"What is it you want to know?"
Lucy shook her head, she didn't understand.
"You wouldn't be here, if there wasn't something you needed."
Lucy bit her lip, wondering what in Aslan's name was going on. Questions turned over and over in her head, but one stood out. And before she could stop herself, the words were flowing from her mouth like water.
"The Lackuh, and the power to raise the dead."
The other girls face hardened.
"What about it?"
"Did it- was it real?"
She thought a moment before nodding her head.
"It was."
"Then, where could I find the Lackuh people??"
The other laughed a cold laugh.
"They're gone."
Lucy felt her hopes darken. She had been sure that they would know the answer.
"Why?" Came her short question.
"My brother-" Lucy started.
The other girl cut her off.
"Let me guess. Your brother is dead, and you wanted to bring him back to life?"
"No."
Shock played across the others features.
"My brother DID die. But now hes back. Amber brought him back. But now they wont wake up."
"Whos Amber?" She asked with a genuine curiosity.
"I- We- don't really know. We found her wounded in the Hyrula fields last spring. She cant speak, so we gave her that name. But we don't really know anything about her. So I thought-"
"You thought the Lackuh would have the answer."
Lucy nodded.
The girl appeared to be deep in thought.
"Alright. I'll help you. But our past is a complexly woven net of memories, you cannot see it with eyes of the present."
"Close your eyes."
Lucy did as she was told, and an icy feeling passed over her. Like she had stepped through an icy shower. And then it was gone.