A New Mission

(Part One)

"I have another job for you."

As always, the Queen's voice sends chills down my spine. I cannot look up from the floor – my back still stings from the last time I dared to look her in the eye – but she still senses the resentment coursing through me. Fighting against it, I swallow the retort building in my throat.

"You would speak."

No, I really wouldn't. "Your Majesty is too kind."

"Speak, girl!"

I cannot help but flinch from the ice in the stinging slap of her voice, though the bitter bile pooling in my belly lurches; I have given her the pleasure of my fear. "I…" There is no help for it now. I will have to voice something, and she can spot lies all too easily. "Your Majesty gave your word that my previous mission was my last."

"Ah," she says softly, and I know there is a great deal of pain in my near future. "So, here it is. The rebellion begins at last, child, as I finally see the ingratitude and hatred buried deep in your soul."

"No!" I make the mistake of looking up, though I catch myself before I look higher than her shoulders. Cold sweat soaks my undertunic. So close. "No, Your Majesty, there is no rebellion in me. You have been so good to me, so kind, giving me employment, shelter, food."

I feel her raise an eyebrow. "Then what is this? What exactly is this?"

"I…" I am already tensed for the lash, knowing there is no way out now. "I thought, perhaps, of seeing my family again."

"And you will, Ilyandra," says the Queen, and her voice is too soft, too gentle. "You will see your family again – when I no longer have any need of you!"

I flinch again, bowing my head further. My heart is racing like a horse. "Yes, Your Majesty. I am yours to command, Your Majesty."

"Good." She leans back, and I feel the space around my lungs expand again. "I want you to go to the Western Woods, to the Lantern Wastes. Soon, there will come a Son of Adam."

A son of Adam? My heart stops for a second. I know what she will ask of me, and I know I will have no choice but to accept, though everything in me rebels.

"I want you to kill him for me. Him," and she leans forwards again until I swear I feel the ice of her breath on my neck, "and anyone with him."

Prepared for this, it still takes my breath. Kill a son of Adam? "Yes, Your Majesty," I say calmly, denying the heat swirling in my heart.

"Proceed at once, girl, and hasten back to report when it is done."

I know a dismissal when I hear one. I stand, bow as low as I can. "It shall be done, Your Majesty." I click my heels together and, as I turn to leave, catch sight of the envious glare of Maugrim. I give him my customary nod. As always, he neglects to nod back. I permit myself the tiniest shiver as I reach the doors, knowing that, inside that evil head of his, he wishes he could be the one to take down the Son of Adam.

I will not do it, I tell myself. Disgraced I may be, exiled I may be, I may have made a living these past three years by killing people on the Queen's demands, but this… I will not, cannot do this.

After all, the boy probably has no idea what's happening to him. No idea what his arrival means. No idea how all of us have hoped and prayed for his coming all these long years, how we've prayed for him more than anyone but Aslan.

And I cannot kill the future King of Narnia.