AN: Yikes! This idea just wouldn't let me alone. Not sure how many chapters it will be, yet, but it will cover the story of Charn from Jadis' father's death to the arrival of Polly and Digory.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Her father was dying, they said. Old age was the cause, they claimed. They told her to make haste and to come before he breathed his last.
Jadis, Princess of Charn, heard the summons. She looked with calm indifference at the anxious faces of her slaves.
"I will come," she said.
Moving swiftly, Jadis approached her father's chamber. She threw open the door and bolted it behind her, telling the slaves to go - to leave her with her dead.
They protested that he was not dead, yet.
Jadis only smiled a cruel and mirthless smile and bade them do as she said.
Left alone with her father, the King of Charn, Jadis sat herself beside his bed and looked upon his white face.
"Daughter," he wheezed, his breathing laboured.
"Father," Jadis said coldly.
"Where is your sister, Liris? Why did she not come?" he asked, moving once strong hands to clasp his daughter's sleeve. "There is much I have to tell you both."
"She is heartless," Jadis whispered, wrenching her sleeve from her father's grasp. "She cares nothing for you."
"But she must care!" the dying man cried. "The fate of Charn will be in her hands after my death."
"Perhaps," said Jadis, rising from her chair and facing her father proudly. "Or maybe Charn will be mine -- all mine. Not Liris'.
"Jadis!" her father exclaimed, as loudly as his failing lungs would allow him. "Charn can not be yours while Liris lives."
"Exactly." Jadis' voice was cold and sinister.
The dying man started up, clutching painfully at his side, and looked at his daughter, the Jewel of Charn, with widened eyes. "You wouldn't kill your own sister," he breathed.
"There is no love between her and myself."
"Jadis, I forbid you --"
"You forbid me," Jadis cut in, her voice still calm and measured. "You, a dying man, forbid me, the Hope of Charn, to take what is mine. What has always been mine. What will always be mine?"
"Liris is the child of my first wife. She is the heir."
Jadis came forward, her eyes sparkling angrily, and seized her father by his shoulders.
"Charn will go to me after your death, dear father," she hissed.
She let go of her father's shoulders abruptly and, turning to a small table nearby, seized a small ornamental dagger. Sharp and jagged, the blade appeared to be made of stone.
"After your death, dear father," she repeated, driving the blade home. She watched with satisfaction as the white sheets were stained a dark red. The King slumped forward, eyes widened, breath ragged, and fixed his daughter with a look of hurt and reproach.
"Charn will never be yours, Jadis," he gasped. "With my final breath I curse you. May Liris avoid the trap which has ensnared me. May -" he left off with a gurgling cry, as Jadis' slashed forward with the knife again.
"The King of Charn is dead," she whispered, staggering backwards and looking at the knife in her hands with a sort of awe. "Long live Jadis, Queen of Charn."
Placing the knife carefully near the prostrate form of her father, Jadis thrust the window open. She unbolted the door and, running into the corridor, screamed frantically:
"Assassin! Murderer!"
And the slaves, who came anxiously running, failed to notice the look of fierce joy their princess wore.