Author's Notes
Disclaimer: C.S. Lewis owns The Chronicles of Narnia, not I!
Rated: T for intensity and references to death and injury.
Hello! Welcome to my second Narnia FanFic! This is what I was writing while waiting for the gremlins to get outta the computer and let me post stuff. *smiles* Guess those little critters are good for something after all!
I was inspired to write the following prologue after reading and being so floored by the dramatic style of Lirenel's "The Martyrdom of St. Edmund," (Excellent work Lirenel!) and the rest of the story progressed from there. Chapter 1 is in progress. Please do read, review, and enjoy!
From the Scrolls of the Thousand Dryads in the Library of Castle Cair Paravel
A History of the Healing Cordial of Queen Lucy, the Valiant.
King Edmund, the Just, was the first to taste of the life-restoring elixir. Having shattered the awful wand of the White Witch Jadis with his own sword during the War of the Hundred Year Winter, King Edmund's life was threatened in payment for his noble deed. Jadis contrived to stab him through with her broken weapon, leaving him to die upon the battlefield of mortal wounds. Although only a child, he clung bravely to life and his blood, and lived long enough to know that Aslan had slain the White Witch. The King's noble brother and sisters were with him when he drew his last breath. Yet with that breath, King Edmund also swallowed the precious drop of the Fire Flower, and his life was returned to him.
Queen Susan, the Gentle, carrying out her tasks of comfort and beauty by journeying to a Narnian house in which there dwelt sickness, was met by a treacherous Minotaur. Though offering the signs of peace and reconciliation that are becoming to a sovereign, Queen Susan was not heeded by the Minotaur, and she was forced to shoot him with an arrow. The enraged creature charged the gentle Queen. She was thrown against a mighty rock, and her body was broken. She might soon have died, had a watchful bird of the air not flown with all swiftness to Castle Cair Paravel, bringing back the Queen's sister to administer the cordial, and her brothers to avenge her of the Minotaur.
High King Peter, the Magnificent, whilst leading a campaign against Calormenes who sought to invade and conquer Narnia, met in sudden battle with a Calormene lord. The interloper sought to separate King Peter from Narnian aid, and drove him to the waters of Beruna, where other soldiers lay in wait. Two young Dryads of Narnia stripped the soldiers of their weapons, but one was felled and the other held captive by the soldiers. High King Peter struggled against the weaponless Calormenes. They dragged him into the river and held him under the water, until his breath left him. Knowing her High King to be dying, the Dryad broke free of the Calormenes and mounted the wind, flying to where the King's sister stood waiting for his return. A Griffin carried the Queen and her cordial to her brother, and High King Peter that same night carried out punishment on the Calormene invaders.
Queen Lucy, the Valiant, having been bitten by a poison lizard that lurked in the Pond of a Thousand Depths, soon lay dying in Castle Cair Paravel. For although the dear Queen had so often poured life into the lips of others, the Healing Cordial was now, in her own time of need, nowhere to be found...