~ Healer ~

A/N: And here we come to the last Pevensie in the Blades of Narnia series. Lucy has always been the unwavering faith of her family, the one whose belief in Aslan and in the solidarity of her siblings has never been shaken. So it was only natural to give her the mission to reclaim Edmund from the fate to which his path must surely lead him....

Ch 1 - Winter Ship

Faun Tumnus was old, with a white beard now falling to his waist and eyes that didn't see so sharply anymore. But his hearing was fine, and he rather wished it weren't.

He'd wandered the wrong way through the castle, aimed for Cair Paravel's kitchens but somehow ending up here in the armory. The noise, which had driven him behind a large chest in befuddled embarrassment, turned out to be a trio of centaurs entering the room. He recognized Oreius even before squinting. Bother, he'd forgotten his spectacles somewhere.

King Peter's general had gone slate-grey with age, but his air of command was unchanged. Beside him came a big red centaur, roaning out--Nalis--and a younger copy of Nalis that could only be his eldest, Darius.

"I came as a courtesy to you," Nalis said. "My son and I will take the first ship out."

"You will not," said Oreius. "Your post is here."

"It has been over a year. For all we know, King Edmund is still in Selbaran, unprotected!"

"He has chosen his business, and you must mind yours," Oreius said. The clack of his hoof against the stone floor sounded through the room.

"I go where I am needed." The red centaur's tail lashed his flanks.

Oreius leaped forward until they stood face to face, and squared up to his full, still-impressive height. Even losing his sight, Tumnus noticed the air of tension in the great centaur's body. "We are Narnia's First Guard," Oreius said, "and I need not remind you there's a war on. You are ordered to remain with the King."

Nalis turned toward the door. After an uncertain glance at Oreius, Darius turned with him. Nalis looked back over his shoulder. "And to the king I go." He trotted to the door with his son beside him, passing close beside the trunk where Tumnus hid.

"Treason!" Oreius shouted, but neither Nalis nor his son looked back.

- # -

"Madness," Tumnus protested. "Utter madness to take a ship anywhere this time of year. Any time of year! It's always winter. Again! And with Calormene corsairs running amok in the Eastern Ocean! Oh, I should not have told you."

"Tumnus, my dear friend, you know I cannot continue to sit here and do nothing." Lucy Pevensie continued packing her rucksack. "And so you know, I am glad you told me. We must find Edmund before Narnia falls to pieces, and if Nalis believes he is still in Selbaran with Asha, then that's where I shall go."

"What about Cair Paravel? King Peter has gone away to the North this very morning. Queen Corisande makes sorties daily into the countryside. Who is to guard our home ground?"

"Susan and Saris are more than capable." Lucy stalled Tumnus's protest with a raised hand. "Griffin Arrow will accompany me, too. Please don't fear for me. Between he, Nalis, and Darius, I'll be well-protected."

"Not on the high seas, you won't." Tumnus clattered across the floor, adjusting his spectacles. "Queen Lucy, please see reason. You could be killed--or worse, taken by pirates! You've heard the tales. Ships appearing out of the darkness, overtaking legitimate vessels. Disappearing again. No word, no demand for bounty, nothing left behind to help families mourn their lost ones!"

"If Aslan wills that, it will be so, and neither you nor I will gainsay it," said Lucy. She turned around to find tears in the old faun's eyes. This, more than anything, caused her a pang of dismay. She took his hands in hers and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Tumnus, you know me best of anyone. Can you see me staying home and waiting for the outcome of this war, knowing one brother is fighting for our country, and the other is missing? Only when the Four Thrones are filled, can Narnia be sure of peace. I have to believe I can bring Edmund home."

"No one has seen him in a year. Not even Asha." Tumnus's voice shook, and his eyes pleaded with her.

"She would know if my brother were ..." Lucy choked on the word, couldn't say it. "She would know. I go, Tumnus. I feel Aslan wants me to do this."

Tumnus lowered his voice, and lowered his eyes. "No one's seen Aslan, either, Lucy."

Anger stirred in her belly. "Was it not you who told me never to press him? We owe it to him to hold Narnia together, whether or not he is here to see us do it." Mellowing again (for she could never stay angry, most especially at Tumnus), she kissed his cheek. "Look after Susan and Saris. I'll send word as soon as I can."

An hour later, after a tearful goodbye from Susan and a sober but concerned one from Saris, Lucy boarded the frigate Luna Alba, a ship whose armament balanced neatly with her speed. They would need both to find Edmund. While the ship had a crew to concern themselves with her sailing, Lucy always liked to go over a ship before she sailed and acquaint herself with it. The quartermaster, a gruff faun with a grizzled red beard, took her over the vessel, explaining its features. Lucy nodded with satisfaction at every point.

Then they were off. As the ship pulled out of the harbor, Lucy fancied she could see Susan's silhouette on one of the castle parapets. She pulled her heavy cloak closer around her shoulders. The chill winter wind would be worse on the open sea. She wished it might blow them to Selbaran all the faster, but this wind followed no orders, for it came from the White Witch's power.

No one had seen Jadis since the Battle of Beruna so many years ago, but this unending winter could mean only one thing: that she had returned, and her power grew daily. Searches for her followers had come to almost nothing. Peter and Cori's forays to defend Narnia's borders were met with skirmishes, but they found no sign of Jadis, nor of the Nazi officer who had entered Narnia last year to uphold the Witch's cause.

No sign, either, of the Witch's wand, which had disappeared the day Edmund left Narnia. Lucy reached into a pouch at her belt and unfolded a much-creased letter that had arrived three months after he had gone. The lion's-head seal had been tampered with before she received it, evidence that it had been intercepted and read, but it had arrived to her nonetheless.

Lucy,

Asha's health holds, though unsteadily, as I search for balms to her illness. She is angry with me, as I am sure you all are, for my leaving so precipitately. I will not ask your forgiveness, for what's done is done.

Edmund

That was it. Nothing else, no indication of the wand or of his probable return. Completely unlike him, and yet Lucy found it hard to blame him, who must still be reeling from the death of his infant daughter. Susan, Saris, Peter, and even Cori had more trouble forgiving him for abandoning Narnia in her time of need, but they were too much occupied with defending Narnia to dwell on Edmund. Only Lucy had thought it necessary to find him. Each day brought growing danger and invasions that punched ever closer to Cair Paravel and the heart of Narnia. Lucy felt sure that only this course could put Narnia back to rights.

She looked up to the fast-receding silhouette of Cair Paravel. I will come home soon, Susan. I hope.