Chapter One

The moon was so clouded over that night, making the forest that Aurelia strolled through even darker than normal. A breeze rustled the trees around and she shivered and pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders. Her dress dragged along the ground, tearing the delicate hem and her feet were hurting in the unforgiving shoes that a lady wore. A twig snapped to her left and she whipped her head in that direction. Darkness. Aurelia let out a long sigh and stared forward once more. Another snap sounded to her left. Aurelia jumped and allowed a whimper to escape from her lips. She was aware that her red cloak was not the best thing to camouflage her under the cover of night, and she didn't trust her fighting skills when she was this tired. Unfortunately, she couldn't see any other way but to press forward through the dark forest to her destination. A whisper sounded in the wind, so soft it could have been the wind itself.

"Aurelia,"

"Who's there?" she called out, trying to mask the obvious fear in her voice. No one answered. She kept walking.

"Aurelia," it sounded again, as soft as a ghost. Perhaps it was just the wind and Aurelia was becoming paranoid. Her stride quickened just as an arm reached out and swung her around. She screamed a shrill sound that reverberated in the air and began to beat her tall attacker with her small, balled up fists. It was then she noticed he was laughing. A familiar laugh that brought back warm memories of home. She squinted up into his face.

"Adane?" she whispered. The man let her go and sank into a deep, over exaggerated bow. Aurelia let out a sigh of relief. "What on earth...?"

"Cousin, you look well. Well, under the circumstances. Actually now I look at you properly you look, well..." Adane joked. Aurelia smiled at the stupidity of her favourite cousin. "Where were you hurrying off to?"

"I was going for a night stroll," Aurelia attempted to hide her knapsack holding her only belongings but Adane was too quick and snatched them off her.

"You're running. Again," he deduced. Aurelia pulled the bag back and slung it over her shoulder.

"He wants marriage," she said, strolling ahead of him.

"They all want marriage," Adane fell into step with her.

"I don't,"

"Do they know that though, cousin?"

"I make it clear enough..." Aurelia thought guiltily of her time with the Duke of Arden, the town on the border of Archenland and Narnia. He was handsome enough but he was twenty six, to her mere eighteen and she simply couldn't see him in a marrying light. She couldn't see anyone in a marrying light, come to think of it. She liked the company of men, just without the intimacy with one. Aurelia glanced at her handsome cousin and smiled.

"Your brother is well?" she asked.

"The king is still his pompous, self righteous self. How he will manage to find a wife, I will never know,"

"He will find a woman in good time. He's having too much fun being a bachelor to settle down quite yet. But enough of this idle chat. I suppose you'd like to reveal your reason for stalking me in the middle of the night, when you could be tucked up in your warm bed in Anvard," Aurelia stopped to survey Adane. His warm eyes flickered with excitement which only meant one thing. Plans for wars and battles.

"It has happened cousin. A son of Adam and a daughter of Eve were sighted in Narnia," his tone was almost reverent of this news.

"Why do we call them that? Are we not sons and daughters too?" Aurelia hated that title. As far as she was concerned, they were humans and would not make any difference to the misery that was everyday life in Narnia.

"We cannot take Narnia,"

"Why?"

"The White queen is so much more powerful than an army of humans. She has an army of magical creatures, as well as magic of her own on her side,"

"What about Calormen?"

"They won't touch Narnia. They trade with her, remember?"

"Then what will four children achieve?"

"They will give hope to the neglected of Narnia. Give the people something to believe in! Aurelia," Adane took his cousins hands. "This is what we have been waiting for! Don't you want revenge on the woman who is to blame for the death of your beloved parents?" Aurelia paused. There was nothing she wanted more in the world than to avenge the death of her parents, parents who she had loved more than anything in the world and who had been cruelly ripped away from her. But she did not believe in prophecy or luck or of a magical lion who could fix everything.

"What do you want from me?" she asked warily. Dawn was breaking and she hadn't slept in almost two days. They were nearly at the border between the two countries and the icy Narnian wind was made even worse by the morning chill.

"Your knowledge of the battlefield, passed down to you by your father," Adane pleaded. No one had known battle tactics as well as Prince Tharr, brother to old king Loric, the father of the new, young king Lune and the man standing in front of Aurelia. Tharr had taught his only child everything he knew, hoping that this knowledge would help generations to come. But with her parents death came Aurelia's own murder. She murdered all her memories of them, choosing not to mourn but pit herself against the world and never love something so dearly again. Especially not a man.

"I don't remember any of it, Adane," she said and ashamedly turned her face away from him. He took her chin and made her look at him.

"This is your legacy. Do not cut yourself off any longer, I implore you cousin. Think not of your father, but of your mother. She wanted nothing more than peace for the land of Narnia. She was willing to spread her love to a land she had never even been to. Do this for her," Adane's smile was enough to almost convince her. But she pulled away and turned her head, not wanting him to see the tears that were forming in her golden eyes.

"Where would you go, if not to Narnia? In which direction were you heading?"

"I... didn't have a direction. I just couldn't stay with the Duke any longer. And when I meant to go home, I suddenly turned for the border. I don't know why,"

"Your sense of duty to Narnia?"

"I have no duty to Narnia,"

"It must be saved. And we will assist in it's saving. And then I will leave you in peace to wander to your heart's content, I promise,"

Aurelia walked a few paces ahead of her cousin and considered her options. She could go back and live with the Duke and be pressured into a marriage that was expected of her, she could continue wandering aimlessly until she had to face her home, a home she had not set foot in for over ten years, or she could go with Adane. She could help save Narnia. She could do something that her mother would be proud of. Aurelia turned back to face Adane. He smiled at her decisive expression, an expression he knew only too well.

"To Narnia, then?"

"To Narnia," she agreed and allowed him to take her rucksack as they crossed the border into what would be the biggest adventure of their lives.