I wish I could tell you how lonely I am. How cold and harsh it is here. Everywhere there is conflict and unkindness. I think God has forsaken this place. I believe I have seen hell and it's white, snow-white ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
Last time she had been here it had been summer. The woodland paths were green and welcoming and everything had been at peace. She had felt safe here, once.
Now was completely different. Narnia was once again locked in Jadis' winter and Caelia could barely recognise it. She shivered and tried to pull her cloak closer against her skin. Last time she had been here, her Will had burned inside her like a little flame and kept her warm. Now it felt more like a guttering candle. She always relied on her Will to keep her warm. Her dress and cloak were really quite thin and were no protection against the cold.
She waded through yet another snow drift and paused to take stock of her surroundings. An icy wind blew from the north causing her to shiver.
She had absolutely no idea where she was. The geography of Narnia in summer was confusing enough as it was but it was near impossible with everything coated in snow.
It was so cold. She could feel neither her fingers nor her toes and she was tired and afraid and so, so cold. How long had she been in Narnia? It was always difficult to work out the time difference between the worlds but it felt especially difficult today. Her mind was so sluggish and dull that it was becoming difficult to even lift her feet and take the next step into the snow.
Suddenly one foot failed to lift and she fell face-first into the snow. She lay there for a moment, the snow tickling her cheek.
"Have... have to get up," she said groggily. "Must keep movin'..."
She tried to push herself up on her arms but her strength left her and she collapsed straight back down. Alright, she thought as her vision began to fade to black. I'll rest for a while. Just for a moment...
The water slapped her mercilessly. She was viciously dragged back into consciousness as she coughed and choked. The water was everywhere; her eyes, her nose, down her throat. She tried to wipe it away but realised with horror that her arms were restrained and pulled above her head by manacles and a chain.
"Wakey-wakey! Don't you know it is rude to sleep in when the rest of the household is awake?" a voice said playfully.
She opened her eyes and blinked a few times to clear the water from them. The figure in front of her came into focus. She was a young woman maybe a few years older in appearance than Caelia. Her long, dark curls hung loosely over her pale shoulders and around her cruelly beautiful face. She smirked and swung the empty bucket in her hands.
"Do you need another? I think you do!" she said gleefully. "You don't look properly awake yet!"
"Nuh!" Caelia mumbled and tried to scramble away. Her legs scuffed uselessly on the floor and, with her arms chained above her, she could not grab anything to help pull herself upright.
The dark-haired woman laughed silkily and threw the bucket at her. It barely missed her, instead clanging off the wall just to the left of her. She squirmed again and a low sob escaped her as she struggled.
She recognised this place. The icy walls, the chains, the ogres standing roughly to attention outside the door; there was only one place where she could be.
"I didn't know she was such a coward," the dark-haired woman called as another entered the tiny room.
Caelia now began to sob in earnest and turned her face away into her arm. A pale hand gripped her chin and she was pulled around to stare directly into Jadis' eyes.
"Hello, Sister Dear! I was beginning to wonder if you would ever show your pretty face here again," Jadis said with false kindness. "I hope you like your quarters. I had them outfitted for you specially."
"What have you done?!" Caelia whispered.
"We rescued you! Poor little bird lying in the snow all frozen and blue... Much too quick a death for you," the other woman said.
"No, she means what have we done to Narnia," Jadis said over her shoulder. "She is one of the Emperor's Folk after all. Always meddling when things don't fit with their picture of the world."
She turned back to her sister with another false smile.
"Caelia, this is Lilith," she said as if she was talking to a child. "She is my friend and she is going to help me. We are going to make Narnia into the perfect country. You see, we were very clever and we did a big spell that reversed Time itself!"
"You tore apart Creation!" Caelia screeched, finding her voice all of a sudden. "You smashed the Gates of Hell and dragged Narnia out of its timestream!"
"Now, now, don't scream," Lilith said. "We may have changed a few things and everything is so much better now! Jadis is still a Queen and that troublesome Lion has gone poof!"
She waved her hand to demonstrate.
"And because we went back in time," Jadis added, "technically dear Edmund never smashed my wand. So my Will is still intact! And now we can make Narnia into a perfect country like I was going to do with our homeworld! Charn was the greatest city that ever was but I will make Narnia the greatest country that there ever will be."
She smiled at Caelia as fear coursed through the latter's veins. The final image of the gale the Deplorable Word wrought upon Charn and the agony that had burned through Caelia all flooded back to her in a single moment and she spasmed wildly. Jadis let go of her face and stood back, watching her through narrowed eyes.
"Where are they? What have you done with them?" she snarled.
"I take it you mean the Pevensie brats?" Lilith asked. She exchanged a look with Jadis.
"They've been better," she sniggered and they both laughed coldly.
"If you have harmed one hair on their heads..." Caelia said.
"You'll do what? Kill us?" Jadis pouted. "I don't think so."
Lilith linked arms with her and together they walked back towards the door.
"Sit back and relax, sister," Jadis said before they left. "Consider the precious time you have left and remember those you once loved. I've bested your champions, your friends and your Masters. And soon, I'm going to kill you. Properly this time."
She laughed with Lilith again and the two of them left her alone. She watched as the water still on her dress turned slowly to frost. Her breath rose in small spirals from her mouth. She didn't move but her mind was a frenzy of thoughts.
The Pevensies weren't dead. She was sure that was a bluff on their part. So if they weren't dead then they were either here somewhere or yet to come!
No, they couldn't be yet to come. Narnia and the world of Man were now completely out of sync. If she understood correctly, Narnia was trapped in a little bubble of its own. Oh, please they could be far enough in Narnia history that the Pevensies were here. She needed something to give her hope. Anything; anything at all.
"Caelia..."
Her head shot up. Was that?
She listened closely but there was nothing but the sound of her own breath. But she could not have been wrong. She tried to stand again but she couldn't find any grip on the icy floor.
Her eyes closed and she reached down inside her. There was her Will, coming and going in uneven pulses. She waited. Slowly she began to get a feel for when it was at its strongest. On one of these strong pulses she hurled her Will out and at the locks of her manacles. One clicked and her arm dropped. She shook it to try to work out some of the numbness and waited for the next crest of Will. It came and the other lock clicked open.
With a weary sigh, she flexed both arms and climbed shakily to her feet. This was crazy. If she was caught then who knows what Jadis and Lilith would do to her.
Yet it was a risk she would have to take. She picked up her satchel from where it had been discarded in a corner and turned her attention to the guard outside the cell door.
"Hey, ugly!" she called. The ogre outside turned round and stared at her. "I think you need some new restraints," she said mockingly.
The ogre grunted and unlocked the door of the cell. She took a deep breath and then thrust a hand forward. Her Will shot out and caught the ogre full in the chest. It slipped backwards with a snarl.
She hesitated and then ran past, slamming the cell door behind her.
As she hurried along, her mind kept turning over what had happened. Her Will was definitely diminished somehow. Usually she would be able to throw things back a good few feet; not knock them over! And there was this strange rising and falling of her Will. What was wrong with her?
How long did she have before the ogre roused the other guards?
She tried to find an escape route as best she could from what she remembered of Jadis' Palace. It was made worse by all the statues. She thought every one of them was an enemy. By pure luck she met no-one and she slipped into the main courtyard.
The golden cloak must have looked so conspicuous as she slipped between the statues. She could not believe that she had got so far without an alarm being raised. Was Jadis so confident that she could afford to be so lax in security?
No, there was a wolf and he lay right in front of the outer gate. She hid behind a statue of a centaur and watched him. He appeared to be asleep but it could just be an act. Dare she risk it? She was already exhausted once again by the relatively short run from the dungeons to here. She must have been lying in the snow for longer than she thought.
"Caelia..."
The voice came again just as she steeled herself to run. This time it was much louder and came from behind her.
She turned slowly and followed it into a small alcove off the main courtyard. Nothing was here but four poplar trees. Four...'
"Caelia," the disembodied voice said again.
"Michael?" she asked in a tiny voice. She laid a hand against the greatest of the trees and felt the living presence within. "Michael?" she repeated. "Raphael? Gabriel? Uriel? Is it you?"
"Wotcher, Caels," Uriel's voice said sadly. "Nice of you to visit."
"What happened?" she said, her voice breaking.
"We were pulled from our world. That tremor was the aftershock of the Spell they used to break free and it took us... and our Masters," Gabriel told her. "We were trapped here and we don't have a clue where our Masters were taken."
"Metatron is trying to find a solution," she said. Michael chuckled darkly and the leaves of his tree moved slightly despite there being no wind.
"You will need to help too, Caelia. Find the Pevensie children. I am sure they are here somewhere."
She sank down into the snow. "I don't know if I can," she said. "Ever since I got here, my Will has not been the same. It doesn't flow as freely as it once did."
"That may be due to your connection with the Emperor," Raphael suggested. "He blessed you and that blessing changed the nature of your Will. With Him absent, you are no longer touched by His blessing."
"So, I'm weak?" she asked.
"Caelia, you are anything but weak. Find the Pevensies and give your sister a kick up the arse from me," Uriel said.
"Come here a moment," Raphael said. She crawled over to his tree and placed her hand against it. Her palm warmed slightly even as frost began to creep up the tree trunk.
"You are very physically weak at the moment. I am giving you a little bit of energy so you can escape," Raphael told her. "You will need to rest again soon."
A warning bell sounded from deep inside the Palace and she scrambled to her feet.
"Run, Caelia! They know you have escaped!" Michael said hurriedly. "Seek the Firsts; they will help you find the Pevensies!"
"The Firsts?" she said, glancing back towards the four trees. Their branches were all trembling now.
"No time to explain! Run!" Michael thundered. She looked up at them one final time.
"I will find a way to free you," she said softly and then sprinted towards the gate. The wolf reared up at her in a snarl of teeth and claws but she flipped it away, gasping with the effort it took. Across the causeway and into the forest she ran; never stopping, never looking behind. Whether Jadis sent creatures after her she did not know. All her energy was thrown into keeping her legs moving. She had to run. She had to get away. She had to find the Firsts, whatever they were, and she had to find the Pevensies. She had to stop Jadis.
Eventually she began to slow again. Soon she was stumbling along once again frozen and disorientated. She pushed branches out the way carelessly as she ploughed ahead. The temperature was dropping fast. She needed to find shelter.
As she pushed aside another branch, her foot caught in a root hidden somewhere under the snow. She went head over heels down a slope with a shriek. She landed with a thump in a drift and was still.
"Why did you bring her in here?"
"The poor thing would have died if we left her out there!"
"We should have left her. Look at her face! This is a trap, mark my words!"
The voices seemed far away and fuzzy. Caelia shifted under the heavy blanket and opened her eyes.
"Ah, you are awake," a pleasant voice said. She looked around and saw a smiling and familiar face.
"Mrs Beaver!" she exclaimed and tried to sit up. Mrs Beaver pushed her back onto the makeshift bed with a firm paw.
"There, dear, rest a while longer. You had a nasty tumble," she said.
"How did she know who you were? I'm telling you, it's a trap!" an irritated voice said from the other side of the cosy little room. Caelia could just about make out Mr Beaver sitting in the shadows nursing a mug of beer.
"Well, really. The girl has a brain," Mrs Beaver said coldly. "She can see I'm a Beaver as plain as day."
Mr Beaver sat forward into the firelight and peered at Caelia. His fur was unkempt and his eyes had the haze of a permanent drunkard.
"She's the Witch's spawn, I'm telling ya!" he said. "Give it a few more hours and all her horrible lot will be tearing both us and this house apart!"
"Mr Beaver, you cannot judge me due to an unfortunate familiar resemblance and an accident of birth! I am nothing like Jadis!" Caelia insisted.
"So you are the Witch's spawn!" he crowed. She pushed the blanket off her and sat up, despite Mrs Beaver's protests.
"I am her younger sister, actually. And I'm a servant of the Emperor-Across-The-Sea; I'm here to help!"
The Beavers looked at each other.
"You are a bit late, dear. The Witch has been ruling Narnia for over one hundred years," Mrs Beaver said.
"It all happened rather suddenly, I'm afraid," Caelia said weakly. "But can you maybe help me? I'm looking for four children. Peter, Susan, Edmund-"
"And Lucy," Mr Beaver said in a strained voice. His paws were shaking violently and his eyes were even more unfocused. Caelia didn't notice. She sat forward with her eyes blazing with fresh hope. They were here, they were alive! Everything was going to be fine; her champions were alive!
"Do you know them? Where are they? I must speak with them!" she gabbled. Neither Beaver answered her. Mrs Beaver crossed the room and laid a tentative paw on her husband's shoulder.
"Yes, I know them," Mr Beaver said in a low voice. "I met them outside Mr Tumnus' house and they came here and we fed them and the little git Edmund ran off to see your sister."
She edged closer to him. "Where are they? Did you send them on to the Stone Table?"
Now they were both staring at her as if she had grown an extra head. She sat back and looked between them again.
"Is that where they are? Have they gone to Aslan?" she asked tentatively.
Mr Beaver gave a horrible choke of a laugh.
"Aslan?! Now you really are speaking rubbish! You don't have a clue, do you?" he said.
The hope died inside her as she looked between them. What were they talking about? What had happened?
Mr Beaver edged closer to her and gave her a horribly sad smile.
"Those kiddies arriving? Aslan's disappearance?" he said. "It all happened ten years ago."
Thanks for the reviews last chapter guy! :)
Chapters 3 and 4 are written but require some editing. Hopefully they can be put up sort of soon.
The quote from the beginning I found on Goodreads. I'm a bit dubious about that website (I've read some nasty stories about it) but it is brilliant for finding quotes. I think I wanted a quote about loneliness and it gave me a massive amount, including the one from the start here which I found very appropriate.
So, I obviously know what has happened to the Pevensies but what do you think has happened to them? Let your imagination run wild! :D