Chapter 2: The Gladius Lake

The days following the Battle of Beruna were noted in Narnian as the Great Melting. The mystical land witnessed the melting of the remaining snowcaps and icy traces of the age of Winter all across the four corners of Narnia.

While the palace of White Witch Jadis stood tall and menacing during the Age of Winter in the Farthest Northern, after the Great Melting, all that was left of the once-proud palace was a lake, overseeing the forest and the border of Ettinsmoor.

Although Jadis no longer walked the land of Narnia, the tyranny of her reign remained deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Where the lake now stood, rumours of ghostly whispers and lurking shadows in the forests drove most Narnians away from the Farthest, leaving barely a handful of Narnian villages remaining in the extreme northern region. The residents of these remaining villages keep their distance away from this symbolic place of terror.

The lake remained still and quiet, a mirror of Nature, in the aftermath of the Great Melting. In the second month of Spring, two young fauns on a hike stumbled across the vicinity of the lake. What was known as the largest lake since the time of Deep Magic, became solid, frozen, in the warmest day of Spring.

This phenomenon was not unlike the magical effect of the crystal atop of Jadis's magic wand, the Gladius Crystal. The Gladius Crystal had long since been destroyed by Lady Leia, the Ruben Phoenix, but the freezing that was once a symbol of the White Witch's power was imprinted into the Narnians who were part of, or witnessed the Battle of Beruna.

Since the day, and for two seasons after that, the lake was then known as Gladius Lake.

There was a very tangible silence thereafter.

Peter eyed the Gladius Lake, now hissing with hot steam, his words caught at his throat. Edmund, on the other hand, was staring with his mouth ajar.

Leia's face was passive as she dipped her hand into the lake. She held her hand up, watching the droplets of water trickle from between her fingers.

When she stood up, she saw her both kings looking apprehensively at her.

"Peter, Edmund," Leia addressed her kings in a calm, patient and mildly amused tone. "I am not going to drop dead, so you may stop staring at me like that."

The Pevensie brothers cleared their throat and looked away, embarrassed. The elf could not resist a smile on her own as her kings pulled their coats off.

"I don't believe it," Edmund looked at his watery reflection now, admiration glowing in his eyes.

Leia turned towards Peter with a proud grin, subtly holding her bruised right hand behind her. The latter returned her grin with a frown, and he reached out towards Leia, this time pulling Leia's right hand towards him.

Peter touched her lightly bruised knuckles and fingered them gently. "I wish you didn't have to hurt yourself to do that."

With that, he brought her knuckles to his lips, closing his eyes at the touch.

Her heart skipped several beats and Leia froze in her place, her eyes wide in surprise at Peter's action.

Peter, oblivious to the blush that was creeping up Leia's cheeks, pulled her into a tight embrace, as though to ascertain her well-being. Her warm elfin temperature warmed his skin and he buried his face into her hair, his heart growing tight with emotions.

"You're still warm." He whispered. "Thank Aslan, you're alright."

"Peter..." In his warm embrace, she could hear the stray thoughts of unspoken concern for her without making any effort to. Until this moment, Leia never knew how strong his fear of her old ailment was.

"Thank you, my dear lady."

Peter held onto Leia for a moment more before letting her go. As he straightened himself, he saw his younger brother watching them quietly, holding all their coats and the reins to their horses.

"It will be dark in another hour or so. We should return to camp." The look on his brother's face was unreadable, and that, for some reason, unnerved Peter.

Leia looked at the darkening sky above them and nodded in agreement.

It wasn't long after the three royalties made their way back to the encampment when night fell steadily about the Lake. The forest that was deathly silent and still by day came to life as daylight bowed its exit to the curtain of darkness. The shadow whispered, leaving a trail of quiet murmurs among the roots of the trees.

From the darkness of the forest, the voice of the shadow emerged. The creature stepped closer towards the Gladius Lake, now no longer deserving of its icy name.

It smiled.

Leia gasped and sat up abruptly. Her forehead was drenched in cold sweat and her heartbeat fluttered in short bursts. On pure instinct, she reached for her swords and withdrew them sharply, leaving a sharp metallic echo as they left their sheaths.

Silence greeted her.

It was a moment later before she recognized the insides of her tent in the Northern Corner. She drew a long deep breath, and lowered her arms.

Six months it had been since the war, and while she was no longer tormented to the point of death by the curse of the White Witch, the nights were still restless for the Ruben Phoenix.

Nightmares plagued her since the night Aslan disappeared from that beach.

Correction – one nightmare.

'It was merely a nightmare, Leia,' Leia thought to herself as she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. 'Peter is alive and asleep in the next tent. The War is over.'

'It's just a nightmare.'

Even as she convinced herself that the images in her mind were merely the remnants of a bête noir, she was reluctant to fall back asleep. Leia pulled her long, sweaty hair into a bun and walked out of her tent – heading straight for the mess tent.

The soldiers on guard duty greeted her silently as she walked past. She was grateful that most of the sentries this night were centaurs – they were usually less inquisitive by nature. The sight of the Ruben Phoenix taking a midnight stroll with a sword hanging from her waist might have raised more than one question from the fauns or the griffins.

"Leia?"

Leia was startled by Edmund's voice as she entered the mess tent. She certainly did not expect to see her young king awake at such an unearthly hour.

"Edmund?"

The ten-year old smiled and gestured for her to sit next to him. He was holding onto a cup of steaming liquid.

"I couldn't sleep," Edmund admitted shyly. "The cook heated a mug of nectar for me."

Leia smiled. "It smells delicious."

"It is delicious," Edmund grinned. He held out his mug and Leia took a sip. She sighed in relief as the hot nectar brought comforting warmth to her body. She didn't realize how cold she was until then.

"Mmmm," Leia closed her eyes, savouring the sweet taste of the nectar.

"It's no hot chocolate, but close enough," Edmund had a child-like grin on his face as he took another sip and licked his lips.

"Hot cho-co-late?" Leia raised an eyebrow at the foreign name. "What is that?"

Edmund was stumped at Leia's question. How does one describe hot chocolate to a Narnian?

"It is a sweet drink we have back where we came from, made from chocolate power," Edmund started. "Chocolate comes in different shapes and sizes. We can eat it as it is, drink it as a beverage, and even use it in cooking."

Leia was intrigued. She never heard of an ingredient with such versatile uses.

"How do you use this cho-co-late in cooking?" Leia pronounced the word carefully, emphasizing on each syllabus.

"My mother used to make the most delicious chocolate pancakes as a reward for the four of us at the end of each school year…"

Edmund smiled at the memory, but his voice trailed off.

"Ed?"

"I miss my mother." Edmund bowed his head, hiding his eyes from Leia. "And my father."

Leia fell silent. This was the first time she heard any of the Pevensies admit their homesickness openly. The sadness in Edmund's voice was hard to miss. Leia was suddenly reminded that the Pevensies, although taking on their royal duties with a fierce determination, were in fact, children.

They must miss their home, and their parents.

Leia's heart softened as she thought of her own parents. She shifted closer to Edmund and wrapped her shoulder around Edmund.

The younger Pevensie was surprised at the sudden embrace.

"Tell me about them," Leia's voice was soothing, and she smiled gently at Edmund. "And I'll tell you about my parents."

Edmund looked at the elf, and for the countless time, admired her beautiful rose-golden irises. She still had her arm around him, and Leia's embrace was so much warmer than Peter, or Susan, or even Lucy; it was much like sitting near the fireplace in the English Christmas winter. Her body was deliciously warm, and it seemed to touch the very depths of his young, empty heart.

"Okay…" Edmund wiped the wetness in his eyes with the back of his hand and nodded.

The next morning at breakfast, Peter was greeted with a familiar dish. As he looked at the excited expression on his brother's face, and then at the plate served before him, he couldn't help a smile.

"I never thought I'd see pancakes in Narnia," Peter took an eager bite of his favourite breakfast. The taste was slightly different from his memories, given that flower nectar was used in place of maple syrup, but it was delicious nonetheless. "Mmmm… It's delicious, Ed. Thank you."

"Leia and I wanted to make chocolate pancakes, but there's no cocoa in Narnia," Edmund explained in between bites of his own serving. "We used the flour the chefs here used to make toast."

"Leia?"

Edmund nodded. "She made this. I taught her Mother's recipe."

Peter looked down at his pancake again. "Leia can cook?"

"She definitely can," Peter's question was answered by the elf in question as she exited the kitchen with another stack of pancakes. The kings immediately helped themselves to second servings.

"I never knew you can cook," Peter shifted, leaving a space beside him for Leia.

"I was not the Keeper of Aslan's camp without reason, my king."

Peter lowered his head, closing the distance between his and Leia's face. In a joking tone, he teased. "Is there anything you can't do, my dear lady?"

The close distance sparked a memory, of one night they spent together, counting stars atop the overhang. She blushed, but she held his gaze, projecting the memory into his mind.

Peter, by now, was accustomed to occasionally hearing and seeing Leia's thoughts in his mind, so he wasn't surprised to see flashes of Leia's thoughts. The next moment, however, he broke into a wide, wide grin. He reached out, stroking Leia's warm cheeks absentmindedly; a habit he developed since the beginning of his friendship with Leia. For a moment there, the rest of the world fell away and Peter forgot his brother was sitting right across from him.

There was only the beautiful, blushing elf before him.

His fingers accidentally brushed across Leia's rose-pink lips, deepening Leia's blush. She looked away and Peter snapped to his senses.

For Edmund, this was the first time he saw such a form of interaction between his brother and Leia. He watched Peter and Leia turn back to their food, but with the same light blush on their cheeks. Though curiosity filled the mind of the latter, the younger Pevensie held his tongue. He, however, could not explain the heavy weight he felt in his chest.

"Are we heading back to Cair Paravel today?" Edmund asked, subtly changing the subject.

Peter swallowed and nodded. He was reminded of a message he received before breakfast and his expression turned solemn. "I received an urgent message from Susan this morning. The Steward of Lone Islands seeks an audience."

Edmund and Leia both raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"When are they arriving?" Leia asked.

"Tomorrow."

"We won't be able to make a second trip back to the Lake in time," Leia's voice was disapproving.

Peter nodded and rubbed the back of her hand coaxingly. "I promise you, my dear lady, we will return again as soon as this meeting ended."

"If it will make you feel better, we can ask Kyara to do another reconnaissance of the Lake tonight and submit a report first thing tomorrow." Edmund suggested.

Peter agreed to the idea, and the Royal Advisor nodded reluctantly.

Kyara and a party of her best scouts threaded carefully, quietly towards the Gladius Lake, moving like ghosts along the dark, wet path. Prior to their departure from the Northern Corner, Kings Peter and Edmund issued strict orders in confidence to Kyara to do a detailed reconnaissance of the Lake before sunrise, and the faun had no intentions of disappointing her kings.

The scout party of six arrived at the Lake shortly after midnight, and at the sight of Kyara's fist in the air, the six fauns stopped their movement. She assessed the surroundings of the Lake with her sharp keen eyes. The silence surrounding the scout party was deafening; the feather-light steps of the fauns' hooves upon the damp mud were the only sound they could hear. The faun gestured lightly with her fist, and her scouts withdrew their weapons and broke into two groups. She nodded her head and both groups, including herself, fanned out and headed towards the forest from different directions, covering the perimeter of the Gladius Lake.

While this was not Kyara's first reconnaissance of the Gladius Lake, the faun was rather well known in the Royal Army as paranoid, an attribute that helped earned her the title of second-in-command of the Reconnaissance.

This night, however, after noting the abnormal lack of wind amongst the forest, the faun did think her paranoia was warranted. From the corner of her eye, she saw the other group edged towards the forest from behind them. She tightened the grip on the hilt of her sword and clenched her other fist. Her steps were bold, yet cautious, as she and her partner were the first to enter.

This forest was once the border between Jadis' palace and the outskirts of Ettinsmoor, where the colony of exiled giants called home. Most of the giants who became Jadis' sworn allies and soldiers came from this very colony. Since the battle of Beruna, these giants were either killed or driven to hiding, but at the same time, the remaining exiled giants of the colony vanished into thin air.

Kyara felt a slight pull from behind her, and turned. One of her partners, Tuor, a young faun barely passed the adolescent age, made a slight jerk with his head and pointed his sword towards their left. Kyara acknowledged Tuor by pointing her sword in the same direction, and the three fauns stepped further into the quiet forest.

Barely twenty steps into the forest, a sudden breeze shocked the fauns into stillness and both scouts held their breath in trepidation. They turned warily towards the direction of the breeze and were met… with the other group of fauns.

The six scouts faced off each other with the tips of their swords barely touching each other and let out a silent sigh of relief a moment after. While Kyara made known of her annoyance by shaking her fist, the five other scouts exchanged uneasy smiles. The lead scout clenched her fist and all of her scouts gathered into the same position they arrived in. She felt safer in numbers, and if tonight's reconnaissance was destined to take a longer than usual, so be it. She would rather handle the complaints from her fauns after they returned to camp than to have another surprise like that.

Leading the point, Kyara's sword was never below her eye-level. She had had an uneasy feeling since entering the vicinity of the Lake, and as the night grew older, the feeling amplified. It took the scout party two hours before they came to the last section of the forest, twice the time of their usual reconnaissance, but there were no other surprises during the last two hours.

The scout party exited the forest shortly, and all exhaled quietly in relief. The temperature of the surroundings were not as bitingly cold as before, but was still chillier than the other Corners, despite the lack of wind.

Kyara and her scouts stood before the mirror-like Gladius Lake. Never in their lives have the fauns seen a lake so still, and so unmoving. Their reflections, clear and sharp, greeted them, looking less like a mirror image and more like doppelgangers.

"Good evening, distinguished guests," From behind them, a low voice greeted. Kyara's reaction was instantaneous as she pivoted on her hooves, her sword firmly raised and held in an offensive stance.

Right before her, stood the ugliest creature she had ever seen. Bearing the head of a vulture and a body of a snake, the creature stood tall and proud, wings tucked neatly at its sight.

"You!" Kyara cried in alarm, recognizing the creature. It was the same creature that chased the Fire Phoenix that fateful day upon the battlefield of Beruna. Her scouts turned, and in the same instant, formed a formation that allowed them the most optimum angle for a defensive strike.

The creature bowed his head, revealing three dwarves seated on his enormous back; each dwarf held a bow and an arm arched high at his ear-level.

There was sharp cutting of wind as arrows left their bow with the precision of dwarfish archers. Magic seemed to guide the arrows into a formation, a mirror image of the formation the reconnaissance fauns were standing in.

Before the faun could take any offensive attacks; before she could shout any orders to her scouts; before she could take any action, the first arrow pierced through the chainmail and found its mark deep in Kyara's chest.

And the last thing the faun heard right before the arrow tore through her body and pulled her into a pain-induced darkness, was the anguished battle cry from Tuor and her scouts.