THE LINES OF LOYALTY
Here you are, mates, the third chapter! This is where we get a little more information on Ardat's character. I like to think of him as the male version of Zira from "The Lion King 2". Their attitudes and overall psyches are pretty much alike.
Characters (with exceptions) © C.S. Lewis and Disney/Walden Media
Story © unicorn-skydancer08
All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 3
"That boy is more resilient than we had guessed when we first caught him, Ardat," said Avicus.
"We're just wasting our time and energy," Flavius muttered. "I say we simply kill the little dunghill rat and be done with it."
"Don't be so hasty, you oversized bull," Ardat snapped at him. "As of now, that boy is our only resource for locating Tumnus. It would save us much time and trouble if he simply told us of the faun's whereabouts."
"He's already more trouble for us than he's worth," grunted Flavius. "We've employed just about every form of torture there is in the book; we've beaten him to within an inch of his life, and still he holds his tongue."
Inwardly, Ardat begrudgingly acknowledged that his minotaurs were correct in that aspect. He knew plenty of characters who would have lost their nerve and talked under such torture.
"Well," the man-wolf growled at length, "we will have to be patient, for yet a while longer. That boy can't hold out forever. Sooner or later, something will have to give."
"Why are you so bound and determined to capture this Tumnus, anyhow?" Avicus demanded.
Flavius added snidely, "Yes, Ardat, do tell. What is it about the faun that's so vital that you're willing to torture another to death, just to get information about him that you could obtain some other way?"
Ardat's blood-red eyes flashed. "Because he was the one responsible for Jadis's downfall!" he roared, so fearsomely that both minotaurs backed a few steps from him. When the eerie echoes throughout the stone corridor subsided and Ardat spoke once more, his voice was much quieter, though with an ominous chill enough to penetrate the bone. "That sniveling, spineless worm was always one to save his own skin. When Jadis first became queen, he naturally didn't hesitate to team up with her, in order that his life would be spared. Then he did a complete turnaround and joined those four human brats and that bedeviled Aslan, in hopes of obtaining mercy." He spat the last word out like it tasted foul. "Were it not for that traitorous coward, Jadis would still be queen—and I, Ardat, her humble, devoted servant."
Now the man-wolf's tone took on a different note. A strange gleam shone in his eyes; his ugly face revealed an expression of almost genuine tenderness.
Turning away from his minions for just a moment, he said softly to the empty air, "Ah, my beloved, you never knew the true depth of my feelings for you. I never spoke of it, because I knew that was not where your pride rested. I knew you were far too superior to one such as I…but you were always beautiful in my eyes. How I admired your beauty, your strength, your skill, your great acumen."
Flavius looked quizzically at his companion. "Who is he talking to?"
"Jadis, who else?" Avicus retorted.
"Where?" Flavius turned his head in every direction, as if Jadis herself floated about somewhere in that room.
"She's dead, genius," Avicus reminded him sardonically.
Hearing this, Ardat whirled back to them, his face now contorted in a look of terrifying fury. "Yes, she is dead!" he barked, making them jump again. "There is no question that she is gone, and that there is nothing we can do to bring her back. But we can see to it that her death is not in vain, that those behind her demise—such as Tumnus—will pay in kind."
Shaking his shaggy head, Flavius grumbled, "I still say this is a big waste of time."
"However long it takes," Ardat replied, flexing his claws, from which protruded terrible nails no less than a foot long, "it will all be worth it in the end, from the moment I have Tumnus in my grasp."
