Chapter 7:
We didn't have long to wait, soon enough she was being carried by four Cyclopes on, what I decided, was an imitation throne. Her little dwarf servant was in front yelling her arrival.
"Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Empress of the Lone Islands!"
She was just as I had expected. She had that cold look on her face that radiated hate and vengeance. She was so pale I understood why she was referred to as the Ice Queen by some.
The crowd that had gathered were not staying silent; they were shouting at her to go away. The Cyclopes lay the royal seat down as Jadis slowly rose. A great black Minotaur came from behind her and posted itself to her right. Aslan had been watching the scene in silence from the same place he had greeted us.
"You have a traitor in you midst, Aslan." She informed him.
"His treachery was not against you." Aslan reminded her as whispers broke out around us.
"Have you forgotten on which the laws of Narnia were built?" She challenged.
"Do not cite the laws of Deep Magic to me, Witch." He said in a growl. "I was there when they were written."
She seemed satisfied with his answer. "Then you should remember well that every traitor belongs to me." She said. "His blood is my property."
"Try and take him then." Peter cut in while drawing his sword but I could see he was trembling.
"Do you think that mere force will deny me my right…?" She turned to Peter "… little king?"
"You seemed to have taken the rule of this country by force." I couldn't help myself as I added the following title at the end of my sentence. "High Queen."
"You are very like me, young lady." She attempted as she eyes me carefully. "Why not join me, you would be highly respected, you would be queen which is more than they are offering you."
"When hell freezes over." I spat.
"So be it." She said before turning back to Aslan. "Aslan knows that if I do not get what is rightfully mine, the whole of Narnia will perish in fire and water." She pointed to Edmund. "That boy will die, at the Stone Table as is tradition."
Everyone gasped at her proposal, Peter looked helpless. Edmund went paler than he already was, I didn't think that was even possible.
"You dare not refuse me." She warned.
"Enough." Aslan responded. "We shall talk alone." He turned and headed into his tent and the Witch followed cautiously.
We waited in silence. I was slightly apprehensive about the outcome. The Witch wouldn't just let Edmund go that easily. As time dragged on we ended up sitting down in the soft grass and pulling it out of the ground. I felt Peter nudge my arm after a while so I looked up and saw that the Witch had come out of Aslan's tent followed by the lion himself. There was so much tension in the air it could be cut with a knife. The Witch shot daggers at me with her eyes before glaring at Edmund. Aslan broke the reigning silence and answered everybody's question:
"The Witch had renounced her claim on the son of Adam's blood."
Everyone broke into happy chatter. I, for one, was relieved but the look in Aslan's eyes reminded me that there was a price or that a bargain had been struck to save Ed's neck.
"How will I know that your promise will be kept?" The Witch asked from her portable throne.
Aslan replied with a roar and she sat down in a heartbeat. The Narnians started to laugh; I think I was one of the only ones to take in her words. Aslan had in fact made a deal with her.
The day passed quickly, I spent most of it training: the battle could only be delayed so much. As I headed back to our tent that night I couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning until Lucy finally told me to stop. I thought it was just because she was fed up with my movement but I noticed she was pointing to the shadow of a lion walking by our tent. She got up and woke Susan. She looked at me but I shook my head.
"If the three of us leave, they will only worry, I'll stay here and if you're not back by morning, I'll tell them where you've gone." I explained.
They both nodded and walked out of the tent leaving me alone. I put my head back down in my pillow and dozed off. It felt like I'd only slept for five minutes when someone started shaking me awake. "Rebecca." Peter's voice broke me out of my slumber.
"What?" I moaned as I rolled onto my side to look at him through half open eyes.
"Susan, Lucy and Oliver have sent us a message." He replied.
I sat bolt upright and looked at him. "What's happened?"
He took a deep breath and told me: "Aslan's dead." He sat down on my bunk and put his head in his hands.
It took me a moment to process what Peter had just told me. "No, he can't just be dead." I shook my head in disbelief.
"I've checked his tent, he's gone." Peter shook his head.
My mind was racing in thousands of different directions. War was coming and now the Narnians had just lost their beacon of hope. I wanted to scream, to throw something but I didn't I just took a deep breath. "What are we going to do?" I asked out loud, hoping Peter had some sort of solution.
"They want me to lead the army into battle tomorrow. I can't do it; I'm only a sixteen year old boy."
"Listen to me." I cupped his face in my hands. "They believe in you. They don't want you to defeat the army on your own; they will have your back covered. They just need someone to guide them, to lead them into battle. Aslan is gone; someone needs to step up as a leader. I, for one, trust you, Peter." I admitted.
It took him a moment for him to comprehend what I was saying. He relaxed slightly and took a deep breath. We were so close to each other I could feel his breath tickle my skin. My breathing quickened slightly as we both sat in silence and in the dark. He tentatively brought his hand up to my cheek and ran his thumb along it. I closed my eyes at his touch; it was so soft and relaxing. He leaned his forehead against mine and closed his own eyes.
"I still don't know if I can do this." He whispered. "It's all too much."
I swallowed hard and took a moment before responding. "Peter, we were meant to be here, you were meant to do this. I didn't believe in fate until yesterday but now I can't deny that it does exist. You're meant to do this. I'll even go as far to say you were born to do this. You're not going to be alone either, Edmund is going to help. I'm going to help."
The tension in the air seemed to dissipate and left something else. The moment was tender, intimate, it was our moment, our secret moment. So I gathered up my courage and pressed my lips to his softly. It was gentle and only lasted a second. A light kiss on the lips was all he needed as encouragement. "I am not the only one who believes in you." I whispered.
He looked up at me and for a moment I was scared that I had gone too far. That maybe I shouldn't have kissed him but then I saw a light twinkle in his eyes. "Maybe you're right, maybe I can do this, maybe we can do this." Peter smiled at me and after a short silence. "That was my first kiss." He admitted bashfully.
I grinned slightly and bit my lip. "I hope it wasn't a disappointment."
"It wasn't, I wouldn't change it for the world." He said as his hand traced the side of my face before he sighed and dropped his hand back to his side. "There will be time for this later; right now we have a war to prepare." He said with some sort of newly born determination.
He pulled away from me and got up off the cot. I grabbed my sword and followed him out of the tent.
It was barely dawn when we started discussing possible battle strategies with Oreius and the others. I felt out of my depth as we discussed it all, what did I know about warfare? Edmund listened patiently while Peter and I threw ideas on the table. But then something came to me as I stared at the map in front of me.
"We can use the rocks." I suddenly realised.
"What?" Peter asked me as if I had gone mad. Everyone at the table was staring at me.
"You want to use the Griffons, well look around there are plenty of rocks lying around." I explained but still no one seemed to understand what I was going on about. I sighed and continued. "Use your heads boys, Griffons can fly out of range and drop boulders onto the Witch's advancing army!"
"That's actually a good idea." Peter admitted.
"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I don't know how to organise troops." I said coldly. I felt bad after that, I mean honestly I didn't know how to organise troops, I'd just watched a lot of films that had battles in them and honestly that didn't really count.
"So there we have it. We get all archers here." Peter pointed to the high rock land landscape on the map. "And have the others line up just outside the cover of the rocks, and cover the skies by using Becca's idea."
"I think it's a good idea." Edmund agreed.
"Ed, I want you to stay at the rear with the archers." Peter ordered.
"But I want to fight!" Edmund pleaded.
"No, I'm not losing you again Ed and Rebecca you-" He started.
"If you are about to say I've got to stay here and watch you can think again." I cut him off.
He opened his mouth to say something but got the glare I was giving him and shut it again.
"Good boy." I added jokingly with a wink.
"So it is settled." Oreius announced. "To your posts, your majesties should rest; we will alert you when the enemy is near." With that they all turned and left.
"Well, this is not how I imagined my school break." I sighed.
"I was sent away from a war and now I'm fighting in one." Peter added.
"It's been an eventful few days, hasn't it?" I said.
Edmund and Peter nodded in agreement.
"Your majesties?" A faun approached us.
"Yes?" Peter looked up at the faun.
"We need to fit you for armour." The faun announced.
We followed the faun who showed us what they had made for us. It was like the armour you see in these medieval films. I picked mine up and left to go and get changed. I then came back out to see Peter waiting for me.
"Someone is looking handsome." I smiled slightly at him.
"This really isn't the moment you know?" He said while entwining his fingers in mine.
"You don't seem to be doing anything about it?" I teased.
"I spent a lot of time hoping you were real, and now that I know that you are I want to spent as much time as possible with you." His deep blue eyes had locked with my green ones.
"I'm still going to be here tomorrow you know." I reminded him.
He squeezed my hand once more and was about to say something but the words never came out as just then Edmund appeared.
"They're coming." He said.
Peter and I looked at each other, nodding slowly, before following his brother.
XxxxxX
"I don't see anyone?" I said as I looked into the plain.
"A scout has just come back; they'll be here in an hour at the least."
I mounted the palomino horse I had earlier and trotted to the front of the column where Peter was already posted on a unicorn. Even in my head that just doesn't seem real.
We waited in silence as time ticked away. Soon one of our Griffons was sighted in the sky ahead, it was coming towards us. It landed next to me and spoke:
"They come in numbers and weapons far greater than ours."
"Let them come." I muttered under my breath.
"Numbers do not win a battle." Oreius grunted.
"But I bet they help." Peter mumbled.
We waited a few minutes until we saw a Minotaur cry of rage urging the rest of his army forth. I gasped as I saw them appear one by one.
"Brilliant." I said sarcastically. "This should be interesting."
Peter gave me a look that meant "Shut up." And I did. Our army was starting to stir: leopards hissing, centaurs preparing to charge and others readying their weapons. Peter gulped and raised his sword and they erupted into cheer like raving lunatics. The Witch must have given her signal because her servants started to advance. Peter still had his sword raised waiting for the right moment. The enemies were getting closer and I held my breath. Peter lowered his sword and the Griffons flew above us at his command, the one that had landed next to me rose to the air to join his kin. They let the rocks fall on the enemy who had not been expecting that sort of attack. I smiled in triumph as I saw them getting knocked down.
"Don't get too cocky." Peter warned. "We haven't won this yet." He looked to Oreius "Are you with me?"
"To the death." That was Oreius's reply. I didn't know if that was an encouraging thought or not.
Peter took a deep breath and yelled: "For Narnia and for Aslan!"
The unicorn reared and galloped forward. I followed and urged my horse forward. The ride to meet them seemed to last forever, like it was in slow motion. I drew my sword and the next thing I knew it was down a Minotaur's throat. Instinct seemed to take over, I'd never done anything like this in my life before and yet I felt as if I'd been doing this forever. It came naturally to me just as it did to Peter; it was as if it was in our blood. I continued to slash and cut my way through the enemy army, I don't know how long it had been when I saw that fire suddenly cut us off from the other army. The phoenix had been released. I turned and saw Peter analysing the situation. He looked to me and nodded. Just then, our fire wall was blasted my some sort of spell. The Witch appeared brandishing her wand from her chariot pulled my two polar bears. Weirdness had hit an all-time high.
"Fall back! Draw them to the rocks!" He yelled above the noise.
I didn't need to be told twice. I followed Peter's order and retreated.
"If we can get them close enough, the archers can deal with some of our unwanted guests." I yelled to Peter as I came up beside him, he nodded in response.
The horn was blown so that the troops on the ridge would get the signal. We had gotten into the Rockland escape with the enemy on our heels. I yelled at Edmund to give the order to shoot. He did and some of our enemies were brought down. I whooped in triumph but I was getting ahead of myself. As I reached the higher levels, I turned to see Peter on the ground; his unicorn had limped off having been shot by an arrow. Peter had gotten up and was facing the approaching enemy. I saw Oreius and a rhino run towards him, I was relieved someone was going to get him. As I turned and looked back to Edmund, I saw a look of horror on his face followed by Peter shouting, my head snapped back round to him.
"STOP!" He yelled.
Oreius and the rhino had run past him and were running straight into the enemy. Rhino got cut down but Oreius powered on. He was heading for the Witch. He planted his sabres in the leading Minotaur and drew his sword. He jumped at the Witch and for a moment I thought he had got her. He swerved her wand and landed behind her. But then he froze, he had turned to stone. Even from here I could see the psychopathic smile printed on the Witch's face. She could turn people to stone, how could we have forgotten that? If we didn't get any back up, we were screwed.
"Peter, get back!" I yelled at him, he hadn't moved from his spot.
He turned as he heard my voice and decrypted the panic in it. He took one last look and turned on his heels and ran back. The battle recommenced moments later. I didn't know what was going on half the time; my only aim was to cut down every enemy before they got me. I turned and saw Peter looking at me then turning his gaze to the sky. I looked up and saw the griffons coming. They got in range of the White Witch.
"NOOO!" I yelled at them but it was too late she had turned them to stone.
They fell from and broke into pieces as they landed sending debris everywhere. I'd been standing too close to where a griffon fell and my horse reared making me fall to the ground. I shook the dizziness from my head and got to my feet. Peter had run to me and covered me with his shield as more stone fell from the sky.
"There's too many of them." He told me. He turned and looked at his brother. "Edmund, get out of here! Find the girls and get them home!"
Edmund was about to protest when Beaver pulled him by the arm "Come on let's go!"
"Rebecca I want you to follow him, get your brother and get safe!" He ordered me.
"I'm not leaving you!" I didn't lower my gaze from his eyes.
"You have to!" He insisted.
My eyes widened as I pushed him aside and ran my sword threw a creature's stomach.
"What would you do without me?" I smirked and I noticed that he gave in.
Suddenly there was like a wave of wind. We turned in the direction on the movement and saw the Witch and … Edmund? He started to fall and I gasped. Peter yelled and pursued the Witch. I let him go, this was his fight. I watched in horror as they faced each other. I was brought out of my gaze when I heard a roar. Aslan? I looked up and saw Oliver, Susan and Lucy with him. They had brought reinforcements! It was weird as they charged the enemy it seemed that time itself had speeded up around me. My movements were slowed but the new arrivals charged past me. Then it stopped, I was standing there on my own.
"It is finished." Aslan announced.
"Peter!" Two female voices cried followed by a boy's.
"Rebecca!" My brother called.
"Olly!" I ran and hugged him. "What happened?"
"It's a bit of a long story." He smiled.
As I looked down at my brother something dawned on me. "Edmund." I gasped.
I turned and ran to where I had seen Ed fall. His family were already around him. I saw Lucy pour a couple of drops of her cordial in his mouth. There were a couple of seconds of tense atmosphere before he finally sat up. I was relieved and let them have their little family reunion now that the danger had seemed to pass. Lucy was first to break away and ran to tend to the wounded.
Aslan revived those that had been turned to stone and I watched in amazement. I turned to Peter and he smiled. This was the beginning of peace in Narnia, I knew it.
