Chapter 10

"How will we do that?"

"By destroying any chance of her return; no prisoners, not one of her followers spared, burn all things that give any indication of how to bring her back." Peter looked over at Edmund. "When this war comes, we will be ready. Have all of the soldiers train as hard as they can, make sure they are ready; if the soldiers aren't, then we don't stand a chance."

Ed nodded, then walked out of the room. He was in charge of training and managing the troops, and he was good at it; if Edmund had enough time to really train the troops, then they would most certainly defeat the Witch. He to look at the sheet Peter had posted to see if anyone had signed up, and everyone did. He was so proud of them for being willing to fight her again to protect Narnia, which, is understandable, since it is their homeland. I'm sure if it came down to it, everyone would fight for their country.

Peter and Clare were still in an embrace; neither wanted to let go. It had a feeling of safety, being held in someone's arms. He kissed the top of her head, then decided it was time to go practice sword fighting again.

When they were in the arena, Peter and Clare dueled for about an hour, before they heard a scream. They looked up on the hill, and saw Lucy running to the top.

"Peter! Come quick, it's Her!" She called down to her brother. "She wants to see Clare!"

Clare's face regained it pale color, and Peter noticed.

"Don't worry, Clare, she won't get to you."

Clare couldn't look at him. "I know, but I'm putting all of you in danger, and I don't even know how!"

"Well, let's go see what she wants."

Peter took her by the hand, and led her up the hill. When they got to the top, they were astonished at what they saw. There was the White Witch, sitting in her litter with her creatures carrying her (similar to how she appeared to speak to Aslan about Edmund the first time they were in Narnia), and about a hundred of her followers at her side. If she had this many just to go to Cair Paravel, no one wanted to think about how many she actually had.

"Greetings, King Peter." She called from her spot on the level ground. "It has been a long time, and you never sent any letters."

Some of her followers snickered. Peter raised his head higher. Clare looked at him nervously. By this time, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy were up on the hill as well.

"What I wanted to discuss with you, my king, is that girl." She looked over at Clare who looked like she would collapse at any moment.

"What do you want with her?" Edmund snarled.

"I want her in exchange for your lives. You see, there was another prophecy, one that was long lost." The Witch didn't take her eyes off of Clare. Her breathing was getting faster and faster. "It said: 'If there shall be a fifth child of Adam and Eve, that child will have the power to make evil fall or rise, and make its enemies crumble at its feet.' I guess you can think of who that child is, can't you, King Peter?" She smirked at him. "So what will it be?"

"I guess you'll just have to kill us." Peter told the Witch.

Jadis, for the first time, took her eyes off of Clare, and placed then on Peter. It looked as if she was trying to stare deep into his soul. "Very well. I shall come back tomorrow, and I will speak with you privately, your majesty. We have more to discuss." She said. She then was carried off back to her old castle, which she had rebuilt.

The five children stood at the top of the hill, watching her as she left. They stayed there a few moments after, and then proceeded to walk back down the hill.

"She just had all of those creatures there to scare us." Edmund said as he watched his feet.

"Yes, but she has many more at her castle; if she had that many here today, she will be recruiting more." Peter told them.

Clare did not speak at all until dinner, and even then she barely did.

"Clare, she's not going to get you!" They reassured her many, many times, and she replied, "I know that, but I can't help but think that I put Narnia in danger, which I did, didn't I?" The others didn't know how to answer her, so they remained quiet.

Tomorrow came, and just like she said, the Witch was back at high noon, with her hundred followers on her sides. She demanded to speak to Peter privately, and he obliged, very unwillingly. They seemed to talk for forever, but it was only about two hours. Susan, Edmund, Clare, and Lucy waited outside in the garden for Peter to finish, but they soon got bored. They started playing a game called, 'Name That Object', where one person thinks of an object, animal, or person, and the others have to guess what the person is thinking of. You can only ask 'yes' or 'no' questions, one at a time, and the first person to guess it wins. The game made everyone cheery for the time being, as someone would ask a very amusing question, and everyone else would laugh at it. Edmund was usually the one to ask questions like that, but sometimes, one of the girls would, too. Lucy went first.

"Are you thinking of yourself?" Edmund asked her.

"No! I haven't even given you any clues yet!"

"Worth a shot."

"Is it human?"

"No."

"Does it wear decent clothes?"

"No."

"Now now, let's not pick on Ed."

"Hey!"

"Oh, I think I'm stumped, Lu." Susan furrowed her eyebrows.

"Whoever could it be?" Clare asked.

"Just a few more guesses!"

"Oh, alright."

"Is it an animal?"

"Yes."

"Is it Edmund?" Susan asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Lucy laughed. "N-no, it's n-not E-Edmund."

"Does it have two legs?"

"No."

"Does it have four legs?"

"Yes."

"Does it come in many different colors?"

"Not really."

"Only 'yes' or 'no' answers."

"Fine. No."

"Is it... a horse?" Clare shouted.

"Yes! I thought you'd never get it!"

"I win!" Clare smiled gleefully as it was now her turn to pick an object.

The exact time as this was going on outside, Peter and the Witch sat in the Council Hall.

"Good afternoon, King Peter." She mockingly bowed.

"Sit down, witch." He told her, harshly.

"Let us discuss this prophecy."

"Speak."

"I told you yesterday about the fifth child of Adam and Eve. What I didn't tell you is that she and I have a special...bond." The Witch told Peter. "It was made the moment that she stepped into Narnia. You see, when we have this next war, and you are about to kill me, for the second time," she added, "think of your precious Clare, and know that if you kill me, she will die too."

Peter looked at the Witch with hatred as she smiled smugly, for she knew that that had gotten his attention. He didn't know how he would handle this. He would talk to Ed about it after the Witch had left, and they would come up with an alternative plan; this kind of thing was Ed's specialty, thinking of things to do.

"I think we have said all that needs to be." Peter dismissed her.

"Yes, I think we have."

They walked to the doors, and walked out. Ed saw that they had concluded their meeting, waited until the Witch had left, and watched Peter walk back inside.

"Peter doesn't look too good, I'll go in and check on him. You girls stay outside and continue your game, I'll come back out after I talk to Peter." Edmund told them.

After Ed had walked inside, he looked around for Peter, but found no one.

"Peter?" He called into the dim castle, as the sun was now beginning to set. No answer. Just then, he heard glass smashing in the Throne Room, and jogged to see if his brother was alright. When he got there, he found him pacing back and forth, broken glass on the floor, and his hands bloody.

"Peter? Are you quite alright? What did the Witch say?" Edmund asked his brother.

"Do you remember the prophecy she spoke of? The one about the fifth child of Adam and Eve? Well, there was more to that then she told us."

"What do you mean?" Edmund didn't know if he would like what Peter was about to tell him, but he had to know.

Peter stopped pacing and looked at him. "There's a bond between the Witch and Clare, that was made when Clare first stepped into Narnia, and if we kill the Witch, Clare will die too."

Edmund was rigid. How could this be? There has to be some way around it, and he would do everything he could to look for one.

"Should we tell Clare?"

Peter thought about it for a minute, and then came to a conclusion. "Yes, yes, I think we should; since this concerns her, she has a right to know, and to make a decision. We shall tell her tonight."

"Well, we had an interesting day, didn't we, ladies?" Susan asked Clare and Lucy.

"Oh, it was ever so much fun!" Lucy squealed.

"Yes, I agree, it was very amusing." Clare smiled at her.

They were going to head into dinner when Peter and Edmund asked Clare if they could speak with her. They took her into the Council Hall where they knew it would be private.

"Clare, I wanted to talk to you about something that the White Witch told me about." Peter said. This was very hard for him, as she was going to have to choose; kill the White Witch and die with her, or let the Witch live and have her around again like last time.

They explained to her about the prophecy, the bond, and what the Witch had said. She regained her pale color, and closed her eyes. She stayed like that for a while, then opened her eyes and looked at Peter.

"I've made a decision." She looked him right in the eyes. "When this war comes, I want you to kill the White Witch. The first chance you get, I don't want you to think twice about it; kill her. That's final, I'm not changing my mind."

"Clare, I'm sure there are ways around it, we can find a way." Peter looked nervous.

"No Peter, there is no other way. I want to save Narnia, not destroy it. Please, this is my choice."

"Can't we just talk about this?" He pleaded with her, for he certainly didn't want her to die. He loved her.

"No Peter!" Clare was starting to get teary-eyed. "There's nothing to talk about! I've made my decision, and I need to do this!"

Edmund looked from Peter to Clare, and sighed. "She's right, Peter, this is her choice, and we have to stand by her."

"Thank you, Edmund."

He nodded to her, and then looked back at his brother. Peter sighed, and then agreed. "Fine, I understand that it's your decision, but I just don't want you to get hurt, Clare." He told her.

"I know, Peter, I don't want to, but this is something that I have to do."

"Alright." He looked at her like he could never look at her enough; he just wanted to protect her, but there was no way he could this time. She was going to die; there was no preventing it, unless they did not destroy the Witch, but Clare would never allow that.

They decided that this was enough of this conversation, and the three of them walked to the Dining Hall where the other two girls were waiting for them.

"There you are! We were wondering where you could have gone." Susan told them as they walked to their chairs and took their seats.

"It's fine, Susan, we were just discussing some plans." Edmund told her. That whole night, Peter kept glancing over at Clare, and she at him.

"You are making me nervous; is there something that you're not telling us?" Lucy finally asked them after they had glanced at each other for the ump-teenth time.

"No." Peter and Clare said together.

"I think you are. Please, tell us what it is."

"It's not really any of your concern, Lucy." Peter told his sister.

She was quiet after that. The rest of the meal, Edmund, Peter, and Clare were on edge. After dinner, Clare was the first to rise. She walked fast, and went up to her room. She shut the door and went out onto her balcony.

"Oh, Aslan," She said up to the sky, "you brought me here for me to be happy, but now I have to die for Narnia. I'm honored to be able to make such a sacrifice to save her, but why did you bring me here so that I would die?" Clare asked as a tear rolled down her cheek. She thought of the Pevensies, how much fun she had had, her adventures, the beautiful things she had seen, and then she thought of Peter. Aslan had brought her here to be with Peter, which she was, but it was nothing more than a courtship, and they hadn't even kissed yet. She started to cry lightly as she thought of all of the things that she and him would have been able to accomplish had she not have to die. Maybe they would have gotten married, had some children, watched them grow into kings and queens of Narnia, and then died of old age, next to Peter, with her children all grown up with families of their own. But, sadly, she would never know because in two days, when this war started, she would die, and Peter would move on; he had to. Clare wanted him to, because she couldn't bear seeing him alone for the rest of his life.

By this time, everyone else had left the table, and three of them went into the library, while one of them went upstairs to Clare's room. It was Edmund.

"Clare?" He asked softly as he knocked and opened the door to find her standing outside. She turned to look at him; her face was red and wet from tears, but she was still beautiful. It had this light, like someone was shining a light on it, and it just glowed. It was magnificent.

"Oh Edmund!" She cried as she ran to him and embraced him, crying into his shoulder. He held her, and spoke soothing words to her and rubbed her back gently.

"Clare, just think about right now, and how happy we are, and think about how much fun we had in the past; like when I was drunk on the marble polisher, or you and Peter were training, you had fun then, didn't you? Or, think of the game we played outside this afternoon; I thought that was very interesting."

Clare dried her eyes and looked at him. "Yes, we did have some fun." She smiled softly. "I'm sorry about your shirt." She looked at the wet spot she had made.

"That's alright. Are you better now?"

She sniffed and nodded. "Yes; I was just thinking about how, if I didn't have to...make this sacrifice, how our future would look like. I was thinking about all five of us, and Peter and I, if we would get married or have children, or if I would die of old age, with all of you beside me." She told him, looking at the floor.

"I know, I'm so sorry, Clare, but one thing that I'm not sorry about," he tried to get her to look him in the eyes, "is you coming to Narnia. Think of all of the things that we wouldn't have experienced; all of the adventures and such."

"I would never regret meeting Peter on the train; that's how I met him. I think Aslan had Peter and I bump into each other. I think he wanted us to meet, so that I would have a reason to come to Narnia, and I'm glad I did. I wouldn't redo anything from that moment on, because even though I have to die in two days, it's for a place I love and for people I love." She told him as she hugged Ed again.

He smiled at her comment; he would have to tell Peter; when he was grieving over the loss of Clare (as they all would be, though Peter will most likely take it the hardest), Edmund promised that he would tell Peter what Clare had just told him. About meeting him for the first time.

"I think we should go downstairs and join the others, what do you think?" He asked Clare.

She nodded her head, and he stood up to help her to her feet. They walked downstairs together, and walked into the library. Peter and the sisters looked up as they entered, but the two girls went back to their game when they saw that it was just Clare and Ed. Peter, however, did not. He watched them enter, and sit down on a couch across from the chair that he, himself was sitting in. He went back to his reading when he saw them get a book from a shelf, and start reading. Everyone was happy with their book or game, until it grew very late. Peter suggested that they head upstairs, as they have much planning to do tomorrow. They walked upstairs how they usually do, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy in front, with Peter and Clare following behind. Then, they separated and went to their individual rooms, and were silent the rest of the night.

So? How is it so far? Believe me, we aren't even halfway done with this story yet, I still got until they are all like 40!

The Great War is in the next chapter, working on it now!

Leave a comment!

-B