Chapter 11

A/N: Right, I'll keep this short and sweet…sorry. Now, we're still in the present.

Disclaimer: I do not own Narnia. If I did I'd live there.

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Katerina awoke to an empty bed the next morning just as the sun crested the horizon.

"Now, where has he gotten off to?" she huffed, throwing back the covers and reaching for her boots.

Before she could slip them on though, Peter knocked softly then stuck his head around.

"Oh, good, you're awake." His head disappeared only for him to walk backwards into the room; all the better to carry the tray he held. "Back into bed with you, I've brought breakfast." He looked down at the try and blushed. "Well, it's INTENDED to be breakfast, but it's not much of one."

"Food is food, so give it here!" she demanded with a laugh and a wink, settling back on her pillow.

Peter settled in as well and the two began to eat in silence, smiling when their hands brushed. As they neared the end of the meal though, Peter could take it no longer.

"Katerina?" She looked up at him. "I love you."

"I know," she replied, looking confused. "I love you as well."

He took a deep breath,

"Because I love you, I must ask this; what has happened to you during the past thirteen hundred years?" The female warrior slowly lowered the food she had been eating back down. "I realize this has been a long and hard road but, Kat, I must know."

"You can do nothing to change the past-," she began.

"I know, but the truth can be no worse then what I have imagined has occurred."

For a long while Katerina continued to stare at him, holding his gaze as she weighed options, truths, and lies.

"For five years I held the throne and the country to the best of my ability," she began slowly. "Oreius and Tumnus were at my side. Astrid came when she was called but she spent far more time consulting every magical being and text she could find. We all wanted to do the same but Oreius was dealing with the army and the boys, Tumnus had taken control of the internal issues while I tried to maintain our position to the rest of the world. Cor tried to help as he could but he had just taken the throne so I could not bring myself to lean on him any more then I when I was desperate.

The only peace I had in those five years was my weekly ride. Do you remember those?"

Peter stretched out to take her hand.

"How could I forget them? A half a days ride, every week, save when we were at war. A way to ensure we had to reconnect and just check in with each other."

She smiled softly,

"Though you were gone, I kept up with those rides. It was good to get away from the court and the hassles. When I rode I could almost hear you, feel you beside me." The hand on her's tightened reassuringly and she squeezed back, taking her strength from his. "It was on one of those rides that…" Tears gathered. "I knew that there was raiding in the south but it had been a bad week so I went anyway. I came upon a sea raider party attacking a village…" She drifted off once more.

"You rode in to try and save your people," Peter finished. He let out a wry smile. "That is why Aslan declared you High Queen rather then just Consort." He reached up to wipe away her tears. "You were captured then?"

"Yes," was the whispered reply. "I managed to free most of our people before someone caught me in the back of the head. When I awoke, I was on a slave ship bound for Calormen."

"Why didn't you say you were the Queen and demand a parlay?"

That brought about a snort of amusement.

"I tried but no one believed me. After all, I was a woman, and therefore inferior and what's more I appeared to be fourteen or fifteen, a mere child. I was completely on my own as I was sold to a wealthy family who lived very far south. I was with them for twenty five years."

"Didn't they notice…?" Peter waved his hand vaguely at her face.

"The fact that I did not age?" He nodded. "In Narnia I had already begun applying different tricks to appear older, only I, Tumnus, and Oreius were aware that I did not age though it had taken us two years to realize it. I learned even more 'ageing' tricks in the South. Eventually though, they caught on. When their priests and magicians could not discover why, the family decided that I must be a witch."

Peter's eyes went wide with anger and horror.

"They didn't!" She nodded, inspiring the boy to swear violently. "Those superstitious simpletons!"

Katerina leaned forward and stroked his cheek with the back of her hand.

"Do not blame them, their belief system is so vastly different from our own that the only way they could explain me was witchcraft."

"But still, burning you at the stake?!" The girl shrugged. "How are you so calm?"

"Years and years of experience, plus," she grinned, "you get used to the experience after the first three or so tries."

"After the first three…do I want to know how many times you have been burned at the stake?"

"None."

"But you just-."

"I've been nearly burned about eight times," Kat explained. "But fate, or Aslan, I'm not sure which, had saved me every time."

Peter sat gaping at her. Annoyed, Katerina picked up one of the leftover berries from their breakfast and threw it at his open mouth.

"Stop feeling guilty," she ordered.

"Kat…I can't help it-."

"You are going to have to help it! You are doing no favors for anyone, certainly not me or yourself!"

Sighing, Peter took the tray, carrying it over to a table. He returned and sat closer.

"All right, so you were a slave." She nodded. "For how long?"

"Hundreds of years, I did all manner of work and saved those who I could. Often that would be how I finally got caught, saving others."

"That's my girl," he whispered, kissing the side of her head.

She continued on as if he hadn't spoken, half lost in her own past.

"I always managed to escape and change enough that the next person who caught me would know I was a slave but not who I was. I became a legend, the Ever Living Girl. There were a few households, the wealthier ones, which I ended up with quite a few times, including the palace of the Tisroc himself."

"How did you eventually get away?"

"A Telmarine ambassador came to the court and apparently I 'enchanted' him from the beginning." Katerina smiled fondly. "He had noticed that I was obviously not a Calormene, and wondered at how I had come to be there. He offered to buy me but there was no sale. But after he saved the Tisroc's son and heir from a stampede, he was granted anything he requested. And all he wanted was me."

Peter fought the jealously that was rising in him.

"So, he, uh, he was good to you?" he asked tersely.

Kat laughed,

"He was for the short week I was with him. Telmarines are very easy to escape from." She shrugged, beginning to pick at her sleeve. "I've been on the move ever since, helping the people I can and never staying long."

The two sat in silence for a bit, each dwelling on their own thoughts, Katerina on her past and Peter on their future.

"Kat," he began but the door swung open to spill in Edmund.

"Peter, it's near time," he announced.

"I'll be right there," Peter sighed. Katerina got up and pulled her boots on. "Kat-."

"We'll talk later, peter," she interrupted, brushing a kiss across his lips. "There are things I must see to right now."

With that she walked out, leaving the High King to think of the last time he had faced a challenge like this one…

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And now we return to the past.

Live, Love, Lust, Truth, Dream, Breathe, Believe, Serenity.

Sailor Ppearl