Chapter 14: All Through The Night

"The Great Cat is dead!" The Witch shouted triumphantly. Listening to the ugly, triumphant shouts from the Witch's followers, I didn't dare open my eyes yet. I couldn't quite yet bear to see Aslan lying dead on the Stone Table. "Prepare your troops for battle," the Witch said to the minotaur. He grunted and roared loudly, causing the crowd to roar and shriek and shout with him. The sounds of ugliness surrounded us for several moments and the ground shook as the Witch's followers rushed back off to their camp. I prayed that we would not be discovered, and readied myself to put on my invisibility cloak in case we were discovered.

Then there was silence. Complete, dead, utter silence.

I slowly raised my head and let my hands drop to my knees. Opening my eyes, I saw Susan holding Lucy protectively in her arms, and they both were weeping. "He died for Edmund," I said flatly. I could not cry - I knew I should cry, but the tears would not come. Instead, my mind was thinking about all the danger we were now in because Aslan died.

"Oh!" Lucy suddenly sat up. "I've got my cordial with me; perhaps - "

"It's too late," Susan said, looking towards the Stone Table where Aslan lay dead. "He's gone."

Lucy began to cry again. "Someone's got to tell the others," I said, laying a comforting hand on Lucy's shoulder.

"We can't just leave him here," Susan argued, wiping away her tears the best she could.

"I'll go," I said, biting my lip.

"But what if they catch you?" Susan asked worriedly.

"I've got my invisibility cloak, remember? I think that if I'm to use this, now's as good a time as any," I said earnestly.

"Use it now and not if you're in danger," Susan pleaded. "No one will see you use it here, except the two of us."

"All right," I agreed, and with that I lifted the hood of my cloak over my head.

Being invisible was the strangest feeling I had ever felt before, so strange I could hardly find the words to describe it. Everything looked very shimmery, almost as if it were made out of water or glass, but I had no time to waste thinking about that. "I can't see you," Susan said.

"I suppose that's a good thing," I said woodenly. "I've got to go. I'll come back if I'm able to."

With that I began to run through the forest, weaving through trees and hoping I would be able to find my way back to Aslan's camp - Peter's camp, now, I thought to myself with a rather sick feeling. I ignored this thought and ran faster, nearly tripping over roots and dead branches as I did so. Just as I thought I could not find my way out of the forest, I saw the edge of the meadow and some red and gold tents in the distance. I burst out of the forest, now running through the tall grass and up towards the hill where the camp lay. I quietly hurried through camp and into the Pevensie boys' tent. Both boys were sleeping peacefully in their hammocks, and I almost hated to wake them. But wake them I did.

"Peter, Edmund, wake up, something terrible's happened!" I said in a rather loud voice.

Peter woke up first and sat straight up, drawing his sword. "Who's there?" he asked.

"It's me, Sophie," I said.

"Where are you?" he asked, looking around. "I can't see you."

I had completely forgotten to take off the hood on my invisibility cloak. Reaching up, I took the hood off. "Is that better?" I asked.

Peter's mouth formed an "o" and he sheathed his sword. "Your invisibility cloak," he said.

"Yes," I replied.

Edmund by this point had also woken up. "What's going on?" he asked sleepily.

"I'm so sorry I had to wake you, but something horrible has happened," I said gravely. I suddenly felt myself about to cry and choked back the tears. "It's Aslan. He's - he's dead. The Witch... she killed him, she killed him, and I couldn't look and..." With that I began to weep, the tears coming at last.

Peter was out of his hammock in a flash and held me close to him in his strong arms. "Oh, Sophie," he said somberly. "You - you saw the Witch kill him?"

"Yes," I sobbed. "So did Susan and Lucy; they're with Aslan's body now."

"By themselves?" Edmund asked worriedly.

"They'll be all right, the Witch took all her followers with her. But, oh, she killed him on the Stone Table instead of Edmund. That was the deal they made, and now - now they're gathering their army to fight us and what are we going to do?" I gripped Peter's shirt and wept into it, unable to control my crying at this point.

Peter rubbed one hand over my back. "We're going to fight back, Sophie; that's what we're going to do," he said firmly. "We're going to fight back for Aslan."

I nodded, still crying. "For Aslan," I hiccuped.

"Edmund, get Oreius and tell him what's happened. We've got to plan this battle, now." Peter looked as if he had aged years within the past few minutes as he spoke.

"Right," Edmund said, and rushed out of the tent.

"Sophie, I don't want you to fight in this battle," Peter began.

"Why not?" I asked, cutting him off. "I want to help."

"You're not ready to fight in a battle," Peter said, obviously trying to be tactful. "I saw you practicing archery the other day."

I hung my head and wiped away the tears on my face. "It was pretty bad," I admitted.

"Will you go back to Susan and Lucy and make sure they're all right?" Peter asked.

"Yes," I said, looking up at him. "I can do that."

So it was that only a few minutes later I found myself going back through the forest to the Stone Table. Although it was still night, the sky was beginning to lighten. It will be morning soon, I thought absently. I didn't want to think of what the next nightfall might bring.

When I reached the Stone Table, I found Susan and Lucy still with Aslan. They had somehow managed to free him of all his bonds, which I was very glad of. "Peter sent me back here to be with you two," I said, heavily climbing the steps of the Stone Table. "He and Edmund are preparing the army for battle."

Susan nodded. "I suppose we should go back, then," she said dismally. "C'mon, Lucy. It's time we headed back."

Lucy, who had been asleep, sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. "All right," she said drowsily. Reluctantly, Susan and Lucy stood up and the three of us began to leave the Stone Table. I looked behind me one last time sadly and saw for the last time Aslan's body lying still on the Stone Table illuminated by the rising sun.

We'd only gone a few paces, however, when the ground began to shake violently and the three of us were thrown to the ground. I gripped my invisibility cloak, ready to use it. The earth stopped shaking within a couple seconds, fortunately, and we stood up slowly. "He's gone!" Lucy cried out in alarm, looking back towards the Stone Table.

The Stone Table was cracked in half and Aslan's body was gone. "Who would do such a thing?" Susan said in horror.

"The Witch's followers," I said grimly.

"Or more magic," Lucy said.

"Yes, it is more magic!" a deep, rumbling voice came from behind us. As we turned around, Aslan himself stepped up from the other side of the Stone Table, outshining the sunrise itself. I could have sworn my heart stopped for a second that moment and I nearly fell over in shock.

"Aslan!" the three of us cried out, and ran to him.

Aslan chuckled. "My dear ones," he said.

"But you were dead," Lucy said in confusion.

"If the Witch knew the true meaning of sacrifice, she might have interpreted the Deep Magic differently," Aslan said gravely. "There is a Magic even deeper than the Deep Magic, older than time, that says when a willing victim who has committed no treachery is killed in a traitor's stead, the Stone Table will crack and even death itself would turn backwards."

"And so you're alive," I said. For some reason, I began to cry again.

"Dear Sophie, do not cry," Aslan said. "The time of sorrow is over, and the time of joy is about to begin. But first, we must help your brothers. We are going to the Witch's house, Daughters of Eve, to wake those she has turned to stone. On my back, all three of you!"

So we climbed on Aslan's back, and he began to run. It was the most exhilarating ride of my life. We rode through forests and meadows, over rivers and hills, farther and farther until I could see a castle in the distance. "That must be the Witch's castle," I said. Aslan kept running until we were about to run straight into the tall gate in front, when he jumped up and leapt over the gate. The three of us slid off his back when he landed on the ground, and we began to laugh from the exhilaration of the ride we'd just had. Then we noticed our surroundings.

We were standing in a courtyard full of stone creatures: small animals such as rabbits and foxes, centaurs, dwarves, fauns, and even a giant. Lucy ran up to one statue of a faun and began to cry. "It's Mr. Tumnus," she whispered.

As she cried over her friend's misfortune, however, Aslan softly padded over to the stone Mr. Tumnus and - I noted with curiosity - breathed on him. Slowly, the color began to return to Mr. Tumnus starting from the tips of his horns, moving over his curly brown hair, his face, his scarf; and suddenly he gasped and nearly fell on top of Lucy. "Why, it's Lucy!" Mr. Tumnus exclaimed once he'd gotten his breath back. "I - I don't suppose you've got my handkerchief, do you?"

Lucy laughed and threw her arms around Mr. Tumnus's neck. Susan and I looked at each other, wondering the joke was over the handkerchief, but I shrugged and we smiled at Lucy's joy. Looking around, I saw that Aslan had woken up the rest of the stone creatures, and now they were alive and moving about. "My friends," Aslan said over the creatures talking amongst themselves. "Your kings are in battle with the Witch. We must go help them."

"Aye!" the newly-awakened creatures cheered. Somehow I found myself atop Aslan's back again with Lucy and Susan, and off we went to the aid of Peter and Edmund. I hoped the Narnians were doing all right against the Witch's army, but I worried nonetheless that we would arrive to a bloodbath, or that something dreadful had happened to Edmund or, worse still, Peter. As we approached the battlefield several minutes after our departure, I held my breath, hoping the scene I was about to see would not be a horrific one.

I was wrong when I said after the last chapter there would be four more chapters. There will actually be three, including this one, so two more to go! I can hardly believe this story's almost finished. I've begun to write the first chapter of the next book, however, so once this story's finished I will post the next!
Review please!
~The authoress