Chapter 21

Peter watched her, perhaps twelve feet in front of him, her daggers flashing like lightning. She was as fluid and as graceful as the element she so perfectly controlled. He knew where she was heading, despite the flame-eyed enemies that attacked both their people. He watched the single droplet of water that trickled down her temple from the light rain, tracing her lips and down the point of her chin, where it stayed but a moment too long.

Another of the crimson-eyed warriors fell beneath her, lifeless ruby eyes unseeing.

Her movements were familiar in a way that made him sick to his stomach, but he could not deny her skill. Snow drifted through the air, kicked up by the hundreds of feet that scurried across the surface of the frozen lake. It was as if they danced; their weapons an extension of their bodies, steel cutting through the air. Speed and dexterity rather than brute strength.

She shifted her left arm, pulling it closer to her face. Sunlight shone through the gaps in the snowflakes as they fell about them, the snow kicked up as he moved. He used one blade to slide forward, trying to pierce what looked like the flimsy guard of her right hand.

She smirked, moving her wrist with surprising speed and easily turning aside the dagger's point. He turned to keep facing her, his other dagger moving towards her ribs. Steel against steel sparked as she parried, forcing him away from her as she lashed out with a swift strike that would have sliced his throat had he not flipped backwards. As she had known he would.

Peter's sword slashed through him with a single strike.

He'd not been watching his back, too intent on the prize in front of him. But he knew the instant the man fell behind him, felled by one of the Ice Queen's daggers.

…..

Lucy saw him before anyone else did, her eyes lighting with joy as she ran to him. Unafraid. As wild as he was, she could never be afraid of him.

Of course she knew he wasn't a tame lion.

But nor was he just a lion.

He was Aslan.

…..

He froze as they entered the tent. His shock blurred out everything save for the pale face of his Captain, and the bloody blade her captor held.

Beautiful Lily, whom they had rescued. Beautiful Lily who he had protected from the woman who had just fought by his side.

It was Asura's sword that she held with perfected practise, and it was Asura's blood that dripped from its length. And then there were hand clamped upon his upper arms and he was shoved roughly forward, the door falling closed behind them.

He didn't know what he was meant to do. If he rushed at her with his blade, she would easily draw the blade across Asura's neck.

Arianna turned in a blur of movement, blood spraying across the ground as the man's sword sliced through her shoulder, biting deep through leather and flesh as she moved. The palm of her hand met his nose with a deafening crunch. His hood fell back, revealing short pale brown hair and a face that would have been pleasant to look upon before his nose had disappeared into his face. The blood dripped freely and he clutched at his face, stumbling backwards slightly. Peter watched, frozen, his stomach threatening to spill its contents. The man cried out, his crimson eyes flashing. Arianna's eyes narrowed as Lily moved, throwing Asura's limp body.

Time slowed for Peter.

It was as if Arianna had frozen even time.

With one hand she gestured towards Asura and the naiad froze, suspended in the air as water droplets coalesced across her form, freezing over her. Trapping her within as if it were a tomb.

And the other hand, dripping with blood, froze Lily in her tracks. Those crimson eyes stared at the enchantress. Her perfect full lips opened in a soundless scream. Her fingers curled inwards in themselves. Like an old woman's hands they were dry, the skin loose about the bone. Her face, once perfectly sculpted, became dry.

And then she dropped.

Nothing more than a lifeless husk.

Arianna had drained the water from her body.

And moved it around Asura's.

…..

She'd acted on impulse. But she did not regret it.

She did not spare a glance at the dehydrated body of the traitor. Instead she

"Follow me Peter."

…..

He could tell that she was as shocked by her own actions as he was, but her movements were steady as she unfroze the stream.

It was first a trickle, a soft melody of hope.

And then she lowered Asura's body into the pool it formed, covered by a beautiful bower of trees that leant inwards. As if the forest was seeking to protect the dying naiad.

He did not speak. He did not wish to break the spell that had fallen over them; he could no longer hear the battle just beyond the forest, all he could see was his Captain's face streaked with blood.

He'd ordered her to stay to protect Lily.

It was his fault.

He didn't see what was right before his eyes. He'd ignored Ed's warnings simply because she'd had a perfectly beautiful face.

It was his fault that Asura was dying.

The naiad's body floated there for a moment, her hair a silver halo around her face. And then she was sinking beneath the frigid waters, slowly disappearing from view.

She could have been sleeping. A healing sleep, he knew. But one he did not know if she would wake from.

When Arianna turned to face him he froze at her expression, even as the water behind her froze back over. There was a dark fury in her face; nothing akin to the maniacal rage that had so often graced the White Witches features. It was something infinitely more human.

"Thank you, Arianna," he said softly, as side by side they walked back to the camp. "Thank you for saving my Captain."

She was silent; the only sound was their footsteps upon the snow. The soft crunching of twigs beneath their feet. "She is more than that, High King Peter. You do not benefit from trying to fool yourself into believing otherwise."

…..

Edmund held his breath as Peter and Arianna approached, both covered in blood and dirt. Corradyn's men were either dead or subdued, tied to poles at the edge of the lake. Where they thought the enchantment was still active.

It was hard to tell whose wrath the prisoners feared more: the Ice Queen's or Aslan's.

Aslan wasn't staying, he'd told Lucy that. He'd just known that they'd need help. And when the fighting had died down neither Peter, Ari nor Asura were anywhere to be found.

Arianna saw the great lion first, her body stiffening, emerald eyes narrowing. There was a strange glaze across Peter's face and as if it were instinctual the High King moved in front of the Ice Queen. His sworn enemy. To protect her.

But Arianna did what Jadis had never been able to do. She stood in the face of Aslan's roar.