"Miss! Miss!" A trembling, accidentally-rough, hand shook Lucy's shoulder.
Reepicheep, wondering who the stranger waking his human was, shifted into a black panther-one of his larger forms-and hissed protectively, ready for anything. Or so he thought. It was a pincher dæmon; Thorold's dæmon. And the man shaking Lucy's shoulder so urgently was not a stranger after all, but the Lord Asriel's manservant, Thorold himself, looking flustered and baffled, a cold sweat covering one side of his face.
Lucy sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Hmm?"
"Miss!" Thorold cried out again.
"What's wrong?" she murmured, still half asleep. "Have the Ruling Powers come for Lord Asriel?"
"No, they haven't come yet, but...but...my master's gone."
"Gone?" Her eyes were wide open now and she shot up straight as a poker, her bottom teetering at the edge of the bed. "Gone where?"
"I don't know," the manservant blurted out, his dæmon whimpering like a nervous puppy whenever her human stopped stammering to inhale deeply. "but he's...he's got the pregnant Coulter girl with him!"
"What? Why?" Lucy leapt out of her bed and dashed over to Susan's, just to be sure. "What does he want with her?"
"Oh, I'm such a fool," Thorold was all but steadily weeping now. "I should've known, but I'm not smart, you see, not like my master, I'm not-"
Sighing shortly, Lucy loaned him a handkerchief she'd found in one of the draws in the nightstand between her bed and Susan's, and the moment his blubbering quieted down a bit, she asked him what was going on.
"He needed a child...something to do with those northern lights and some chatter about a photogram and cutting...I don't know what he was talking about cutting, not exactly. Anyhow, he's got a way of bringing about whatever he wants-sending for things and getting them-he's a powerful man. And he was sending out for a child for a while...the child he needed for whatever he meant to do. I didn't realize..."
But what does that have to do with Susan? Lucy wondered, thinking to reach for the alethiometer and ask it for an explanation. Only it hit her before her fingers even locked around its extending silver chain. Not completely, but enough to scare her out of her wits, anyway.
Lord Asriel had sent for a child; he needed one to finish his experiment on the northern lights, to get into that other world, the world Dust was seeping in from. When he had seen Lucy, his own daughter by his late wife, Lady Sarah, he had been horrified. For one awful moment he had thought the fates had played a cruel trick on him and sent him his own daughter. Angry, he had wanted her to go away, to disappear so that he could pretend he'd only imagined her and that the child he needed was on the way. But then he saw Susan, and it was all better. No need to be upset any longer. Everything was all right with the world. His daughter was there; but that was okay; she had brought him what he needed.
Susan in herself wasn't all that useful to him, Maugrim already being settled into his wolf-form, never having been one to shift-shape much even when he could-having a mistress who had always behaved a bit older than she really was. However, the fact that there was a baby inside of her changed everything; the unborn baby was connected to Maugrim, so cutting Susan and her dæmon apart would cut the baby apart from Maugrim as well and release enough energy to tear a door open in the northern lights.
Checking the silver pocket watch through eyes blurred with tears, Lucy saw exactly what she had brought her father. Not an alethiometer. Susan. Unwittingly, she had betrayed Susan by bringing her here.
"No!" Lucy cried to herself, her hands shaking so badly she almost dropped her alethiometer on the floor. Reepicheep became a weasel and draped himself across her shoulders so that he could look down at the pocket watch, too. "He can't!"
"I didn't know, forgive me." Thorold faltered wearily. "I know I-"
"There's no time for that," wept Lucy, stuffing the silver alethiometer into her nightdress pocket and flinging a thick velvet, red-and-green, fur-lined cloak over her shoulders. "We have to hurry; you have to take me to them, Thorold!" She wiped her nose on her sleeve and swallowed the remaining sobs for the time being.
Thorold couldn't help her. "I've got no way of taking you anywhere, miss, no sleigh or beast of burden, it's freezing out there, and as Lord Asriel's servant, I'm not allowed to leave the grounds without his bidding."
Scowling at him, Lucy furrowed her brows angrily and stormed out of the room as soon as she had her boots on. If he wouldn't help her, she'd do it herself. She would save Susan from Lord Asriel even if she had to do it alone. Thorold had woken her up, she supposed that was as far as his level of betrayal towards Asriel would run, but that didn't matter, either.
"Oh, Reepicheep," she whispered as she flung open the door and felt the icy air whip at her unprotected face. "what have we done? We should have known-she was so afraid, Reep, and we've betrayed her."
"We haven't!" Reepicheep protested weakly. "We didn't know what he was really going to do."
"Even Thorold figured it out before we did-sort of-and we're the ones with the alethiometer!" Lucy exclaimed, too upset for her dæmon's reasoning at the moment. "We guessed wrong, Reep. Don't you understand? Susan was right; he was angry when he first saw us. We're as stupid as Mrs. Coulter and her horrid monkey, we thought it was just shock, and we were wrong."
A great white bear clad in armour with a pale-skinned, dark-haired boy of about fourteen or so-a snowy owl on his shoulder-riding on his back appeared on the horizon, drawing closer to Lord Asriel's front door.
"Iorek!" screamed Lucy as her heart thumped with an uncontrollable mix of fear and joy. "Edmund!"
"Lucy!" Edmund cried, jumping off of Iorek's back and running to her on his own two legs although Iorek, being a bear and much faster than him, ended up getting to her first anyway.
"Lucy Pevensie!" Iorek exclaimed happily when he stood almost nose-to-nose with Reepicheep in the form of a black-and-white husky dog.
"Oh, Lucy!" Edmund finally reached her, never-minding that he might have done just as well to stay on Iorek's back after all, and threw his arms around her. "After you and Susan fell out of the air-ship...we were so worried!"
Pulling away from his embrace, ignoring its warmth and her desire to rest within it and its protection, Lucy began to cry again and begged Iorek to take off his armour so that they could travel towards the northern lights as quickly as possible. Ella attempted to approach Reepicheep but he backed away.
In a flash, Lucy was on the bear's broad white back, Reepicheep in the form of a black mole at her side, and Edmund clinging to her waist, Ella on his left shoulder again.
"We have to stop them, Iorek," Lucy urged the bear onwards, stuffing her bare hands into the matted, muff-like folds of his thick fur. "The alethiometer says he'll hurt Susan."
Less than half-way there a loud humming nose loomed from above them, and Edmund cursed under his breath. It was his mother's Zeppelin.
"Mrs. Coulter!" Ella cawed in distress (she would not refer to her as 'your mother' to her human any longer).
"She's seen us!" Lucy buried her face in the fur along with her hands, praying for strength.
"How did she get here so fast?" Edmund demanded, talking to himself.
"She must have known where we were going all along." Ella guessed, flying off of his shoulder and hissing a cold, bird-hiss at the Zeppelin's ever-gaining shadow.
Someone on-board fired an arrow from a crossbow, not at Edmund or Lucy or their dæmons, but at Iorek; seeing that he had no armour on, trying to take him down. He moved faster, avoiding the arrows with still and swiftness, muttering that he was sick and tired of being shot at. It took strenuous effort, but Iorek managed to out-run the Zeppelin in the end and soon they could see the beautiful rainbow-like glory of the northern lights in the distance.
It was like a million pieces of church-window-sized stain-glass had been hit full force with more moonlight than the moon itself could hold, making the colours dance across the snow and casting shadows of pink and purple under themselves. In spite of herself, Lucy couldn't help gazing in breathless wonder at its beauty. It was easy to believe it was a door to another world. It did look magical. It wasn't like fairy-magic, though, she thought, it was older, wilder, and more striking. It was more like the stars when they came down as if silvery rain than it was like the fairies on their cloud-pine branches, save for the variety of colour, ever so many more shades than mere silvers or blues.
They then came to what Lucy's blood-shot, swirling, screwed-up eyes at first mistook for a rainbow bridge until she saw it wasn't made of rainbows, it was made of clear ice and only reflected the light of the aurora. Squinting, they could see the marks left by Lord Asriel's sleigh; sharp, unattractive scratches like an ice-skate's blade marring up a smoothly frozen lake.
"It doesn't look like it can hold much weight," Edmund said, getting off of Iorek's back to examine it more closely. "I don't think it will hold Iorek's."
Iorek considered this for a moment, then he said, "You two go. I will find Peter, Lyra, and Scoresby and tell them where you are going."
Lucy nodded, knowing frozen tears were digging into her face like miniature knives, but being too numb to really feel the pain from it. At least she had Edmund with her. And she always had Reepicheep. She wasn't completely alone. Not like Jill had been without Isi all those years ago; or Roger without his Salcilia; or like Billy would have been without Ratter. It was a frightening prospect-to cross this bridge-but she knew if she didn't do it, Susan would be no better off than those poor souls had been. She might even die. Lord Asriel wouldn't spare her, not while he was so keen on getting to that other world and finding Dust.
"Goodbye, Lucy Pevensie." Iorek's eyes passed over her meditatively, but they lingered on Edmund a while longer, as if he was secretly worried about him-perhaps because it was his sister in danger, or because it was his mother's Zeppelin that was pursuing them, or simply that in the core of his bear-heart Iorek cared for the boy and wanted all to go well with him. "Goodbye, Edmund Belacqua."
"Goodbye, Iorek."
With that, the bear gave them both one last glance and then dashed away, disappearing in the darkness of the night and the crisp whiteness of the snow.
Edmund took Lucy's hand and led her to the start of the ice-bridge. "Step just behind me and don't move your feet anywhere until you've seen me put mine there first, all right?"
Willing herself not to wince, to pretend like it was only a balance beam or a tree she might have easily conquered until it was over, Lucy nodded yes. She knew her voice was weak, worn from crying and cold, and she didn't want Edmund to hear it and worry. She let her hand slide up from his woolen gloves to the side of his coat where she made her grip firm.
Ella flew ahead of them, over to the other side, and Reepicheep became a falcon and followed. It occurred to Edmund suddenly, watching their dæmons waiting for them, that if they fell, they might slice right through the bond between them and be cut away inadvertently. He gulped; he wished he hadn't thought about that. He mustn't panic, he knew, Lucy needed him to cross, if he fell she was going down with him, and Susan would need him to save her from Lord Asriel once he made it to the other side.
They were almost to the middle of the bridge when Lucy noticed that a moonbeam trickled directly through one of the thinner pieces. She could see all the way down into the fathoms below; a whirl-wind of pointy-looking ice and rock.
Edmund jolted her lightly. "Don't look down."
She forced her eyes upwards and focused on the back of his earlobe, trusting him to guide her the rest of the way. If it had been Susan-or even Lyra-crossing, they would have been more afraid than Lucy was. It wasn't that she was naturally braver, it was just that her imagination led her to believe that there was a chance of making it through this. Recalling all of the fairy-tales she'd read in her life, she thought of how often heroines in the northern tales had to cross ice-bridges or face horrible monsters; it had always come out all right for them in the end. Maybe they weren't real, but the stories had to come from somewhere. Someone had to have made a journey like this before and lived to tell about it. And so would she, she decided, her mind firmly made up. They would make it.
When they were almost to the end, Edmund carefully spun around so as to pull Lucy in front of him. He told her to go first and that he would follow. Once she was safely across, standing beside her Reep with his Ella on her out-stretched arm, Edmund started to come across, too, but he must have stepped wrong or somehow it had become more slippery since Lucy had crossed it a moment ago, for he felt himself begin to fall, sliding right off the edge of the widest side of the bridge.
"Edmund!" Lucy screamed at the top of her voice. Ella flew over to her human and tried to lift him up with her beak, even though she knew she wasn't strong enough.
He did manage to lock his arms tightly around the harder, drier parts of the ice so that he didn't plummet to an untimely demise below, but it was doubtful how much longer he could hold on for.
Grunting and feeling the sweat on his forehead freeze solid, making his temples pound, he swung himself upright so that he could cling to the top of the bridge instead of the side of it. When that was accomplished, however, he found he couldn't move. He was paralyzed not only by his aching limbs, but all the more so by his own fear. He wasn't a moron, he knew he had just narrowly escaped certain death and his heart was making more noise then a parade's worth of booming drums. He couldn't do it; he couldn't move; he could barely keep breathing.
Vaguely, he was aware of Lucy calling to him, of her hand held out to take his and pull him over to safety. There was no way he could have responded. His blue lips quivered like a drunk man's and his teeth chattered. Nothing could get through to him, convincing him to pull himself together and get to the other side. He barely even felt Ella's feathers rubbing up against his unresponsive cheeks.
Then came the roar. It was unlike any sound Edmund had ever heard before. Indeed, he seemed to feel it more than he heard it. It was the sort of roar a person like Lucy would have described simply as golden. It made him feel scared enough to jump up and flee, and at the same time, warm inside. It was like he was an ice statue clinging to the bridge and the roar, the hot breath on the wind, was turning him into a flesh-and-blood boy again. Without further ado, he stood up, brushed the ice off of his knees and found himself on the other side, Lucy's arms around his waist and her face buried in his chest.
"Did you see him, Lu?" he asked when he found he was able to speak again.
"See who?"
"Your Lion,"
"My Lion?"
"The one you believed in before...he liked Dust or something..."
"Huh?" Lucy crinkled her forehead.
"You didn't see him?"
"See him when?"
"He was standing on the other side of the ice-bridge." Edmund told her, smiling. It figured she had been right about the Lion all along. But, then, that was just Lucy for you. It was one of the things he loved best about her. Besides, he knew she wouldn't say 'I told you so'.
Edmund's eyes had been shut and he had been facing the other way; a more practical-minded person would have pointed this out and disbelieved him. Lucy wasn't of that sort at all. She believed him with all her heart and she squinted over in the dim lighting of the moon, quite certain that if she tried hard enough, she would catch a glimmer of gold out of the corner of her eye.
As much as they might have wanted to, they couldn't stay squinting after the Lion for ever, Susan needed them and they knew they mustn't waste anymore time in getting to her.
"Come on," said Lucy; Reepicheep a falcon still. "we're almost there."
AN: Reviews! (please?)
