"Where are you going, Azula?" Suki demanded, grabbing at her wrist.
Azula yanked her arm away, "I'm going straight to the root of the problem," she snapped, "I'll kill that witch right now and cut out the middleman, no need for anyone else."
"Listen here you arrogant little…" Suki started, but The Silent One put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Suki sighed, "Fine, but we're not letting you go alone."
"This is a bad idea," Mr Beaver told them all, "We should be getting to Aslan!"
"No one asked you," Azula said rudely, "Are you coming, Teo?"
"Oh yeah, totally," he said nervously, staring at the drifts of snow and fingering the wheels of his chair, "Ready whenever you are."
Azula rolled her eyes with a huff and set off across the countryside.
Azula could feel The Silent One's stare burning into her back, but she refused to look. Suki hadn't looked at her ever since the attack went wrong. The beavers were keeping well out of things, quietly guiding the way. Azula did not feel guilty. It wasn't her fault that the white witch had captured Teo, and she refused to feel guilty for it. It had been his own choice to tag along, it was his own fault he'd been captured. The sick feeling in her stomach was not guilt. It wasn't.
Azula watched haughtily as the white witch was carried right into the middle of their camp. She didn't know why they didn't just kill her where she stood and save everyone a lot of trouble, but she would hold her silence, for now. She'd never admit that she'd been trembling until The Silent One… Laith, right, Laith, she had to remember that, had laid a hand on her shoulder.
"You have a traitor in your midst, Aslan," The witch's voice rang out, "Your littlest princess has been keeping secrets."
"What are you talking about?" Teo asked derisively, "Me getting captured was an accident, certainly nothing to call treason."
Azula glanced at him briefly, but kept her gaze fixed on the white witch, barely breathing.
"Teo's right, Azula's not a traitor," Suki agreed, putting an arm around Azula's shoulders to the agreements of the soldiers.
"Is she not?" the witch asked, "Is her father not a violent, warlike man, who would wish to conquer Narnia himself?"
Azula briefly flashed back to the Agni Kai just a few weeks ago, but lifted her chin defiantly, "I would never turn Narnia over to my father." And if she was suddenly not sure exactly why she felt so strongly that such a thing was unthinkable, the witch didn't need to know that.
"But is that not treason to your father?" The witch asked faux-innocently, "He is a king in his own right, after all, and as his daughter you have a duty to him and his country, one you would betray by choosing Narnia. Is that not true?"
Azula glanced around nervously as the soldiers shifted and muttered and the other humans closed ranks around her.
The witch smirked triumphantly, "So you're either a traitor to your father, or a traitor to Narnia. Which is it?" she asked. Azula looked anywhere but at her as Teo, Suki, and Laith pulled her closer.
"Enough," Aslan said, cutting through the noise, "I will talk with her alone"
Suki pulled Azula close, shielding her eyes and holding her still. It was too late. Azula had seen the knife coming down, had seen Aslan's eyes as he stared into hers where she hid, could still hear the wild revelry going on around his dead body.
Azula squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking out against Suki's dress. She was too devastated to even be angry as she came to a realization. "This was my fault," she whispered, "I did this."
"To the glittering eastern sea, I give you King Teo, the Wise," Teo bowed his head with a smile as the silver crown was placed gently on his hair.
"To the great western wood," Aslan continued, "I give you Queen Azula, the Merciful," Azula took a deep breath and held it, not opening her eyes until the delicate circlet settled on her head to the raucous cheers of the crowd.
"To the radiant southern sun, I give you King Laith, the Steadfast," Azula quietly thought that she had never seen Laith happier than when he received his crown and a hair ruffle from Mr. Tumnus.
"And to the clear, northern sky," Aslan came to the close, "I give you Queen Suki, the Undaunted." Suki stood tall and proud, her weapons left behind for once but the look in her eye every inch the warrior queen.
Azula looked out over her new people, and to the side at her new sister queen and brother kings, and felt her father's court and her father's war fade into the past. An enormous smile burst across her face without meaning it, and she laughed from sheer joy and relief. They'd done it. They, and all of Narnia, were free.
