Chapter Five - Losing Control

Peter was strolling through the apple orchard, the place where, for him, this had all begun. He made his way to a quiet spot and plucked a few apples from the trees there. Placing them on the ground he sat down in front of them and began to focus. He conjured up a wind that lifted the apples high into the air and then, when he felt they were high enough he let the wind drop and the apples flew towards the ground. He watched them fall until they were about three feet from the earth and then he stretched out his hand, completely focused on the falling fruit and froze all three of them in mid-air. He repeated this exercise multiple times until it gradually became easier and required less and less concentration. Finally he ended his practice, he didn't want to waste all his energy and he had other things to do today. For a moment he stayed where he was on the ground, breathing in the air around him, feeling it move, he sighed. He was thinking about everything that was going on. Lena, their new powers, this terrible thing that Lucy had foreseen. He frowned, his eyebrows knitted together in frustration, there was something he was missing, some connection he wasn't making. Before he could follow his train of thoughts any further a voice called out through the apple trees.

"You Highness?" he sighed, a King's work was never done.

"Over here!" he called. Oreius entered the clearing, he was starting to grey and the lines around his eyes were made even more prominent from the look of worry that was plastered all over his face.

"What is it?" Peter said immediately, scrambling up from the grass and dusting himself off.

"We've had word of a group of dwarves rising up across villages in the north."

"What?!" Peter exclaimed.

"They are being led by a red dwarf who goes by the name of Loran. We believe he was at the battle between our forces and those of the White Witch's daughter which he clearly survived."

"Where is Lena now?" Peter questioned, his voice dangerously quiet.

"I believe she is in the library with King Edmund."

"Right ok, would you please fetch my siblings and Lena and ask them to meet me in the council room?" Oreius nodded and cantered off leaving Peter to make his own way back to the castle.

Edmund and Lena were the last to arrive and they entered the council room to find a stoic Peter and confused looks from Susan and Lucy.

"Hello Pete, what's all this about? We've been making some headway on Lena's case if you want to hear how that's proceeding?" Peter ignored him, instead he focused on Lena, an angry glint in his eyes.

"You," he growled. Lena took a step back, taken aback by the sudden anger from the oldest king. "We trusted you, we brought you into our home, we let you help us with our training, we tried to help you and this is how you repay us?!" Lena's face was a picture of confusion,

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," she said coolly, staring right back at Peter. This only made him angrier and before anyone could act he had unsheathed his sword and was pointing it at her.

"LIAR!" he yelled, the air in the room started to whip around them.

"Peter what the devil are you doing?!" yelled Edmund, an uneasy hand on his sword. Susan and Lucy looked in shock at their brother who had yet to take his eyes of Lena. The girl in question was staring down the end of the sword, refusing to seem intimidated.

"Did you or did you not have a dwarf under your service named Loran?" Peter asked through gritted teeth. Lena frowned bewildered, this was not where she thought this had been going.

"Yes? But what's that got to do with-?"

"Quiet!" he shouted cutting her off. Edmund had had enough.

"Peter calm down and put the sword away," he said quietly.

"Peter," said Susan, her voice unusually stern, "put the sword down and tell us what's going on." Peter paused for a moment taking in the situation and then sheathed his sword but refused to take his eyes off Lena. "Now, tell us what's happening and what it's got to do with Lena." Susan continued.

"There are dwarves rising up to the north and they are being led by a dwarf named Loran who was under her command!" The other three siblings turned to Lena for an explanation, Edmund looked slightly as if he had been punched in the gut.

"Loran was under my service," Lena began, Peter gave a grunt of victory but a look from Susan shut him up, "but I haven't seen him since the battle, in fact I believed he had been killed by your troops. I certainly haven't been giving him instructions to start a dwarf rebellion, nor did I leave him instructions to start a rebellion in the event of my death or capture."

Edmund gave a triumphant look at Peter, "There you go! Whatever this Loran is up to it's obviously not Lena's doing." At this Lena give a slightly startled look of surprise at Edmund but it left her face before nearly anyone noticed.

"And how do we know she's telling the truth?!" Peter demanded, "She's the White Witch's daughter she can't be trusted!" At this, Lena's eyes turned cold and there was a dangerous shine to them. "As I believe I have told you before, I am nothing like my mother. You trusted me to help you train. You trusted me enough to put me on trial rather than just kill me like my mother was killed. I didn't put Loran up to this I swear but I see now you're no different than anyone else, you only see my mother and don't trust that a person can change. Why don't you just summon your precious lion so he can kill me because you don't seem to have the guts to, then or now." At these words Peter's hand went straight back to his sword but before he could do anything Lucy stepped between them.

"ENOUGH!" she yelled, giving equal glares at her brother and Lena. "This is ridiculous, Peter why would starting a dwarf uprising help Lena in the slightest? She's about to be put on trial by us, it wouldn't help her at all if she started a rebellion!" Peter faltered and sat down in a chair, scowling. "Lena," said Lucy, turning to the young woman who was staring at the youngest monarch with surprise. "I apologise for my brother's actions, but Loran was under your service, it's only reasonable that he would jump to the conclusion that it was your doing. He tends to act before he thinks sometimes." Lena raised an eyebrow and looked at Peter who was looking down, trying to avoid the accusing stare of his brother.

"If I may," she replied, "there is something we could do that would make you all trust me completely and prove that I had nothing to do with this." She turned to face Susan, "You have the ability to read people's feelings, perhaps even their thoughts, you should really get some practice in," she held out her arm towards her. Susan faltered, "I, I'm not sure. I'm still not quite clear how these new powers work and-"

"Please?" Lena requested. Susan looked around the room at her siblings, the state of Peter made up her mind. He was hunched in his chair, a look of regret in his eyes but she could tell he was still distrusting of Lena. She stepped forward and placed her hand on Lena's, concentrating hard. A spark leaped off Lena's skin and onto Susan's, travelling up her arm and neck before disappearing. She gasped and withdrew her hand. Four faces looked at her as she drew herself up.

"She's telling the truth." Edmund let out a sigh of relief, whilst Peter stood up and left the room, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. Edmund made to go after him but Lucy stopped him, "I'll go," she said, "I'll talk some sense into him don't worry." and she hurried out after her brother.

Peter was pacing across the grounds his emotions all over the place. He was cursing himself for loosing his temper, his brother wasn't likely to forgive him for accusing Lena anytime soon.

"Peter!" he turned to find Lucy behind him, her arms crossed, a concerned look on her face.

"If you've come to lecture me don't bother, I'll apologise to everyone later I just needed some air." he said shortly, returning to his pacing. Lucy gave a short snort of laughter.

"The High King of Narnia, Peter the Magnificent is worried about being lectured by his baby sister?" she replied, raising her eyebrows. When she saw that her joke wasn't lightening his mood a concerned look came over her face, "I just came to check you were ok," she said gently.

"I'm fine."

"Well you don't seem it… Oh will you stop pacing and talk to me!" At her raised voice Peter sighed and turned once again to face his sister. "Thank you," she said. "Now what is going on? I've never seen you act this way about anything, what has got you so riled up?" Peter gave another sigh and Lucy could see the bags under his eyes from stress and tiredness. Lucy waited patiently, knowing her brother would tell her in his own time. After a few minutes Peter spoke,

"I think it's all this uncertainty. These new powers, Lena, this vision you had I just don't like it. No one knows what's coming and I can't protect anyone if I don't know what I'm protecting them from. I promised Mum all those years ago that I'd look after you all and I just feel like I have no control. I'm the High King of Narnia for Aslan's sake I should be able to protect my people!" Once he had finished it was like a weight lifting slightly from his shoulders, he hadn't realised how much this had been weighing on his mind, a constant underlying worry that he couldn't shake. Lucy sighed and took his hands,

"Pete it's ok, the whole kingdom is not your responsibility, that's why there's four of us. I know it's scary but Su, Ed and I, we can protect ourselves and the kingdom with you, it's not all your responsibility." Peter said nothing but simply stared at the ground, a bit lost for words. "This is why you lashed out at Lena" Lucy said slowly, her brain connecting the dots between her brother's erratic behaviour and what he had just told her. "She's a thing that you can't control and you don't know enough about her to know what she's going to do." Peter looked at his sister in shock and Lucy realised she'd hit the nail on the head.

"Oh Pete!" she exclaimed and pulled him into a hug. "No one can control everything. You just have to have faith in Edmund and Susan and me. You have to have faith in Aslan, He knows what he's doing. Us four, we watch out for each other, we back each other up and we can always rely on each other. You don't have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders." Peter pulled back from the hug and looked at Lucy.

"When did you become so wise?" he asked smiling at her. Lucy scoffed, "Susan's the wise one, not me. I'm just here to remind you how Magnificent you are." She stretched out the word 'magnificent' sarcastically, clearly teasing him as she poked him in the ribs.

"That's High King Peter the Magnificent to you!" he retorted, returning the poke. Lucy gave a light laugh and ran towards the trees as Peter took after her, a grin appearing on his face. Lucy ran through the trees until she found a wide one to crouch behind. She bent down and peered round the tree to see if Peter was close by but he was nowhere in sight. Grinning, she sat down and waited for her big brother to catch up. She looked down at the ground and the grin left her face. There was a spiral of darkened earth at her feet with dark veins stretching out from it. The spiral led deeper into the forest and Lucy stood and began to follow it, the further into the forest she went the wider the areas of blackened earth became.

"Lucy?" Peter had finally caught up with her and found her in a clearing staring at the blackened earth in fear. She looked pale as she bent towards it.

"What on earth?" Peter muttered. Lucy ignored him and reached her hands towards the blackened earth.

"Lu no don't touch it!" Too late, Lucy's hand connected with the earth and black veins began to run up her arm, through her neck, onto her face until her eyes had filled with darkness. She gasped as the dark veins took over her body.

"It has begun." she rasped before the veins disappeared and her eyes returned to their normal shade of blue./p