I don't own Narnia or the Pevensies. I only might have made mistakes writing about them, 'cause someone was too impatient to let me proofread.
"There's nothing here!" yelled Lucy over the noise of the room. "I saw when we came in, there's nothing but that mirror and the portraits!"
"Well maybe it's that, then!" Susan shouted back, casting a frightened glance towards the swordfighting trio near the door. Zale wasn't a terrific warrior but the water slowed the brothers down considerably, as it was now up to Lucy's chest and still rising. The bodies on the floor had dissolved like the paintings they were, but their weapons remained there and she found herself stumbling on unseen weaponry. Twice she thought she had cut through the sole of her boot when she'd stepped on an unseen blade. Plowing through the leaping waves, Lucy tried to help herself move quicker with wide strokes of her arms. She and Susan set out for the mirror but it seemed to be taking ages, the numbing iciness of the surging water making her feel tired and detached.
Finally they were standing by the mirror. It was half-consumed by the lake, but the upper half still reared clear of the waves, the silver frame glinting in the light. The wall-torches had not yet gone out, though they were hissing and spitting as they were struck by the spray as if commenting on the battle still taking place. Lucy looked into the mirror somewhat reluctantly but it was acting as a true mirror now, showing the deadly dance of swords that Peter, Edmund and Zale were partaking in.
"What do we do now?" she asked.
"Smash it," said Susan. "It's not like it will be a loss if it's not what we need."
"But smash it with what?"
"Oh for heaven's sake, Lucy! Anything!"
Susan took a swing at it with her bow, and as the pliant wood struck the mirror's face hairline cracks etched across it. Lucy sheathed her dagger, unbuckled the sheath itself from her belt, grabbed it by the blade end and brought the dagger's hilt crashing into the object. The top part of it shattered entirely, showering them with brilliant pieces of shining, broken glass. She cried out in pain and plunged her arm beneath the water's surface, attempting to brush away the shards with her other hand. The waves were now just below her shoulders, dragging at her. Both sisters quickly broke apart as much of the mirror as possible, until it was just a frame with jagged pieces on a silver back, clinging to the edges.
But as they looked back at the battle, Lucy realized with a sickening lurch that nothing had changed. Zale was still smirking as she seemed to move faster and faster in the water, sword sweeping in long strokes that Peter and Edmund were having increasing trouble avoiding. The scepter, Lucy noticed, was cracked and floating away; one of her brothers must have broken it at some point. But there was nothing else in the room! What could it be?
"Lucy!" Susan shouted urgently. Her head whipped around to face her sister, who had a hand extended. "Hurry towards the sides of the room, maybe you can climb one of the portraits!"
"What for?" Lucy yelled back.
"Honestly, you're not going to last much longer in this water! If you get to the sides, I can still look for another minute or so!"
"But if we don't find it…"
"Just go, Lu, I'll do it!"
Lucy bit her lip hard but re-clipped her sheath to her belt and struck out for the portraits. She was about halfway there, with the water up to her neck, when a hoarse scream broke through the noise of the waves. Her line of vision whipped to the swordfighters in time to see Edmund slipping beneath the surface of the water, his face pale except for a bloody mark upon his brow. The hilt of Zale's sword was red with his blood. Obviously she had struck him with it, and Lucy swallowed her own scream to rush towards them as Peter slammed Rhindon into Zale's weapon with an angry yell. She staggered back, and he looked frantically down into the water, but Ed did not resurface.
Just as the water reached Lucy's chin, she saw Peter cast aside his sword and shield to plunge down into the swirling waves. Zale smiled a horrible smile, stepping back and waiting patiently for them to come up. Lucy ducked her own head beneath the water to see what was going on, and in through the freezing deep-blue she could dimly make out her two brothers. Ed looked unconscious, suspended just above the floor with blood trailing out from his temple. Peter dove down, urgently sliding one arm around his brother's waist and pulling him upright as he pushed off hard with his feet and struggled to the surface with Edmund clasped to his chest. Lucy, who broke above the waves a second before they did, screamed a warning, and it was just in time – Zale swung her sword hard, aiming to disable both kings. Peter, still holding Edmund upright with his left arm, threw up his right and twisted his wrist so that the blade came down jarringly hard on his gauntlet.
An arrow flew past Lucy's head and she turned to see Susan, awkwardly holding her bow above the water. But the room seemed to contain its own gale, and wind blew her shot off course. Susan lowered her weapon uncertainly, and Lucy knew she was afraid of hitting either one of their brothers. So it came to her – she was the only one left with a usable weapon. The water was creeping up past her chin and no matter how fast she tried to move, it didn't seem to make any difference, almost as if the waves were pushing her back towards Susan and the mirror; Zale lashed out with her sword again and this time Peter couldn't block it without dropping Edmund. The blade pierced deeply just below his collarbone and Lucy could only watch with her heart in her mouth as his eyes rolled up in agony and he stumbled forward before both her brothers tumbled down into the waves. Her last vision before they disappeared was of Ed's lolling head pressed in the crook of Peter's neck, the High King's blood running down both their chests, staining the golden lion red…
It was a nightmare that only became fuller as the water rose to meet Lucy's lips in a frosty kiss. In a few precious seconds she knew she would be unable to breathe at all. Cold despair welled up like the waves inside her, swallowing every hope she'd had, choking her, but she forced herself to take one last enormous breath before the water would be too high, sealing all their dooms. But suddenly, Susan hefted her up, bracing her against her hip like a small child, her own head just barely above the surface.
"I'm sorry, Lu," she gasped, "So sorry. You shouldn't have to go through this…"
Panicked tears mingled with the water dripping from the ends of Lucy's hair as the two sisters fought for their last moments. Zale was advancing towards them slowly, almost lazily, a mocking smile of pointed teeth marking her face. Again, Lucy had the impression that she was somehow a vessel, just someone using a borrowed power, not a true sorceress.
Suddenly Susan dropped Lucy and both of them plunged into the waves. Confused, alarmed and underwater, Lucy struggled to see what was going on until hands closed over her outer tunic, lifting it over her head urgently. As it floated away, she realized Susan was now pulling at her mail shirt, but it was still belted; Lucy quickly undid the buckle and practically ripped it off and then her sister was struggling to remove her armor. Her coherency was fading fast with the numbing chill of the lake and her lungs had begun to demand the refilling she could not afford. With a final, bleak shudder, she resigned herself to this fate, hoping only that Aslan could forgive their failure…
And suddenly the weight was gone, her tunic sinking like a stone to the floor. Now in only her dress and boots, Lucy looked up in surprise at Susan, whose gaze was lidded and hazy beneath the water. She pointed to the surface, and Lucy could deny her screaming lungs no longer. Casting a last, frightened glance at her sister, she pushed off the floor and shot up to burst free from the waves, taking in air in greedy gulps. She treaded water for a brief second before turning to again face Zale. The nymph leered at her, raising her sword up, but Lucy took off swimming in the other direction, back towards the mirror, which was just barely above the water now. Shrieking laughter sounded behind her.
"You think to outmaneuver me in the water?" Zale laughed scornfully. Lucy could hear her moving quickly towards her, but it made little difference now; she was going to die by the water or by the nymph and she would prefer to take her enemy down with her. Her dagger was still somewhere at the bottom, with Susan…oh, Aslan, Susan…all of them…but the broken shards of the mirror would make suitable weapons. As she reached it, Lucy grasped a large, jagged piece and broke it off with a resounding crack. The edges were razor-sharp and cut into her hands deeply but she had no greater desire than to kill the accursed woman at the moment, to revenge her family now drowning beneath nearly six feet of water.
Zale slashed out with her sword. Lucy, clinging to the mirror itself, shunted herself to one side and led the blade plunge into the silver backing instead. It punctured it completely and the momentum of the attack created a long gash in the metal before the nymph's blade retracted and she prepared for another strike. Leaping towards her, Lucy let out a howl of rage and desperation and clumsily attempted to drive the glass through her neck. Though it seemed to surprise her, Zale ducked in time, and Lucy ended up falling straight upon her, clinging to the witch's shoulders for dear life. A second later she had been thrown back and slammed into the mirror again painfully. Zale lifted her sword high as the youngest queen slid down into the water, arms and legs flailing madly to keep her afloat.
"Die already, little girl!" screamed Zale, but Lucy had seen it – a glint of something icy blue and glowing in the mangled backing of the mirror. Like the staff that turned those to stone. Like a fragment, an imitation, a copy, and suddenly she knew what she had to do. Tightening her blood-slick grip on the mirror shard, Lucy clawed her way back up high enough to ram it into the blue glow with all her strength. For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was an awful, ear-shattering screech from behind her, and something very powerful and oh-so-cold rushed up through her arms and seemingly to her very heart. Roaring silence rushed around her; the world slid in and out of focus, and suddenly she realized the water buoying her up was rushing away, and as she slipped down to smash back down into the freezing stone floor her last rational thought was that at least she might have saved her siblings. And then everything was gone.
