A/N: Top o' the mornin' to ya! Another update! Hope you enjoy it, despite being a bit short. I will make up for it in future chapters, I promise x
Soundtrack:
"Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance" – Harry Gregson-Williams (Prince Caspian OST!)
"Lady of the Dawn" – Peter Gundry
Caspian remembered the first time he walked down the many stone steps into the dungeons after his uncle's death. Miraz had not even managed (or bothered) to get anyone to clean out the dungeons after the inhabitants of the cells died during sentences or worse… Torture. He remembered the foul smell of carcasses, and the number of skeletons of Narnians he had found down there. He remember as a boy, he once stepped on a satyr's dismembered horn as he explored the caverns down there. Needless to say, he never stepped foot down there again.
Despite having cleaned up the dungeons a long time ago, and rarely using these dungeons at all, the atmosphere wasn't welcome, and eerie all the same. The sounds of the boots from Peter, Edmund and Trumpkin behind him echoed as they descended. Once there, they met with the guard who had taken Saralynn into custody, and led them to the interrogation chamber, where hopefully, they would get some answers.
The woman in question was strapped down into a sitting position against a wooden pole, her hands bound behind her back in chains. Her skin looked sickly pale, and her mind looked absent, yellow eyes staring into nothing.
The guard shut the door behind the royals, and stayed behind with another, to protect the monarchs and lord Trumpkin be it needed. Caspian stepped up first.
"Saralynn," he spoke, his voice firm "can you hear me?"
The girl looked up to meet the gaze of the Seafaring King, but said nothing.
"Why did you attack Queen Lucy?"
Still, she said nothing. Peter stepped forward.
"The easiest for you would be to speak - we have all night. You, I am afraid, do not." He spoke, making the girl twitch. She looked pained.
"So I ask again; why did you attack the Queen?" Caspian repeated.
"The song of ice and snowstorm." Saralynn croaked, in a voice that sounded more like her own.
"What does that mean, Saralynn? You've said it before." Edmund asked her.
"The song of ice and snowstorm." She repeated, but looked at no one. Not even Trumpkin, who glowered at her dangerously.
"So you said. Don't make this difficult, and answer my question." Caspian said, his voice now low and growling. Yet, the girl did not say anything.
Caspian turned to his fellow Kings and Lord, and as they planned a course of action, Saralynn suddenly stood up with a strength not her own, and snarled at Caspian, her teeth only an inch away from his throat. He took a stride back and grasped after his sword. Her eyes, however, were now a healthy, shimmering green, confusing them all.
"Help me, please my Lord! You must help me! She will kill me if you don't, I don't want to die!" she wailed with a voice so innocent it made the guards behind them sheath their swords as they realized the chains held her back. She couldn't hurt anybody but herself at this point.
Caspian stepped bravely forward, his chin up. He had a feeling this was the true Saralynn.
"To whom am I speaking to? Who will kill you?"
"The Ice Queen! She will kill us all! The world will be coated in ice, snow and despair!" she screamed. Caspian frowned.
"The Winter Witch has been dead for centuries, girl." Trumpkin spoke up, his sword unsheathed.
"Not her! The-" the girl suddenly winced and started to screech as she stepped back to throw her back against the pole. She tore against the metal chains against her wrists.
"Saralynn, who is inside you?"
At the sound of her name, she snapped up and stopped her wailing.
"The girl is not here, my King." The girl said, in a foreign croaking voice.
"Whoever empowered to take over this girl's mind, leave!" Peter called, his sword now too unsheathed.
"Not until I have my way. Snow and icestorm will come." She croaked.
"My King, listen to me! She will take over this land if you are not careful! Please, heed my words, I-!"
Again, Saralynn's voice was interrupted, but now, her body twitched, and her head fell back as she wailed out a painful scream. Her skin started to crack and burst, revealing layers of skin, as if flames were licking up kindlings. Then, the skin around her eyes and mouth browned and turned crisp from flames they could not see.
Stepping back at this fearful sight, Caspian, Peter, Edmund and Trumpkin watched as the girl fell like a ragdoll to the ground, smoke conjured from nothing swallowed her so thickly, they had to open the door and leave the room, coughing and gagging as they did so. Once the smoke subsided, and the fumes had vapored into the air, they re-entered the room with weapons at hand.
The guards gagged at the sight, and Trumpkin too, felt uncomfortable as he ever had - they had never seen the likes;
The girl lay incinerated on the ground, her flesh burned to crisps, the only thing left was the blackened, cremated skeleton of the girl, the bones still wrenched in pain, with ashes on the ground from the clothes, skin and flesh. Her jaw was hung open in the dying scream, white teeth glimmering in the skull. Smoke still hung in the room and rose from the burned carcass.
"She…. Burst into flames?" Edmund spoke up from behind the sleeve he was breathing into.
"It was as if she burned from the inside out. What is going on?" Peter replied, he too breathing into his sleeve: the fumes of burned flesh were sickening. They heard the guards outside heave and cough at what just happened.
Trumpkin stepped forward to the sizzling remains and poked at the skull with his short sword. The skull tipped to the side. They could hear Trumpkin mutter his usual alliterative exclamation: 'crows and crockery'. He tried to comfort himself with the fact that the girl was at least not suffering anymore.
"I don't suppose that was the answer yer majesties were looking for?" Trumpkin asked further.
"Most definitely not. And I'm afraid this only enhanced my confusion. Caspian?" Edmund replied. He turned to his best friend, who was looking at the remains of the girl in thought.
"I am just as puzzled as you, but I know this;" he turned to both Peter and Edmund, "if anything, something darker than we initially thought is approaching. And we must be ready for it." He said, and threw a last glance at the fate of Saralynn, before leaving the room.
. . .
In a room so dark, one could barely see one's hand before their eyes, sat a woman. An ancient figure, yet, looking no older than in her thirties. Her long, slender fingers grasped around a rag toy, resembling a woman with long chocolate-brown hair. The doll, made of twigs and linen, were burnt and engulfed in smoke.
"Silly girl… If you would only keep shut, I would of have my way." The woman muttered. She dropped the doll to the ground, and it dissolved into ashes.
…
Susan were looking out the floor-to-ceiling window of Lucy's chambers, her fingers dancing at her jaw mindlessly. She was in deep thought.
A servant had brought them food and cider, and Lucy was sitting on the edge of the bed, currently picking at her plate of food. After yesterday's incident and the anxiousness she felt as her brothers were down in the dungeons (all three of them), made her incapable of eating much. She was uneasy.
There was a knock on her door, followed by a familiar voice; "It's only me, girls."
Lucy called him in, and they were met by Caspian, who walked in and rested his side on one of Lucy's bedposts, facing them both. His uneasy gaze and deep sigh told them that he was not okay.
"What's going on?" Susan asked as she turned away from the window. Her eyes shimmered with concern.
"Did you find out anything?" Lucy asked carefully.
"Nothing more than we already know. A…. song of ice and snowstorm is coming, apparently." He said, restating what Saralynn had said.
"I thought that was some sort of symbolism," Susan explained, her forehead deep in a frown.
"So did I, but it turns out, it's much more specific than we initially thought." ¨
"How so?" Lucy asked. Caspian sighed, and pulled up a chair to sit down before them. He felt weary after today. It was in the middle of the night, after all. He rested his elbows on his knees.
"Well, first of all, you were right, Lucy. The girl who attacked you was not Saralynn. It was someone who had infiltrated her mind, or… taken over her body or the like, I'm not sure."
Lucy shifted in her seat, her eyes unreadable as they focused on him.
"We don't know who's behind all this, since, well…"
"What?" Lucy piped up. She had long ago abandoned her food.
"She died before she could tell us more."
"What? How?" Susan asked, now approaching closer. He looked at her for a spare second, and had to admire her tall stature, her sheer nightgown over her underdress reminding him awfully much of the one she wore in his dream. Her ebony hair had grown longer after their return, now falling free all the way to her hips in wavy locks.
"We didn't kill her of course, but someone else did. The one who had infiltrated her mind, possibly. Taken her body as a vessel, Cornelius thinks. She burned up, just like that," he said, demonstrating with a snap of his fingers. He sighed once again as the girls processed the information.
"I'm sorry Lucy, but we didn't find anything useful to help us solve this…. Mess we're in."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure, Caspian," Susan quickly shot in and sat down on a nearby pouffe. They both looked at her expectantly.
"You said somebody had claimed her mind, correct?"
Caspian nodded.
"Well, that gets us at least somewhere; now we know that the person behind it is a practitioner of powerful magic. Psychokinesis cannot be performed by any novice mage, wizard or witch. It takes years to perform and perfect such a power. More so, we know that the certain someone has a goal. I'm… going to consult with the professor about it first thing in the morning after audiences." Susan explained in her usual educated ways. Lucy shot her a small smile.
"Brilliant," she piped up. Susan shrugged with a sideways smile. She had her moments indeed.
"Well done. But… There is one more thing," Caspian said, holding up a finger. Both females looked at him.
"She kept mentioning a 'she'. It's a woman, assumedly, and what's more, she talked of an 'Ice Queen'. But the White Witch has been dead for almost 2 millennia… Any ideas?" he asked. Susan looked to the ground in thought.
"An imposter?" Lucy asked quietly.
"Might be… Hmm, I think some time in the library and archives is needed." Susan said, her eyes shimmering happily at the thought. Caspian almost grinned at the fact that her love for books was such a strong solidity. They kept silent for a while, before Caspian stood up.
"Before I go, I have a request for you both. During these uncertain times, wouldn't you be so kind and share chambers? That way I know you're both safe…" he asked of them, his voice broken with the thought of losing them.
"Already ahead of you," Lucy told him reassuringly as Susan too sat down beside her to eat a handful of grapes. To be fair, they both looked ready for bed.
"Good, I'm glad. Now, I suppose we should get some sleep. Good night, girls." They called their own good-night's and watched as his tired stature left the room, shutting the door carefully behind him.
The dreadful knot was starting to come loose after all…
A/N: Aaaaand, there it is! To be fair, I think I should change the rating to M+. What do you all think?
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It won't be long until I publish again x
Until then, take care!
Dragon
