Chapter 4

Two days into their journey Ariela was feeling pretty well. They had already covered many leagues and were only about four days from the mountain range and so far hadn't been in any danger. With any luck they should reach Camelot in five to six days. They were making pretty good time so she decided to let the horses take a break and everyone was walking when she heard a snap. Her experience in battles had trained her to recognize the sound of a crossbow bolt being released. It was that experience that saved her life as she fell on the floor right as a bolt whizzed past where her head head been and embedded itself in a tree trunk. Her sudden drop informed the rest of the party of the danger and they were immediately on guard and jumped into defensive positions. A few more bolts flew into the party, two flying harmlessly into trunks but one taking down a man. Ariela's own bowmen immediately took aim and fired their own volley of arrows into the woods. Cries of pain were released along with battle cries and suddenly the path was full of black dwarfs in full battle gear. Ariela jumped up and pulled out the two short swords she kept across her back just in time to block an attack from a dwarf with an ax. He swung at her again and she blocked it with one sword while using the other to go under and cut open his stomach. He dropped and she swiftly turned and stabbed the dwarf she felt coming up behind her. She looked to the left and saw an arrow flying at her. She didn't have time to move when it was suddenly hit by a different arrow and knocked off course. She looked up and saw one of her archers, Arya, give her a wink before firing again at the enemy. Ariela jumped back into the fray and realized that the battle was already mostly over. Within five minutes the small rebellion of black dwarfs had been cut down by her troops. She looked over the small battlefield and realized that there couldn't have been more than 25 dwarfs.

They quickly cleared the path of the dead and found that among the dead, six of her own troops had died and four horses. They left the dwarfs in a mass grave on one side of the road and spent the rest of the day gathering supplies to give her warriors a proper farewell; by dark they had given her soldiers an honorable burning and settled down for the night. Ariela got up just before dawn and by first light she had her troops back on the move galloping through the forest. Thanks to the scum loyal to Jadis they had lost almost an entire day of travel and the attack had proved that there were already people joining Jadis' side and getting cocky enough to attack a royal party. They were quickly running out of time to get to Camelot.

A week had passed since Peter and Edmund found themselves in this strange kingdom and have had to pretend to be different people. Two days after they awoke in Camelot they still couldn't find a way to get themselves back to their rightful bodies even with Gaius' help so they decided that it was time the King got "better" and Peter started fully pretending to be Arthur. Gaius kept looking for a way to fix it and Mordred even tried going to the druids but they still found nothing. So during the day Peter pretended to be the king and Edmund his servant, but at night the two allowed themselves to drop the facade and plotted a way to get a message secretly to Cair Paravel as well as divulging their worries of never going home, never seeing their sisters again, and of Ed never seeing Ariela again.

Currently Peter was training Arthur's knights and Edmund was standing by watching. During breaks, Peter would go to Edmund and while Ed gave him water he would tell Peter what his knights could work on and Peter would then convey that to the knights when they sparred. Peter was sparring with Mordred when he spotted a page running towards them. Mordred took advantage of his distraction and knocked him on his back. After Peter acknowledged defeat, Mordred helped him back up and he wandered towards Edmund. Edmund was snickering at Pete's defeat when he came over which wasn't unusual for Merlin to do so no one questioned him. Peter gave him a withering glare and Edmund just grinned.

"I was distracted by that page so you can stop that grinning." Peter said, not actually angry at his brother.

"As you will." Edmund replied still smiling, but he too was curious about the page who was running straight for "Arthur". When he arrived he sank into a low bow.

"My lord, a small troop of soldiers just came into the city lead by a young woman. She claims that her kingdom is in peril and she is in dire need of your help. She wishes to have a private audience with you."

"How many are in this troop of hers?"

"Not more than fifteen, my Lord."

"Very well. Tell her that I will share discourse with her but if she would have it in private she may only take two of her men with her and I shall have my servant and my wife with me. Show her to the throne room where I will meet with her and have one of my guards keep an eye on the rest of her men."

"Yes sir." With that the page ran back to the courtyard and Peter called his knights to attention.

"I have urgent matters to attend to at the palace. Leon you are to finish their training for the day and don't go easy on any of them." Then he beckoned to Edmund and they made their way to the throne room. They found Gwen waiting for them by the side entrance and the three of them entered the throne room and turned their attention to their guests once Peter and Guinevere had seated themselves. It took Edmund a moment to recognize the people in front of him. The last time he had seen his fiance, Ariela had been dressed in an evening gown with her brown hair cascading down her back, getting ready for bed. Now she, and the man and woman beside her, was dressed in traditional Narnian armor. She had her hair back in a braid, two short swords across her back, and what looked like dried blood on her armor. Before he could say anything, Ariela looked at them nervously and spoke.

"You are King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Merlin?"

"We are. And you are?" Gwen responded and the Narnian took a deep breath.

"I am Lady Ariela of Narnia. My kingdom is under attack from an evil witch and my kings are lost. I have reason to believe that they secretly reside in this court." Shocked Gwen was unable to respond but there was no need as Edmund beat her to it with a great deal of concern.

"Under attack? Has Cair Paravel been overtaken? Are Susan and Lucy of good health? Are you of good health?" Ariela's attention snapped from the King and Queen to whom she hoped was Edmund judging from his concern and his knowledge of Cair Paravel.

"Ed?" She asked her voice tense but full of hope. Edmund gave her a comforting smile, stepping forward.

"I look different but it's me, my love." No sooner had he gotten out his words out then his arms were full of a trembling Narnian and whispering in his ear as he held her close.

"I was so worried I'd ne'r see you again. You were at Cair Paravel but you weren't you. Merlin was so different and it hurt so much seeing you but knowing that the real you was hundreds of leagues away in someone else's body with no way to get to you."

"It's alright. I'm hither now, and I may look different but I will always be yours, and we will find a way to fix this." She nodded and pulled herself out of his arms and noticed that the golden king was standing up and looking at her with recognition in his eye. She stepped away from Edmund and looked at him.

"Peter?" He smiled.

"It is good to see you again Ariela. Ed has been a woeful mess with you gone." He said teasingly, ignoring Edmund's indignant "Was not!" in the background.

"I'm sure he was." She said grinning and then she hugged her brother-in-law. After they were all reunited the atmosphere quickly became serious.

"You said that the kingdom was under attack. By what foe?" Asked Peter.

"When I left we had yet to be attacked but I know that the attack was imminent. I left less than a fortnight ago, shortly after we found out that you had been switched. I called a meeting of the council and during that council we told everyone. During the meeting we found out who was responsible for switching the four of you and now I must ask you not to freak out, especially you Ed."

"Why especially me, I'm the more level headed one."

"Nay, about this you won't be." She held his gaze and refused to keep going until she had a promise from both boys. Once they nodded their consent to try to be calm she took a deep breath and then continued.

"Ok...It was Jadis." A tense pause followed in which the Kings didn't know how to react and Gwen didn't get the significance of the statement.

"Let me understand this. You are telling us that Jadis hath come back from the dead, switched Peter and I out of our bodies and into Arthur's and Merlin's, and plans on attacking Narnia?" Edmund asked so calmly it was more worrying than if he had yelled. Ariela nodded tensely and then Edmund exploded.

"What! How did that happen?! The witch!" Ariela sighed in relief. That was much closer to the reaction she was expecting.

"Turns out a witch from this kingdom brought her back from the dead. What think you of this Peter? You hath been awfully quiet."

"I am verily taking this all in. Last time Jadis was alive she cast Narnia into an ice age, kept you as a slave your whole life, tried to kill Edmund, and actually did kill Aslan. Now she is back and we have to keep her from destroying our home while trapped in someone else's body and kingdom. How are we supposed to do that?!" Peter asked distraught, his voice rising as he went.

"Aye, but it is not as hopeless as you make it out to be. Aye, when Jadis ruled it was miserable but you must remember that she was actually queen last time with a much larger army. This time she's simply another rebel trying to usurp you and even as queen last time, Ed and I still got away and Aslan didn't stay dead. Alas we are not completely in the dark about her plan. In her confidence she gave away near her entire plot. She trapped you and Ed hither so that you couldn't be there when she attacks but she didn't realize that she just gave us a new army. The witch that helped Jadis does not have the forces enough to attack Camelot so she's not going to attack until after Jadis takes over Narnia, then Jadis is supposed to supply her with the forces to take over. So Susan and Lucy thought that if I came here as a Lady begging for aid against an evil witch taking over my country then you can agree to give me aid and we can return to Narnia with an army Jadis never expected. Morgause should be-"

"Did you say Morgause?!" Gwen interrupted, speaking for the first time.

"Aye. Forgive me, Arthur told us that she is your worst foe. I should have been more tactful about letting you know she is half of the reason for this." Ariela said sheepishly.

"It's alright, you've been through a lot and I'm sure that this Jadis is more worrying for you than Morgause but are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Aye, we also talked to Arthur, albeit while he was in Peter's body, and he agreed with our plan. Morgause will be fighting on the battlefield with Jadis so if we can convince Camelot's knights to fight then we can hopefully defeat them both in the same battle and we'll have all four of our people in the same place which should make putting them in their right bodies easier."

"That sounds reasonable. Arthur has always helped people when they have trouble with evil so Peter won't arouse any suspicion for rendering you aid." Guinevere responded and Ariela smiled before continuing.

"That is good, however there is one thing. Seeing as Narnia is a magical land, Narnians themselves aren't entirely human. Arthur told us that this land banned magic so I brought only humans in my entourage but when the army we bring meets up with our army that will already be fighting Jadis, then they will see magical creatures. Most of our generals are eagles or centaurs and our army consists of them as well as fauns, beavers, foxes, trees, and bears. Arthur is accepting of them so that won't be a lie when Peter tells his knights that despite our magic he will still help us." The next half hour was used to plan the best way to tell the knights that they were being asked to help a magical land, how long they could wait before departing, and exchanging all information that both sides had learned about the curse, kingdoms, and enemies on both sides. Since it was so late, they decided to wait until the next day to ask the knights to fight, and in the meantime Ariela's entourage was allowed into the castle and showed to guest rooms to sleep in for the time being. Edmund snuck into Ariela's quarters and they spent the night just lying together. As the the castle quieted down for the night the servants gossiped about the interesting new group staying in the castle and what had gone on behind the closed doors in the throne room. Little did everyone know that the castle was about to get real interesting with the King's unusual request the next morning.