Chapter 6: The Pevensies' Secret
"Do you like it?" Lucy asked me as sat on my new bed and looked around with a smile glued to my face.
"It's amazing! I couldn't have imagined a better room!" I said, lying back. It felt like a cloud.
"Would you like to see our bedrooms?" Lucy asked in excitement.
"Lucy..." Susan scolded. I ignored her.
"Very much!"
As soon went to shut Peter's two doors, a hand from the side stopped one of them from closing. "What were you doing in my room?" Peter asked rather coolly.
"It... it's alright Peter." Susan began sounding hesitant at the angry look on his face.
"We were just showing Anna around!" Lucy whined. Peter slipped into his room and before he shut the doors he looked out at us.
"Stay out of my room." And the door was shut. Susan and Lucy seemed to be frozen for a moment.
"P- please... forgive him. He's been under a lot of stress, and he's been acting awfully... strange lately..." Susan said.
"It's alright. It must be tough being king." I smiled.
"It's tough being a queen too!" Lucy said defensively.
"She never said otherwise, Lucy. Come on Anna, you must be starving."
"A little, I suppose." I lied. I was STARVING.
After putting on a long, yellow dining gown (with a bra!), we were escorted to the Dining hall. The table was long and full of creatures whom I'd never seen before. While everyone was merrily chatting, I met Beaver and Mrs. Beaver. They helped the Pevensies along in their adventure in destroying the witch and winning the war. They were awfully friendly.
Peter never came to dinner. He had demanded it in his room. It was strange to me, he had been so kind earlier, but now he was acting rather distant. The others insisted that he was like this on a normal basis, but I begged to differ.
"So," I began, after sipping a last of my soup. "What were you doing outside of the palace gate earlier?" I asked them.
"One of the Gryphons from the watch tower spotted wolves." Susan told me.
"Yeah. One of Peter's biggest pet-peeves is those things roaming around Cair Paraval." Edmond added.
"Why don't you just ban them or something?" I asked, not really understanding why wolves posed such a problem.
"We can't." Edmond said angrily, taking a vicious bite of his chicken leg.
"Manners, Ed!" Susan scolded. "You see, Anna, the wolves of Narnia were the followers of the White Witch. Not only do they stop allies from coming to the castle, but we fear that they are gathering more and more enemies by turning our friends against us."
"How would they accomplish that?"
"Hello? By capturing the ones who come to Cair Paraval! That's why they're always lurking around outside the entrance." Edmond said a little agitated.
"Edmond, calm down. How many times to I have to tell you?"
"What? She asked!" Susan just shook her head.
"Wait..." I said, my eyes wandering my almost-empty plate. "If the wolves are taking your friends prisoner and forcing them to turn against you, then why did they try to... well... eat me?"
"Maybe you looked delicious." Lucy said with a grin. I couldn't help but grin back.
"We think it's because you're a daughter of Eve."
"Why can't we just say human?" Edmond complained.
"Why is so important that I'm a human in Narnia? Why is everyone making such a fuss about it?" I asked with more and more questions coming to mind.
Susan finally put down her fork and sighed. "Even though that battle is over, we've concluded that the wolves are still skeptic about other humans entering Narnia. They hate the fact that humans are now ruling Narnia. The more that come, the harder it is for them. They saw how hard we fought in the battle, and they know the kind of power we brought with us. They don't want to make it any harder for when..."
"When what?" I asked.
"For when they strike." Edmond said quietly, looking down to his lap.
"Edmond!" This time it was Lucy who scolded. Susan leaned forward to me and continued in a whisper.
"We don't want anyone to know yet, but we think that the wolves are working for someone. We think that as soon as they gather and train enough warriors, they will attack the palace and attempt to take over the thrones. If we told everyone now, mass chaos would occur at Cair Paraval. We pray that this information stays top secret." I sat in silence in a moment.
"Won't your allies just turn against them when this "invasion" takes place?" I asked, thinking well of my logic. Susan sighed and leaned forward again.
"They wolves aren't fools. They wouldn't train soldiers for their own benefit if there was a chance of betrayal. No, we think something else is at work. They're using something... magic maybe, or maybe they're working for a sorcerer or witch. We don't know what it is yet, but we think that our friends will be possessed or cast under a spell; a spell which makes them despise us." Susan leaned back again in her chair. "But these are all theories. We have no real proof of this." She added in her normal tone.
"But they're very good theories." Lucy said smiling.
"Well, shouldn't you be putting together an army, or plan, or something?" I asked, noting the concern I had for my new friends.
"We can't yet." Susan said in a sharp whisper.
"Why not?" I asked. Edmond opened his mouth to reply, but Susan shushed him.
"We shall speak of this no more. This is not a suitable dinner conversation; especially without Peter." Susan said formally while wiping her mouth with her napkin.