The Lost Queen
by the Lady of the Mists
Chapter Three: Into Narnia
The next day was bright and sunny and the grass shone, like it only did after a good rainstorm. In an attempt to get everyone's minds off of the wardrobe and the magical land Lucy had found, Susan had suggested a game of cricket. Lucy had opted herself out, not in the mood to play with her siblings when they didn't believe her about Narnia. Anna chose to watch instead of play, considering that sports weren't exactly her forte.
She sat with Lucy, watching the game from a spot from beside some trees, leaning against it as Peter pitched the ball to Edmund, who wasn't paying attention to the game. "Whoops!" Peter said cheerfully. "Wake up, Dolly Daydream!"
"Why can't we play hide and seek again?" Edmund asked, rubbing the spot where Peter had hit him as Susan threw another ball to Peter. Lucy ignored Edmund's jest towards her, staring determinedly down at Anna's fairy tale book.
"I thought you said it was a kid's game," Peter pointed out as he tossed the ball in between his hands.
"Besides," Susan pointed out with a smile, "we could all use the fresh air." Her younger brother gave her a disgruntled look.
"It's not like there isn't air inside."
"Are you ready?" Peter asked, ready to pitch again.
"Are you?" Edmund countered as he readied the bat for the pitch, watching it carefully as Peter pitched. Anna gasped as he struck the ball, scrambling to her feet as it soared towards the mansion and smashed into a stained-glass window. Seconds later, she heard the distinct sound of clattering following the shatter.
"Oh, we are going to be in so much trouble," she whispered as they raced up through the mansion to where Edmund had hit the ball. There was a good sized hole in the window and the suit of armour that had been standing in front of it was lying in pieces on the ground. Shattered glass lay everywhere. "Be careful of the glass, Peter," she warned as he moved closer to the scene of the crime to inspect it.
"Well done, Ed," he grumbled.
"You bowled it!" Edmund retorted, but the argument was halted when they heard a sharp, familiar voice demanding to know what had happened and all five of them threw horrified, desperate looks to one another.
"The McCready!" Susan whispered.
"Run!" Peter ordered and they raced as far away from the crime scene as they possible could. But it seemed that wherever they went, Mrs. McCready's footsteps seemed to follow them. Anna could hear the harsh footsteps even a floor above them as they ran through the house, desperate to escape the wrath of the housekeeper.
Finally, Edmund pushed open the door to the one room that Peter and Susan were determined not to mention or go into today. Anna shut the door quickly, trying to latch it, but there was no lock as Edmund said desperately, "Come on!"
Turning around, Anna found that he was standing at the foot of the wardrobe, the doors opened and he was gesturing anxiously for them to get inside to hide. Peter and Susan both stared at him incredulously and Susan shook her head.
"You've got to be joking," she sighed, but the sound of footsteps made up their minds instantly. Anna helped Lucy climb into the wardrobe before the elder two Pevensies climbed inside after her and Peter shut the wardrobe door behind him, peering out through the peephole.
Anna sucked in her breath desperately as she heard the footsteps. "Get back," she whispered to Edmund, noticing suddenly how much colder it seemed in the wardrobe, despite that they were surrounded by fur coats. "Ed, get back."
"Ouch!" Lucy whispered as Edmund accidentally stepped on her foot. "Edmund, you're on my foot!"
"Peter, move off!"
"Will you stop shoving?" Peter, accidentally pushed into Anna by Susan, fell on top of her and Anna fell onto the ground with Peter on top of her, their faces so close that they were almost touching, their lips so close that she could almost touch them. She had never been so close to Peter that she could see how blue his eyes actually were.
Her heart was beating so fast at being so close to Peter that it took a few minutes for Anna to realise that the back of her dress was wet and cold; she had landed in something that felt surprisingly like . . . snow?
Pushing himself off of her, Peter was turning an interesting shade of red as he helped her to her feet. "Sorry," he mumbled as Susan pushed all of them into view of the winter forest that they had found their way into.
Anna was still slightly red as she looked around Lucy's forest. It was even more amazing that she had described. "Oh, my . . ." she whispered, looking around at her surroundings. Lucy was grinning like crazy at them finding their way inside.
"Don't worry," she said cheerfully, "I'm sure that it's just your imagination." Peter looked at his youngest sister with shock and shame and disbelief in his eyes.
"I—I don't suppose saying we're sorry would quite cover it," he said, the guilt evident on his face. Lucy shook her head as she hid something behind her back. Anna, realising what she had, ducked behind Peter for cover.
"No, it wouldn't," Lucy agreed as she threw the snowball at her eldest brother. "But that might!"
The snowball hit Peter in the face. Anna laughed in delight as they scooped up snowballs, pelting one another with them. "Peter!" she said when he managed to pelt one down her dress. "Peter Pevensie, I am going to kill you for that one!"
Peter was grinning as she jumped on his back, managing to get some snow on the back of his neck, but with her hanging on, he could do nothing. Susan and Lucy were laughing at their antics as the two sisters continued to pelt one another until one of Susan's snowballs hit Edmund, who hadn't joined in their game.
"Ow!" Edmund snapped, glaring at all four of them. Peter stopped fighting to get Anna off of him and she dropped down to the ground. All of them were looking pointedly at Edmund. "Stop it!"
"You little liar!" Peter accused.
"You didn't believe her either," Edmund pointed out, but that didn't make Peter back down.
"Apologise to Lucy," Peter said, gesturing towards their younger sister. When Edmund didn't even so much as open his mouth, Peter moved towards his brother with fire in his eyes. "Say you're sorry!"
"All right!" Edmund yelled, not looking even remotely remorseful about what he had said. "I'm sorry."
Luckily, Lucy was one of those people that didn't hold a grudge against people, Anna thought proudly. "That's all right," Lucy said, grinning mischievously. "Some little children just don't know when to stop pretending."
"Oh, very funny," Edmund growled at her, recognising her turning his words from the previous night back onto her.
"Maybe we should go back," Susan said, shivering slightly in the cold winter air. Anna had to admit that the temperature was starting to get lower and lower with each passing minute. If they stayed out here for very long, they were going to be numb.
"Shouldn't we at least take a look around?" Edmund asked. Anna glared at him; she hadn't forgiven him yet for lying about him and Lucy getting into Narnia together.
"Personally," she said, looking to her best friend, "I think that Lucy has the right to decide."
Peter nodded, turning towards his little sister with a smile. "So, Lu," he said, his blue eyes twinkling, "what's it going to be?"
Lucy practically squealed in delight, her brown eyes delighted. "I'd like you all to meet Mr. Tumnus!"
"Well, then, Mr. Tumnus it is!" Peter declared, much to Lucy's delight and headed back towards the wardrobe. Anna frowned, her eyes following him as Susan continued to shiver, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. The clothes they wore were meant for summer, not the dead of winter.
"But we can't go hiking in the snow, dressed like this," Susan protested as Peter reappeared, carrying a handful of coats.
"No," he agreed, "but I'm sure the Professor won't mind us using these." Lucy took the brown fur coat that he handed her, slipping it on gratefully. He handed one to Susan, a black one. "Anyway, if you think about it logically, we're not even taking them out of the wardrobe."
"But that's a girl's coat!" Edmund protested to the grey coat that he was handed. Peter only pushed it onto him again.
"I know," he replied. Edmund glared at his brother before taking the coat and Peter took one of the two remaining coats, helping Anna into a dark brown one before slipping his own brown one on.
Dressed properly for covering a long path in the freezing snow, the group started walking through the snow and Anna watched every which way, not wanting to miss anything. The snow practically gleamed here, as though it were made of crystals, the icicles shone like silver. If this was what winter was like, Anna wondered what spring was.
Someone touched her shoulder and she jumped, startled, having been admiring the sights, and looked up at Peter. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he apologised. "And . . . I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to—"
"Peter, you fell, it's not a hardly a crime," Anna said, though her heart raced at being that close to the best friend she was in love with.
The eldest Pevensie looked down, clearly embarrassed. "It's hard to believe that Lucy's story was real," he said as they walked together, his siblings up ahead, Lucy and Susan playing in the snow as they walked. Edmund was still sulking. "You believed her from the beginning, didn't you?"
"How could I not?" Anna sighed. "Lucy's never been one to lie about anything, I saw no reason that it should change now. Besides, you know me," she added with a smile. "I've always believed in the existence of other worlds, if we could just find the right door. Apparently, we have."
Peter actually laughed. "You're insane, you know that?" He was smiling as he looked at her. "Brilliant, but insane."
"I think that covers some of the more famous people in history," Anna countered as she pulled the coat tighter around her. The day was getting colder by the minute.
"Lucy?" Susan asked ahead of them and Anna looked ahead of them to see that the younger sister had stopped, her eyes wide and frozen in horror. The cave that they had been heading to had been caved in and from the sight of it, it looked as though it had been trashed. The door was hanging off of the hinges.
"Lucy!" Peter yelled when his sister suddenly broke into a run towards the cave and the group raced after her, bursting into the house.
Anna looked around at their surroundings, her heart paining at the sight of it. The house was in shambles, everything out of place, almost everything smashed beyond repair. She bent down to pick up a painting of a faun and gently laid it on the table to prevent anyone from breaking it.
"Who would do something like this?" Lucy whispered in horror as she looked around the room in tears.
Peter didn't answer as he approached a note written on parchment nailed onto the wall. He tore it from the wall, moving into a better light to read the note aloud. "'The faun Tumnus is hereby charged with high treason against Her Imperial Majesty, Jadis, Queen of Narnia, for comforting her enemies and fraternising with humans. Signed Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police. Long live the Queen,'" he finished and looked up at them.
"Who's this Queen, Lucy?" Anna asked, turning to face Lucy, whose face had crumpled upon learning what had happened to her friend.
"She isn't a real queen at all," Lucy explained. "She's a horrible witch, the White Witch. Everyone—all the wood people—hate her. She's the one who makes it winter here and never Christmas."
"All right," Susan said, taking charge after she had read the note. "Now we really should go back."
"But what about Mr. Tumnus?"
"If he was arrested just for being with a human," Susan pointed out, "I'm not sure that there's much we can do."
"You don't understand, do you?" Lucy whispered and everyone looked at her. "I'm the human. She must have found out that he helped me." Peter looked at the two elder girls.
"Maybe we could call the police," Peter suggested.
"These are the police," Susan pointed out. She turned to Anna, who had taken the note from Susan and was reading it carefully. "Anna, what do you think we should do?"
Peter looked at his best friend, who looked at all of them, trying to decide what was best.
"Well, I don't know," she said at long last. "Part of me agrees with you, Sue. If Mr. Tumnus was arrested just for being with a human, than we could be a danger to everyone here. On the other hand . . . he did help Lucy. I think we should at least try to do something for him."
"I agree," Peter said, nodding as he bent down to Lucy's level. "Don't worry, Lu," he told her encouragingly, "we'll think of something."
"Why?" Edmund asked. He had been standing away from the group throughout the entire discussion. "I mean, he's a criminal," he explained to their incredulous looks.
Anna turned around as she heard a "psst!" behind her and saw a bird outside, trying to get their attention. Peter led the way outside, where Anna had the distinct impression that someone was following them and moved closer to Peter, who drew her closer.
Apparently, Susan and Lucy sensed the same thing she did, because they both moved closer to their older brother, the four huddled in a group with Edmund standing nearby until a beaver appeared over the hill. Anna let out a sigh of relief, which turned to astonishment when the beaver spoke.
"Lucy Pevensie?" he asked.
Everyone looked at Lucy, who had a surprised look on her face as she moved ahead. "Yes?" she asked as the beaver handed her a handkerchief that Anna recognised. "Hey, that's the hankie I gave to Mr.—"
"Tumnus," the beaver finished up for her, giving the cave behind them a wary look. "He got it to me just before they took him."
"Is he all right?" Lucy asked, her expression alarmed and the beaver glanced cautiously around before gesturing to them.
"Further in," he whispered before moving across the snow covered hills, disappearing from view. Peter and Anna glanced at each other before they followed Lucy, who had immediately begun to follow the beaver, but Susan stopped them.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, her blue eyes wide and shocked, glaring at them.
"She's right!" Edmund put in. "I mean, how do we know that we can trust him?"
Peter paused. "He says that he knows the faun," he finally said. Anna winced at how that sounded and at the exasperated look that Susan gave him at his words.
"He's a beaver," she replied, her voice low and sharp. "He shouldn't be saying anything."
The beaver, as if knowing that the conversation had been turned to him, reappeared on the hills. "Everything all right?"
"Yes," Peter assured him. "We were . . . we were just talking." The beaver looked around again.
"That's best left for safer quarters," he whispered as he disappeared over the hills again, leaving the elder children to look at each other in complete confusion.
"He means the trees," Lucy said quietly. Anna and Peter looked at each other again, but this time they followed the beaver to an unknown destination. They had arrived in a world that they didn't know anything about. For now, they were just going to have to trust Lucy's judgement.