You're no doubt all fed up of me apologising for taking so long now… Lets face it, I'm not the most frequent updater…although I do update. That's got to be a bonus, right?

Well, thanks to Vinnet for doing a fantastic job of betaing for me and thanks to all of the people who take the time to review – especially those honest reviews about the last chapter; I hope you've all had a great Christmas and New Year. Anyway it's nearing the end now and I've resolved to finish fics before I start uploading them now. Or at least mostly finish them. :D

"Ready?" Jack asked, wrapping the cloak that Karrena had given him closer to try to block out the cold wind that had sprung up that morning.

She gave an uncertain nod and reached for the chain she had put around her neck as they had gathered their meagre belongings together that morning. Having replenished the stores of wood that they had used, they now stood outside the storm cave, and Karrena was preparing to test Jack's idea.

Taking a deep breath, she gripped the small carved lion until her knuckles turned white and closed her eyes. A frown of concentration that creased her forehead and the white puffs of steam that escaped her mouth were the only indications of life in her otherwise still body. To Jack it seemed like forever before she opened her eyes, a crestfallen look on her face; she shook her head minutely.

Jack flashed a grin, hoping it didn't look as false as it felt. "Okay. We'll start walking and you can try again later. We need to get moving and find some food anyway."

They walked for a few minutes before Karrena broke the silence. "How are we going to find food, Jack?"

He shrugged, "I was hoping you'd have an idea on that." When Karrena remained silent, he sighed. "I guess I can make a bow of some sort…I just wouldn't want to kill a talking rabbit or anything."

A small, amused sound came from Karrena, and he turned his head to look at her. "You'd have difficulty mistaking a talking rabbit for a dumb beast. They're much bigger, for a start."

"Well I didn't know that, did I?" Realising how petulant and childish his reply sounded, he took a deep breath, and instead of succumbing to the sudden hormonal surge, he began to scan the surrounding area for a young sapling that he could, literally, bend to his needs.

Several hours passed before he completed his make-shift bow, complete with a few arrows and turned his attention toward finding some prey to use them on. During that time, Karrena paused several times to see if she could sense anything with her magic. She was becoming increasingly disheartened; each failure convinced her just a little bit more that it was her fault that she could not sense anything, despite Jack's reassurances.

They met several people and talking animals as they walked, in sharp contrast to the complete isolation of the previous days, making Jack think that Aslan had stopped messing with their heads and that the heading he was bearing on was true this time.

They greeted each person that they met with a polite nod and a smile, and most of them answered in kind, but a few glanced suspiciously before scurrying on as fast as they could. One large bear, however, simply carried on as if he hadn't even noticed them, giving a huge yawn as he tried to keep heavy eyes open; the sudden change in the weather had caught all of the animals that hibernated unawares.

By the time evening fell and the two companions gave in to their aching muscles and decided to call it a night, Jack had caught a brace of rabbits and was looking forwards to a hot meal, despite the messy task of preparing them that lay in between. Karrena had fallen into a melancholic slump, her face slack with the barest trace of dark emotion showing in the crease between her eyebrows and the slight down-turning of her mouth.

The young clone had stopped trying to reassure her long ago, focussing instead on trying to find them a decent meal to lift their spirits and warm their bodies. They'd passed several small settlements along the way, but without any form of currency or something that could be traded for food or a room to stay in, they'd been forced to find a suitable spot near a small brook with a tight cluster of trees to shelter them from the bitter wind.

Easing himself to the floor beside the brook with a grimace at the pleasure-pain sensation of moving his muscles in a way that they were no longer used to after hours of constant walking, Jack pulled the rabbits toward him and began to skin and gut them whilst Karrena began to light a fire a short way away.

By the time the rabbits were roasting nicely over the small fire, the pair had fallen into a companionable silence, immersed in their thoughts.

Karrena held the small lion pendant in her hand, absently rubbing her thumb across the smooth wooden surface. When she'd given it to her, her mother had told her that it was carved from a sliver of wood from the tree that had sprouted from the apple that Digory had planted when Aslan first created the world. She'd scoffed at the idea, thinking it impossible that the wood could possibly have lasted that long, but it didn't seem such an impossibility now.

A slight movement at the top of her vision caught her attention, and she raised her eyes to watch a single reddish-brown leaf as it fluttered down from the tree. The sense of something being completely wrong rose suddenly in her from a depth where she had not been consciously aware that she had been feeling it; it was far too early for the leaves to be falling.

She realised with a start that she had not seen any of the dryads or hamadryads in days, and the sudden awareness that something had been missing came over her; the trees around them had given the barest of swishes as the wind rushed through them and the babbling of the brook had been dulled and muffled. Even as she turned her face upwards toward the tree that sheltered them, she thought that she heard the wood creak in a mournful, desperate way.

She tried to find any sign of the tall, slender and elegant creature that embodied the birch tree but found only a sort of dull, hollow wood that nonetheless seemed to weep. She looked harder, and it appeared to her that the whole of the tree had been bound and constricted by long, dark vines that smothered it, trapping the life within it and dooming it to a torturous, trapped existence.

Scrambling closer to the tree, pendant tightly closed in her left hand, she tried to pry the dark vine away with her right hand but found that it contacted only hard, dry wood.

Raising her left hand, she stared at it in disbelief for a moment, Jack's concerned voice registering only in her subconscious as she realised that what she was seeing was the result of the magic that she was performing.

Her mouth suddenly setting into a firm line of determination, she stared determinedly at the wood, falling into a state of such deep concentration that it worried Jack.

Trying to call out to her and get her to respond, Jack hesitated for several long moments before daring to touch her. He had no idea what kind of affect he would have on her, or her magic, let alone what it could possibly do to him. When her breathing became slightly ragged and the blood drained from her face, turning her a deathly shade of pale he was left with no choice other than to hope that the only result of his contact would be to break her concentration.

As soon as his slightly tentative hand touched the arm that rested against the bark of the tree Jack let out an involuntary gasp, although he didn't know whether it was at the sudden warm sensation that covered him uncomfortably or at the magical appearance of the web of dark creeper that had suddenly appeared all over the tree they were kneeling by.

A bare patch seemed to have appeared on the trunk of the tree, and he could hear a distant wailing. He nearly fell backwards in surprise when the bark of the tree seemed to suddenly morph into a strange, narrow, ethereal face and the sound of the wailing came suddenly closer.

"No… you…cannot." It spoke in a voice that seemed to have both the soft qualities of – clichéd as it sounded – rustling leaves, but also with a strength borne of desperation. "…the source!" The few words that it seemed to be straining out were tortured and getting steadily weaker as the face seemed to fade back into the wood.

Karrena stared at the fading apparition for a few moments longer before snapping her head to the right, her eyes focussing on something distant. Jack turned and tried to see, but found only a few more trees. He turned back to his dark-haired companion to question her but managed instead to catch her as her eyes rolled back in her head.

Checking her pulse and finding it steady, if a little fast, he sighed and lifted her off of the ground. He was both surprised and annoyed to realise how difficult he found this task now, but when his knees nearly buckled after the first few steps, he realised that there was more to it than his under-developed muscles. Willing his legs to hold out, he staggered over to the fire and placed her gently down; he was glad to note that a little of the colour was beginning to return to her cheeks. Sitting back on his heels to catch his own breath, he found himself fighting to resist the urge to just lay down and go to sleep in the warmth of the fire.

He quickly came to the conclusion that whatever she had been doing, it had taken a lot of energy out of her and, he theorised, he had been used as a backup power source when he touched her. He tried to rouse her but found that she simply frowned, murmured a few indecipherable words, and swatted at him as if he were some irritating insect. He gave a snort of amusement, but the feeling didn't last as worry forced its way into his mind. He suspected that she was only sleeping, but he didn't know if it was a normal thing or not; either way, there was little that he could do out in the open on his own.

Shaking his head in both frustration and irritation at Karrena for letting herself get to that point, he pushed himself to move and quickly bundled her up in a few of the cloaks. He positioned her near the warmth of the fire before checking on the roasting rabbit and then settling down and monitoring the state of her health.

Checking the rabbit and decided that it was well-cooked, Jack forced his fatigued body to rise out of its seated position – it had taken a consummate effort from the clone not to fall asleep as he waited for the half-hour while the meat finished cooking – and walked over to Karrena.

He prodded her gently. "Hey, sleepyhead, time to wake up." She didn't respond beyond an irritated mumble, so Jack shook her gently; still no real response. Sighing, he felt her pulse again, despite knowing that she was perfectly fine; she was breathing deeply, on the verge of snoring. As he had expected, her heartbeat was strong, steady and slow; as a sleeping person's should be.

He shook her shoulders again, a little more roughly this time and then patted her cheek gently, calling her name with increasing worry.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she blinked her eyes open and looked at him, confusion in her eyes.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Jack commented, waiting for her brain to catch up. He could almost see the second when the gears ground back into action and the connections were made.

She frowned and glanced at the tree. "I…the…it…you…" She paused, and her eyes widened. "Cair Paravel!" she exclaimed, staring at Jack as if he should have understood perfectly.

Shaking his head, he raised his eyebrows. "I was with you until 'Cair Paravel'." He told her. "But before you explain, we're going to eat."

She opened her mouth to protest but was silenced by a look from Jack as he offered his hand in assistance.

Seated by the fire, they ate their meal in silence, savouring their richest meal for several days. That silence was eventually broken by Jack, his voice seeming loud in the unnatural silence.

"So, what was that about Cair Paravel?"

Blinking to bring herself back to the present, she let her eyes remained unfocussed, staring into the bushes. "That's where it's coming from."

"Where what's coming from?"

"The power?"

"…what power?"

"The power that is controlling the dryads and the naiads and all the other spirits."

"Well, what the hell does that mean!"

His frustrated outburst made her jump, and she turned her head to look at him, seeming to realise then just how cryptic she had been.

"Whoever is leading these attacks is in Cair Paravel, or thereabouts."

"And they're not only targeting the talking beasts, they're getting at the tree-people too."

"The dryads. And the naiads and all other free spirits."

Glancing at him again, she caught his wry grin. "Looks like we're going back to Cair Paravel, then."

It had taken nearly two days for them to return to Cair Paravel, taking it slowly to allow their bodies to replenish their depleted energy reserves; he knew that whatever form the inevitable confrontation took, they would need to be as healthy and alert as they could manage.

Having pushed on and reached the castle in the small hours of the morning, Jack let Karrena lead the last part of the way, following her in through a back entrance that was little used by the staff or occupants. As they passed the kitchen, they quietly pilfered some fresh bread and a little cured ham to keep them going.

Following the stealthy figure of his companion quietly through hallways lit by the early morning light, Jack felt an odd sense of déjà vu as he realised that it had only been about a week since he had followed her through the same corridors because he'd stormed off in a huff and got lost.

They had just reached the main parts of the castle when they heard voices and slipped into one of the many disused rooms. Standing by the closed door, they listened for the people to pass.

The voices were muffled, but their words could be made out as they neared the door.

"…won't be a big wedding, because there's only been a week for the preparations."

"Aye, but it'll be better that way. Shows that Lady Sinere will make a good Queen; she's not fussed about making too much…"

The voices of what he guessed were two serving maids doing their morning chores. He glanced at Karrena, who had turned an interesting shade of grey. "It's safe now, we move on."

It was only a few short minutes more before they reached what had been Karrena's quarters; a room that she could lock. Quickly unlocking the door and slipping inside ahead of him, Karrena gave a quick check to make sure that everything was as she had left it. Confirming this, she turned and pulled Jack in after her before re-locking and bolting the door behind them.

Jack gave her a small smile as she deposited her pack on her bed, next to his. "There's no place like home."

"Of course. It'll be better once we get the fire lit and some hot-" She broke off as she caught sight of his face. "We cannot light a fire can we?"

"No, sorry. We can't take the risk that someone will notice; not when we know that whoever it is orchestrating this is an insider."

"The bed will still be better than the cold floor outside." She let out a long yawn to punctuate her comment. It had been a long time since they'd slept as Jack had insisted that they pushed on and entered the castle before daybreak.

"Exactly!" He failed to stifle his own yawn. "Okay, sleep now, try and find whoever it is while the rest of them are asleep."

"The old Beaver we met near the river did remark that the largest number of attacks happened at night; I may be able to pinpoint the source of the magic more easily if I can find them using it."

"That too. I was just thinking that then we can sneak around easier."

"Oh, of course."

Jack shook his head and shifted his pack to the floor beside the bed before beginning to remove his outer layers, carefully leaning his sword against a dresser beside the bed, within reach. His dagger was placed carefully atop this dresser, pommel towards the bed for the same reason. Just in case.

In other circumstances, they may have found the idea of climbing into the same fairly small bed together at least a little odd, but their experiences together over the last week put things into an odd perspective that made it all seem perfectly normal. Despite the inherent differences between them and, particularly the alienation that had initially occurred when Karrena had realised just what Jack was – as well as the weirdness that Jack himself was still struggling to come to terms with – they had grown closer to each other. Part of that had been necessity; it had become colder on a daily basis, and they'd had to huddle together to share body heat so that they were warm enough to sleep.

So they didn't give it a second thought as they climbed into the bed together still wearing their clothes and pulled the quilt around them.

Jack was silent for only a moment after settling in. "You're in love with him, aren't you?"

He didn't need to open his eyes or turn to face her to know that she was staring at him in complete shock but she remained silent. He didn't need to say who he was talking about; they both knew it was Corrin.

He raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "Let me guess, you left the camp as soon as you found out that he was marrying another person?"

She looked away. "I couldn't-" She stopped, unable to articulate her feeling.

"You can cope fine right up until the point when they find someone else, and then you just seem to lose it completely."

A bitter laugh bubbled out of her as she nodded. "I over-reacted; ran away like a love-sick child."

"We can always see these things in hindsight." He gave her a small smile. "And anyway, the way things have been going lately, I wouldn't put it past Aslan to have given you a little nudge."

"Unlikely."

"Hey, you never know; after all he's not a tame lion."

"You are incorrigible."

For the first time in a long time, his trademark half-grin returned in its full glory. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

She gave a sigh, partially amused but also very sad. "Go to sleep, Jack."

"Yes ma'am."

"Got anything yet?"

"No! And if you do not stop asking me every five minutes then I will not find anything."

"Sorry, sorry. I just hate not doing anything." He stopped pacing just long enough to shoot her an apologetic look.

Sitting on the bed, Karrena closed her eyes and began to concentrate once again, and Jack continued to pace. It seemed like hours had passed before Karrena suddenly rose off of the bed and began to march out of the room, closely followed by Jack, who was silently hoping that they wouldn't meet anyone along the way.

Although she wasn't running, she was putting on a fair amount of speed and was moving with an unerring sureness of step, leading Jack onwards through the cold, dark corridors.

When she finally stopped in front of a door she seemed to break out of whatever trance shed been in, staring at the door silently.

"This it?" Jack asked, stopping beside her.

She shook her head. "It is not possible."

"But this is where your Jedi powers told you it's coming from?"

"The source is here but… impossible."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "I thought I was supposed to be the sceptic here."

"No, these…these are King Corrin's personal quarters."

"Oh."

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