Authors Note: Once again, sorry for the delay; real life and all that. Blah, Blah, Woof Woof; I'm sure you've heard it all :)
Many thanks to Vinnet for betaing for me, and for all the work she put into this particular chapter. Still, the mistakes are mine because for some unknown reason I got it into my head halfway through that I was going to write in present tense and couldn't get back to writing in past. Being a superstar, Vinnet corrected it all for me. :D
Thank you for all of the reviews!
WARNING: Fairly graphic violence ensues; it is a battle scene
Apologies for the dodgy line breaks but the website doesnt want to play and put the right ones in. Or anything that looks even slightly nicer. Grr.
VVVVVV
Jack watched Karrena worriedly from his position crouched at the entrance to their makeshift tent. Being constantly on alert and ready to move at a second's notice was beginning to strain his muscles, but he'd learnt from her previous attempt to trace the source of the magic that she might try to run off and he was ready to stop her. She hadn't moved in the last half hour, however, and his muscles were threatening to cramp. He shifted slightly, careful not to disturb her concentration and glad that he'd been able to remove the disguise so that he could move his legs freely and without risking tripping.
They'd all agreed that before they attempted their plan Karrena should attempt what Jack had dubbed a 'tracer-spell' to see if they could uncover their enemy. There was still a chance that they'd end up going in essentially blind; Karrena thought that she would need to be much closer for her power to be strong enough to break through the barrier protecting whoever was holding the King's strings, but it wouldn't be wasted effort and it would also help to pinpoint Corrin's location. The Centaurs were reasonably certain that they knew where Corrin would be but Jack wanted to be certain; he knew what bad intel could cost.
So here he was, trying to get the blood flowing back into his legs again without breaking his self-appointed charge's concentration whilst being guarded by an assortment of odd creatures. He tried not to think about the latter part, or the fact that he was putting his trust in magic; to do that would mean that he'd have to admit that he was here, believing in magic of all things and that, he was not ready for. A part of his mind suggested, in quiet moments, that it was some similar to the powers of the Ancients, but he didn't think about that too much either, or he'd notice the dissimilarities too.
As he stoically shifted his mind away from those confusing and mind-boggling subjects, he saw Karrena's posture shift and whipped an arm out to catch her as she lunged blindly for the opening in the tarpaulin that made their tent. She struggled for a brief moment, a frown creasing her forehead as she gave in and sat back. Her eyes were unfocussed but darted back and forth as if she was searching for something.
After a few minutes, her eyes focused and moved to settle on Jack's face. "Thank you," she said. "I think part of the spell is designed to make anyone trying to trace it reveal themselves."
"No problem. Any luck?"
She shook her head. "I could sense a figure, but it was in shadow. I know where the King is, however."
Jack gave a small smile. "Well, that's something." His smile slipped. "What is it?"
"I think they're in trouble. They're about to fight off a group of the raiders but they don't know that there are going to be ambushed. Jack… they'll all die."
Jack's face was stony now. "You're certain?"
She nodded silently.
"Looks like a change of plan, then." He turned and shuffled out into the open, grabbing the attention of Fleetpaw, who was standing guard outside. "Gather everyone together; we've got an emergency."
In a matter of minutes Jack's newly formed team had gathered and was waiting patiently for Jack to finish his muttered conversation with the pale, shaken Karrena.
Giving Karrena's arm a comforting squeeze as he turned away, Jack addressed his companions, his face grim. "Karrena couldn't figure out who it was behind the magic holding the King, but she did find something else out." He paused for a moment, looking around the group. "They're going to be ambushed, outnumbered, and overrun."
The Narnian team-members all showed their shock, outrage, and anger in different ways, each peculiar to their own species. Jack cut them off before they could take control of the conversation. "We're going in, and we're going in fast. They don't know that we know, and we're going to use that to our advantage. They're not too far away so we're going to go ASAP – Karrena says that the battle has already started, but the trap has not yet been sprung. The birds and squirrels are going to go ahead and scout ahead, let us know if there's anything out of the ordinary; the rest of us are going in, after, in a two-prong, pincer movement while Karrena tries to break the spell. It's not ideal, but it's the best we can do on short notice. Everyone understand?"
None of them spoke, but they all nodded their understanding. Jack took a moment to scan their faces. Most wore either grim expressions or blank masks, but the fear behind that was visible to Jack, although more in some than others.
Nodding once more, he sent the scouts off with Karrena's explanation of where the trap was laid. Before Fleetpaw darted off, Jack called to him. "I know you want to be there, fighting with everyone else, but I need you to do something for me. I need you to find Karrena once the rest of us arrive and stay with her. She's going to be concentrating so hard that she won't realise if anyone is creeping up on her, so I need you to stay with her, out of sight and make sure that she's safe." The young squirrel nodded, his chest puffing slightly with pride that Jack trusted him to protect someone so important to the cause as well as to Jack personally. "She'll stay behind a little way, hidden from view but still close enough to hopefully break the spell, okay?"
"I will not fail you, or Karrena, Jack." He replied solemly.
Jack gave him a tight smile, "Good man… uh, squirrel."
Fleetpaw gave one last, abrupt bow before suddenly scampering off, disappearing into the trees.
Jack sighed, the familiar, bitter pain of knowing that he was sending people to their deaths gnawing at his soul as he turned and headed back to the would-be tent. He ducked in, thinking nothing of the fact that Karrena was wearing only a shirt and a large pair of bloomers on her lower half.
"Jack!" She grabbed something to try to cover herself with.
"What?" He frowned at her for a second before his brain caught up and he realised that she was effectively in only her underwear, even if it did cover her to her knees. He turned around. "Sorry. I'm too used to girls who wear far less outside in the middle of winter." A voice in the back of his mind tried to point out that he was also used to sharing with female officers and soldiers who would simply turn their backs if they had to change; so long as it was covered by underwear it was probably more covered than if they'd been on a beach somewhere hot. Male members of the SGC soon learned to do the polite thing and also turn away; the females, when they united, were a force to be reckoned with, as Hathor discovered.
"People from your world walk around in their undergarments?" Karrena's voice was punctuated by the disgruntled sounds universal to people trying to change in the confined quarters of tents.
"Not exactly. But our idea of undergarments are a lot smaller than yours, and the normal clothes are usually just as small. It's fashion."
Karrena said nothing more on the subject, no doubt puzzling the idea over. "You may turn around now."
Jack turned to find her stood wearing a too-large shirt and trousers of a rustic fashion; the extra set that she'd acquired in the castle. "Fetching." Jack commented, earning himself a raise of an eyebrow.
He shrugged and moved to his own pile of stuff and began outfitting himself more practically in the gear that Corrin had given him, what seemed like so long ago. Shrugging into jerkin and mail and strapping on the various weapons that he'd acquired, Jack passed the warmer outer clothing to Karrena, knowing that it would serve her better as she tried to locate the person casting the spell on Corrin. He also knew that once the fight started, he would be more than warm enough, and the extra clothes would just get in his way.
Pausing for a moment and mentally checking that he had everything he was likely to need, Jack threw Karrena a tight smile. "Ready to do this?"
Swallowing down her unseen fears, she gave him a grim nod. "I am."
He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. "I'll be alright. You'll see." Saying nothing more, he led her outside to their newly formed and tragically inexperienced team, quickly and quietly dividing them into two evenly sized groups, leaving those of the same species together. He knew from experience that people who knew each other would work best together in this kind of situation. "Team A is with me and we'll go to the North of the fight. Team B; Farseer is in charge and you'll head to the South. Karrena will be a short way off, to the West. Right, we need to get there ASAP so the smaller, slower of us are going to ride on the backs of the Centaurs. They-"
He was immediately interrupted by the outraged cries of the team as they protested, saying that Centaurs were not Dumb Beasts to be ridden.
"Hey!" he yelled, silencing them. "Do I need to remind you that this isn't exactly a normal situation? There are people's lives at stake here! Hell, I'd carry you myself if I thought it would get us there any faster." He swept his gaze around the group, all of whom looked slightly abashed. "Nightstar, can you take Karrena and I, and drop her somewhere safe, in range?"
"I can. As you have already stated, there are more important things than pride, in war."
Jack nodded his gratitude. "Right, so lets get moving, people!"
With that last command, he pulled Karrena over to where Nightstar had positioned himself by a rock to set the example for the rest of the team. Jack wasted no time before giving Karrena a boost up before hoisting himself up behind her.
"Hold onto my waist, if you must." Nightstar instructed them and Karrena carefully and shyly did as she was told, her legs gripping the horse chest in a habitual way. Both she, and Jack had to make an effort not to use their legs to try to direct him.
After a few moments of shuffling, grunts, and Dwarfish curses, they were on their way, charging through the trees at a frightening pace, barely missing branches as they flew.
Jack's one attempt to look behind and check on the others earned him only a glimpse of the two other Centaurs peeling off to their southward route with the dark form of the He-bear lumbering quickly after them, and a slap in the face from an errant tree branch as he turned back. Hunkering down behind Karrena, he could just make out the lithe form of the Dryad Ivy as she flowed over the ground just ahead of them. Already the battle-rush was setting in; all that mattered was the moment, nothing before or after.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye but was in reality just shy of the ten minute mark, Nightstar was slowing and heading toward a small, enclosed bush area and dropping Karrena off. Snow had started to sprinkle the ground and grow thicker as it got closer to the battle. Through the trees, they caught glimpses of glinting armour and roiling masses and even at this distance of twenty or thirty metres, the noise was deafening.
Jack held her eyes for a few seconds before nodding as Nightstar turned away to follow Ivy and the He-Fox around to the north of the skirmish, the avian warriors having flown on ahead. Karrena ducked into the limited shelter that the bushes offered and offered up a silent prayer to Aslan as she made herself comfortable and pulled out the small carved lion from beneath her clothes, clutching it tightly in her hand as she closed her eyes and began to concentrate.
Within moments, Jack was at the edge of the battle, sliding off of Nightstar's back and squashing the fear that rose in him as he realised the magnitude of just what he was attempting to do. There were several hundred on Corrin's side, though many of them seemed to be local people who had taken up weapons, claws, or teeth when they realised what was happening. On the other side were two or three times as many large, well-armed men and beasts that were quickly overrunning the remaining forces, despite the apparently short amount of time that they had been battling.
Setting his sights high, Jack went straight in for a large Minotaur who was preying on a young, red haired dwarf a fraction of its size. Swiping his sword across the back of the Minotaur's knees, Jack cut the vital tendons holding the beast standing, causing it to suddenly lurch forwards, falling on its face before Jack impaled it through the heart.
He ignored the disgusted look that the dwarf gave him and moved on to the next one, batting aside the swords of others as he moved.
Through glimpses between fights, he built up a picture of the battle; at the western side, Corrin and his nobility were at the focus of the fighting, on slightly raised ground, many of them using bows and arrows to pick off the enemy whilst being protected by the soldiers between them.
If he'd had time for a spare thought between dodges and strikes, Jack might have considered just how convenient their position, and the enemy's inability to fire anywhere near that hill was.
Catching the powerful blow of a burly blonde man's sword on his own, Jack felt his shoulder wrench and he threw himself sideways, onto frozen ground that was slick with warm blood.
VVVVVV
She was getting close; she could feel the spell that was wound around Corrin like a snake, suffocating his will, and she could trace its pattern. She felt it loosening, although the hold on King Corrin was still as strong. She was nearly there, nearly had it figured out when it suddenly tightened up again, and the convolutions become that much more confusing and baffling. She felt that her work had just become even harder and would take longer.
Her grip on the wooden lion tightened.
VVVVVV
Jack pushed himself up with his good arm, weakly batting away an incoming claw with the sword in his hand, wincing as the muscles in his shoulder protested. The other set of claws belonging to a mangy werewolf still caught his side, bruising his ribs, even though the light chain main protected him from being cut.
He swiped again at the werewolf, but already it was scampering away, clawing at people half heartedly as it followed most of its companions away from the battle.
Many of the human soldiers, however, remained and continued to fight. The tide of the battle had turned, though, and Jack began to make his way toward the hillock on which Corrin stood.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jack caught a glimpse of a sword coming in at his head and ducked, forcing screaming muscles to send his sword straight out to his side, impaling his would-be killer through the abdomen, only to have his weapon wrenched from his grasp as his attacker fell away and cradled his wound.
Before he had a chance to look up again, something hit him in the right shoulder, forcing him to stagger backwards and spinning him around slightly. Marginally dazed, he turned his head to look at the arrow now sticking out of his shoulder.
The arrow, slowed by the chain mail that it had to go through to reach the soft skin of his shoulder, had imbedded itself in the tissue, but he doubted that it broke any bones. Reaching up with his left hand, he stifled a cry as he broke the wooden shaft off. He knew better than to try to pull the barbed and probably mangled head out of the flesh.
He stared at the shaft for a moment before looking up and searching the hillock from his new, closer vantage point. No-one was looking his way, triumphant at having shot him, but nonetheless, he was certain it is one of them. The direction and the style of the shaft told him that.
At that same moment, he noticed that Corrin had suddenly turned and was marching away, heading West with his sword out and a look of blank determination on his face.
Karrena!
In seconds, he was in motion, absently picking up a short sword as he went, but not entirely sure if it was the one that he just lost. Stumbling over the dead and dying of both sides, he raced forward, skirting the bottom of the hillock before almost barrelling into the King, who regarded him for a short moment before raising his sword and swinging it at Jack.
Jack's reaction was almost too slow, and the movement was agonising, but he put every last effort into delaying, hoping that Karrena would have time to break the spell.
Because he was weakened, Jack had to put almost as much effort into not injuring Corrin by accident as he did into fighting the larger, stronger man off.
He desperately parried low and left before letting out an agonising scream as he had to move the sword high and to the right, his reactions too slow as Corrin brought the sword around to Jack's left again, the sword aimed at his unprotected head.
At the last moment the sword was twisted and instead of bisecting Jack's head, it connected solidly, sending the man in the boy's body reeling sideways before he fell to the ground, still.
Corrin didn't give him another glance as he turned away and headed for the bush where Karrena was hiding. "The Evil Witch must die!" he declared.
VVVVVV
Even as she felt small, cold paws on her face, trying to wake her, Karrena's opportunity came. For an instant, the magic faltered, something outside of her influence affecting it, and in that moment, Karrena pushed her own magic forward and reached the source, suddenly seeing, feeling everything in a flash of understanding that made her involuntarily vomit.
Her eyes snapping open as she did it, she just managed to push the small form of the grey squirrel away, leaving the remains of her food in a puddle by her foot.
"Sorry-" she gasped, but Fleetpaw interrupts her.
"Run, run Karrena! King Corrin comes, he comes to kill you!"
As soon as the words were spoken, she noticed the tell-tale sounds of someone storming through the woods. "Lady Sinere!" She hisses at Fleetpaw, "Tell Jack that it's Lady Sinere!" She scrambled out of one side of the trees as the squirrel darted out of the other, eyes wide, the importance of his message fuelling legs that were already trembling with fear.
An incessant chattering accompanied Jack's painful headache as he fought his way back to consciousness, fuelled by the knowledge that there was something important he had to be doing, although he can't quite remember what it was just yet.
VVVVVV
He opened his eyes and eventually focused on the form of a squirrel – Fleetpaw, his scrambled brain informed him – who was pulling urgently at his collar.
"Lady Sinere!" he chattered. "Karrena said to tell you it is Lady Sinere!"
Everything rushed back and he pushed himself up with a speed he wouldn't have thought himself capable of. Looking around, he found the tall, ethereal form of his enemy, eyes clouded as she concentrated on something he couldn't see.
He whipped out two small knives and took only the briefest moment to focus and aim before he threw them, one after the other, even as Karrena came tearing into the scene at the corner of his vision, shortly followed by Corrin.
As the knives hit; a glancing blow to her left arm, and one deep into her chest, Corrin faltered, stumbling and falling to his knees.
Karrena ran to Jack, grabbing his right arm, not realising the pain that this caused him as she kept hold as she walked behind his stumbling form, panting and trembling.
"What- What's happening?" Corrin's clichéd question and look of bewilderment were short-lived as the bloody knife pulled from the witch's chest was suddenly thrust against his throat and he daren't look away from the approaching duo.
"Stop where you are!"
Jack halted and the continued momentum nearly sent him to his knees. For some reason, Sinere didn't seem to notice that Karrena had continued moving. Jack made a point of not looking at her, holding the widening eyes of the King instead.
"I would have rid Narnia of all of the impure beasts and ruled well; all would have loved me, and we could have had a world of order!"
Still she didn't seem to notice Karrena, even though she was picking up a sword and walking toward her, raising it in her arms.
"I could have fulfilled my heritage and ruled as the White Witch once did, bringing order to this-"
Her words cut off in a gurgle as she fell backwards, sword stuck halfway through her neck as Karrena stumbled backwards, her face white as she dry retched before passing out.
Jack looked around, realising for the first time that they had an audience held in rapture. The battle rush began to seep out of him as he realised that it was all over and cold darkness began to creep in.
"Hello Darkness, my old friend…"
VVVVVV
I hope you like! If you want more, sooner, then I suggest you review. They spur my muse on and make me want to write more :D