"On the other side of the ice-wall"
Lucy couldn't believe her eyes. It was Winter! The ice caves shone around her in the sun like huge crystals, but the ground under her feet was even. She wasn't in the mountains anymore. She turned nervously and saw that the ice-wall was still there. She touched it. It was solid again.
"It opens when you need it, not sooner." Instructed her the fox. She followed him, looking around in amazement.
"It is so beautiful here! What is this place?"
"The Land of the North. The Far North."
"But how? We were... Oh, that's what you meant by shortcut!" Lucy realised the ice-wall must have brought them many miles from the mountains. "But who made this shortcut?" She asked.
"That is not for me to explain." Replied fox mysteriously and then, Lucy froze. A huge, white bear was approaching them and looking at her questioningly. In the first second she squeezed her hand on her dagger, getting ready to protect herself. The last encounter with the white bears she had was during the war. None of them was seen after and everybody assumed they all were on the side of the White Witch. But the fox didn't look alarmed.
"Good day, Asbjørn", he greeted the bear. Lucy breathed. The bear however spoke with quite a sharp and cold tone.
"Why did you bring here a stranger, Sylvester?" He circled Lucy and sniffed her from each side.
"I didn't bring her, she tagged along!" The fox said outraged, in the same way as he had talked about stealing Lucy's food before. She noticed there was no danger there, both animals had sharp tongues, but they seemed to be friends.
"Besides, the gate wouldn't let her through if she didn't belong here already!"
"Sylv! Hold your mouth, will you? That is yet to be seen."
"What do you mean?" She started to have enough of all these mysteries.
"There is a spell, your Highness." Said Sylvester.
"Your Highness? So you are..."
Lucy introduced herself, wondering if she again causes an alarm. But the bear only gazed at her intensely and murmured. "How interesting..."
"So, tell me about the spell! And this place! I was dreaming about the wall of ice for many months now. I have to know!"
"Everything in time, Your Majesty, everything in time... But you must be tired. And hungry. How about you take some rest. Then we'll talk."
She agreed. Asbjørn gestured her to follow him to one of the ice caves. Inside of it there was a big table and chairs covered with soft, woolen fabric, wonderfully warm in touch. Lucy was amazed that in spite of the ice walls, it was really warm in there. Soon, she was served a bowl of hot fish soup with fresh bread and, to her more surprise, a plate with baked potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables she coudn't recognize. Everything was simply delicious and made her feel full of energy.
"How did you get all of this?
"It's a gift from our queen." Explained Asbjørn and faced the door. Lucy straightened herself. Something in his voice made her shiver and her heart beat so fast and loud that she could hear the rush of blood bumping in her ears.
"Who is your..." She didn't finish when the tall figure, dressed all in white, appeared in the entrance.
"I trust my guard took care of you well, little queen", the familiar voice seemed amused. Lucy paled, jumped away from the table and held her dagger before her, pointing at the White Witch.
"How..." She felt like fainting, checked the windows for any possible way of escape and realised there was none. Nevertheless, she would fight to the end, the thoughts rushed through her head before she noticed that both, the bear and the Witch, were laughing.
"I knew it was a good idea to let her eat first." Jadis concluded and ignoring Lucy's dagger, she sat at the other side of the table. Two mugs and a big, steaming pot appeared out of nowhere and Asbjørn poured the hot liquid to them.
"Tea, my dear?" Jadis took one mug to her hand.
"No, thank you." Lucy replied coldly. She wouldn't make Edmund's mistake. The Witch seemed to read her mind.
"Oh, don't worry. It is just tea. Cross my heart. Besides, you ate my food a moment ago, so what difference does it make, really?"
When she didn't react, Jadis rolled her eyes and drank from her cup.
"What do you want from me?" Lucy finally managed to speak. Her throat was completely dry and barely let her make a sound. "Aslan, help me..." she prayed in her thoughts.
"Me? From you?! It is you who entered my kingdom. The second time if I recall. Getting annoying, really. So, it is ME asking questions, little queen. How did you break the spell?" Jadis' voice got lauder with every word. The last question basically made Lucy sit back on the chair. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself.
"First of all, don't shout at me. Second, I have no idea what I am doing here. The ice-wall brought me to this place. I don't know why."
She noticed how Asbjørn and the witch exchanged looks. To her shock, Jadis face brightened up and she really smiled.
"She is a little spitfire, isn't she? Oh I would have enjoyed you much more than your stupid brother the other day."
"Stop that! You have no right to speak about Edmund in this way!" Lucy had tears in her eyes. She felt so angry that her entire fear was gone. Her cheeks blushed with rage and she again jumped up to her feet. "If you are going to kill me, do it now!"
Jadis laughed. Melodiously laughed, shaking from apparently a great amusement and looking at Lucy with shining eyes, then she stood up and headed to the door.
"Nobody wants to kill you here, little queen," she said unexpectedly calmly.
She left, leaving Lucy with the untouched tea and Asbjørn hesitating, if he should follow her, or rather stay with Lucy.
"That went well." Sylvester sticked his nose from under the table.
"You were here all this time? You nosy..." Asbjørn took him by the tail and pulled up. The fox jumped on the table and ran to the rest of the potatos on Lucy's plate.
"You don't mind, do you?" He finished her meal before she managed to speak. The bear sighed deeply.
"Someone would think, you are not getting enough food over here." He spoke with a bit of offended voice.
Lucy was trembling and looking around as if she expected an attack at any moment. Not letting the knife out of her hand, she slowly walked to the entrance, looking if the bear was going to stop her. But nobody did. The White Witch was nowhere to be seen and Lucy noticed much more of the animals going through the field and among the ice "houses". A herd of goats was led by two big reindeers. They looked at her curiously and passed by without a word. And suddenly, the snow fluffed under her feet and she saw two jumping, white bunnies, with so long fur that it covered their eyes and ears. They looked like two rolling snow balls. All of it would be perfectly adorable if not the presence of the White Witch.
"Will anybody explain me, what I am doing here? And how in the world is she alive?!"
"It's a long story, my queen." Asbjørn said. As she kept staring at him demandingly, he took a deep breath and closed to her. "Well, alright. You should know, after all, since you're here. But you know, this tea really is delicious. There is no trick there. It will make you warmer."
Hesitating, she stepped back inside and took the mug to her hand. He was right. It was a black tea with orange, cinnamon and cloves. And something else, she didn't know what, but it tasted wonderful.
"During the last battle there was such a crowd, noise and chaos that for a long time we didn't really know what happened. Until we heard screaming that our queen was dead. It caused even more chaos. More and more creatures were running through the field and indeed, we felt the queen's magic was gone. But nobody knew, how she died, or who killed her. There were only rumours about King Peter and Aslan, but you know rumours. We were also fighting. Yes, I am not proud of it now. But those times we had only one choice. Fight, or die. Soon, we, the white bears, realised we had lost. I can recall only dead bodies all around and the Narnians looking for those of their enemies who remained, to finish them. Or to take them captive. We didn't want either of that. All we knew was that our world was gone and we wanted to escape. At night, we sneaked out from our hiding place, through the battle field, looking if more of us were maybe also hiding, pretending to be dead, like we did. But there was none. Except of one. I myself, in a certain moment, stepped, as I first thought, on another body. She was covered in blood and her clothes were torn. She wasn't conscious, her magic was obviously gone. We didn't want to leave her there. She might have been cruel to others, but she treated us, the white bears, fairly. Strictly. But fairly. We didn't know another life. We respected her and she deserved some respect in the moment of death. So we brought her as far to the North as we could. We wanted to bury her in the snow, but as we started, we felt a rush of magic coming through her. And then we knew. Our queen was going to survive. She slept for a long time. From the ice and snow we built a little house for her and guarded it, waiting if she ever wakes up. Finally, she did. She was weak at first, but with time her powers were slowly coming back. Since then, she is our queen again. And she is different now."
