Author's Notes

Disclaimer: C.S. Lewis owns the Chronicles of Narnia, not I!

Disclaimer 2: I do not know the actual proper procedures for treating bites by poisonous creatures, I only got my information off of the Internet. So I'm not sure this is entirely accurate and do not advise anyone to try it, okay? I know, I'm a worrywart *smiles*

Thanks so much to Sentimental Star, GuitarGirl496, Luna Nigra, and ..books for your reviews of the Introduction, and also for one particular suggestion that I think I just might follow up on... to be announced! This chapter took a long time to get together because I wrote it in one sequence, then decided to shuffle the order of events quite drastically.

Glad to see that I generated a little concern for Lucy's welfare! As to how she's going to fare, well... isn't that what you are reading the story to find out??? *grins*

Please read and review!

***

"Lucy!"

The memory of Susan's own scream shattered upon her ears over and over as she bent over her sister, her face almost as white as Lucy's. She let the tears that had been pushing at the back of her eyes spill over. Even as she cried quietly, Susan began treating the wound as she had been taught, making sure to keep it below the level of Lucy's heart.

"Oh Lucy," she murmured. "Do wake up dear! We need you to tell us where that cordial is…" She tied on a tourniquet, hating to make the cloth band cut into Lucy's delicate skin but terrified to make it too loose lest the... poison...

She shuddered, unable even to complete that thought. From the other room she could hear hurried shuffling noises as Lucy's personal handmaiden searched for the bottle of cordial. "Rainwen!"

The Beech Dryad poked her mossy head back into the room, eyes troubled. "Milady?"

"Have you – have you found it yet?"

"No, Milady." The Dryad hesitated, then picked up a woven blanket and tucked it in around Lucy. "Best keep her warm. And you too, my Queen," she said, touching Susan's cold cheek.

"Thanks," Susan murmured. "Keep looking."

"Of course."

Susan began sponging the wound. She shook terribly and spilled water everywhere, but she would rather have done as much for Lucy as she could than sit helpless. She murmured soft encouragement to her unconscious sister, praying Aslan would help someone in the castle to find the cordial. The wound cleansed, she bent forward and rested her forehead in Lucy's shoulder. She didn't want to see how white and still the young Queen's face had become.

"Lucy," she whispered. "We must find where you put that cordial. Where have you been all day? Aslan help me to remember!"

They had all been busy, Susan recalled. An envoy from Archenland had left just that morning, and at breakfast Peter had been thinking over their offer to ally themselves with Narnia. He and Edmund had discussed various strategies to strengthen King Lune's castle defenses. Susan herself had been occupied with looking over the tribute offerings the Archenlanders had presented to her, and preparing a list of the stores left after the week-long visit. Summer was almost over, and while harvest was a ways off, Susan still thought it wise to begin cleaning out the storerooms. She and Lucy had discussed getting the Moles to dig a bigger cellar, since it looked as if the harvest was going to be more bountiful than usual...

Susan sat up, frowning a little. Yes. They had agreed Lucy should go visit the Moles this day, and begin work immediately. But the chief, Lilygloves, lived a long way off on the Flat Plains of Narnia, and it would have taken Lucy a long time to get there and back.

Then she remembered that Lucy had talked about getting in another flying lesson on Willow Wing, one of the Griffins who lived in the castle.

And last, she remembered that Lucy had been looking for Edmund. But for what, Susan wasn't sure. She must have found him, though, because not half an hour later, Edmund had come running into the Cair with Lucy in his arms, crying that she had been bitten by a wretched lizard. That the lizard was poisonous was evident. One of Lucy's slender hands bore two large red punctures, and angry green tendrils traced their way under her skin, racing up her arm and toward her heart. Susan screamed her sister's name, but Lucy had already fainted and could answer no one, not even when a hysterical Peter charged her by Aslan to speak.

"Her cordial!" Edmund's dark eyes had been wide with fright. "Where is it? She didn't have it at the Pond!"

"Her room! Hurry!"

The stairs were run up more quickly than they had been even in the old sprinting races the children used to play. Having gained Lucy's chambers, Susan and Peter searched frantically for the cordial. Edmund laid Lucy upon the bed, and he too began flinging books and dresses about in the search. When a full two minutes had passed in this fashion, Susan dropped on her knees beside the bed.

"It isn't here. We shan't find it! Oh Lucy!" She cradled her unconscious sister in her arms, shaking.

"Of course we shall find it, Su," Peter protested. But his face was white and beaded with sweat. "She's only put it somewhere else in the house. Come, Ed!" The boys had run out, Peter calling for all in the castle to help them in the search while Edmund sent for a doctor and Susan remained to tend to Lucy…

Susan took a long, slow breath and began methodically searching the layers of her sister's soft dress, hoping that in their fright she and her brothers had simply overlooked the cordial. It was one of Lucy's favorite practical dresses, with any number of pockets in its brown depths.

Susan gasped and clutched at the cloth.

Brown! Hadn't Lucy been wearing blue at breakfast?

"Rainwen!"

The Dryad came. "Nothing yet, Milady." The Beech Girl quivered a little, as if a stormy wind was blowing upon her.

"Rainwen," Susan said quickly. "Where is the dress Lucy was wearing this morning? The blue, I think, with the red flowers at the hem and sleeves?"

Rainwen started, as if noticing for the first time that her lady was indeed wearing a different gown. "Yes! That she wore to the morning meal!" Susan jumped up and hurried to the closet, where Lucy had hung the dress. The Dryad clapped her hands together, causing the leaves in her hair to shake. "And changed to the brown habit she wears now when she left to see the Moles!"

"So she did see Lilygloves!" Susan exclaimed, searching through the folds and pockets of Lucy's morning dress. "Get a Falcon! Tell him to go ask Lilygloves if he or any of the moles saw the cordial on Lucy, or have seen it since she left!"

"Yes Milady!"

Susan, not finding the cordial in Lucy's gown, began hunting about on the closet floor, hoping that at any moment her fingers would encounter the cool, smooth surface of the diamond bottle, or that she might hear the soft tink of her nails against the stopper.

But the only cold she felt was the fear clenching her heart, when the sound she heard was that of Lucy choking.