Disclaimer: Still not C.S. Lewis

Chapter 2

"Hey," Anna panted, running up to Edmund. "Aslan said you wanted to see me?"

Edmund looked bewildered. "I haven't talked to Aslan... but yes, I did."

Anna held up her arms. "Well, here I am!"

"Thank you," Edmund said, shaking her hand. "You saved my life more than once today. I owe you."

Anna shook her head. "You saved me several times too."

"When?"

"When those two dwarves attacked us. And from what I gather, you and your siblings are the leader of the rebellion against Jadis. If it weren't for you, I'd still be a statue."

Edmund nodded reluctantly. "Alright, we're even."

"Indeed, you are even," spoke a deep, warm voice from beside them. Both children kneeled quickly when they realized it was Aslan. The Great Lion turned to Anna. "I am sorry to interrupt, but can you allow me to borrow Edmund for a moment?"

"Of course, Aslan," Anna said. She watched as the Lion bade Edmund to follow him. The two of them climbed to the top of one of the hills surrounding the valley.

Lucy popped up beside Anna. "Hi!"

"Hello," said Susan, coming up on her other side.

"Hello," Anna replied to both of them.

"What do you suppose Aslan and Edmund are doing?" Lucy asked.

"Well I'm sure they could be doing any number of things," Susan replied.

"Yes, but which one of those number are they doing? Oh look! Edmund's giving Aslan his sword. And he's kneeling. Oh! Aslan's knighting Edmund! How lovely. I do so wish girls could be knighted too. I think it would be perfectly marvelous to be a knight."

"Girls aren't knights," Susan said, "They are ladies."

"Maybe I could be a lady-knight," Lucy suggested.

"You're to be better than that, Lucy," Susan told her. "Tomorrow, you and I will be queens of Narnia!"

Lucy had to agree that that was much better, and the three of them watched the ceremony.

It's good for them that they are to be monarchs, Anna thought. I hardly know them, but they seem to be good people. Even Edmund, traitor though he may have been. Even traitors deserve forgiveness. I would know.

The next day, Aslan made Anna a Lady of Narnia. It was a small ceremony. Anyone who wanted could have come, but it wasn't highly publicized and not many people knew about it. The Pevensies attended, along with two beavers and a faun named Tumnus. And of course, Aslan himself presided. The event was no longer than fifteen minutes. After it was over, she got handshakes from Peter, Tumnus and Mr. Beaver, and hugs from Susan, Lucy, and Mrs. Beaver. Edmund couldn't seem to decide which he wanted, and the whole thing was rather awkward. They ended up in fits of giggles, but, as Anna told him, "Laughs are better than handshakes any day, and hugs on most."

There was no celebration afterward. The Pevensies had to prepare for their coronation later that day, and everyone else had to help.

After they left, Anna was surprised to find that she was not alone.

"Aslan?" she asked. She'd half expected him to clear out as soon as the ceremony was over.

"Yes, child?" he replied.

"Why?"

"I am afraid you'll need to elaborate."

Anna had the feeling he knew what she meant, but he wanted her to ask anyway. "Why did you make me a Lady?" she asked. She couldn't think of one reason that she deserved the honor.

Aslan looked at her thoughtfully. "Do you think you should have been a queen?" he asked. Anna thought that he knew she meant quite the opposite, but that he was testing her, somehow.

Anna shook her head fervently. "Oh, God, no. Not after what I've done."

"Yet, you think Edmund will make a good king," he stated. "Why?"

Anna found herself at a loss for words. "Well, um... he, ah, broke the Witch's wand...?"

Aslan smiled gently. (Should lions smile? Anna wondered. Well, if they can already talk, then I suppose that they might as well.) "I have forgiven you. Perhaps it is time that you forgive yourself. And being a Lady of Narnia, do not question it. Know that everything happens for a reason."

Anna curtsied. "Yes, Aslan."

When she raised her head, the Great Lion was gone.

"Can you believe it?" cried Lucy, linking her arm through Anna's. "I'm a queen! A queen!"

The two girls (and half of the entire population of Narnia) were at the after party for the coronation ceremony.

The event was fairly simple. There were no long speeches or boring rituals. Aslan crowned them and gave them titles - High King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just, and Queen Lucy the Valiant. The new kings and queens had bestowed a few honors on those who had especially helped the rebellion, and that was it. The whole thing took less than thirty minutes.

The following ball, however, lasted well into the night. There was music and dancing and food better than any Anna had ever had. It was the best party she had ever been to. Still, even the most elaborate balls are no fun without someone to share it with, and Anna didn't know anyone besides the Pevensies. She would have talked to them, but they were so popular she could barely even get near them. The only time she said more than a quick greeting to them since her ceremony earlier that morning was when Peter asked her to dance, sparking jealousy from the girls who had decided to be his fan club.

She encountered Lucy several hours into the party.

"It's exciting, isn't it?" Anna told her. "We're royalty! To stay in Narnia even as a poor peasant would have been an honor, but this...!"

Lucy giggled. "It's fantastic!"

"I know!" Anna sighed. "I'm just worried about what I'm going to do after tonight. What is a Lady supposed to do, anyway? And I'm going to have to find somewhere to live. How does one go about buying a house in Narnia?"

"You don't have to buy a house!" Lucy exclaimed. "You can live here, in Cair Paravel!"

Anna was flabbergasted. "Wow, I... thank you! Are you sure?"

"Of course!" Lucy said. "You're royalty! You have to live in a castle! Unless you'd rather live in the Witch's old one..."

Anna shuddered. That was the last thing she wanted to do. "Thank you so much, Lucy! I'd love to live here. But shouldn't we ask your siblings first, to make sure they're okay with it?"

"Good idea. Let's ask them now!" She began to lead the Lady through the throng of people.

"How are we going to find them in this crowd?" Anna called to Lucy over the noise of the party.

"Easy," Lucy said. "When you see a bunch of teenage girls, there's Peter. When you see a bunch of teenage boys, there's Susan." She smirked. "When you see a bunch of food, there's Edmund."

Lucy turned out to be correct. After moving through the crowd for some bit, they eventually came across an area with a high teenage female concentration. There were all sorts of girls - mostly immigrants or visitors from Calormen, Archenland, or Telmar, but some were dryads or naiads, or other humanoid creatures. And they were all fawning over Peter.

"Excuse me!" Lucy called cheerfully. "Queen and Lady coming through!" They eventually reached the High King, who looked slightly terrified.

"Peter!" Lucy exclaimed. "May Lady Anna live with us at Cair Paravel?"

"Why, that's a brilliant idea, Lu! Simply brilliant!" Peter edged a little to the right as a Calormene girl came a bit too close to him. "Anna, would you like to dance?"

"Of course," she said, and allowed the High King to lead her away from the group of silly girls. The two began a lively dance. Narnian dances are very different from dances from our world - they're better. And one of the things that makes them better is that they're so easy to learn.

"You'll barely say two words to those other girls, but this is the third time you've danced with me today, Peter!" Anna teased him, "Your admirers might get discouraged."

"That's the idea," he said. "They're insufferable!"

Anna found Lucy again after the song ended.

"I talked to Susan, and she thought it was a perfectly lovely idea," the young queen told her. "I can't seem to find Edmund anywhere!"

"Well, look around for him," Anna said. "He's got to be here somewhere."

Somehow, the two got separated in the crowd. Anna was unable to find Lucy again, but she did spot Edmund in a corner. She politely declined the faun who had asked her to dance, and went to join the young king.

If he noticed she had appeared, he gave no indication. Edmund did not look at her or shift from his position of leaning back against the wall. He was staring in the direction of Peter and his fan club. "It must be nice to be adored," he muttered.

"Not really," Anna said. "Peter says they're insufferable."

"It's like they don't even know I exist," Edmund sighed. "And I'm not just talking about the girls, because they're all older than me anyhow. I mean everyone. Well," he amended, "Everyone except you and my siblings. It's as though I don't they don't even know I'm a king, too. Although Aslan knows I don't deserve to be one." Edmund sighed. "I'm sorry for telling you all this."

"No," Anna said, touching his arm gently, "It's okay." She recalled the words that the Great Lion had said to her earlier that morning. "Aslan has forgiven you," she told Edmund. "Maybe it is time that you forgave yourself."

Edmund said nothing.

"Come on," she told him, slipping her hand into his and leading him out of the corner, "Let's dance."

The first few years were for the most part uneventful. There were a few small rebellions from the supporters of the Witch, but they were easily defeated. Anna and the Pevensies took small trips to Archenland and Calormen, on different occasions, but for the most part they never left Narnia.

Anna loved life at Cair Paravel, she really did. Everything just seemed so much... better than at back home. Sure, they didn't have movies or telephones. Those seemed a small sacrifice for all Narnia had to offer. Still, there were times when she wished that she had never opened that door. This was usually late at night, when she woke up from a nightmare, screaming and in a cold sweat. It seemed she could never escape her past. Usually, Anna was glad that no one knew. At times like these, she wished they did, so that she could talk about it. Maybe then it wouldn't eat her up inside quite so much. The closest person who came to knowing was Edmund. He knew that she had nightmares, but not what about. He had them too, about the Witch. Many times one would wake at night to hear the other screaming, and they would sit together in Edmund's room until morning, afraid to go back to sleep.

Edmund wasn't the only Pevensie Anna grew close to. Lucy became her other best friend, besides Edmund (and Mary). Susan became a kind of an older sister. She was happy to offer advice on etiquette and what to wear, and other things that Anna would never know how to do on her own. Peter was like a big brother to her. He gave her advice, and helped her whenever she needed something, and drove off unwanted suitors (and sometimes even wanted suitors, but she supposed she was too young anyway). Over time, though, her feelings for Peter started to lean toward romantic (a fact she kept strictly hidden from everyone except Lucy.)

Anna knew almost everything there was to know about the four of them. Sometimes this made her feel guilty, when she remembered how little they knew about her...

Edmund almost found out her secret, once, and not from Anna screaming in her sleep.

Cair Paravel had an extensive library, and Anna decided to put it to good use. She had taken it upon herself to learn as much about Narnia as she possibly could, and could often be found poring through dusty old books. More often than not, Anna was joined by one of the Pevensies. Susan flipped through fashion magazines, Peter read tales of ancient battles, and Lucy devoured adventure stories. Edmund would read pretty much anything. On one such occasion, he was glancing through a history textbook that Anna hadn't gotten to yet.

"Look at this," he said, stopping on one of the pages, "This says that there were humans that came to Narnia before we did."

"Of course," Anna replied, "Digory and Polly. They were there at the beginning of the world."

"No, I mean after that."

"Really?" Anna asked, becoming interested and forgetting for the moment that she was one of the humans.

Edmund nodded. "It says, 'For nearly ninety years, the White Witch ruled all of Narnia without challenge. In the year 987, she began to have reason to fear. Two Sons of Adam and Two Daughters of Eve appeared in Narnia without reason or explanation. The Sons of Adam were two brothers, named Michael and William.'" If Edmund saw Anna go pale, he didn't notice. "'The brothers were said to have been brave and handsome, yet at times mischievous.'"

"No, that was just William," Anna said. "Michael was pretty responsible."

Edmund glanced up at her. "Did you say something?"

Anna waved it aside. "Never mind."

Edmund continued reading. "'Their two female companions were said to be smart as they were lovely. Mary was auburn-haired and solemn, and said to have beauty matched only by that of Queen Susan the Gentle.'"

"I would say Susan's a little bit prettier than Mary," Anna said. Seeing Edmund's confused look, she quickly said, "Judging by the picture."

Edmund glanced back at the page. "I don't see a -"

"Keep reading."

"Alright. 'The other had sunny golden hair and eyes like emeralds. She was the relative of the brothers Michael and Will-'"

"Let me see that," Anna interrupted quickly, and snatched the book from him. She pretended to fumble with it, and dropped it on the floor. Anna knelt down with the pretense of picking up the book, but she quickly ripped out the page Edmund had been reading off of. Then she closed it and handed it back to the Just King.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm afraid I've lost your place."

Edmund flipped through the book, but was unable to find the page again (because it was in Anna's pocket.)

"Oh well," he said, after a good few minutes of searching. "I suppose it doesn't matter anyway. It's not as though they are still in Narnia."

"No," Anna said, "Of course not."