Author's Note: Once again, written in partnership with Sibella. We do not own The Chronicles of Narnia or any of the related characters. No matter how much wishful thinking we exercise, it all belongs to C.S. Lewis. Except for our characters: Chloe, Aidan, and Lark belong to me while Icis and Ellamae belong to Sibella. (Aidan is pronounced like Eye-dan and Icis, again, like Isis.)
Chapter 2: Smart Alecs, Broken Promises, and a Great Cluster
Over the next few days, things were miserable for Lucy. Chloe, who felt truly awful for what she had said earlier, did her best to make Edmund stop sneering. Of course, she wasn't very successful. Later, the kids were playing hide-and-seek and Susan was "It." Chloe was looking for a hiding place when she stumbled upon Lucy opening the wardrobe again.
"Lucy!" she hissed, startling Lucy. Lucy looked at her with an expression she couldn't read. Just then, they heard footsteps. "Oh, it's Susan!" Chloe gasped, and pulled Lucy inside the wardrobe.
Lucy wanted to visit Narnia again if possible. She, of course, didn't say this; she just pulled Chloe toward the back of the wardrobe with her.
"Ouch! How deep is this wardrobe anyway?" Chloe suddenly backed into something hard and rough; very unlike the smooth, polished back of the wardrobe. She turned and saw she was leaning against a tree. She looked wide-eyed at Lucy, who was smiling—she had obviously allowed Chloe to bonk into the tree on purpose.
"You—you were telling the truth?" Chloe squeaked. Lucy nodded, smiling wider.
"Oh! Do you want to meet Mr. Tumnus?" Lucy asked, her eyes lighting up.
"Of course!" exclaimed Chloe, and the two girls set off into the forest of Narnia.
Meanwhile, between 2 towering, snowy mountains not far from the forest, was a huge palace covered in ice like almost everything else in Narnia. The courtyards were filled with silent, gray statues of Animals, Giants, Fauns, Centaurs, Unicorns, and other creatures, and a long flight of stairs let to the entrance of a great Throne Room. However, the Throne itself wasn't empty. The White Witch, Jadis, was sitting silently drumming her fingers on the armrest, when suddenly the Gates swung open, revealing a pack of Wolves, their leader unmistakably Maugrim. Among them was Icis, her hands bound and her head still hung in shame.
Jadis stood up, smiling maliciously at the incoming group, seeing the Wolves carrying Icis' crown and wand.
"Well, well, well," she said as the Wolves stopped in front of her and bowed, "what have we here, Maugrim?"
Icis' eyes made contact with Jadis' without lifting her head. For a moment, the Princess glared at the Witch, while no one said a word. Jadis glared back, coming closer to Icis; she stopped and grabbed her niece's chin, forcing her to look up. For a moment, Jadis studied Icis, especially her icy-blue eyes.
"Hmph! You stare at me with your mother's eyes," said Jadis. Almost to herself, she added, "Yes, Ara's stare was always dark and cold."
Icis' eyes lowered to Jadis' hand holding her chin, when Icis pulled away, out of the Witch's hold. Icis then lunged for Jadis' hand, almost biting her. Eyes flashing threateningly, Jadis pulled her hand away.
"That's funny," said Icis, now slightly struggling against the Wolves in control of holding the ropes binding her hands, "with your power to turn creatures into stone and a stare as cold as yours, one might mistake you for a Gorgon!"
Jadis' Dwarf, who was standing by her Throne, stifled a snort under his scarf. When the Witch heard him, she wheeled around and shot him a look, and he was silent again. She then turned toward Icis again.
"Well, aren't you the clever one, Icis?" she said. "With teeth as sharp as yours, you'd make the perfect Wolf."
After that, everyone was silent. Maugrim and the other Wolves smiled maliciously; Icis was still, but Jadis' last remark sent a chill down her spine.
"And if you escape me," Jadis continued, "where will you plan to go?" Some of the Wolves growled at Icis who remained silent. "Well?" snapped Jadis. "Answer me!"
"If I may, your Majesty," interrupted Maugrim, "we followed the Princess to the lamp-post. And shortly before we found her, a certain Tree Spirit informed us of a Faun helping a—Daughter of Eve escape."
"What?!?" exclaimed Jadis.
Icis' eyes were wild, but the shock of Maugrim's awareness of Lucy and Mr. Tumnus now being told to Jadis left her motionless. Jadis smiled slyly at Maugrim and glared at Icis.
"So that's where you'd escape to," she said, "the World of Men." Still, Icis was silent. Jadis and sighed, with the look that seemed to ask, "What to do with you…what to do with you…"
Icis waited with bated breath and a hard frown, hatred burning her iced blue eyes.
"Icis," Jadis said finally, "I'm giving you another chance."
Icis was stunned, and Maugrim's eyes were wide as his jaw dropped. However, Icis frowned.
"Is this some kind of trick?" she spouted.
"No," said Jadis, "in fact—it's a privilege."
"Your Majesty," said Maugrim, "I do object!"
"You would!" snarled Icis.
"Silence!" spoke up Jadis. "Maugrim, unhand the Princess—and reunite her with her possessions."
Maugrim and some of the Wolves were glaring at Icis who was smiling slyly back down at them. Reluctantly, the Wolf holding the ropes binding her hands let go of them. The other Wolves then let the other ropes go, and Icis stepped out of the pile of ropes at her feet.
"So, what's the idea?" she said, looking up at Jadis.
"I want you to wait by that lamp-post, so you can help me get—acquainted with this—Daughter of Eve."
Icis' brows rose. As the Wolves were backing slowly away, she and Jadis looked back at them.
"Hey!" snapped Icis. "Give me my crown and wand back!"
Maugrim stepped forward again, with Icis' things. Icis snatched them away and Jadis sent Maugrim and the other Wolves out.
"But you must make a promise to me, Icis," said Jadis.
"Spell it," said Icis.
"You must promise me to not try to escape again," said Jadis, "or the next time, I will make you a Wolf."
Icis, at first, hesitated; she hated Jadis so strongly that she would leave Narnia and never come back, but then again, who said Icis has to keep this promise? Jadis probably wasn't planning to keep hers, and they were both equally powerful.
Again, Icis' brow rose, and her hard frown slowly twisted into a smile.
"All right," she said, "I won't…just as long as I'm treated as everyone calls me."
With that, Jadis bowed her head.
"Very well," she said. "You have my leave to go."
Icis turned, placing her crown on her head and hooking her wand on her belt again, and left the Palace.
The Princess set out into the forest once again, hoping to find some of her friends. As she glanced up in the trees, she thought she saw a flash of something pink.
One of the Wolves followed closely behind her, his silver fur sparkling with snowflakes. He was smirking to himself; apparently he was amused by Icis' performance in the Palace.
Icis stopped, hearing the Wolf's footsteps in the snow behind her, and spun around, whipping her wand out and pointing it at him.
"Stay where you are!" she snapped.
"Whoa, there, Princess, I'm not doing anything," said the Wolf, his eyes widening. "Maugrim wanted to follow you himself, but he got too tired and told someone else to, but they were too lazy. So they asked me to. 'Sure, make Aidan do all the work,' I said, but of course, I went along with it. But never mind that, would you stop pointing that thing at me? I'd rather not be a statue."
Icis snorted. To her, Aidan was considered just another Wolf in Maugrim's police whose only functions were to keep her in line and obey her hated aunt, and she did not trust him.
"Hmph! If I turned you into stone, you'd be one less Wolf in my way," said Icis.
Suddenly, Icis felt something land on her shoulder.
"Icis! I was so worried!" said a somewhat small voice in her ear. "I was expecting you to go in that Palace and not come out again!"
Icis turned her head and smiled.
"Hello, Ellamae," she said to the little Fairy on her shoulder.
Aidan smirked. "Her Majesty wouldn't do that. She needs Icis. Of course, I don't trust Her not to turn her into a Wolf anyway." He stopped and looked ashamed of himself. "I shouldn't have said that."
Ellamae Kyandi, a Fairy who was 13 years of age and no bigger than a kitten, had pink wings with dark-turquoise trim and pink-orange hair with pink bangs and wearing a colorful gown whose skirt was knee-length. Her pink-and-blue eyes were sparkling excitedly as she made herself comfortable on Icis' shoulder, glad she was with her friend again.
"I heard from a red bird that you were caught by the lamp-post and taken back to the Palace!" she said. "What happened? Who did you see?"
Icis' brows rose. Glancing at Ellamae, she once again sheathed her wand.
"Who did I see?" she replied. "Just a Faun."
"Daughter of Eve, too, according to Ol' Grim," added Aidan, smirking.
Ellamae gasped as her eyes widened.
"Really, Icis?" she asked, her blue antennae perking up and tickling Icis' ear as the little Fairy lightly tugged on a little handful of Icis' hair. "A real Human? What did it look like?"
"Ah, well, she wasn't much—just a short little thing in a dress and knobby knees," said Icis as she and Aidan were now strolling along a frozen pond, barely seeing profiles of their reflections through a thin, sparkling sheet of snow.
"I've always wanted to see a Human," said Ellamae, mostly to herself. "Say, Icis, where are we going, by the way?"
"Back to the lamp-post to do my job," replied Icis, "if Aidan'll ever decide to get lost," she added, shooting a look at Aidan.
"What, and directly disobey Ol' Cap'n Grim's orders?" Aidan scoffed. "No, I really don't feel like blowing my cover today, thank you very—OH! I should NOT have said that! Forget I was even talking!"
He gazed fearfully at Icis' and Ellamae's shocked faces.
Icis' eyes flashed, and then rolled in annoyance.
"Whose side are you on, anyway?" she asked the shocked Wolf. "I'm so used to thinking all Wolves are just scavengers sent from that cursed woman of an aunt of mine, but surprisingly, I'm beginning to wonder about you, Aidan."
Ellamae was somewhat used to listening to Icis arguing with Wolves and often ignored it. As she let her bright eyes wander the snow-covered forest, she suddenly heard the faint jingling of bells and then a halt. The little Fairy's wings fluttered as she gasped, terrified at what that might be. She tugged on Icis' hair again.
"Icis," she whispered, her wing ticking Icis' ear, "did you hear what I heard?"
Icis' ear twitched as she looked away from Aidan, glanced at Ellamae, and looked out toward the forest. Suddenly, she heard a familiar female's voice.
"Aw, my poor child," she said in a soothing tone, "how cold you look! Come and sit with me here on my sledge, and you'll be nice and warm under my mantle, so we can talk."
Icis gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth, recognizing who that was.
"Oh, no," she said, "I hope I'm wrong on this one."
Icis unsheathed her wand and began running through the snow and hid behind a tree. She peeked around a corner, and she was, unfortunately, correct: Jadis with her sledge drawn by her white reindeer and controlled by her hated Dwarf, but there was something a little different—Jadis was in her sledge, but with a short little someone huddling close to her under her mantle, happily eating some Turkish Delight out of a round box with a fancy, green, silk ribbon.
"A Son of Adam?" hissed Icis, staring at the boy.
"Oh, no…" moaned Aidan, but whether it was about the Son of Adam with the White Witch or about the fact that he had blown his cover, no one could tell.
Icis' heart made a giant leap into her throat as she sheathed her wand, took a handful of Aidan's soft hide with one hand, and snatched Ellamae by her wing with the other.
"Get down!" she hissed, diving behind some tall, thick bushes and pulling Aidan and Ellamae down with her, as to avoid being seen.
"Ow!" hissed Aidan. "I am on your side, in case you haven't noticed, so what was that for?"
When the 3 of them hit the ground, Icis' face was partially buried in powdery snow, but nearly choked trying to keep quiet after hearing what Aidan said. She looked up at him, stunned, while Ellamae struggled with her wing caught between Icis' 2 fingers.
"What did you say?" hissed Icis.
"I'm on your side, and I definitely shouldn't have said so," whispered Aidan, then whimpered slightly. "What if the trees heard me…?"
"What?" whispered Icis; she forgot about the Tree Spirit that got her in trouble at this same spot. She and Aidan looked at each other and then up at the trees that were now being rustled by a cold breeze; their short conversation probably had reached the trees' attention.
Icis lay lower, pulling Aidan and Ellamae down further, only this time gripping Aidan by the muzzle to keep his mouth shut. Ellamae fluttered her free wing, keeping her face out of the snow as best she could.
"Icis," she whispered, "let's get out of here, we'll get in trouble for sure!"
"Sshh!" whispered Icis. "Wait a minute!"
"Please, your Majesty," said the Son of Adam with Jadis, "can't I have a little more Turkish Delight to take home with me?"
"Oh, no, Edmund," replied Jadis with a pleasant smile, "not yet. First, you must go back and bring your brother and sisters to me. And if you come back alone, I shall be very angry."
"This is not good," Aidan muttered through gritted teeth.
Icis glared at Aidan. "No, really?" she whispered through gritted teeth herself.
Ellamae wiggled out of Icis' grip and crawled onto a snowy rock, flapping her wings to allow the blood to get back into them. She peered through a bush's branches and gasped.
"Icis," she whispered, "look!"
Icis and Aidan looked from each other to where Jadis and Edmund were, only to see sledge tracks in the snow.
"They're gone!" cried Icis, jumping to her feet and letting go of Aidan's muzzle.
The 3 of them jumped out from behind the bushes when Icis noticed small holes in the snow.
"Look, guys!" said Icis, pointing at the ground. "The Son of Adam's footprints! Come on!" At this, Icis started to run, with Edmund's footprints alongside her and Ellamae flying not too far behind her.
Aidan hesitated, but followed them anyway.
Icis' feet were sinking through the snow, following Edmund's footprints in haste, until suddenly two creatures ran out in her path just ahead. It was Lucy leading Chloe by the hand in the same direction of Edmund's footprints. Icis stopped abruptly in her tracks and gasped, with Ellamae able to catch up to her friend and perch on her shoulder.
"Who's that?" cried Ellamae, grabbing Icis' hair with one hand and pointing toward Lucy and Chloe ahead with the other.
"Two Daughters of Eve!" blurted Icis. "They're probably going after their brother! Come on, let's go!"
With that, Icis, Ellamae, and Aidan proceeded.
"I don't like this," Aidan muttered, but he was ignored.
Suddenly Lucy gasped; the two girls had spotted Edmund.
"Edmund!" cried Lucy, smiling. "You got in, too! Isn't it wonderful?"
Icis kept running, Ellamae fluttering her wings excitedly, until she stopped again, seeing Edmund, Lucy, and Chloe.
"Lucy!" cried Edmund, surprised. "All right, I owe you an apolo—" Edmund grunted as his little sister came forward and hugged him.
"Look, Icis," whispered Ellamae in Icis' ear, "Three of them!"
"Yeah, three of them," Icis repeated. "But I haven't seen her before." Her eyes were now fixed on Chloe.
"Don't think she's even related to them, do you?" mumbled Aidan. "Don't look anything alike…"
Chloe, at this point, was giggling at Edmund. "Shouldn't have made fun of her, should you?"
Icis was thoughtful. "Well, maybe she's not—" Suddenly she snorted and looked at Aidan—"now, how would you know that?"
"Well, like I just said, they don't look anything alike. Okay, so they've all got dark-ish hair, but her hair's curly and none of the facial features are similar to theirs at all." Aidan explained. "Then again, that doesn't count as anything. My sister, Lark, you'd never guess she's my sister—except for the eyes and her being a Wolf too."
"Oh, I see, and you're an expert at this sort of thing, are you, Aidan?" snapped Icis, frustrated. "You've never even seen a Human before, and you're telling—OW! Ellie, what?!?" Icis was interrupted as Ellamae yanked on her hair.
"Look! There they go!" said Ellamae, pointing ahead.
Icis and Aidan looked ahead to see the three children proceeding to the wardrobe.
"Hey!" cried Icis. "Children! W-Wait for us!"
At this, Icis began running again, but stopped after a few yards when seeing a perfect view of the wardrobe door and the three children running through it.
"Come on!" sported Ellamae excitedly. "Let's go!"
Aidan was having a major internal conflict at the moment. He didn't want to leave Narnia, but he would look like he wasn't loyal to Maugrim if he didn't follow Icis and Ellamae. So he decided to go with them.
"Come on, Ellie!" sported Icis happily. "We're out of Narnia!"
Just a few moments after Lucy, Chloe, and Edmund disappeared into the wardrobe, Icis, at full speed, with Aidan following close behind, plunged in the door, landing in a bunch of branches and coats pulled off their hangers. When Icis and Aidan sat up, Narnia was gone, and they were in the darkness of the closet.
Aidan collapsed, out of breath. "Where—the—bloody—heck—are—we?!?" he gasped. "What—kind—of—world—is this?"
Icis landed face-first in four fur coats and she lifted her face, gasping for air. She then saw Aidan. "Hey!" she yelled. "You came, too? NO!!!"
Aidan caught his breath, laughing. "How could you not want me around!?" he whined over-enthusiastically.
A fluffy hat landed on Icis' head from a shelf above her that she angrily ripped off and hurled at the wall. "You miserable, good-for-nothing beast!" she sputtered at Aidan. "You Wolves want a piece of me? I ought'a—I—I—" Icis had her wand out, ready to strike the Wolf, when she stopped, stared at him for a moment, and lowered it. She frowned, drew a heavy sigh, and folded her arms, now looking thoughtful at him raising his eyebrows at her, waiting for the worst. "Well," she said, "you are only one Wolf, not the entire pack, and you seem to be less harmful to me than I thought, anyway. I'll spare your life if you spare me any funny business, got that? From now on, you're loyal to no one but me, because we're all out of Narnia, and my goal is to stay out." With that, she resheathed her wand.
"Okay, one—funny is my thing. It's what I do. Two—I'm loyal to Aslan only. Got a problem with that?" Aidan snapped.
Icis' eyes flashed at Aidan and she opened her mouth, but her voice was dead. Whenever Jadis and her followers heard Aslan's name, they shuddered; most Narnians were dreamy-eyed and happy, but whenever Icis heard it, she was curious, frightened, and heavy-hearted.
Staring into Aidan's eyes, Icis swallowed hard trying to moisten her now dry mouth and blinked several times to try hiding her tears from the Wolf, but it was no use.
"Aslan?" she sobbed. "If he cared about Narnia, he wouldn't have left." With that, she broke down completely.
"Well, he's not a tame Lion," Aidan answered. "He can leave as he wishes. But he always comes back when needed—see, that's what Lark and the others are waiting for."
"And back in Narnia," sobbed Icis, "there I was waiting along with them. And I got tired of waiting. That's why we're here—I couldn't take it anymore." She hung her head.
Aidan didn't know what to say. "Well—I'm only here because Maugrim said to follow you—and if I didn't, my undercover jig would be up."
Icis lifted her head again and she wiped her tears. "Wow," she said, "you have a lot of faith in this Aslan, don't you?" She sniffed and then arose from the coats. Then suddenly, she gasped and swiveled her head around. "Hey, where's—where's Ellamae? We've gotta get outta here!"