I am in an explicablely good mood because I just got my braces taken off, so you can have two more chapters! And now it really gets heated up!

Say you're sorry, that face of an angel,

Comes out just when you need it to,

As I paced back and forth all this time,

Cause I honestly believed in you.

'White Horse', Taylor Swift

I strode back with the remains if the army, through the fallen stone pavilion, Susan beside me. I felt cold and empty. No one was talking. As we went, I noticed Lucy up ahead.

"What happened?" Lucy asked desperately.

"Ask him," Peter replied stundedly, and I froze.

"Peter," Susan said gently, but Caspian cut in.

"Me?" he said quickly. "You could have called it off. There was still time."

"No, there wasn't thanks to you," Peter said angrily. "If you'd kept to the plan, those soldiers might be alive right now."

"And, if you'd just stayed here like I suggested, they definitely would be!"

"You called us, remember?" Peter reminded him.

"My first mistake," Caspian muttered.

"No. Your first mistake was thinking you could lead these people."

I tried to stay calm, but this was getting impossible. My breathing was speeding up, my hands balling up, my lip paling under the force of my teeth.

"Hey!" Caspian shouted at Peter's back. "I am not the one who abandoned Narnia."

"You invaded Narnia. You have no more right to it than Miraz does!" Peter retorted. "You, him, your father! Narnia's better off without the lot of you!"

My eyes widened, as Caspian whipped around, his sword unsheathed. Peter's quick reactions brought his own blade spinning up to meet Caspian's. I lost it. I didn't often lose my temper so quickly, but I couldn't believe what I was hearing now. From either of them. From Peter...

"Stop it!" Edmund shouted as I whipped a knife from my boot and threw it with the precise accuracy of fourteen hundred years' practise. It thudded into the broken pavement beneath the crossed swords.

Caspian and Peter both looked around, their swords dropping slightly.

l was seething as l stared at Caspian, breathing hard. He and Peter both turned to look at Trumpkin, as Lucy healed him gently.

l heard Trumpkin thank Lucy, without listening, and looked back at Caspian. l couldn't remember feeling so angry.

"Caspian, you may be the rightful heir here, but perhaps you don't deserve this!"

Everyone fell silent as l fell into a storm. I could see they were shocked and scared by my reaction but I didn't care. I wasn't losing this.

"Not if you're going to throw a tantrum and lay blame around. That raid was as much your fault as Peter's and if you can't learn to be an honest king soon enough, then maybe you aren't the right king at all. Because I won't follow someone who isn't true to themselves or to Narnia."

There was a long pause. Caspian looked completely stunned while my eyes moved across to lock with Peter's as l walked towards them. "And you? I thought I knew you better than this, Peter. But maybe I was wrong."

l continued past a shocked Peter and stormed into the how, ignoring Narnians parting on either side, steering clear of my temper.

l leant against the stone outside of the how, my arms folded, my eyes gazing sadly across the horizon over the trees. l was four levels up, above the entrance to the how.

"Arneia," a voice said quietly. l turned my head slightly and saw Peter leaning against the wall beside me, through a strand of blonde hair. His own dark fair hair was touseled, hanging in his dark serious brown eyes.

"Neia I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted at Caspian," he said. l tucked my hair behind one ear. "But try and see it from my point of view. I've returned to my country that I restored and I need to restore it again. His people are my enemy, I'm just trying to do my best."

"Peter, I know what you're trying to say," l murmured. "So see it from mine." l turned to look at him, and our eyes met. "I was orphaned when I was a year old. I existed for a century watching my people suffer. My country was restored, then slowly began to die again. I existed for another thirteen hundred years watching the rest of Narnia fall apart, without the man I loved, the father I loved and the rulers I loved.

"I've lived for fourteen hundred and thirty one years. I've spent fifteen of them in peace. The remaining fourteen hundred and sixteen I have spent fighting for my life, and for my people's lives. You were my first glimmer of hope, and I followed you. Caspian was my first glimmer since you left, and I trust him. He'll lead us there, if we give him the chance. And I have to give him the chance, because it's my only hope."

"I didn't try to leave," Peter told me.

"I know," l sighed, and a single tear began to leak. l fell back against the wall and stared out again across the woods. "I just... I don't want to lose everything. Narnia, Aslan... you. I've been fighting too long to give up now. But that's what's happening. We're beginning to divide. We can't win if we're not together in this."

There was a quiet pause. "What happened to Cair Paravel?"

"When Philip and the others returned telling us you had disappeared into the trees at Lantern Waste, I guessed where you'd gone. I tried to keep everything running as it would have done."

"Couldn't you appoint another monarch or crown yourself, as we're married?"

"No, you weren't dead," l explained. "I acted as a regent for four hundred years, but by then the people were giving up hope of your return. Many had gone back to living in the woods. And then the Telmarines came."

Peter waited quietly as l paused. "They were, not peaceful as such, but they stayed distant for fifty years or so. Then they attacked. Catapults, legions, horses. We knew from the outset we had already lost, but we fought in any way we could. lt was soon clear that it really was hopeless. I persuaded everyone to leave through the back passage to the beach where they could slip into the trees unnoticed.

When Cair Paravel was empty I packed my things and instructed Alrohar to wait on the beach. Then I went to your chambers and gathered everything I could and locked them in the treasure chamber. Finally I went to your throne and stood just where I did to crown you, and then I stood back to bow as I did. And then I left. I didn't watch them finally flood into the palace, I couldn't."

My tears were fully flowing, and l wiped them away briskly. Peter watched me silently, before drawing me to him into a hug. l buried my face against his shoulder as he pressed his cheek against my hair.

After a time we drew apart.

Peter sighed. "Arneia, I'm sorry for what I said to Caspian and you're right. We need to do this together. And we will. I'm going to go and see him."

l smiled sadly. "Thank you."

"Are you going to stay-" Peter began, indicating the rock.

"Yes for a bit, thinking time, " l replied. Peter smiled, nodded and disappeared.

I stood for a while, thinking of what we had lost, what we had gained. We'd gained time, knowledge and we'd set in the fear. But we'd lost troops, surprise... I knew the end was impossible to decipher.

I suddenly...sensed something. It wasn't a noise or a sigh, but it was there. It was something I recognised. The familiar cold feeling I had felt for a century. I didn't wait, I began running. Through the tunnels of the how, past confused Narnians. The deeper I went, the colder it got.

I entered the Stone Table's chamber and froze. In front of me a werwolf lay twitching on the ground, Edmund struggling out from under him. Trumpkin stood over Lucy who was curled upon the floor, beside a bleeding Nikabrik. A hag was slumped against a pillar of stone. Caspian was standing in front of a wall of ice in the centre of a chalk circle crudely drawn across the stone floor, a dazed look on his face. Jadis. Her pale arm was reaching from the frozen wall towards the prince. But as I watched, Peter shoved Caspian out of the circle.

"Get away from him!" Peter yelled, his sword up.

The Witch fell back a little.

"Peter dear… I have missed you," she simpered. "Come, just one

drop." The Witch reaches towards Peter. And I realised as Peter's sword lowered slightly.

It was the circle.

"You know you can't do this alone,"Jadis said gently.

"Peter, the circle!" I screamed, approaching. But I couldn't go in the circle. Peter hesitated, ignoring me, and lowered his sword a little more.

"Peter!" I screamed again. Damn the circle, Jadis wasn't taking Peter! I ran at Peter, throwing myself against him. We both fell to the floor, slamming into the stone. Then there was a shatter of ice and I instinctively curled up as shards of ice hit my back. Peter's arms automatically curled around me.

I waited, then we both slowly sat up.

"Are you alright," Peter whispered. and I nodded, before looking up to Jadis. She was gone. Edmund stood behind where the wall had been with his sword still drawn.

"I know," he told Peter. "You had it sorted." Edmund walked away as Peter and Caspian looked up at the carving of Aslan. I was still breathing hard and Peter looked down before drawing me carefully up. I looked away and saw Susan glaring in the entrance to the chamber. As Peter noticed her, she glowered and walked out.

"Let's go," I muttered.

"You're okay," Peter asked again, looking me over with a glance.

"I'm fine," I assured him, "come on." I wasn't. I wanted to get out of there, away from Jadis' remains.

I led the way up and out of the chamber, and we stepped outside with Caspian and Lucy to where Susan and Edmund were already waiting on the walls. My eyes widened in horror as my heart sunk

The Telmarine army was approaching in full forces, the legions, the horses, the catapaults. I swallowed. The last time I had seen this sight, I had seen my home fall. I saw Miraz at the head in full armour.

Peter and I looked at each other and I bit the inside of my lip. This was it.