Written for the Narnia Fic Exchange 2024 for Syrena_of_the_lake, rustedeaglewings, nasimwrites, PanBoleyn, ElementalRaven.
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: Gen Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Characters: Peter Pevensie Susan Pevensie Edmund Pevensie Swallowpad
Additional Tags: Talking Animals Golden Age (Narnia) Age of Winter (Narnia) Spies & Secret Agents Espionage Non-Canonical Character Death
Language: English
Collections: Narnia Fic Exchange 2024
Mischief and Murder follows closely after The Doctor Is In. If you are interested, I suggest reading Mischief and Murder first. This story also relies heavily upon the first chapters of The Palace Guard which describes the formation of the Royal Guard and how Briony and Lambert came to serve the Queens of the Golden Age. Culinary Diplomacy also includes a reference to the delegation referred to here and The Palace Guard.
Or, you know, just roll with it. Knowledge of other stories is not necessary.
He was a secret agent, and still alive thanks to his exact attention to the detail of his profession." – Ian Fleming
One cold night - and all the nights (and days) were cold in those days - when Willa was a very young Rat pup, her mother never returned to the nest.
"It was her," Knock whispered. The Rat Chieftain gathered the litter together and led them out of their cozy bolt hole and into the always winter. "Come. We have a long way to go."
Knock was old, very clever, and, Willa eventually learned, her own sire. Though, such things didn't matter much among female Rats. Rat females traced their family through their dams and Willa's own line, far longer than her tail, was renowned. As sneaks and spies.
She and her brothers followed Knock through the deep winter snow, hiding from the rotten-hearted Trees, the Wolves, and the Witch's other agents. Willa's three brothers didn't make it. Knock died a few days later from the cold, or hunger, or maybe just despair, the way so many did in those days.
The other Rats of the Stone Table Mischief showed her the old paths and routes her mother had patrolled and the hidey holes and safedens. Willa took up her mother's work and that of generations of Rat Does before her, looking for food, stealing it when they could, hiding, listening for who the Witch's agents were, and avoiding them however they could.
Willa found the caches of food herself. They had probably been her mother's but if they belonged to others, well, they were hers now. She'd eat some of the nuts and seeds or gnaw on the frozen fish. She'd bring some of it back to the nest in the shadow of the Stone Table where the Mischief made their home, though she tended to keep the food and share the information - which Faun she had seen talking to Maugrim, which Beavers would receive equipment or food from the Dwarf's sledge, which Birds spent too much time in the false-hearted Trees.
There would sometimes be food set out on the paths and roads she patrolled. There might be delicious smelling cheeses, fresh nuts out of their shells, tasty meats, even fruit - she'd look at it a long time, sniffing it carefully, and follow the hoof, paw, and toe prints away to what was always a dead body at the end. It was useful, learning how to sniff out bad magic and the poison that didn't smell or taste like anything but she learned was always there. She got good at it. She just knew when it just wasn't right.
As her mother would always say, "If it's too good to be true, it definitely is."
One early morning, she was heading back to the nest from a long night running along the Beruna paths when she smelled meat. Not proper meat, such as they'd get sometimes if she found the carcass of some dumb animal. This was Her meat.
Willa crept under a bush to get closer, sniffing the whole way and listening, but she didn't sense anything that would be a trap. Other than the meat, of course.
There was a big Raven in the tree. She didn't know many of the birds, and didn't trust most of the ones she did know.
"I wouldn't eat that if I were you," the Raven said. Male. Sounded mature. And it was interesting that he was warning her off. So not one of Hers.
"I wasn't going to," Willa retorted. She wouldn't say why. That wasn't safe even though the word in the Mischief was that all the Black Birds hated the White Witch. She didn't think any of Her spies were about this early and the Raven didn't seem bothered but she was still careful.
"So why aren't you eating it?"
The Raven hopped down closer. It was hard for a Bird to whisper but he muttered, "I saw Thornbark leave it there."
"Oh." Willa scratched her ear. "Him." She wasn't going to say anything more aloud about that, either. Thornbark was a bad one, and sometimes even drove the Witch's sleigh.
"What are we going to do about it?"
"We?" She'd not intended to do anything except stop at a cache for a bite on the way home and sleep the rest of the day.
The Raven cocked his head to the side. "You're Villa's daughter."
"Yes." That seemed safe enough to admit.
"Villa would have helped me get that piece of meat to the Beruna and toss it under the ice."
Willa didn't want to help. She just wanted to eat something that wouldn't kill her and go home. Her mother was gone. Maybe dead. Maybe turned to stone somewhere and left to slowly crumble. Whatever this Raven said, she wasn't her mother.
"Why would my mother have helped you?"
"So it doesn't kill any Narnians or the dumb game that Narnians might eat, which would poison them the same as if they did eat it." He scraped it with a toe claw and she could see that he'd been trying to scrape it loose - there were a lot of gouges around the poisoned meat. "But I can't get it out of the ground. It's too frozen and I need help at the River."
One of his toes was bleeding and had left a red smear on the snow. That was clever, actually. She or her agents would think someone had died.
"Fine."
It took some effort - the poisonous chunk was pretty big and solid. She didn't dare use her paws or teeth. She had to use a rock to chip at it and a stick to pry it up out of the ground. The Raven didn't offer any advice, though, so that was helpful. "You sure you can fly this?"
"No."
She leaned into the stick that she'd wedged underneath and could feel it move. She pushed harder, and with a pop, the solid chunk flew up, smacked against a tree trunk, and landed in a tangle of dead branches and pine needles.
"Good! That will make it easier."
She wiped her paws carefully on the snow and rolled about. She had been cold and tired and now she was wet, too. She'd been careful not to touch it but wanted to be sure it wasn't on her paws or fur.
The Raven flapped up, circled the treetops, then swooped down, claws out, and grabbed the meat chunk. He teetered and dropped, almost to the ground, but then, with a strong beat of his wings, steadied, and flew up.
Willa ran after him back to the River.
By the time she got there, the Raven had landed at a narrow part of the bank where the steam would bubble up - Willa never crossed there, though, because the water was deep under the ice and fed by something in the ground that kept it flowing. He'd dropped the chunk on the ice, in a good spot, the same one she would have picked. The Raven knew what he was about.
The Raven picked up a stick in his beak and tossed it to her. "You can use that to push it under the ice. Then you don't have to touch it and won't risk falling in."
"Got it."
It was pretty easy. She used the stick and shoved the chunk until it slid into through a crack in the ice, into the cold rushing water. From there it would go out to sea.
Just to be sure, she rolled around in the snow again and sniffed herself carefully but she didn't sense any of the poison on her fur.
"You're smart," the Raven said.
"You are, too."
"I am Sallowpad."
"Willa." There wasn't really anything to say after that. "Well, I'm going back to my nest."
She turned away but the Raven hopped closer. "One more thing."
"Yeah?"
"On your circuits, if you see a Gryphon, turned to stone, tell a Crow."
Willa wasn't sure she'd ever even seen a Gryphon before. She knew they were big. "Any particular reason?"
Sallowpad bobbed his head. "She's been missing for some time; she's got a chick we're hoping to keep alive."
"But there's nothing you can do for her."
The Raven turned his head to the side and stared at her a long time before finally saying, "Maybe not yet. She's important. For what's to come."
He hadn't really responded to what she had said. But something in the way he spoke made her ears perk and her tail and whiskers twitch. A thrill of excitement jolted through her and Willa sensed something she had never, ever felt before, something that might be called Hope.
Someone was coming. Someone who could undo a Gryphon turned to stone. And she knew who it was, a name Villa had whispered only when certain they would never, ever be overheard, deep in the safety of their den.
Aslan.
And with Him, the Prophecy of the Four.
But, in the meantime, you couldn't eat Hope or Prophecies. She scratched her ear. "I understand."
The moon went full and thin three times before she found it. Willa crossed back and forth from the Stone Table Mischief's nest to the Lantern Wastes, to the jagged cliffs at the Sea that the stories said were the ruins of the great castle, and around Beruna and the Great River and north to the Owlwood. She must have run by it a dozen times but one day, just west of the River Rush, something about the huge pile of stone and snow made her pause. The snow on top of it didn't seem properly settled - there was too much or something - and it didn't smell right, and its position was odd, sitting where it was surrounded by strange trees that didn't belong there. They weren't sleeping dryads or even the dark-hearted ones she knew to avoid. They weren't alive the way other Trees were. There was some magic here, and, to her, the trees seemed like a cage. Willa crept around the mound, scratching at it. At the base, she spotted something that looked like a huge paw with claws as long as she was - not counting her splendid tail. And maybe there were feathers, and fur, too.
She ran back toward the Stone Table den as fast as she could and, on the way, spotted two black birds, Crows, poking in a dead tree for bugs.
"You there, I've got a message for you to send."
"Why should we bother with you?" one of the Birds squawked.
They were rude but Willa didn't blame them. She'd answered Sallowpad the same way.
"Because the Raven gave me something to do and I've done it. Tell him the Rat found what he was looking for."
"If it's word for the Chief, you should have said so," the other Bird said.
"I just did."
"How will he know which Rat?"
The Birds were smart. They weren't going to say too much out in the open and Sallowpad surely had others looking for the Gryphon. "I helped him with something Villa would have done."
The Birds bobbed their heads and flew off.
Sallowpad showed up a day later at barely dawn - she wasn't surprised as that was usually the best time to move about. Most of the Wolves would have gone in and her other spies weren't usually out yet and the bad Trees weren't awake. Willa had stayed close to the nest and came right out when the Raven cawed and appeared at the entrance.
She started to say something, then got a whiff of a dangerous smell and pulled back into the den, with an angry hiss.
"Fool," she snapped. "You brought a Wolf on us…"
"A trusted friend," Sallowpad said. "We'll need his help."
Still, Willa stayed crouched at the nest's entrance, forcing herself to stop panicking like a dumb thing and think. Should I alert the others? Should we make for our bolt holes?
Though, if he was trying to hide, he would have been downwind. He was trying to tell me that he was here.
"You should have warned me," Willa said.
"I was going to."
"Show yourself."
The Wolf stepped out from behind the thicket of bushes that rimmed the Stone Table. Young, she thought. Very young. His head was up and he was sniffing about and his ears were moving.
He's careful. And a Wolf can smell and hear better than I do and see further. He'll be useful.
I can work with this.
Willa crept back out of the hole's entrance and the Wolf trotted to her, but not too close, and bowed his head. "I am Lambert."
"You from the North, or the South?" Any Wolf in Narnia was either with one of Maugrim's Packs, or dead.
"North," Lambert replied. "Giants were eating my Pack. I heard the call, and came."
Call? What call?
But she already knew the answer to that. It was the same thing that had her working with a Raven, a bunch of Crows, and now a Wolf.
That thing called Hope that you couldn't eat.
"We should go," Willa said. "We don't want to be out or seen together once it's full light and Her spies wake up."
Once she showed them where the Gryphon was, they didn't need her there. The Wolf and the Birds were better for what needed to be done. She was able to see, but didn't meet, a team of Red Dwarfs the Raven brought up from some hold in the southern mountains who would move the immense statue. It was the first time she'd seen Dwarfs that didn't work for Her and there was a Centauress, too, who had some magic skill and covered their tracks and work.
Willa didn't know where exactly they were moving the statue - it was east, toward the Rush and she didn't ask for any more information and Sallowpad wouldn't have told her. They both knew you couldn't be tortured to reveal what you never knew. Lambert kept watch and she saw others come and go, never in a group, always arriving from different directions, never speaking in the open, and never staying long. There was a Cheetah, some other Great Cats, some Foxes and Dogs, Satyrs, Fauns, a Horse, and others. The Crows kept watch and raised alarms.
It wasn't just isolated individuals, she realized. They were organized, there were leaders, and there was a plan.
The Call, whatever it was, was spreading.
The other Rats in the Stone Table den started coming to her, asking what they could do. After talking to Sallowpad, they began sending out teams - a Rat on the ground and a Crow in the air, so they could cover more ground and spread messages faster.
With all the slow-going activity to move the stone gryphon somewhere safe, Willa thought that maybe if they created some trouble in other places, further west, that might keep Maugrim's attention elsewhere; Sallowpad liked the idea. The stories the Moles and Badgers told said that humans first appeared in the area around the Lantern Waste, so they decided that was a good place to draw the attention of the Witch and her Wolves. It would make Her nervous. A Horse would ferry her to the western wastes and back so she didn't have to walk the whole way. Willa found an abandoned hole in the Western Wilds and made it her base for bothering and inconveniencing the Enemy. She destroyed the foods that were planted to poison or enchant, carved on dead trees jokes that Maurgim was just a dog, and had loud conversations with the Crows that were intended to be overheard. Doesn't it seem warmer than usual? Do you think we're having a thaw?
Except that it did seem warmer than usual.
Or maybe that was the hope that you couldn't eat and might starve you if you spent too much time thinking about it.
She paid close attention to the agents the Witch had placed around there, especially the Faun. The Faun talked a lot with a Beaver pair and Willa wasn't sure what to make of them. She would overhear them saying nasty things about Her but they all obviously took things from her given how nice their homes were. Willa's own nest didn't have furniture, books, or tools. Or food.
"Playing both sides," Sallowpad said when they discussed it. "If you don't want to starve, and can't leave, you can justify a lot."
Willa didn't really understand that but then she knew what the price was if you ate something She gave you. And if you could be bought by someone once, who was to say they wouldn't betray you again? "I'll keep watching."
And that was how she saw it.
Willa was hiding under a snow-covered shrub, digging in the dirt for a buried acorn - the ground definitely wasn't as hard under her paws as it had been even a month ago. She buried that Hope deeper than the nuts she was looking for. The Faun would be coming back this way after he picked up the food the Witch gave to her agents.
She heard a thump and then the sounds of things hitting the snow and the Faun exclaimed, "Goodness gracious me!"
Willa poked her nose out and saw and heard the whole thing.
She wasn't a Dwarf. Willa had never smelled anything like it. No wonder the Faun was shocked. Willa was, too.
"Good evening," the thing said.
"Good evening, good evening," said the Faun. "Excuse me. I don't want to be inquisitive. But should I be right in thinking that you are a Daughter of Eve?"
"My name's Lucy."
Lu-Sea. What kind of a name was that?
"But you are—forgive me—you are what they call a girl?" asked the Faun.
"Of course I'm a girl!"
"You are in fact Human?"
"Of course I'm human."
Humans! In Narnia?
Oh no.
Where had she come from? Were there any more of them? Were there Four of them?
And then…
What do I do?
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tumnus."
Tumnus asked the question Willa had been wondering, how had Lu-Sea ended up here, in the Western Wild?
She didn't know the places Lu-Sea described any more than Tumnus did - Willa had never heard of War Drobe or Spare Oom. And it was always Summer there? Sounded like magic to her, and it was surely magic that had brought this human here. The whole Wood reeked of it.
And as sure as her tail was longer than any other in the Stone Mischief, it wasn't the Witch's magic either. It smelled different and felt different.
Tumnus and Lu-Sea went off in the direction of his cave.
Willa didn't think she should try to follow them. Some Trees and Birds worked for Her and, if they were watching Tumnus, they'd sweep her up, too, if they knew she was watching them.
She sat under her snowy bush, idly scratched under her arm, and wondered what to do. She wanted to tell the others so that the ones who could fly or fight could do something about it. Maybe they could save the girl from what would happen to her once the Witch found out she was here.
But she was a long, long way from the Stone Table.
She needed a Crow to take word back to Sallowpad. There were two on her team and they weren't far from where she was, down near the river and her temporary den. The Crows were watching who moved up and down those river trails, and harassing Maugrim's pack by cawing insults, pulling their tails, and dropping things on them. She could go find the Birds - but then she might miss something here.
I can't do a ground game without air support right here. There should be one to watch and one to carry the word back and forth to someone who could do something about it.
So should she stay? Or go find the Crows?
Thinking through the problem, the Faun would either sneak out to alert the Witch's agents or he'd bring Lu-Sea back. Whatever happened and whoever came through, they'd likely pass right by here.
I should stay.
No one would notice a Rat squatting under a bush, digging for acorns.
She felt that Thing again, what you couldn't eat. The ground and the air seemed a little softer and a little warmer. Still, the Lion of Narnia seemed very far away. Willa wondered if Aslan left them for good because so many Narnians had turned so wicked just to survive. Or maybe He wasn't as powerful as the stories said. But if He was still around, Willa hoped he could help the girl, Lu-Sea. She would be in for a bad time, otherwise.
And maybe it was Aslan's magic that had brought Luc-Sea to Narnia.
Aslan, if you are still here, if you can hear me, please help her.
Willa scraped away the snow and found a nut. Gnawing at it would keep her mind occupied as she curled up in dead leaves and dirt, half buried in snow, under her evergreen bush, to wait.
After Willa's report, Sallowpad knew important things were a-wing. The job was too significant to be delegated so he went himself, to watch in the Western Wild with her.
Willa was the smartest agent he'd seen in years, maybe ever, and she was very young and would only get better, if he could keep her alive. She'd organized the Rats to cover the ground operation and they were reporting to her now.
He was even more impressed that Willa had seen immediately that it wasn't something she could do alone if they were going to do it right. She was as smart as her mother had been and far more careful. She also was very suspicious, which he approved of. Some of the other Narnians thought she wasn't very friendly. He approved of that, too.
It was dull, sitting in the Wood, near the iron tree. But intelligence gathering usually was. Willa said she dug in the dirt to pass the time or gnaw on a nut, if she found one. The more he sat there, doing nothing but fluff the drifting snow from his feathers, the less remarkable he was to anyone who might come by.
I'm just a part of the tree. Fly along.
He'd been concerned the girl - Lu-Sea, Willa said - would come back and be turned over to Jadis. So their leadership had been quietly busy, talking to other Narnians who had miserably taken Jadis' food, school, and gifts.
Noll and Hoberry had tried Tumnus - they had known him for many years - and the Fauns had appealed to the memory of Tumnus's father and promised to protect him from Jadis - a promise that Sallowpad knew their rebellion could not keep. But he hadn't corrected them, either. He'd support lies and more to keep them all going and the girl alive.
A smart Dwarf named Roblang from the southern hold had stayed after they'd moved the General's statue to a cave near the castle ruins. Roblang was very good at talking to other Narnians in ways they understood, and the words were now being whispered.
Aslan is on the move.
When the thaw comes, and it is coming, make for the Stone Table.
Willa said you couldn't eat hope; she was right. But to the Narnian who had nothing else, hope was almost as good as meat. Almost.
He shifted on the branch, fluffed his feathers, and heard a thump.
Peering between the thick, snowy needles, he saw the girl. It was hard to not snap his beak but he was pretending to not be there or see anything at all. Willa hadn't been sure - she'd never seen any humans before but had been clear that Lu-Sea was smaller than a Faun. But he'd flown to Archenland, across the desert to Calormen, and followed the ships all the way to the Lone Islands. This was a child and no warrior who could lead a fight against the Witch's Army. The girl looked about then headed in the direction of Tumnus's home.
He would follow her, but not yet. He thought he was alone here but he would wait and see if any spies followed her.
And then there was another thump and, incredibly, another human appeared. Small, like the other, a child, but a boy.
The boy began calling, loudly, for Lu-Sea. This was very bad. No one ever made noise like that in Narnia, ever, unless they wanted to die.
Sallowpad shook the snow off, ready to launch himself from the tree and tell the boy to be quiet, when he heard the worst possible thing.
Bells.
"Flee! Hide!" he squawked but the boy obviously didn't hear him, and then the sleigh swept up and the boy didn't move and couldn't stop staring. Thornbark was driving and pulled up hard to avoid running the boy over.
Surely Jadis will know what this is?
"And what are you?" she demanded from her sleigh.
Ed-Mind?
"Is that how you address a Queen?"
And of course, Ed-Mind had no idea who she was. He'd arrived by magic - Willa had been right about that and she had a nose and an eye for magic and poison that he did not.
If he'd been a younger bird, he might have said something rude when Jadis got angry that Ed-Mind didn't know who she was. It was very droll that he knew what a boy was and she didn't.
"And how, pray, did you come to enter my dominions?"
"Please, your Majesty, I came in through a War Drobe."
So he'd come in the same way the girl had. They probably shared a nest. But only two.
Were there others?
Jadis finally recognized, as he had, the peril to her this child represented and stood, holding her wand. Sallowpad prepared to launch himself at them. It would be the last thing he ever did but he couldn't let the boy die right there and do nothing. Maybe Ed-Mind would realize what happened and could run back to War Drobe.
But then Jadis suddenly lowered her arm and gestured for the boy to join her on the sledge.
And this was far, far worse.
Sallowpad carefully hopped to another branch to get closer. He knew, though, what would happen, what always happened. He didn't need Willa here to tell him. Even he could sense how wrong it all was. First the drink, then the magicked food, and then they were Hers.
Ed-Mind saw nothing but the box of food. He was a nestling. A fledgling. He ate all of it as hungry and greedy as any chick.
And then, "Yes, I have a brother and two sisters. There are four of us."
Two Sons of Adam. Two Daughters of Eve. The Four Thrones Filled. The Prophecy fulfilled. Aslan returned.
And one of them was already ensorcelled.
It all turned out well in the end but Sallowpad always regretted that he hadn't done more to protect the boy who would become his King.
Night had finally come on what felt like the longest day of her life. Willa sat on the front steps of the Cair Paravel Palace, knowing she was hungry and just couldn't find her appetite anywhere. It was only sheer luck, stupid bravery, and maybe Aslan, that all of the Four were still alive this evening. Lambert had taken a knife to the ribs before ripping the face off the man who had tried to murder the High King and Queen Susan; King Edmund's constant companion, Merle the Boarhound, had shoved a woman out the library tower window as she'd advanced on the King from behind. Two dead assassins. Without Lambert and Merle, the Kings and Queen Susan would be dead.
I knew they were up to no good.
The General had ordered personal bodyguards for each of the Monarchs. They should have done that a year ago, before the Battle of Beruna, once Jadis had murdered Aslan and it was obvious that the Four were only children who had never raised a sword or notched an arrow. You couldn't eat hope and you sure couldn't trust prophesies was how she saw it and nothing that had happened in the last year had changed her mind.
How could they have been so stupid? If you were stupid, you were dead.
No ground game. No surveillance. No back-up. No way to report. No emergency protocol. We were defenceless. They knew it. And I knew it.
She rolled a walnut on the step. Queen Susan had given her one in gratitude for her help that day but she'd not done nearly enough to prevent this. Not done what she knew she could do.
All that danger and hardship to kill Jadis, end the Long Winter, and get the Four on the Thrones, and that first year had been really hard. Things had finally seemed to be going better in their first true Spring. The Monarchs had undergone the Great Bonding, which was fine, though not something she especially cared about. Then, barely a month later, the Giants snuck across - technically under - the northern border and killed four Narnians. Among the dead, Tedi, the Horse who had helped her countless times so she could cover more ground during the Long Winter and carried her all the way to the Coronation after the Battle of Beruna. Willa didn't have many friends but Tedi had been one of them.
They should have known about the Giants, too, long before they had infiltrated Narnia.
The familiar flap of wings and the sound of his awkward landing made her look up.
"What?"
"We're wanted in the Council Room," Sallowpad croaked.
"Why? That's no business of mine."
She nudged her walnut and it bounced off the step and rolled away into the dark.
"And not mine, either. And that's been a mistake you and I have to fix or this will happen again and next time, we won't be so lucky. Our Kings and Queens might hope Aslan will save them. We know better."
"Hope's not a strategy," Willa replied.
"Neither is Aslan. Help me make one that will save them and the rest of us."
She and Sallowpad knew you couldn't rely on Aslan. They'd both known something was wrong when Aslan moved them from the Stone Table encampment and they'd overheard Aslan talking to the High King in a way that it made sound like the Lion hadn't planned to be around for the battle. She and Sallowpad hid in the Rat's Den under the Stone Table that night and heard Jadis kill Aslan. Until the Lion finally showed up the next day, they'd all assumed they were overmatched by Jadis's army and that the promise of Aslan's return had sent them all, and four children, to their deaths. She followed the Raven into the Palace.
Wrasse was guarding the entrance to the Council Room. That was interesting because it meant no Monarch had taken the Black Panther as a Guard even though she'd been with them since their first encampment.
The Panther sniffed them both all over and confirmed they had no weapons. It wasn't that a Rat and a Raven could be hiding a knife anywhere but she approved of Wrasse's careful check.
"Don't ever make exceptions, no matter who they are, or what they say," Willa told her as Panther pushed her nose under Willa's legs and belly and Sallowpad's wings.
"I won't," Wrasse replied. "I can't stop teeth and claws from coming before our Kings and Queens but I can at least look for ill intent. And now there are the personal guards."
When she was satisfied that they weren't a threat, Wrasse pushed the Council Room door open with her nose – which meant it wasn't locked or even shut and Willa wondered whose smart idea that had been. Beasts couldn't open door knobs usually; they could manage door handles, if they could reach them with paws or grab them with teeth. Merle would not have made it in time to save King Edmund if he'd had to open the library door.
The Council Room was much smaller than the Great Hall, which she'd been in for the Coronation. There was a big wooden squared-off table with deep gouges in it and different-sized chairs and a few places with no chairs, so Centaurs and other big Beasts that didn't sit and the General could join, she supposed. The Dwarf-made lanterns hung from the high ceiling lit the space around the table well enough that everyone could see each other; there was some sort of window in the roof that drew the smoke out but didn't let the rain and snow in. Tonight it was just the Kings and Queen Susan around the Council table with their new Guards.
She and Sallowpad both bowed their heads.
"Thank you for coming," the High King began. "Please join us."
Sallowpad hopped and flapped over and settled on the back of a chair. "Here, Willa, with me." She appreciated that he'd picked a perch with slats and carvings at the bottom so she could climb easily and sit next to him on the chair's arm.
She took in the new Guards and, for the first time in a long time, felt satisfied with the personal security. No surprise that Merle was now guarding King Edmund; Merle was the size of a Wolf. He wasn't smart and didn't know how to act like a Dog but he was very strong, very loyal, and from what Sallowpad had told her, King Edmund was clever and would do the thinking for both of them.
Dalia the Cheetah was seated by the High King and blinked at her. Willa gave her a salute. Dalia was quiet, even for a Big Cat; but when she did say something, it was always good advice and Dalia noticed a lot more than she said. She'd joined their rebellion the same time Lambert did and the Wolf trusted her. Canines and Felines usually just argued all the time.
She was very glad to see Lambert next to Queen Susan. Willa knew the Wolf had been with the Queen through some of the Great Bonding challenges and he could have died today protecting her and the High King. Lambert tried to stand to greet her and she could feel his wince from across the table. "Sit back down, you big fool. And make someone teach you how to dodge a knife."
"And good evening to you, too, Willa," Lambert replied.
She scratched an ear. It was a good thing they'd found a Physician just in time to treat them all. Lambert had a thick pad wrapped around his middle and the High King and Queen Susan both had bandages on their arms from their own defence against the assassin. The whole room stank of Wolf and human blood, vinegar, and spirits.
"Again, our thanks for joining us," Queen Susan said. "We are…"
When she faltered, King Edmund said, "We're looking at the mistakes that led to this murder attempt and wanted to hear from you both."
"And look at how to prevent such things in the future." The Queen sounded more confident again. "Lambert informed me that you had alerted him to our danger before we were attacked."
"Yes," Willa replied. "We trust him and he trusts us to know this business. We knew he was escorting you and the High King."
"What made you suspect our guests were not the diplomats they pretended to be?" King Edmund asked.
Sallowpad fluffed his feathers and they flitted over the chair they shared and onto the Council table. "Many things. I didn't like the demands members of the delegation kept making of your Majesties. And how the number and names of the humans kept changing. The upset seemed deliberate to me, to unsettle you."
Queen Susan nodded. "The High King and I were very concerned with accommodating their needs. I didn't think to question their motives."
"Nor I, Su." The High King shook his head. " I just wanted to show Narnia off to a good advantage."
"Which they took advantage of, Sire," Sallowpad replied. "And used to keep you unbalanced and uncertain. It's like using propaganda to disrupt your enemy. You push nonsense and lies and they start wasting resources and making bad choices."
She'd have to get better at reading human faces. She didn't understand why the High King and Queen Susan both seemed unhappy to hear this from Sallowpad. They wanted to know what she and Sallowpad thought. They said they wanted to keep this from happening again. So what was the problem?
"I didn't know about all that smoke and fog Sallowpad suspected," Willa added "but it would have made me suspicious, too. For me, it started the moment they stepped off the boat. I didn't like the way they smelled, so I searched their baggage as soon as it was brought to the guest wing. There's no good reason for having poison in there or a trunk with a secret compartment for knives."
Willa wondered what she'd said because the High King and Queen Susan stared at her. They were upset? Distressed? Humans were so odd. "Do you always search our guests' luggage?" the High King finally asked as King Edmund started coughing.
Willa shook one of Sallowpad's feathers off her back. "Not always. I will now, though."
The High King started to say something but Queen Susan interrupted him. "How did you know it was poison, Willa?"
"I learned how to spot it during the Long Winter. Jadis baited traps with poisoned food all the time."
"Many Narnians are alive today because no one is better than Willa at identifying poison, and many forms of dark magic."
That was nice of Sallowpad to say, especially in front of the Kings and Queen. He didn't usually say nice things. Neither did she. That's why they got on. "Thanks, Chief. We did it together, though."
"Yes, about that," the High King leaned forward, tried to put his bandaged arms on the table and, with a hiss, snapped back into his seat. Dalia lashed him with her tail.
"Peter, you really should be resting." Lambert growled as Queen Susan spoke.
"I will when you will, Susan."
Both Lambert and Dalia growled and King Edmund laughed. "I think your Guards have opinions on what's best for both of you."
"After we finish this, only then will we both rest," the High King retorted. He turned his attention back to them. "Dalia told me that you both were spies during the Long Winter."
Sallowpad bobbed his head. "I was the Chief for our spy network, and Willa ran recruitment and the ground operation."
There was another of those odd, long pauses where the Monarchs looked back and forth at each other. Maybe they didn't know about all the spying. How did they think Narnians survived 100 years of winter except by being smarter than Jadis and her spies and secret police? Willa supposed they just didn't know any better. Had she been so uninformed as a Pup? What would Villa have said?
Well, better start at the beginning.
"Rats and black Birds always hated Jadis," Willa finally said. "Rats, back a hundred years in my family, spied on her. After my mother disappeared, I picked it up. I'm better at it than she was."
The Kings and Queen Susan all began talking at once. "I am sorry about your mother." "What did you do?" "How?" "Why?" King Edmund and Queen Susan seemed very interested. Willa thought the High King looked uncomfortable but his arms were covered in knife wounds, so maybe that was the reason.
"What did we do?" Sallowpad retorted. "Why?!" He sounded irritated. This dumb, innocent desire of the Monarchs to please everyone had to stop. It would get them all killed. "We tried to keep Narnians alive. We found allies, grew our ranks so you had an army the General could lead. As Narnians began hearing Aslan's call, we watched the borders for any who were returning and tried to keep them from being rounded up. We hid them until we were ready to move. And we tried to keep them true to us, or at least against Jadis."
"The black Birds and others, like Dalia and Lambert, watched the borders and kept a nose out for traitors," Willa said. Dalia just blinked and Lambert's tail swished over the floor and then stilled. "I covered our intelligence operation inside Narnia. I found the General and Sallowpad moved her statue somewhere safe, in case Aslan did show up. That's when we got organized about it – to always keep her attention somewhere away from what we were doing. We started making trouble in the Western Wood. We spread lies and nonsense, made her waste resources on rumors, made it hard for her agents to operate, spied on her spies."
"Remarkably like what happened to us, Peter," Queen Susan, sounding thoughtful.
The High King nodded, still not looking very happy about it.
"We were very successful," Sallowpad croaked. "We knew when Queen Lucy arrived in Narnia before Jadis did."
The Monarchs started in their seats. "What?! "You did!?" "How!?"
Willa raised her paw. "That was me. Queen Lucy popped in just as Mr. Tumnus had picked up his weekly food allotment from Jadis. I had an awful time trying to figure out what to do. I couldn't protect her if he turned on her. Didn't have any air support to alert Sallowpad so he could get someone there to rescue her if we needed to. That's when we changed strategies and started working in teams to cover air and ground, with capability for a tooth and claw rapid response."
She knew that the Monarchs, and especially Queen Lucy, were fond of Tumnus. That was fine but it didn't change what he had been and what he'd been prepared to do. Her mother used to say, Leopards don't change their spots.
Sallowpad bobbed his head. "We were very worried about Tumnus. He's weak. So we targeted him and had other Fauns talk to him, and convince him to do the right thing."
"The Beavers, too," Willa said. "They didn't like Jadis, but were glad to take those nice things for their lodge. But by the time you Four all arrived, the Beavers knew what they were supposed to do. The Robin you saw was one of Sallowpad's spies so he alerted us."
"And they were still stupid," Sallowpad croaked roughly. "Jadis was looking for you. She'd already taken Tumnus. The Beavers should have immediately brought you to us. They knew better and never should have taken you back to their lodge."
"But…" the High King began and Dalia growled slightly and lashed him with her tail. The Cheetah would make the High King smarter in no time - get him to stop this habit of assuming everyone was nice. He bowed his head slightly. "Thank you, both. We did not know all you had done to help us."
"Well, if you'd known about us, the gig would have been up if Jadis captured and tortured you," Willa said. "It was need-to-know and you didn't need to know then."
"Like any good spycraft," King Edmund said. There was another uncomfortable pause and then he asked, "Were you watching when I arrived, right after Lucy? The second time she came?"
"I was," Sallowpad said solemnly. He bowed deeply to the King. "I regret I wasn't fast enough to warn you."
King Edmund nodded. "We will discuss this more, Sallowpad. Thank you."
Willa wasn't sure but she felt like something happened there between the Raven and the King. Well, if the High King had Dalia and Queen Susan had Lambert, having Sallowpad as an advisor would be good for King Edmund.
She wasn't sure about Queen Lucy, yet. That Tiger wasn't going to last long as a temporary guard. Lambert's mate might be a good match. Or Horace, the Horse. He was smart, and fast. She could learn a lot from Horace.
Unexpectedly, it was Merle who spoke up as everyone got quiet again. "So what happens next, Pete? Everyone wants to go to bed. Sallowpad and Willa were smart today. Ed, you and Su said you don't want this to happen again."
"They were, Merle." Queen Susan turned to the High King who did not seem happy or comfortable. His arms must have been really hurting. "Peter, you know what Edmund and I think."
"But Lucy…"
"Is furious and hates this but also doesn't oppose it," King Edmund finished.
The High King let out a deep sigh and rubbed his eyes with the back of his bandaged hand. A streak of blood remained on his forehead.
"Sallowpad, Willa, you both are the experts. What would you do?"
"Listen to us," Sallowpad said immediately.
The High King nodded. "I'm hearing that a lot lately."
There was a lot more to it, though.
"We need to rebuild our network, and expand beyond Rats and Crows," Willa began. "We were never able to use Naiads and Dryads before. We need to look at that." She and Sallowpad had made lists when they'd discussed a proper intelligence service. It would be organized, the way Jadis's police had been, but better. They could do this right, with official support and royal resources.
"We must identify enemies within, like the remnant of Jadis's followers," Sallowpad said.
The High King and Queen Susan nodded. "We believe we pushed most of them out of Narnia, but we know they are still active," Queen Susan said and the High King added, "And they try to come back across the Ettin border into Narnia."
"We need teams of watchers at all our borders with ground and air ability," Willa said. Maybe they could keep another Tedi from dying in a surprise attack. "And we need clear lines of communication, with reports going to the right ears who can act on information, both regular, daily reporting, and if there's an emergency,"
"We should listen to our enemies and our friends, so eyes and ears in foreign courts, too. " Sallowpad said.
Willa loved that idea. She'd never been out of Narnia before. "And…"
The High King held up his hand. "Yes, I see now." He sighed. "Tell me, truly. Must we have watchers and spies everywhere?"
King Edmund and Queen Susan both started to speak but the High King cut them off. "I know what you both think. I want to hear from our advisors."
"Yes," Willa replied immediately. "Today proved that. You were lucky and they underestimated Narnia tooth and claw. That won't happen again if they're smart. Never rely on luck, or your enemy's stupidity."
"We need to be where those who would harm your Majesties and Narnia might be, High King."
The High King glanced at his brother and sister and they all nodded. "Very well. Please organize your recommendations and present them to me…"
Dalia lashed her tail and mewled.
"Yes, my Guard?"
"Willa already assists Queen Susan as her maid. Sallowpad and King Edmund intend to discuss this and other matters. I recommend you let them do this work and report its results to you."
The High King started to object, Dalia growled again, and Queen Susan and King Edmund started talking over him and each other.
Merle's loud voice boomed over the squabbling, "That's a great idea, Dalia, since all this Rat and Crow makes Pete sad and angry and Ed and Su like it."
None of them laughed. But they did all nod and the High King smiled a little. King Edmund put a hand on Merle's big, slobbery head and said, "Well spoken, Friend."
Merle wasn't smart but the way he felt things and said them was useful.
"Thank you, Friends. For what you did in the Winter and what you did to save our lives, we are deeply grateful." The High King stood and everyone around the table climbed wearily to their feet,
"Willa, might I see you tomorrow morning for my first..."
"Security briefing, your Majesty," Willa replied. "Content will be a little thin but we'll start with what we can learn about the assassins. I'll go through their baggage again."
Queen Susan seemed to hesitate a moment and then nodded. "Yes, thank you."
"I'll want that briefing, too, Willa, at your convenience," King Edmund said. "And Sallowpad, could you please come to the Library in the morning?"
"Of course, your Majesty. If you put a flag out the window, I'll see it and come immediately."
"Very efficient idea, thank you, I'll do that."
The Monarchs all filed out; everyone was telling everyone else to go rest.
From the way the heads were carried and the way the tails were moving, the Guards were satisfied. They had a lot of work to do and Willa couldn't wait to get started.
"A good outcome," Sallowpad said.
She was satisfied, mostly, but Sallowpad and the Crows had made out better than she had. "It's not fair."
"We did what must be done to protect the Four and Narnia," Sallowpad replied. "We're responsible for it. Fairness doesn't matter."
"It matters to me. I'm only the Queen Susan's Royal Mischief. You get to be the King Edmund's Royal Murder."