queen of narnia

[charning]

Jadis is enraged. Aslan, back! Confirmed by the deputy of her own Maugrim, who died on the sword of the very child she thought she'd caught! Maugrim, dead. She paces. She comes too close to Winter for her liking on one of her passes through her throne room and rather than turn an instant before she means to she backhands him out of her way into the nearest wall. She paces and fumes and roars.

Finally she spins on her toe to face Winter, who may still be on the floor in his careless way but has surely recovered from the blow by now. "You," she says, "must go to the lion, and tell him that I desire safe conduct to treat with him on a matter of as much importance to him as to me. Go peacefully, I do not mind if you alarm the pitiful creatures who side with him but do not harm them while I seek parley. Do you understand, my Winter?" She bends to crook her first two fingers under his chin to turn his head up for frigid eye contact, inspecting him, thinking furious thoughts to which he's only an accessory. "I think the lion may be unnerved to see you. We will see."

Comments

[charning]

Aslan never moves while the muzzle goes on, and the creatures are very much emboldened by this, kicking him, spitting on him, pinching him while they cooperate to heave his great body up onto the Stone Table. All of this amuses the Witch very much.

The creatures snug the cords around his paws. Addenda are made to the mass of them until there's barely any lion left visible.

And the Witch draws a wicked knife and a whetstone and begins to sharpen her blade.

[jackfrostbite]

(Perhaps no one will notice the way Winter puts his hand on Aslan's great shoulder, just for a moment, before he turns away to make room for the Witch at his head. Perhaps even Aslan won't notice. Jadis certainly won't; he is very careful to conceal it from her.)

[charning]

The Witch makes a slow, dramatic, drawn-out approach, knife in hand, eyes alight with excitement.

"And now who has won?" she sneers at Aslan. "Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human girl? Now I will kill you in her stead as our pact requires and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But who will protect her when you are dead? Who will take her out of my hand then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved hers. In that knowledge - despair, and die."

[neverbeatme]

James is now completely certain that Aslan is planning something. There is nothing else that could be going on. Even if the thing he's planning is just for James and Bellla to win the fight, he has to have some reason to believe absolutely that they will. Because it's so obvious that he would have seen this coming, if his rules allow for it at all.

[charning]

Whether that is true or not - the knife plunges down.

[alicornucopia]

And the lion dies.

[charning]

"Now! Follow me all and we will set about what remains of this war! It will not take us long to crush the human vermin and the traitors now that the great Fool, the Cat, lies dead."

And with a burst of motion she's off, followed by a great crowd of creatures spreading out to have room to run after her.

[jackfrostbite]

Winter doesn't move with the crowd at first; he spends a second or two gazing down at Aslan's body with a look of quiet sadness, and then just as the last of the horde streams past him and none are left to see him do it, he undoes the muzzle over the lion's mouth and drops it on the ground.

As he turns to follow the rest of Jadis's creatures, his eyes pass over James and Bella's hiding place with barely a pause. He doesn't stare or cry out or indicate in any other way that he saw them; he just starts after the trailing end of his Queen's army, slower than the rest of them but still quite fast enough to be gone in the space of a breath.

[deepest_magic]

"He saw us."

[neverbeatme]

"I think he decided not to see us," James murmurs. "Didn't you see him, that whole time? His heart couldn't have been less in it. I just can't figure out why."

[deepest_magic]

"I don't know. I don't even know what he is, now he's not human quite."

[neverbeatme]

"I almost wish I could just talk to him. But for all I'd know he'd just try to kill me, and even if he didn't, I don't think I'll get a chance before the battle."

[deepest_magic]

Bella nods.



"If Aslan had a plan it isn't working very obviously. Do you suppose any of the witch's soldiers will be back this way or could we - I don't know, untie him or something?"

[neverbeatme]

"I don't know. I brought my sword, anyway, we're not completely defenseless. And they didn't seem like they were going to come back. Let's try it."

[deepest_magic]

Bella nods and creeps up to the Stone Table and pulls the folding knife she brought from Earth out of the pocket that doesn't contain cordial - then stops, and carefully checks Aslan's pulse, in case the cordial might do it after all - then shakes her head and gets to work on the ropes.

[neverbeatme]

James's only sharp implement is... her sword. Rather than try to use it, she surveys the cords for the loosest available knot and starts picking at it with her fingernails.

[deepest_magic]

"There's - look. There are mice on him. Already there's - oh."

The mice are nibbling on the ropes.

"In-between animals," murmurs Bella.

[neverbeatme]

"Yeah," says James. She steps back, carefully, to give the mice room to work; they're much faster than she is.

[deepest_magic]

They're not faster than Bella with her little pocketknife, though, so Bella keeps working, pausing to stroke one mouse with a forefinger. It squeaks.

Eventually Bella and mice together have him completely unbound.

[neverbeatme]

It's almost morning by now; the sky is lightening by the moment. James glances eastward.

[deepest_magic]

"It's been all night. And we haven't slept. That's probably not going to help, is it," sighs Bella. "I'm freezing. We can't carry him anywhere, maybe not even drag him, but maybe we should just walk back to the camp."

[neverbeatme]

"Yeah," she says. "Whatever he was planning, I don't think we can make much difference to it from here."

[deepest_magic]

Bella lays her hand against Aslan's face, and turns away.

Off they go.

[alicornucopia]

From behind them, there is a deafening CRACK!, lightning on shattering crockery on a gunshot.

[deepest_magic]

Bella jumps about a foot in the air, knuckles whitening, and turns round to see.