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

[neverbeatme]

She stops and leans on it to catch her breath. She can't really tell, just from looking at the broken stone and the absence of a lion, if something important and magic happened - but she has a strong feeling that it did.

[deepest_magic]

"Some kind of magic, and I hope it was his," says Bella, squinting at the deserted ex-table.

[alicornucopia]

"Yes!" exclaims a great voice from behind them. "It is magic." There, gleaming in the rising sun, tossing his restored mane, is Aslan.

[neverbeatme]

"I knew it!" says James, and she runs up to hug him, flinging her arms around his neck and burying her face in his glorious golden mane so that her next words come out somewhat muffled. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

[deepest_magic]

Bella is only a half-step behind her. "How does it work?" she exclaims into his fur. "What happened?"

[alicornucopia]

"Although the Witch knew the Deep Magic," says Aslan, chuckling faintly, "there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge only goes back to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed not even the most dubious treachery was killed in her prey's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself start working backward. And now - children," he says, with a smile of sorts growing on his face, "I feel my strength returning - catch me if you can!" He tosses his head to shake them off and makes a great leap over their heads to the other side of the table.

[deepest_magic]

Well, Bella can run, now, though probably not to outrun Aslan, so she will try. After him she goes.

[neverbeatme]

James, giggling, chases him too.

[alicornucopia]

Aslan is very much faster than they are, but he occasionally almost lets them catch him, and now and then he chases back and tosses one or the other of them in the air, only to catch her and put her back on the grass and be off again.

When the sun is quite up Aslan stops abruptly to pounce on them and roll them over in a heap, and they feel just as one ought to in the bright morning, not the least bit hungry or thirsty or sleeplessly tired.

"And now," says Aslan, "I feel I am going to roar. You ought to put your fingers in your ears."

[deepest_magic]

Bella giggles and does exactly that.

[neverbeatme]

James too. But she watches. She bets Aslan roaring is going to be a sight.

[alicornucopia]

It is. It's spectacularly loud, and the trees before him bend like blades of grass in a great wind.

When he has done, and the girls have taken their hands from their ears, he says, "We have a long journey to go. You must ride on me."

[deepest_magic]

Oh wow. Bella isn't going to second-guess him on that. Up she goes.

[neverbeatme]

And up goes James behind her! This is logical, since if James were in front her sword and shield would make an uncomfortable surface for Bella to potentially bump her face on.

[alicornucopia]

And this way around they are quite comfortable as Aslan takes off. He is swifter than the fastest racehorse, tireless and leaping over small and medium-sized obstacles, and the day is dawning a beautiful spring full of blossoms and new leaves and the smell of grass.

They are going towards two hills that nestle up against each other at the base.

[neverbeatme]

"The Witch's house," says James to Bella.

She remembers.

[alicornucopia]

"Yes," says Aslan.

[deepest_magic]

"Are you just going to - go for her directly without having to have the entire battle at all?"

[alicornucopia]

"Not quite. Hold tight, children."

And with a flying leap he is over the outer wall surrounding the Witch's castle, and in a courtyard, full of statues.

[neverbeatme]

"—Those are people," says James, almost as soon as she glances at one.

[alicornucopia]

"They were and they will be again," says Aslan, kneeling to let the girls off of his back, and he breathes on a stone lion, then whirls around to see to a naiad, and then continues bounding about the courtyard attending to each statue great and small.

[deepest_magic]

"Oh - look," says Bella, peering at his first subject, where color is bleeding into him from nose onward.

[pythbox]

The stone lion is becoming an un-stone lion, in a gradual process reminiscent of fire spreading over a lit page. As soon as his head is free, he shakes it vigorously, restoring golden life to the stone fringe of his mane. He pauses for a yawn and a stretch as living colour works its way down his back, then shakes himself all over and bounds after Aslan to jump and dance and lick him with gratitude and happiness.

[neverbeatme]

"Wow," breathes James.

[alicornucopia]

Aslan is never still, though he acknowledges this and other gestures of gratitude with evident joy. Soon the courtyard is full of romping delighted creatures, colorful and madly traipsing, unicorns and dryads and one good-natured giant.

When the courtyard's statues have all been released, Aslan calls, "Now, look alive, everyone, inside the house, search every corner! You never know where some poor prisoner might be concealed!"

And everyone bursts into the Witch's house, which is quite empty of live occupants while she prepares elsewhere for war.