The Voyage - Edmund Pevensie

10

Once Lucy and I were inside, it didn't take us long to find the library. Up the first flight of stairs and down a long hallway that opened up into the library. I felt like my eyes couldn't take it all in as I scanned row after row of books, the bookcases higher than any in our castle back home. Sturdy wooden pillars went all the way up to the vaulted ceiling, and stunning tiles decorated the floor with geometric patterns set in an emerald green.

Long tables stretched in front of the bookcases decorated with all kinds of glass bottles, tubes, plants, and even more books. Ladders crisscrossed the library leading up to the higher shelves connecting the ground to the worlds of knowledge I was sure were tucked away up high. I also couldn't help but notice that the lighting was enough so you could still see clearly but dim enough to give the whole place a quiet, cozy feel. Not quite what I had imagined from someone called "The Oppressor", but then again who said you couldn't have a scary name and have a cozy space?

Lucy and I moved towards the middle of the room where there was a large lectern, on top of which was a large book. Larger than any book I'd ever seen. On top were lots of loopy, cursive-like letters although they didn't appear to spell anything at first glance.  Though, it wasn't hard to figure out this must be the all-important book of incantations. It almost looked like they had been part of a title once but had been bumped and scattered across the front page. Lucy tried the clasp that held the book shut, but to no avail. 

I scanned the podium to see if there was a key of some kind, when the golden angles in the top corners moved. No, they blew gusts of air. I glanced over to Lucy to see if she'd just seen what I thought I saw. Without looking at me, she blew over the book like she was trying to blow off dust and sure enough, the words began to move. 

"Of course," I quipped as the letters fell into place. "Because why would a magical book be simple to open?" 

Lucy just chuckled at me as the book finally let her undo the clasp and open it. I leaned over her shoulder looking at the pages with interest as she flipped past all kinds of spells. Once to cure toothaches, a forgetting and remembering spell, and so many others. She stopped on completely black pages which were different from the others. The words "A Spell for Snow" in elegant gold writing stood out in the middle of a page. 

"You don't think..." she said quietly, as if to herself. 

"I say go for it," I said with a wide grin. "I mean, how are we supposed to know if the magic works or not if we don't test it first? And I'd say you can't really get much safer than snow." She grinned back at me, and I felt like two kids who were plotting to pull a prank on their older sibling. 

"With these words, your tongue must sow. For all around there, to be snow." Lucy recited the words, and we both held our breath for a second as nothing happened. Then, out of nowhere, a single snowflake landed on the other black page. My eyes widened and a stupid grin split my face as suddenly, snow was everywhere. A light dusting covered the floor and the snow that was falling was sticking to our hair, clothes, and even our eyelashes. When it fell though, I didn't feel the sting of the cold that came with typical snow, and although the temperature didn't drop, the snow didn't melt. 

"This is amazing," I breathed, stepping off the podium and walking in a small circle. As I glanced back at Lu, an idea popped into my head and my smile morphed into a smirk. While she was distracted looking around the room, I bent down and formed a small snowball. Just as she was about to turn to look at me, I sent it flying right into her chest. Her look of disbelief and shock made me laugh even harder than throwing the snowball did. 

"Oh, it's on!" she challenged, and soon snowballs were flying everywhere. If I hit her in the shoulder, she'd hit me in the face. If I hit her on her thigh, she'd hit me in my chest. Our laughter and shrieks echoed around the room as we circled the podium, ducking and dodging each other's snowballs. 

After about 10 minutes or so, we were out of breath from running in circles, and from laughing so hard. Eventually we decided to call a truce and climbed back up to the book. 

"I hope they're not angry their spell will be a little late," Lucy said, still grinning from the snowball fight. 

"If they are, we'll just tell them we got a little side-tracked," I grinned back. Lucy laughed and stepped up to the book again. This time however, it was covered in the fallen snow and it was impossible to see the pages. Lucy bent down and blew on the pages to clear it, however instead of clearing the snow the pages began flipping rapidly. When Lu slammed her hand down to stop the pages, the snow instantly went away as if it were never there. 

Instantly, I began to feel like something was wrong. I couldn't explain it, but it was almost like I could sense that something had just happened. And when I looked over at Lucy and the book, I could have sworn I saw some of the green mist from the Lone Isles. I stepped off of the podium and walked in a bigger circle wanting to do a deeper scan of the library we were in. I drifted over to one of the long tables to look at the glass bottles as I heard Lucy behind me. 

"An infallible spell to make you she, the beauty you've always wanted to be." I turned to look at the youngest Pevensie, worried I was about to see someone else standing there. However, Lu was still staring at the book. 

"Susan! What's going.... on..." Susan? She was here? I scanned around the library hoping to see the second eldest Pevensie, but I had no such luck. When I looked back at Lucy, she was still staring at the book, but touching her face like she was looking in a mirror. She then went over to one of the mirrors on the wall and stared at her own reflection, like she was trying to see something, or someone else. By the time she got back to the book I'd made my way over to it, curious now to see what was happening. When I looked down, I was surprised to see what looked like a mirror on one page, and even more surprised when Lucy looked down, to see Susan in her place. After a second though, the image began to fade away replaced with the image of a woman, and the mirror returned to being a normal page. 

"Wait!" Lucy cried out, slamming her hand down on the image as if to try and keep the mirror around longer. Concerned, I glanced at her but I didn't think she was too engrossed in the book. "Make me she whom I'd agree..." Lucy began, as if to read the spell on top of the mirror page, when instead she stopped and ripped the page out. 

"Lucy stop!" I cried as she ripped down the page, however I couldn't stop her in time. As soon as the page was separated from the rest of the book, a roar shook the whole library and the pages began to turn again. Not just any roar I realized, Aslan's roar. 

"Lucy..." his voice echoed. Despite the fact that she had just stolen a page from a magic book, I couldn't help but feel bad for my friend at the disappointment in Aslan's voice. I knew how important he was to her, and I knew that it killed her to have him disappointed in her. And that's why I didn't say anything. Because I knew that is Aslan made his disappointment known and she didn't put the page back, there was nothing I could say that to convince her to do it.

Thankfully, the pages had stopped turning and before us was the spell we needed. 

"A spell to make the unseen, seen," I read aloud. "This is it; this is what they said the spell was." Lu didn't answer me, just moved to stand next to me to read the spell. There was an odd tension in the room now, neither of us wanting to acknowledge what had just happened. Even so, I knew that we needed to read this spell and get out of here quickly. I was sure the boys had woken up by now and were panicking about where we'd gone. 

"Read it together?" I asked, breaking the silence that had settled between us. 

"Yea, together," Lucy said giving me a small smile. It was a peace offering and an apology all in one, and I nodded at her. I'd talk to her about what happened later. Right now, we had a spell to read. Preferably before "The Oppressor" made an appearance.