A Prison of Ice and Fear || Peter Pevensie x OC || Narnia

Chapter 5

Jadis sits stoically in front of me in the sleigh. Her crown is tall and proud on her ice-white hair. While I sit wrapped in furs and thick layers of clothing, Jadis wears her shawl wrapped loosely around her shoulders. The cold is her domain, her power. We had been riding for perhaps an hour when we entered a very familiar part of the wood.

In the back of my mind, I wondered what had become of that girl from yesterday.

"Yah!" Ginarrbrik shouts from his seat at the front of the sleigh, his whip cracking the air at the reindeer's flanks. Suddenly, the dwarf pulls on the reins, bringing the sleigh to a halt and jumping down from the platform.

The reindeer chuffed and struck their hooves against the snow anxiously. I hear a voice call out.

"What is it now, Ginarrbrik?" Jadis askes impatiently.

She doesn't turn her head to look at the scene, but I'm desperate to peek around the side of the sleigh.

"Make him let me go! I didn't do anything wrong!" The voice calls out to Jadis.

Distinctly male, but definitely young. Jadis stands sweeping out of the sleigh as Ginarrbrik threatens the boy again.

"Wait." Jadis commands.

I can only imagine Ginarrbrik's knife held high, and imagine the boy's face, perhaps an expression of terror plaguing him.

"What is your name, Son of Adam?" Jadis asks.

Son of Adam. Another human.

"Uh, Edmund." The boy replies.

"And how, Edmund, did you come to enter my dominion?"

"I don't know," The boy stutters, "I was just following my sister."

"Your sister?" Jadis cuts in quickly, "How many of you are there?"

"Four, Lucy's the only one who's been here before; she said she met some faun called Tumnus. Peter and Susan didn't believe her. I didn't either." He explains.

Four of them. By the ancestors, the prophecy could be true. And the boy had told the queen the name of the faun. Oh no.

Jadis ushered the boy to the sleigh, saying something about the cold. As he rounded the corner and his face came into view, a small puff of steam came from his mouth as he exhaled, his eyes fixed on me.

He looked about twelve or thirteen, with well-kept black hair. His cheeks were flushed pink with cold and he wore a strange blue-green coat unlike any I'd seen in Narnia.

Jadis sat and encouraged the boy – Edmund – to nestle into her fur shawl.

"How about something hot to drink?" Jadis asks.

"Yes, please, Your Majesty." Edmund grins, the boy catches on fast.

Jadis uses her magic to produce a goblet of hot chocolate. A cheap trick I've seen her use countless times, but the human was mystified.

"How did you do that?"

"I can make anything you like."

"Can you make me taller?" Edmund asks.

Jadis laughs heartily and shoots me a glance. I laugh along with her.

"What do you think, Cressida?"

"I think we have a witty one, Your Majesty." I smile warmly.

Edmund's cheeks flush, and he smiles shyly back at me.

"Anything you would like to eat, Edmund?" I ask.

"Turkish delight?"

I watch as Jadis repeats the same process, again the magic mesmerising Edmund. I feel a pang of guilt as I know I'm helping Jadis play him. When she finally asks to meet his family I know exactly what she intends to do with these children.