Daggers of Ice

Chapter 5

The Northern Lands.

Edmund.

"You know the enchantment upon this castle, Edmund Pevensie." Her voice, like a wall of ice – cold and unyielding – sent a shiver down his spine, stealing through his body like a mist. He'd stood before many a foe, and before all others he'd stood firm and unwavering. Pete had once told him he was as unbending and unrattled as a dwarf-forged blade. No longer. "You know you cannot leave now you've crossed my threshold."

Emerald eyes, set beneath a circlet of glittering ice and diamonds, regarded him coolly and by Aslan Himself, he could not tell what thoughts lay within them. She looked almost out of place in the witch's castle, with her golden-brown skin and dark locks, a thing of colour in a bleak place where everything was monochromatic silvers, blues and whites. Almost out of place, for though she was a stark contrast to her surroundings she looked more at ease than he imagined anyone could be upon a throne made of ice.

He had not expected her to be seated upon the throne; he had entertained the thought, but he had not prepared himself for the sight of her lithe frame draped across the icy planes, with thick plush furs beneath her. White skirts fanned around her like petals open in bloom, the diamonds sewn into bodice, hem and skirt looked like stars twinkling in the night sky.

He had not expected to see the same creatures who had devoutly followed the witch, the creatures he had fought and killed, to be bowing at her feet so reverently. Creatures that did not look bad, or evil, not under those glimmering icicles, hands void of weapons. Creatures that looked at him with open curiosity, with unabashed interest.

And he had not expected the relief that had crashed over him when he had realised that it was not Jadis that addressed him. Though perhaps another could have been fooled by the haughty expression, the imperious tone. But... He did not let his smirk show. "I do, Arianna," he said as he knelt before her.

And to her credit, she simply raised a single brow. Jadis would have struck any man down who dared to use her name with such familiarity.

Dark brown met emerald.

Yes, she was right.

He knew the rules as well as any. For he had been caught by the enchantment once before. Deceptively beautiful, the magic held any who walked within those gates' captive. Only those sworn to the White Witch could come and go as they pleased. Any other had to be released by the word of the witch.

For him it had been Jadis's command to join her – when she had journeyed to the Stone Table.

All those years ago he had been but a boy, full of anger and rage and ambition. He had stepped blindly, and willingly into her magical trap.

A thought struck him as he looked up at her. At Arianna.

Perhaps it was a similar magic; that she was bound by the witch's death to serve her. Witches liked using the same spells over and over, he'd noticed, just changing them ever so slightly.

"I bring you a gift, lady." With slow and deliberate movements, he took out the sheaths that she had been wearing and he watched, with satisfaction, as her eyes widened a fraction. But she did not reach for them. Did not take them.

"You cannot buy our favour here, Edmund Pevensie," she stood. Towering. "You are no King in my lands."

Pardon?

"Your castle lays upon Narnian soil."

Her eyes were like the daggers he offered her. Seizing him up and cutting him down with naught but a glance. "Look around, King Edmund the Just." She said his title like an insult. "Those that surround you have long been neglected by the Kings and Queens of Narnia. I would wager you had no idea winter had returned to these lands – that you had no idea of the famine that has spread further north. The Everwinter cannot be brought to land ruled by another."