Daggers of Ice

Chapter 41

The Northern Lands.

Edmund.

She had been dressed in a gown of the purest white, made with the finest satin; a silver girdle encircled her hips, the beautiful crown of silver-glass place upon her brow. The string of diamonds on her throat glimmered as her eyes had.

Her hair had been braided, holding the front back, but the rest fell around her body in undulating waves. Her white armour had been removed and polished to a shine, but it seemed dull, as if it knew it was not be used again. Held in a coffin of ice, she looked as beautiful as she had in life. The snow fae had laboured for hours to create the ice that would not melt, solidifying it to preserve her.

So any who looked upon her would see the face of the woman who had sacrificed herself to save Narnia.

Edmund could not look at the coffin that held her within its icy clutches, nor at the sombre that surrounded it. Instead he stood by the window, gazing out at the courtyard. He leant his forearm on the window, eyes severe, almost empty.

"Jadis could never have been killed while Arianna lived," Eirwen said softly. "When Jadis bound her mind to Arianna's she thought Arianna was like herself – she never would have thought...so when Arianna killed herself..."

"She killed the White Witch too," Lucy finished for her, gazing down at Arianna's face. The colour seemed to have returned to her face, for the sun hit her so perfectly. Her lips were not pale as Lucy would have thought, they were the colour of pink roses – the colour they had been when she was alive. Lucy did not need to be told that no normal witch would do such a thing, they would not sacrifice themselves.

"She will never be forgotten," Oreius said softly, his head bowed in reverence. Moonshade, at his side, was silent. "Her name shall be forever etched in the sky."

Edmund turned abruptly, ignoring the startled faces of those in the room. His footsteps were brisk as he left the room where his love lay in a tomb of ice, her face shining like the ice that surrounded it.

...

Lucy.

Lucy sat on her knees, her forehead resting on the smooth surface of the ice wall. Her mouth came open as a sob shook her body. Her hand balled into a fist, she began beating the cool surface.

"They say that no matter how much agony and pain one feels, the heart continues to beat just the same," the voice, laced with a melancholy that echoed her own. Through tear-blurred eyes she saw Edmund approach. Agony was etched over his face, but there was a strange emptiness in his eyes, as if he had lost a part of himself. "But how can it? When everything has been taken from me?"

"You truly loved her," Lucy did not question it. She saw the truth in his eyes which had darkened, almost black as the moonlight shone down upon the silent city. There was no joy, no chorus of laughter. She could almost hear the wailing as they mourned. But there were no sounds, only deafening silence.

"She knew what it would cost her."

"She did not tell you," Lucy did not find his presence an intrusion. She welcomed her brother. "She knew you would try to stop her." If anyone could stop her, it would be you. Because she loved you too. She did not speak the words aloud, but she knew he thought the same.

She wondered how the people would react when they heard of Arianna's death. No one save for those who had been in courtyard knew, they'd got the rest of their soldiers out before the sorcerer's castle had fallen. When the sun rose, the city would once again be thrown into turmoil when they were told the truth. They would mourn her, Lucy knew, gathering around the coffin of ice to see the woman who would have been their true queen. The warrior queen had inspired such loyalty that she had never seen before. And would not likely again.

She had done it all without Aslan's help.