𝐒𝐡𝐞 - A Narnian Prophecy || Peter Pevensie

Chapter 20 ~ The High King's Greatest Misjudgement

Lilith's previous night in the cells had gone fast. Perhaps it was because Lilith had had Alia in the cell beside her last time. Or, perhaps it was because, last time, albeit deep down, she'd still held hope that she would be believed and offered mercy.

But no one was with her the night after she'd been condemned and nor did she hold any hope.

If Lilith had been thinking of her situation and not in it, she would have liked to think she'd try relive the happiest memories she had on her final night of living. But that was more difficult than she expected. Most of her wanted Google to find out how quick death by hanging was and how easy she could make it on herself. 

The first few hours in that cell dragged on so painfully slowly that, quite quickly, Lilith found herself out of tears, numb with hopelessness and defeated into acceptance.

She willed herself to stay awake, however, because even if life seemed pointless now, Lilith knew it was a foolish thing to wish time away.

Despite the ever-blooming fear and the drowning loneliness, Lilith willed to live every moment she had left.

If she could not live fully here, in the decaying cells of Cair Paravel on the last night of her life, then she would live fully in its gardens. She would rebel and claim her right to witness the beauty that her fellow condemned criminals would never have had the privilege of experiencing. She closed her eyes tightly and wished herself onto the bench. The white bench by the sea of astilbes, the dancing faeries and flittering fireflies. The white bench beside the flickering torch on the pebbled path. The white bench that she'd found in the time she had never thought that the High King would, or even could, wish death upon her. The white bench she'd found in the time that it felt like a support, a comfort and sanctuary, not a ghostly piece of outdoor furniture that haunted the thoughts and memories she so willed to be pure.

Even her imagination seemed to be betraying her. Even her thoughts couldn't save her now.

Lilith had found herself wondering if Cair Paravel was a figment of her imagination many times since she'd first arrived. The way that the sun rose between its towers and how it set, leaving the walls in a bizarrely calm, torchlit darkness. Its extravagant gardens, its endless rooms and countless, friendly inhabitants- but gallows didn't fit into any of the fairy-tale she'd ever read or been read. Perhaps she was bias, for the gallows her been constructed for her, and that often narrows one's mind.

As she was dragged towards them that morning, the sun was past it's beautiful rising phase, and the friendly inhabitants had fled from such a horrid, oncoming display. It was then that she noticed exactly who was in the crowd. There wasn't a single creature of Narnia, none seemed to have turned up, bar two familiar Centaurs near the back. Instead of talking animals and creatures she had though to be myths until only a few weeks ago, there were familiar faces of the Lords and Ladies, Dutches and Duchesses that she'd danced alongside the night of Susan's Birthday Ball.

She swore she even spotted the band of dull, arrogant Lords she'd 'scared away'. It seemed that they were having the last laugh, now.
Oh, how they jeered.

Even Lord Lues near exposed his true self with a sly smirk from, once again, the front row.

There were three Monarchs stood on a balcony overlooking the crowded courtyard. Queen Lucy was absent. The only royal expression that Lilith could read was Edmund's, and consequently, he was the only one who would meet her eye, or even look at her. She'd never seen such a guilty expression.

She knew she was to die, hence she cried openly as she was pulled up the steps of the Gallows.

She longed the Just King to look away. Admittedly, he made her feel less alone in the way he looked at her, but the thought of him having to see her like this made her feel guilty for his guilt. Lilith had a momentary feeling that in his unwavering gaze, he was trying to tell her something, but he was too far away and too high up and she was too consumed in dread for the message to be received.