Favorite of the King

Chapter 35

    Yvaine tossed restlessly. She'd been unable to sleep for the past two nights. Her thoughts had run rampant as she searched for a way to stop Hakan before it was too late. She could think of nothing and it did not reassure her.

    Yvaine rolled over again and shivered. The palace was unusually cold, tonight. She pulled her covers up to her chin, her thoughts drifting towards her mother. Every now and then, there had been a cool night in Telmar. She'd never been able to sleep when it was cold, so on those nights, she crept into her parent's room.

    Her mother would always wake up at the sound of the door creaking. She'd see Yvaine standing there and they'd grab a blanket and go to the library together. Her mother read books to her until she was warmer and could fall asleep.

    As soon as all of this is over, I have to find out what happened to her, Yvaine thought. Father promised to tell me.

    She closed her eyes and tried to sleep again, but the cold was getting worse. She glanced towards her fireplace. The embers were fading rapidly. At last, Yvaine climbed out of bed and rekindled the flames. Still, it did little to dent the cold in her room. She could even see her breath in the air.

    Yvaine narrowed her eyes. That's odd. It was warm today. How is it so cold now? She poked her head out the door. No one was around, but the air was noticeably colder out there. She stepped into the hall and started walking. There was a thin layer of ice covering the windows. Yvaine tried to scratch it off, but it grew back immediately. She looked down the dim hall. A pale light flickered beneath Edmund's door.

    Yvaine returned to her room and grabbed a dagger, before venturing further down the hall. She held her dagger firmly, brows knit in confusion. The light was still there. It was pale blue and faded in and out. Yvaine knocked on the door lightly. It creaked open just an inch.

    Edmund was asleep, but from the expression on his face, it wasn't a sound one. He mumbled something and the pale blue light drifted over him. Yvaine gasped and the creature whipped its head towards her. It was a woman, with frost covering her body. Her hair floated around her face. Her eyes were the only part of her that wasn't white or blue. Her eyes were green and they flashed with fury.

    Without a second thought, Yvaine flung her dagger at the apparition. The dagger buried itself in the wall behind the woman. The woman let out a hiss and flew across the room. Her cold hands grabbed Yvaine's face. She could feel the blood freezing in her veins.

    "So, it's you," the woman whispered.

    "Who are you?" Yvaine could barely form the words. Her face felt frozen entirely.

    "Edmund told you about me." The woman's piercing gaze roamed over her. "I owned his thoughts long before you did, although we own them in different ways. You cannot keep him from me forever."

    "You're Jadis, the White Witch," Yvaine realized.

    "Very good." The Witch brought her lips closer to Yvaine's ear. "I have seen what will come to be. Narnia will fall. I have a proposition for you, though. I know how to stop the Telmarine king."

    "I don't want to make a deal with you," Yvaine hissed.

    "Oh, you will." The Witch gave her a wicked smirk. "I will come."

    Yvaine fell to her knees and let out a gasp of relief as the Witch released her. Warmth flooded her frozen cheeks, finally. That terrible cold still clung to the room, but it was losing its grip.

    "Yvaine?" She looked up. Edmund rubbed his forehead, then spied the dagger sticking out of the wall. "What did you see?"

    She looked around the room, but the Witch had vanished. "There was a woman, an apparition."