Dedicated to xSundae for helping me out with her amazing photo-editing skills. Thank you dear. :)
Chapter 5
The Warning
Without knowing how, I knew whose blood it was.
It was Edmund’s blood.
My blood boiled and I saw red. “Who. Are. You.” I asked her slowly, trying to rein in my anger unsuccessfully.
“My name is Sarah.” She replied, with anger lacing each word just like mine.
I stared at her for a moment. At that moment I didn’t care if she was dangerous or not. I just knew that somehow she was hurting my brother and that was a reason enough for me to hate this young woman standing before me. I gritted my teeth. “I did not ask your name. I asked who you are.”
“And may I ask who are you to ask me this question. You may have been the High King Peter, the Magnificent but you are no one to ask me anything.”
On any other occasion, the fact that she knew about Narnia would have shocked me but not right now. “You are hurting my brother. That’s a reason enough.”
“You fool! That’s what you think.” She shouted back.
“Then what are you doing? Why are your fingers stained with my brother’s blood?”
“I don’t see any reason to answer you.” She snarled. My hand went to her throat just when I heard some voices in the dinning room.
Sarah looked pointedly at my hands and said, “You better get them off me or think up a story for it.” There was no fear, no nervousness in her voice even though I could break her neck in a second.
I removed my hands when I heard Dad’s voice inside.
Sarah smiled pleasantly and said, “We have been quite loud, haven’t we?”
Dad opened the door and was definitely surprised to see us.
“Peter? Sarah? What are you both doing here?” asked he.
Before I could open my mouth, Sarah looked Dad directly in the eyes. I don’t know what happened in that brief moment of eye contact but after that Dad did not ask any question. Neither did Mom or Susan. They went back to their rooms in sort of a daze.
Sarah entered the house followed by me.
She turned towards me and said with a glare, “See, it’s all your fault. If you had not messed up everything, they would be asleep in their beds too.” She nodded towards Lucy, Eustace and Jill.
“What’s going on Peter?” It was my valiant sister who asked.
I did not answer. Just pointed at Sarah’s fingers without looking at them. I had still not got my answers.
“What about her?” Jill asked.
Her words made me look at Sarah’s hands which were, much to my shock, absolutely clean.
“What? But? There was blood. On her fingers…” I couldn’t prevent the shock replacing the anger.
“Blood? Sarah, are you all right?” Jill asked worried.
“Of course she is all right.” I snapped. “It wasn’t her blood. It was Edmund’s.”
Sarah was smiling smugly though the crease of anger had not yet left her forehead.
“Will someone care to explain us what’s going on?” Lucy asked eyeing Sarah suspiciously.
I was about to speak when Sarah cut me off. “Your brother thinks I am hurting Edmund which I am not. I am helping him.”
“I don’t care if you are helping him or not. Whatever you are doing, stop it.” I said through gritted teeth.
“All right. I will not ‘hurt’ him anymore but trust me. You have got no idea what’s waiting in store for him if you don’t let me help him.” Sarah said, suddenly very casual and pleasant once more.
Lucy repeated what Aslan, Oreius and many other had told us over and over again. “Nothing can go wrong that can’t be set to right as long as Narnia’s sword and shield are together.”
“Aye. You are right, Valiant Queen. But are the sword and shield going to be together?” Sarah asked raising an eyebrow. “Anyway, that’s none of my business anymore. So, Good bye. Have a pleasant time, in what limited time you have here. I will see you all soon. Maybe then you will thank me for what I am about to do and apologize for what you have not let me do. I am erasing your parent’s and Susan’s memory of me. I would have erased memories of me from your mind as well but all thanks to those gifts, I can’t.”
With that she stalked out the house, closing the door behind her. I don’t know why but I immediately opened the door but there was no one in sight. Lucy came and stood beside me.
“Where did she go? She left the house not a second before you opened the door.” She whispered clutching my hand.
“I don’t know and I don’t care as long as she has actually gone away.” I muttered. “I will just go and check on Edmund.”
“Peter. It’s two in the morning. You can’t go there now.” Jill said softly.
“I’ll just go and come back. Edmund doesn’t lock the window. I’ll get in through there. I have to check on him.” I pleaded and Lucy nodded leaving my hand.
That night I found Edmund peacefully snoring in his bunk in Roger’s room. The scars on his neck had disappeared.
The next morning we related the tale of what happened the previous night, to Edmund. He said he did not care about Sarah’s warning as long as she was away.
True to her words, Mom, Dad and Susan did not remember a thing about Sarah. Lucy suggested that we pretend like we have never known her either. And we did so.
After that suggestion no one mentioned anything about a blonde, green-eyed girl called Sarah. It was like she had never existed. But we all knew that each one of us was thinking about what she said just before leaving.
Finally, more than a week later, Edmund suggested that we just spit it out. After lunch Mom and Su went out for shopping and Dad stepped out to meet one of his friends who had recently been released from Hospital, we all gathered in my room once more.
“So?” Ed began.
“What did she mean by ‘what limited time we had left here’?” Lucy asked nervously.
“And what did she mean when she said Narnia’s sword and shield won’t be together?” Jill asked.
“And what was she saying about the gift?” Eustace said. “Moreover, how did she know about Narnia?”
“I don’t think any of us have any idea as to what she meant.” I said slowly after a few minutes of silence.
“Did you all see how much she looked like White Witch at that time?” Lucy shuddered.
Again there was absolute silence for several minutes before Edmund spoke.
“I think she was referring to Peter’s gift.” Edmund said taking a deep breath.
“The frames?” Eustace asked.
“Yes, the frames.” Edmund nodded.
I was confused. “What about them?”
“Peter, what made those frames special?” Ed asked looking directly in my eyes and then continued. “They were made of the same wood as the wardrobe in Professor Kirke’s house. And the wardrobe was made of the wood of the tree that had grown from the seeds of that apple. The one which cured Professor Kirke’s mother…”
“The apple from the Tree of Protection…”Lucy gasped.
“The scent of the tree was hateful to Jadis.” I said slowly beginning to understand.
“Wait a second. She was able to erase Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie’s and Susan’s memory. How was she able to do that?” Eustace asked, ever his scientist self.
“I don’t know all that. I just know that every night she was casting a sleeping spell over us which made us fall asleep. Ed did not sleep but couldn’t remember what happened. But when the wood was in the house the sleeping spell did not work as powerfully.” I said, understanding everything as I spoke.
“In fact, the night of Lucy’s birthday, we did not feel sleepy at all.” Jill said.
We were all understanding everything slowly when a certain boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb pointed out another fault with the theory.
“But then the wood was in the house in all the time.” He interjected.
“It was in the house certainly but it was really out of the way in the far corner of the attic.” I suggested.
“Well, at least we have one theory for one of the question. The other questions are beyond me.” Edmund said standing up and stretching. “And I am not going to let them hamper my vacation. Let’s go back to pretending we have never met Sarah.”
“Sarah? Who is she?” Lucy said smiling with a suspiciously innocent face. With that she and Jill left the room. Eustace, Edmund and I exchanged a glance and then we shrugged and followed them out.
Downstairs, Lorna gave me a letter which, she said, I had dropped when I took the other posts in. It was a letter from Professor Kirke. I opened the letter and Ed, Eustace and I poured over it.
I called out to the girls to come and see it. As Jill and Lucy read it we waited patiently for Lucy’s joyous exclamation which did come in form of a delighted squeal and a clap.
Mum came back in with Su at that moment and asked what the matter was.
“Mummy, Professor Kirke’s friend Miss Plummer has invited us to her place. Please say we can go.” Lucy pleaded with such a heart-melting expression on her face that I knew Mum wouldn’t refuse even if her life depended on it.
“Sure you all can go.” She said smiling at us before going off to her room.
“So, when are we going?” Susan asked cheerfully.
“Two weeks from now. We go on Friday, spend Saturday and Sunday there and come back Monday morning.” Lucy answered enthusiastically but Susan’s smile faded.
“Sorry, but I will not be able to accompany you all.” She replied.
“Why?” asked Edmund.
“Stephen has asked me out that day.”
“Don’t tell me you are not coming just because of this.” Jill asked surprised.
“Susan you have to come. You can go out with Steven later too. Miss Plummer has planned this get together just so that everyone who has visited Narnia could be together.” Lucy whined.
“It’s Stephen. And don’t be kidding Lu. I can’t say ‘no’ to Stephen just to talk about a game we used to play when we were kids. To be honest, I am surprised you all are still talking about it.” Susan said rolling her eyes.
“It wasn’t a game Su. It was our home.” Edmund said bewildered that Susan would call Narnia a game.
“Okay. If you say so but it still was. It’s not our home anymore. This place is and we have to learn to live here. I am going out with Stephen. You all have fun at Miss Plummer’s.” With that she stalked out the room.
“Peter, what’s wrong with her?” Lucy asked sniffling. Her eyes were shinning with tears.
I brought her in my embrace and said, “Whatever it is Lu, it’s for good. Aslan is watching over her.”
That night when we were going to bed, Edmund crept on to my bed. If he has done so I knew he was upset.
I turned towards him and asked, “What is it Ed?”
“Peter, do you think…Sarah…? What she said is true? That I will be in trouble?” He whispered to me.
Even though we all were well on our way onto adulthood once more there were certain habits that we had not given up, even after growing into adults in Narnia. Lucy had never grown out f her habit of clapping her hands and squealing when she was happy or sitting on my lap when she was upset. Same way Edmund had never grown out of the habit of creeping into my bed whenever he was scared, hurt, worried, upset or just wanted to be near me.
“I don’t know Ed. Let’s just pray to Aslan that those were just empty threats.” I said trying to reassure him but even I could see I was failing miserably.
“They sounded more like a warning to me.” He stated in a matter-of-fact voice.
“Whatever it is Ed, we will face it together.” I stated in a firm voice.
“I know that you all will be with me. I was just thinking what trouble I will get in.” He replied.
“Truly Ed, that is a thing you should think about for I can’t think up a trouble you haven’t got in already.” I joked and my attempt at lightening the mood was successful because he laughed.
After two uneventful weeks, Edmund, Lucy, Jill, Eustace and I were on our way to Miss Plummer’s house, completely unaware of what was waiting for us there.
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The Prequel ends here. Now follows the events of TLB. Next chapter is the sequel and it has been revised so you can go on and read it. :)