Heart and Home~ Edmund Pevensie

Chapter 11: The Witch's Camp

The further they travelled, the colder it got. The witch's sleigh provided no protection against the icy wind that seeped into Amelia's bones. She shivered as she tried to focus on the only form of warmth: Edmunds body next to her. They sat on the floor of the sleigh with their hands and feet tied together and witch's cold glare shut them up quite well. Amelia didn't have much energy to talk in any case - not that the cold was helping her exhausted frame- and the silence that was filled with thunderous hooves and roaring winds only gave her more time to think.

What is happening to me? Why am I so tired around the witch? Why can her glare send me into a frenzy of pain and agony? My mother... she's Narnian? What creature is she? How did my father get into Narnia? Did she leave us like I have always thought? Or did my father abandon her? She couldn't imagine her father abandoning someone for no reason. She had always known him as a kind man, loyal to the bone. The witch's story made no sense to Amelia. Her mind was overwhelmed. It seemed that everything that had happened since she had arrived in Narnia is breaking her apart, piece by piece. There was so much confusion, so much pain, so much saddnes. Amelia didn't know how to deal with it all.

The winds started dying as the carriage slowed down.

"We're almost at the camp, your highness." The dwarf announced from the front of the sleigh. Amelia gave Edmund a worried look and he returned it. They were in more danger now than they ever were before.

The carriage slowed to a stop outside a large iron gate. Amelia could hear the clang of hammers as they descended upon swords and axes and the sizzle of hot metal as it is cooled in water. Shouts, yells and grunts roared from inside the camp. Amelia longed to return to the castle. The quiet ice seemed far more appealing than the base of the witch's army.

The witch stepped off the sleigh and was greeted by a minotaur who seemed high in the ranks, "Take the children and secure them inside the camp. I want a fully scheduled guard duty up and running to assure that there is no escape," she order the minotaur, "Am I clear?"

"Yes your majesty," the beast grunted in a low voice that Amelia could hardly hear. The witch entered the camp with a full entourage of beasts awaiting her orders while the minotaur and two trolls walked to the sleigh. Despite the fear in her bones, Amelia stared at them in the eye. The absence of the witch made her feel stronger and more certain that the witch was not ready to kill her or Edmund just yet. They still had value to her.

"Take the prisoner's to the welding zone," the minotaur ordered the two trolls, "Make sure they can't escape."

Apparently, the witch hadn't thought of including a prison in her camp. Amelia and Edmund were tied back to back to a tree. Amelia could feel the back of his brown jumped against her shoulder blades. Her back hurt slightly from being curled around the tree, but she was grateful that the trunk was as small as it was. Any bigger and the distance between her and Edmund would've increased far too much for her liking. She made a promise, she was going to do it properly.

Once the trolls had left, the small clearing that they were in remained silent for a long time. The clangs and bangs and clashes and sizzles  were muffled, if only slightly, by the surrounding greenery. One thing was for sure, they didn't know the way out.

The late morning grew warmer as the sun rose high in the sky. Its heat combined with the fires that surrounded the welding area in which their tree was situated made Amelia sweat, much to her displeasure.

Every moment she sat there, the stronger she felt. The witch's absence was welcomed by her tired soul and body. She had drifted off many times, but always awoke when another clang sounded. She knew it would take long before her strength returned, but even a little taste of it was enough. She wasn't sure why she had grown so weak, but she welcomed any sense of bravery that had been taken from her.