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The Tale of the Bearded Glass, Part One
Title: The Tale of the Bearded Glass; or, How Queen Edaline Looked in a Mirror and Saw More Than Just Her Reflection
Author: snacky
Rating: G, (gen, adventure)
Disclaimer: All characters, situations, settings, belong to C.S. Lewis/Walden Media/Disney/Fox.
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: No spoilers, if you've read the books. Warning for Mischievous Pixies. ;)
Summary: A Golden Age AU. Queen Edaline looks in a mirror, and finds herself in a different Narnia, one without magicians and pixies and all the other magical creatures she knows. But without the magic, how will she get home?
Original Prompt that we sent you:
What I want: Here's different things I want (feel free to pick and chose, mix and match, whatever catches your fancy.): always-a-girl!Edmund kicking ass, (Shipping her with Peter would make my day.) all-male!Pevensies, pick-pocket!AU, rulers-of-the-underworld!AU, or the Pevensies just being awesome in Narnia. (Jill/Edmund or Peter/Jill would also be really fun to see.)
Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: Knives, swords, the girls dressed in boys clothes, Edmund smoking, snark, cynical!Pevensies, fighting with two swords. OH! Outsider POV on fucked-up Pevensies would be awesome too. I'm also not opposed to characters swearing.
What I definitely don't want in my fic: explicit slash or incest. No smut please. (Nudge nudge wink wink is okay.) (Except girl!Edmund/Peter, I'd take smut then, should you be inclined to write some...)
Author's notes: Thanks to crantz, musesfool, and unsuitenedt for the beta and handholding, and thanks to cofax7 and rthstewart for the good advice and encouragement.
After about the sixth door she got her first real fright. For one second she felt almost certain that a wicked little bearded face had popped out of the wall and made a grimace at her. She forced herself to stop and look at it. And it was not a face at all. It was a little mirror just the size and shape of her own face, with hair on the top of it and a beard hanging down from it, so that when you looked in the mirror your own face fitted into the hair and beard and it looked as if they belonged to you. "I just caught my own reflection with the tail of my eye as I went past," said Lucy to herself. "That was all it was. It's quite harmless." But she didn't like the look of her own face with that hair and beard, and went on. (I don't know what the Bearded Glass was for because I am not a magician.)
-Chapter Ten, “The Magician’s Book” - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
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Queen Edaline Looks in a Mirror
On a sunny summer day, in the fifth year of the reign of the High King Peter and his sisters the Queens, the great castle of Cair Paravel stood gleaming in the sun over the mouth of the Great River of Narnia. The wyverns of the Palace Guard were perched in various spots along the castle roofs and parapets, all basking in the warm sunny day. In the harbor below, merchant ships docked and unloaded their wares, and the shipwrights were busy putting the finishing touches on the newest carrack for the Narnian Navy. The court magician was also there, explaining to King Peter and Queen Susan the wards he had put on the ship to protect her. Queen Lucy was in the Queen’s Garden with several water nymphs, as they blessed the new fountain. And up in the palace, Queen Edaline the Just watched curiously as a willow dryad hung the bearded glass on the wall of her bedroom.
"Ariadne," she said from the window seat, where she was supposedly reading the daily reports from the Court Magicians as her attendant fussed with the mirror, "tell me again why it's necessary that I have this mirror in my room?"
"Because it was a gift, your majesty," Ariadne replied, attempting to drive a hook into the wall, and quite focused on her task.
"We get lots of gifts. I don't have to have them in my private rooms. Especially such an odd gift as that," Edaline said, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she looked at the mirror. It was small, just about the size of a face, but was fitted with hair on both the top and bottom of it, so when you looked in the glass, you saw your own reflection, but with a beard and a rather messy hairstyle. Edaline had looked in it a few times since she'd opened the gift this morning at breakfast, and she had to admit, it was a neat trick - a quick glimpse gave her the feeling she was looking at an entirely different person.
"But you know the note attached said it was from the pixies, and it was a special gift, meant for you, not for the High King or the other Queens. So it's only right it should hang here."
"I know, I know," Edaline muttered. "Not like Peter needs to see himself with a beard anyway."
"That's unkind, majesty."
Edaline giggled. She'd been teasing Peter about his lack of ability to grow a beard for ages, and it was a very sore subject for the High King, who had taken to peering closely at his chin in mirrors when he didn't think anyone else would notice. Edaline, of course, always noticed and never failed to let him know when she did.
Of course, Edaline herself had been caught saying and doing foolish things, and this gift of the bearded glass being a result of that. At Peter's birthday celebration last month, she had complained bitterly when she hadn't been allowed to compete in the tournament, because, as Peter had maddeningly pointed out, she was a girl.
"The knights will be uncomfortable," he'd said to her that morning over breakfast. "They won't know how to fight a girl."
"Unfair! You let Susan and Lucy compete in archery!"
"Archery is not a contact sport," he had said and then quickly added before she could interrupt, "or it shouldn't be, not in a tournament, so don't get any ideas in your head. In any case, you know it's different from you dueling or jousting." He had cast a forbidding glance at Susan and Lucy, but neither of them were inclined to join in the argument, which had had several go-rounds already in the weeks leading up to the celebration.
"But I'm just as good at those things as you are!"
He had groaned and rubbed his head. "I know, I'm still sore from our last practice session. But look, Eda, it's not fair and not courteous to the knights coming from the islands and Calormen and all the other countries to have you compete. They're not used to women fighting, and they'd let you win. And you wouldn't want that either, would you?"
She hadn’t. She wanted to win or lose on her own merits, not because some man thought she was too much of a girl to fight. So she had given up on the argument, rather graciously, she’d thought, and gone with Susan to get dressed, in the new gown made specially for the celebration, which she had been avoiding up until that moment. But she’d complained to Susan about the unfairness of it all as she was being laced into the new dress, and had been overheard by their attendants and the seamstress and the seamstress’ assistants. Evidently there had been a gossip among the group, and by the time the tournament had started that afternoon, there was a joke circulating around the court and the palace staff about how Queen Edaline wished she were a Just King, which had embarrassed her to no end.
The joke had obviously spread quite far, she thought ruefully as she glanced at the bearded glass Ariadne had finally hung straight. If the pixies all the way out in the Western Wild had heard it and were sending her this gift....oh, Aslan, it would be a long time before anyone forgot it.
It wasn’t that she wanted to be be a boy. At age fifteen, Edaline had long put away that childish desire, if not her preference for trousers over dresses. And she liked being Queen - she was, after all, as well trained as Peter with the sword, and she was a talented archer, if not as good as Susan, and she could handle a knife and spear as well as anyone. She knew she was as good as any boy, but sometimes she chafed at the unfairness of it all - how she and her sisters were always underestimated as Queens, how she felt she always had to go an extra step to prove herself to Peter, and to their subjects, and not just because of her past actions with the Witch although that was never far from her mind.
“Your majesty?” Ariadne glanced over at her. “I’ve finished. Come look.”
“I’ve looked into it several times already,” Edaline protested, but she got up all the same.
Ariadne peered curiously at the mirror. “It’s so odd, seeing myself like that.” She shuddered minutely, and several leaves fell to the floor. “I know it’s my reflection, but it seems almost…like a different me.”
Edaline glanced over the dryad’s shoulder. “The pixies were just making fun, that’s all.”
“But just look!” Ariadne insisted, and stepped aside so that Edaline was standing directly in front of the glass, smiling at her reflection.
She reached out a hand to touch the hair decorating the frame. “I have to admit, it’s a nice beard, but I don’t quite like the hair - Oh!”
“Are you alright, your majesty?”
Edaline nodded, and oh, it almost looked like the bearded glass nodded back at her, which wasn’t really possible. Was it? “I’m fine. I just felt, oh, it felt like a pull - oh! Again!” She felt like she was being drawn closer and closer to the mirror, and she didn’t really think she could get much closer to the wall, but now she was almost nose to nose with her reflection. And when she looked at her eyes, she realized with a start that she was staring at a different face now, not her own. “Ariadne, step back! There’s enchantment at work here!
“Your majesty! Be careful! Hold on!”
She could hear the concern in her attendant’s voice but it sounded very far away, and she knew that Ariadne was trying to pull at her, but her hands felt as light as the breeze. All she could see was that other face getting closer and closer, as the glass pulled her in, in and away from Ariadne and Cair Paravel. She felt like all the breath was being squeezed out of her and she tried to cry out, but her voice didn’t seem to be working in the mirror.
The next thing she knew, she was sitting on the floor, gasping for breath, and staring up at that other face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a sunny summer day, in the fifth year of the reign of the High King Peter and his brother and sisters, the great castle of Cair Paravel stood gleaming in the sun over the mouth of the Great River of Narnia. In the harbor below, merchant ships docked and unloaded their wares, and the shipwrights were busy putting the finishing touches on the newest carrack for the Narnian Navy. Queen Lucy was off visiting their old friends the Beavers, but King Peter, Queen Susan, and King Edmund were gathered in Queen Susan’s sitting room, eating lunch before they all attended court in the afternoon.
Peter finished his lunch and stretched, yawning hugely. "I'm exhausted after training with the army this morning," he grumbled. "Why can't you two attend court without me?"
Susan took a sip of her iced mint tea and gave him a stern look. "Because you're the High King, and when the High King is in the Cair, he attends court."
Peter looked imploringly at Edmund. "Don't you think you can handle this one, Ed?"
Edmund shook his head as he worked steadily on demolishing his meal. "Actually, you really should be there, Peter. I know a lot of it seems routine, like the territory dispute between the naiads and the Marshwiggles, those Galman merchants who are annoyed with the new trade agreement, and the Badgers' complaint about the Royal Guard-"
He was interrupted by a low growls coming the large brown Wolf (and head of the Guard) sitting alert beside his chair. "I know, I know, Accalia," he said. "But they still think they have a place in the Guard. Anyway," he turned back to Peter, cutting off Accalia's protest, "it's not just those things. There's a report from Dakin, the Black Dwarf from the Shuddering Wood, and you'll want to hear that."
Peter nodded. "Oh, yes…any further talk of rebellion among the Black Dwarfs?"
"Hopefully he'll be telling us none at all, but considering what I hear from my other sources, I doubt the news will be that good."
"Do you think there'll really be a rebellion?" asked Susan. "I was hoping it was all just talk."
Peter frowned. "I'm afraid-" He stopped when there was a loud knock at the door. "Are we expecting someone else for lunch?"
Alina was up and sniffing at the door instantly. "It's the Faun Tumnus, your majesty," the Tiger announced, and Peter called for him to enter.
Tumnus came trotting in the room, a gaily wrapped package tucked under his arm. "Good afternoon, your majesties," he greeted them, with a quick and courteous bow, and then turned to Edmund. "Sire, this package was just delivered for you."
Edmund looked over the package curiously, while Accalia sniffed it cautiously, trying to ascertain if there was anything venomous inside. "It looks like a birthday gift. Are you sure it wasn't for Peter, Tumnus?" Since Peter's birthday celebration last month, presents were still arriving daily at the palace.
Tumnus shook his head. "No, sire. Taris said the centaur who delivered it requested that it go directly to you. And if you look at the tag, you can see it clearly says For King Edmund."
Edmund shrugged, pushed his chair back from the table, and started to tear off the wrapping. "Perhaps it's from someone who meant to send me an extra present on my last birthday. Because they admire me so."
"Or perhaps they're just very early for your next, because they want to get their obligations out of the way," Susan suggested, then peered at the gift as Edmund lifted it out of the box. "Is that… a wig?"
"No, it's a…mirror? With a wig attached, I think." Edmund turned the glass over, examining it, and then held it up so the others could see it. "How odd."
It was a mirror, and the frame was adorned with long dark hair, with ribbons twined into small braids. At the base , the frame had been carved to look like a delicate linked chain, and painted gold with a black stone set in the center of it. Edmund gazed into it. "Oh, I see. If you look into it, you see your reflection, but you look like you have that long hair, and a necklace."
Susan got up from her chair to look over Edmund's shoulder. Dulcie, her white Wolf guard, followed, sniffing curiously at the mirror in Edmund's hands. "The carving is lovely," Susan said, as she reached out and touched the hair. "Although it seems a bit peculiar. Was there a note that said who it's from?"
"Someone who clearly thought Ed needed to see himself as a girl," Peter said with a smirk.
"Hush you," Edmund muttered, still looking into the glass. "Or perhaps you'd like to have a go with- oh!"
"What?"
"There's something odd about this mirror. It seems - Oh!" he cried again.
"Sire?"
"Ed, what is it?"
"Your majesty?" The guards had all rushed to his side and were poking their noses in, growling and sniffing at the mirror.
Edmund shook his head. "That face. It's not mine."
"Of course it's yours," Susan said. "It's your reflection."
"No, look at the eyes! They're moving, and I think -they're getting closer. Can't you see?"
Susan looked over his left shoulder. Tumnus peered over his right one. The Guard closed in around his knees, and Peter stood from his chair to come see what was happening, when suddenly Edmund gave a shout and after, no one could say for sure exactly how it happened, but they would all agree that the girl on the floor had come out of the mirror.
The same mirror that Edmund, completely startled, let slip from his hands and fall to the floor, where it shattered into thousands of shiny (and hairy) pieces.
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Edaline took a deep breath and stared first at the young man looking down at her, and then at the shards of glass on the floor. She reached out for one of the bigger pieces, but shrunk back as two Wolves and a Tiger surrounded her, growling low in their throats, and looking ready to attack if she so much as breathed wrong. She glanced around the room and to her great surprise, saw people she knew standing behind the young man. "Peter, Susan! Oh, and Tumnus too! How did you get here? Were you pulled through the mirror as well?"
Peter and Susan and Tumnus all exchanged rather surprised looks, and Peter looked at her warily. "We've been here all along."
"We didn't come through the mirror. Only you," Susan said quietly, a look of caution on her face.
"But…" Edaline bit her lip as she continued to look around the room. It was very familiar to her - clearly it was Susan's sitting room, but she realized there were several thing out of place or added to the decor. Those curtains were the old ones, light green, and Eda knew Susan had replaced them last week with a new blue floral set. And Susan's desk wasn't under the window, and she didn't keep her horn on the shelf by the door, and, and…she looked closely at her brother's and sister's faces, and had the same shock from when she looked in the bearded glass and realized she wasn't looking at her own reflection. These weren't her siblings. And when she looked up at the young man who was still staring at her, she guessed who he was as well. "Are you…their brother?"
The young man nodded, then asked hesitantly, "Should I know you? You look…familiar. And do you know my sister Lucy as well?"
Edaline nodded and started to get up, when the brown Wolf blocked her way. "Your majesty?"
The young man turned to her. "Yes, Accalia?"
"Your majesty, it's very odd. This has never happened before," the Wolf whined. "But she has your scent. The exact same."
Edaline glanced at white Wolf and Tiger, who were both nodding.
"How can that be?" Peter, Edaline noticed, was addressing all three animals, and they all bowed their heads, looking confused.
"I don't know, your majesty," the Tiger said. "But Accalia is correct. She has the same scent as King Edmund - as if they are the same person."
"Maybe because she came out of the mirror when Ed was holding it?" Susan suggested.
The young man, King Edmund, stared at her again, and Eda realized that he had guessed the same as she, when he repeated her question back to her. "Are you their sister?"
Edaline nodded, starting to stand, and this time Accalia let her, dropping back to sit next to Edmund. "Well, my brother is the High King Peter, and my sisters are the Queens Susan and Lucy, but…" she nodded at Peter and Susan, "they are not my brother and sister, although they are very much like them."
Tumnus cleared his throat. "If I may ask, my lady, since you are already acquainted with us all, what is your name?"
Edaline took another deep breath, squaring her shoulders. "I am Queen Edaline of Narnia."
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Not even an hour later, Edaline was seated in one of the most comfortable chairs in the Susan's sitting room, and they were all staring at each other in dismay. Peter had hastily ordered Tumnus to cancel the court for the afternoon. One of Susan's attendants, a holly dryad named Dekae, had carefully gathered up the pieces of the shattered glass, and put them in wooden box for safekeeping, the same box that now sat on the table before them. Edmund had sent Accalia to find the Faun Adimus and the Centaur Elswilde, so they could offer their advice and opinions. And then they had all begun to ask Eda questions.
She had explained, seven times now by her count, about the bearded mirror, and how the pixies of the Western Wild had sent it to her as a mocking gift, and how she had looked into it, and found herself here. And then they had asked more questions, about her Cair Paravel, and her brother and sisters, and how they had come to Narnia, and she found that their stories were almost identical.
"Except for the fact that I'm evidently a girl in that Narnia," Edmund had muttered, staring at the box with the mirror shards almost as intently as he had stared into the glass itself.
"And that they have pixies living in the Western Wild," added Susan.
Eda was surprised. "You don't?"
Peter shook his head. "No. As far as we know, the only beings in the Western Wild are what remains of the White Witch's supporters. We think we've killed or captured most of them, although there is an occasional werewolf sighting."
"But that doesn't mean the pixies aren't there," Eda argued. "You just may not know about them."
Peter looked thoughtful. "That's true, I suppose."
Accalia came back into the room, a young grey Wolf on her heels. "Adimus and Elswilde are on their ways, your majesties, but it will be some time before they get here. Adimus was visiting his father in Beruna, and Elswilde, of course, is in the Great Woods, but messengers have been sent to retrieve both. " She stopped in front of Edaline and nudged the young Wolf forward. "Your majesty, this is Channon. She'll be your personal guard, for now."
Channon bowed her head, tail wagging in a nervous greeting. "Your majesty, I am at your service."
Edaline arched an eyebrow. "I need a guard?" But she smiled at Channon. "I thank you for your protection."
"All their majesties have two guards assigned to them," Accalia explained. "We'll be bringing in another for you, if needed."
"You don't have the Guard in your Narnia?" Edmund asked, glancing up from the box.
"Well, not a personal guard, no, but we have the Palace Guard, of course."
"Like the Army?" Susan was hastily scratching down notes on everything Edaline mentioned. Eda could already see "pixies" and "creatures in the Wild?" on her list.
"No, but we do have an army. The Palace Guard is made up of the magicians and the wyverns."
"Magicians? Wyverns?" Peter frowned. "More creatures from the Western Wild, then?"
Edaline nodded. "The wyverns, yes. They guard Cair Paravel from the air, and the magicians are in charge of putting wards of protection on us, and on the palace and Narnia itself. They all are under Idris, the court magician. Perhaps you can summon him as well? He can probably shed some light on these enchanted mirrors."
Susan shook her head. "We don't have an Idris here, dear."
"They have a court magician, Pete. Why don't we have a court magician?"
"Because we'd like not to have things like enchanted mirrors, Ed?"
"We got one anyway," Edmund pointed out. "Or at least, I did." He scowled at Edaline. "So you think my mirror was a twin for yours, then? Made by the same pixies?"
"Well, you said yours had long hair and ribbons and necklace, and mine had a beard and short hair, and here we are, me a girl and you a boy. I'd say they're definitely connected, since here I am. Although I don't know how the pixies would have got yours here. Idris says they have their own kinds of magic though, so I suppose they knew a way." She sighed. "I wish you hadn't dropped that glass. I think it was probably the way back for me."
"Well, I was startled! A girl had just popped out of it! It's hardly an everyday occurrence!"
"Especially for you."
"Shut it, Pete."
Peter grinned at him. "Maybe if we get a court magician, you can have him conjure up girls for you?" "That is, after he figures out a way to get Edaline back to her own Narnia."
"Just because that would be your first use for court magician, you needn't imagine it would be mine."
Peter began pacing the room restlessly. "I wonder if it's possible to get her back without the mirror…"
Susan looked up from her notes. "Hopefully Adimus and Elswilde will have some ideas on that."
"Are they magicians?" Edaline asked.
"No, but Adimus is the librarian here at Cair Paravel, and Elswilde is a master historian and starwatcher. If anyone will know about the pixies and their magic, they will.
Edaline sighed miserably. She was skeptical about any non-magician knowing how to send her home, and she was worried about what was happening in her own Cair Paravel. She wished Idris was here with her right now, assuring her that there was an easy spell to fix the whole problem. "I hope so."
Susan reached across the table and squeezed Eda's hand. "I'm sure they'll figure something out. Don't worry overmuch."
"Easy for you to say, Su," Edmund grumbled. "Let's hope they're able to figure something out soon."
"Oh, Ed, hush. You weren't the one pulled through a mirror, so stop complaining."
"No, but you're not the one with another version of you staring back at you. It's most unsettling." Edmund folded his arms across his chest and nodded at Edaline. "No offense."
She glared back at him. "Not to worry, Edmund. You're quite unsettling to me too." She felt a nose poking at her hand, and looked down to see Channon laying her head on her knee, looking up at her with sympathetic eyes. Edaline stroked her soft head, feeling a bit better.
Susan shoved her notes across the table at Edmund. "Here, you look at these and add your own. If you're determined to sulk, at least be useful." She stood and gestured to Edaline and Peter. "Come on, Edaline. Peter and I will show you around the Cair."
Peter paused, mid-pace. "We will?"
"We will. You can work off some of that restlessness, and I'm sure Edaline is interested in seeing the differences between our palace and hers." She beckoned again to Edaline. "Come now. You too, Peter." She swept out of the room, Dulcie trotting after her.
"Fine." Peter gave Edmund a long-suffering look, but followed Susan, Alina at his side.
Edaline wasn't sure she was that interested; as a matter of fact, she thought Edmund had the right idea, worrying and thinking and mulling over this problem. But that would mean staying here with Edmund, and he was right, there was something very unsettling about looking at him and knowing he was her, but in a different body. Plus, this Susan was just as bossy as her own sister, she realized, smiling at the thought. "Wait for me, Su!" she called, and dashed after her and Peter, Channon following on her heels.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On to Part Two.
Author: snacky
Rating: G, (gen, adventure)
Disclaimer: All characters, situations, settings, belong to C.S. Lewis/Walden Media/Disney/Fox.
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: No spoilers, if you've read the books. Warning for Mischievous Pixies. ;)
Summary: A Golden Age AU. Queen Edaline looks in a mirror, and finds herself in a different Narnia, one without magicians and pixies and all the other magical creatures she knows. But without the magic, how will she get home?
Original Prompt that we sent you:
What I want: Here's different things I want (feel free to pick and chose, mix and match, whatever catches your fancy.): always-a-girl!Edmund kicking ass, (Shipping her with Peter would make my day.) all-male!Pevensies, pick-pocket!AU, rulers-of-the-underworld!AU, or the Pevensies just being awesome in Narnia. (Jill/Edmund or Peter/Jill would also be really fun to see.)
Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: Knives, swords, the girls dressed in boys clothes, Edmund smoking, snark, cynical!Pevensies, fighting with two swords. OH! Outsider POV on fucked-up Pevensies would be awesome too. I'm also not opposed to characters swearing.
What I definitely don't want in my fic: explicit slash or incest. No smut please. (Nudge nudge wink wink is okay.) (Except girl!Edmund/Peter, I'd take smut then, should you be inclined to write some...)
Author's notes: Thanks to crantz, musesfool, and unsuitenedt for the beta and handholding, and thanks to cofax7 and rthstewart for the good advice and encouragement.
After about the sixth door she got her first real fright. For one second she felt almost certain that a wicked little bearded face had popped out of the wall and made a grimace at her. She forced herself to stop and look at it. And it was not a face at all. It was a little mirror just the size and shape of her own face, with hair on the top of it and a beard hanging down from it, so that when you looked in the mirror your own face fitted into the hair and beard and it looked as if they belonged to you. "I just caught my own reflection with the tail of my eye as I went past," said Lucy to herself. "That was all it was. It's quite harmless." But she didn't like the look of her own face with that hair and beard, and went on. (I don't know what the Bearded Glass was for because I am not a magician.)
-Chapter Ten, “The Magician’s Book” - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
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Queen Edaline Looks in a Mirror
On a sunny summer day, in the fifth year of the reign of the High King Peter and his sisters the Queens, the great castle of Cair Paravel stood gleaming in the sun over the mouth of the Great River of Narnia. The wyverns of the Palace Guard were perched in various spots along the castle roofs and parapets, all basking in the warm sunny day. In the harbor below, merchant ships docked and unloaded their wares, and the shipwrights were busy putting the finishing touches on the newest carrack for the Narnian Navy. The court magician was also there, explaining to King Peter and Queen Susan the wards he had put on the ship to protect her. Queen Lucy was in the Queen’s Garden with several water nymphs, as they blessed the new fountain. And up in the palace, Queen Edaline the Just watched curiously as a willow dryad hung the bearded glass on the wall of her bedroom.
"Ariadne," she said from the window seat, where she was supposedly reading the daily reports from the Court Magicians as her attendant fussed with the mirror, "tell me again why it's necessary that I have this mirror in my room?"
"Because it was a gift, your majesty," Ariadne replied, attempting to drive a hook into the wall, and quite focused on her task.
"We get lots of gifts. I don't have to have them in my private rooms. Especially such an odd gift as that," Edaline said, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she looked at the mirror. It was small, just about the size of a face, but was fitted with hair on both the top and bottom of it, so when you looked in the glass, you saw your own reflection, but with a beard and a rather messy hairstyle. Edaline had looked in it a few times since she'd opened the gift this morning at breakfast, and she had to admit, it was a neat trick - a quick glimpse gave her the feeling she was looking at an entirely different person.
"But you know the note attached said it was from the pixies, and it was a special gift, meant for you, not for the High King or the other Queens. So it's only right it should hang here."
"I know, I know," Edaline muttered. "Not like Peter needs to see himself with a beard anyway."
"That's unkind, majesty."
Edaline giggled. She'd been teasing Peter about his lack of ability to grow a beard for ages, and it was a very sore subject for the High King, who had taken to peering closely at his chin in mirrors when he didn't think anyone else would notice. Edaline, of course, always noticed and never failed to let him know when she did.
Of course, Edaline herself had been caught saying and doing foolish things, and this gift of the bearded glass being a result of that. At Peter's birthday celebration last month, she had complained bitterly when she hadn't been allowed to compete in the tournament, because, as Peter had maddeningly pointed out, she was a girl.
"The knights will be uncomfortable," he'd said to her that morning over breakfast. "They won't know how to fight a girl."
"Unfair! You let Susan and Lucy compete in archery!"
"Archery is not a contact sport," he had said and then quickly added before she could interrupt, "or it shouldn't be, not in a tournament, so don't get any ideas in your head. In any case, you know it's different from you dueling or jousting." He had cast a forbidding glance at Susan and Lucy, but neither of them were inclined to join in the argument, which had had several go-rounds already in the weeks leading up to the celebration.
"But I'm just as good at those things as you are!"
He had groaned and rubbed his head. "I know, I'm still sore from our last practice session. But look, Eda, it's not fair and not courteous to the knights coming from the islands and Calormen and all the other countries to have you compete. They're not used to women fighting, and they'd let you win. And you wouldn't want that either, would you?"
She hadn’t. She wanted to win or lose on her own merits, not because some man thought she was too much of a girl to fight. So she had given up on the argument, rather graciously, she’d thought, and gone with Susan to get dressed, in the new gown made specially for the celebration, which she had been avoiding up until that moment. But she’d complained to Susan about the unfairness of it all as she was being laced into the new dress, and had been overheard by their attendants and the seamstress and the seamstress’ assistants. Evidently there had been a gossip among the group, and by the time the tournament had started that afternoon, there was a joke circulating around the court and the palace staff about how Queen Edaline wished she were a Just King, which had embarrassed her to no end.
The joke had obviously spread quite far, she thought ruefully as she glanced at the bearded glass Ariadne had finally hung straight. If the pixies all the way out in the Western Wild had heard it and were sending her this gift....oh, Aslan, it would be a long time before anyone forgot it.
It wasn’t that she wanted to be be a boy. At age fifteen, Edaline had long put away that childish desire, if not her preference for trousers over dresses. And she liked being Queen - she was, after all, as well trained as Peter with the sword, and she was a talented archer, if not as good as Susan, and she could handle a knife and spear as well as anyone. She knew she was as good as any boy, but sometimes she chafed at the unfairness of it all - how she and her sisters were always underestimated as Queens, how she felt she always had to go an extra step to prove herself to Peter, and to their subjects, and not just because of her past actions with the Witch although that was never far from her mind.
“Your majesty?” Ariadne glanced over at her. “I’ve finished. Come look.”
“I’ve looked into it several times already,” Edaline protested, but she got up all the same.
Ariadne peered curiously at the mirror. “It’s so odd, seeing myself like that.” She shuddered minutely, and several leaves fell to the floor. “I know it’s my reflection, but it seems almost…like a different me.”
Edaline glanced over the dryad’s shoulder. “The pixies were just making fun, that’s all.”
“But just look!” Ariadne insisted, and stepped aside so that Edaline was standing directly in front of the glass, smiling at her reflection.
She reached out a hand to touch the hair decorating the frame. “I have to admit, it’s a nice beard, but I don’t quite like the hair - Oh!”
“Are you alright, your majesty?”
Edaline nodded, and oh, it almost looked like the bearded glass nodded back at her, which wasn’t really possible. Was it? “I’m fine. I just felt, oh, it felt like a pull - oh! Again!” She felt like she was being drawn closer and closer to the mirror, and she didn’t really think she could get much closer to the wall, but now she was almost nose to nose with her reflection. And when she looked at her eyes, she realized with a start that she was staring at a different face now, not her own. “Ariadne, step back! There’s enchantment at work here!
“Your majesty! Be careful! Hold on!”
She could hear the concern in her attendant’s voice but it sounded very far away, and she knew that Ariadne was trying to pull at her, but her hands felt as light as the breeze. All she could see was that other face getting closer and closer, as the glass pulled her in, in and away from Ariadne and Cair Paravel. She felt like all the breath was being squeezed out of her and she tried to cry out, but her voice didn’t seem to be working in the mirror.
The next thing she knew, she was sitting on the floor, gasping for breath, and staring up at that other face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a sunny summer day, in the fifth year of the reign of the High King Peter and his brother and sisters, the great castle of Cair Paravel stood gleaming in the sun over the mouth of the Great River of Narnia. In the harbor below, merchant ships docked and unloaded their wares, and the shipwrights were busy putting the finishing touches on the newest carrack for the Narnian Navy. Queen Lucy was off visiting their old friends the Beavers, but King Peter, Queen Susan, and King Edmund were gathered in Queen Susan’s sitting room, eating lunch before they all attended court in the afternoon.
Peter finished his lunch and stretched, yawning hugely. "I'm exhausted after training with the army this morning," he grumbled. "Why can't you two attend court without me?"
Susan took a sip of her iced mint tea and gave him a stern look. "Because you're the High King, and when the High King is in the Cair, he attends court."
Peter looked imploringly at Edmund. "Don't you think you can handle this one, Ed?"
Edmund shook his head as he worked steadily on demolishing his meal. "Actually, you really should be there, Peter. I know a lot of it seems routine, like the territory dispute between the naiads and the Marshwiggles, those Galman merchants who are annoyed with the new trade agreement, and the Badgers' complaint about the Royal Guard-"
He was interrupted by a low growls coming the large brown Wolf (and head of the Guard) sitting alert beside his chair. "I know, I know, Accalia," he said. "But they still think they have a place in the Guard. Anyway," he turned back to Peter, cutting off Accalia's protest, "it's not just those things. There's a report from Dakin, the Black Dwarf from the Shuddering Wood, and you'll want to hear that."
Peter nodded. "Oh, yes…any further talk of rebellion among the Black Dwarfs?"
"Hopefully he'll be telling us none at all, but considering what I hear from my other sources, I doubt the news will be that good."
"Do you think there'll really be a rebellion?" asked Susan. "I was hoping it was all just talk."
Peter frowned. "I'm afraid-" He stopped when there was a loud knock at the door. "Are we expecting someone else for lunch?"
Alina was up and sniffing at the door instantly. "It's the Faun Tumnus, your majesty," the Tiger announced, and Peter called for him to enter.
Tumnus came trotting in the room, a gaily wrapped package tucked under his arm. "Good afternoon, your majesties," he greeted them, with a quick and courteous bow, and then turned to Edmund. "Sire, this package was just delivered for you."
Edmund looked over the package curiously, while Accalia sniffed it cautiously, trying to ascertain if there was anything venomous inside. "It looks like a birthday gift. Are you sure it wasn't for Peter, Tumnus?" Since Peter's birthday celebration last month, presents were still arriving daily at the palace.
Tumnus shook his head. "No, sire. Taris said the centaur who delivered it requested that it go directly to you. And if you look at the tag, you can see it clearly says For King Edmund."
Edmund shrugged, pushed his chair back from the table, and started to tear off the wrapping. "Perhaps it's from someone who meant to send me an extra present on my last birthday. Because they admire me so."
"Or perhaps they're just very early for your next, because they want to get their obligations out of the way," Susan suggested, then peered at the gift as Edmund lifted it out of the box. "Is that… a wig?"
"No, it's a…mirror? With a wig attached, I think." Edmund turned the glass over, examining it, and then held it up so the others could see it. "How odd."
It was a mirror, and the frame was adorned with long dark hair, with ribbons twined into small braids. At the base , the frame had been carved to look like a delicate linked chain, and painted gold with a black stone set in the center of it. Edmund gazed into it. "Oh, I see. If you look into it, you see your reflection, but you look like you have that long hair, and a necklace."
Susan got up from her chair to look over Edmund's shoulder. Dulcie, her white Wolf guard, followed, sniffing curiously at the mirror in Edmund's hands. "The carving is lovely," Susan said, as she reached out and touched the hair. "Although it seems a bit peculiar. Was there a note that said who it's from?"
"Someone who clearly thought Ed needed to see himself as a girl," Peter said with a smirk.
"Hush you," Edmund muttered, still looking into the glass. "Or perhaps you'd like to have a go with- oh!"
"What?"
"There's something odd about this mirror. It seems - Oh!" he cried again.
"Sire?"
"Ed, what is it?"
"Your majesty?" The guards had all rushed to his side and were poking their noses in, growling and sniffing at the mirror.
Edmund shook his head. "That face. It's not mine."
"Of course it's yours," Susan said. "It's your reflection."
"No, look at the eyes! They're moving, and I think -they're getting closer. Can't you see?"
Susan looked over his left shoulder. Tumnus peered over his right one. The Guard closed in around his knees, and Peter stood from his chair to come see what was happening, when suddenly Edmund gave a shout and after, no one could say for sure exactly how it happened, but they would all agree that the girl on the floor had come out of the mirror.
The same mirror that Edmund, completely startled, let slip from his hands and fall to the floor, where it shattered into thousands of shiny (and hairy) pieces.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edaline took a deep breath and stared first at the young man looking down at her, and then at the shards of glass on the floor. She reached out for one of the bigger pieces, but shrunk back as two Wolves and a Tiger surrounded her, growling low in their throats, and looking ready to attack if she so much as breathed wrong. She glanced around the room and to her great surprise, saw people she knew standing behind the young man. "Peter, Susan! Oh, and Tumnus too! How did you get here? Were you pulled through the mirror as well?"
Peter and Susan and Tumnus all exchanged rather surprised looks, and Peter looked at her warily. "We've been here all along."
"We didn't come through the mirror. Only you," Susan said quietly, a look of caution on her face.
"But…" Edaline bit her lip as she continued to look around the room. It was very familiar to her - clearly it was Susan's sitting room, but she realized there were several thing out of place or added to the decor. Those curtains were the old ones, light green, and Eda knew Susan had replaced them last week with a new blue floral set. And Susan's desk wasn't under the window, and she didn't keep her horn on the shelf by the door, and, and…she looked closely at her brother's and sister's faces, and had the same shock from when she looked in the bearded glass and realized she wasn't looking at her own reflection. These weren't her siblings. And when she looked up at the young man who was still staring at her, she guessed who he was as well. "Are you…their brother?"
The young man nodded, then asked hesitantly, "Should I know you? You look…familiar. And do you know my sister Lucy as well?"
Edaline nodded and started to get up, when the brown Wolf blocked her way. "Your majesty?"
The young man turned to her. "Yes, Accalia?"
"Your majesty, it's very odd. This has never happened before," the Wolf whined. "But she has your scent. The exact same."
Edaline glanced at white Wolf and Tiger, who were both nodding.
"How can that be?" Peter, Edaline noticed, was addressing all three animals, and they all bowed their heads, looking confused.
"I don't know, your majesty," the Tiger said. "But Accalia is correct. She has the same scent as King Edmund - as if they are the same person."
"Maybe because she came out of the mirror when Ed was holding it?" Susan suggested.
The young man, King Edmund, stared at her again, and Eda realized that he had guessed the same as she, when he repeated her question back to her. "Are you their sister?"
Edaline nodded, starting to stand, and this time Accalia let her, dropping back to sit next to Edmund. "Well, my brother is the High King Peter, and my sisters are the Queens Susan and Lucy, but…" she nodded at Peter and Susan, "they are not my brother and sister, although they are very much like them."
Tumnus cleared his throat. "If I may ask, my lady, since you are already acquainted with us all, what is your name?"
Edaline took another deep breath, squaring her shoulders. "I am Queen Edaline of Narnia."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not even an hour later, Edaline was seated in one of the most comfortable chairs in the Susan's sitting room, and they were all staring at each other in dismay. Peter had hastily ordered Tumnus to cancel the court for the afternoon. One of Susan's attendants, a holly dryad named Dekae, had carefully gathered up the pieces of the shattered glass, and put them in wooden box for safekeeping, the same box that now sat on the table before them. Edmund had sent Accalia to find the Faun Adimus and the Centaur Elswilde, so they could offer their advice and opinions. And then they had all begun to ask Eda questions.
She had explained, seven times now by her count, about the bearded mirror, and how the pixies of the Western Wild had sent it to her as a mocking gift, and how she had looked into it, and found herself here. And then they had asked more questions, about her Cair Paravel, and her brother and sisters, and how they had come to Narnia, and she found that their stories were almost identical.
"Except for the fact that I'm evidently a girl in that Narnia," Edmund had muttered, staring at the box with the mirror shards almost as intently as he had stared into the glass itself.
"And that they have pixies living in the Western Wild," added Susan.
Eda was surprised. "You don't?"
Peter shook his head. "No. As far as we know, the only beings in the Western Wild are what remains of the White Witch's supporters. We think we've killed or captured most of them, although there is an occasional werewolf sighting."
"But that doesn't mean the pixies aren't there," Eda argued. "You just may not know about them."
Peter looked thoughtful. "That's true, I suppose."
Accalia came back into the room, a young grey Wolf on her heels. "Adimus and Elswilde are on their ways, your majesties, but it will be some time before they get here. Adimus was visiting his father in Beruna, and Elswilde, of course, is in the Great Woods, but messengers have been sent to retrieve both. " She stopped in front of Edaline and nudged the young Wolf forward. "Your majesty, this is Channon. She'll be your personal guard, for now."
Channon bowed her head, tail wagging in a nervous greeting. "Your majesty, I am at your service."
Edaline arched an eyebrow. "I need a guard?" But she smiled at Channon. "I thank you for your protection."
"All their majesties have two guards assigned to them," Accalia explained. "We'll be bringing in another for you, if needed."
"You don't have the Guard in your Narnia?" Edmund asked, glancing up from the box.
"Well, not a personal guard, no, but we have the Palace Guard, of course."
"Like the Army?" Susan was hastily scratching down notes on everything Edaline mentioned. Eda could already see "pixies" and "creatures in the Wild?" on her list.
"No, but we do have an army. The Palace Guard is made up of the magicians and the wyverns."
"Magicians? Wyverns?" Peter frowned. "More creatures from the Western Wild, then?"
Edaline nodded. "The wyverns, yes. They guard Cair Paravel from the air, and the magicians are in charge of putting wards of protection on us, and on the palace and Narnia itself. They all are under Idris, the court magician. Perhaps you can summon him as well? He can probably shed some light on these enchanted mirrors."
Susan shook her head. "We don't have an Idris here, dear."
"They have a court magician, Pete. Why don't we have a court magician?"
"Because we'd like not to have things like enchanted mirrors, Ed?"
"We got one anyway," Edmund pointed out. "Or at least, I did." He scowled at Edaline. "So you think my mirror was a twin for yours, then? Made by the same pixies?"
"Well, you said yours had long hair and ribbons and necklace, and mine had a beard and short hair, and here we are, me a girl and you a boy. I'd say they're definitely connected, since here I am. Although I don't know how the pixies would have got yours here. Idris says they have their own kinds of magic though, so I suppose they knew a way." She sighed. "I wish you hadn't dropped that glass. I think it was probably the way back for me."
"Well, I was startled! A girl had just popped out of it! It's hardly an everyday occurrence!"
"Especially for you."
"Shut it, Pete."
Peter grinned at him. "Maybe if we get a court magician, you can have him conjure up girls for you?" "That is, after he figures out a way to get Edaline back to her own Narnia."
"Just because that would be your first use for court magician, you needn't imagine it would be mine."
Peter began pacing the room restlessly. "I wonder if it's possible to get her back without the mirror…"
Susan looked up from her notes. "Hopefully Adimus and Elswilde will have some ideas on that."
"Are they magicians?" Edaline asked.
"No, but Adimus is the librarian here at Cair Paravel, and Elswilde is a master historian and starwatcher. If anyone will know about the pixies and their magic, they will.
Edaline sighed miserably. She was skeptical about any non-magician knowing how to send her home, and she was worried about what was happening in her own Cair Paravel. She wished Idris was here with her right now, assuring her that there was an easy spell to fix the whole problem. "I hope so."
Susan reached across the table and squeezed Eda's hand. "I'm sure they'll figure something out. Don't worry overmuch."
"Easy for you to say, Su," Edmund grumbled. "Let's hope they're able to figure something out soon."
"Oh, Ed, hush. You weren't the one pulled through a mirror, so stop complaining."
"No, but you're not the one with another version of you staring back at you. It's most unsettling." Edmund folded his arms across his chest and nodded at Edaline. "No offense."
She glared back at him. "Not to worry, Edmund. You're quite unsettling to me too." She felt a nose poking at her hand, and looked down to see Channon laying her head on her knee, looking up at her with sympathetic eyes. Edaline stroked her soft head, feeling a bit better.
Susan shoved her notes across the table at Edmund. "Here, you look at these and add your own. If you're determined to sulk, at least be useful." She stood and gestured to Edaline and Peter. "Come on, Edaline. Peter and I will show you around the Cair."
Peter paused, mid-pace. "We will?"
"We will. You can work off some of that restlessness, and I'm sure Edaline is interested in seeing the differences between our palace and hers." She beckoned again to Edaline. "Come now. You too, Peter." She swept out of the room, Dulcie trotting after her.
"Fine." Peter gave Edmund a long-suffering look, but followed Susan, Alina at his side.
Edaline wasn't sure she was that interested; as a matter of fact, she thought Edmund had the right idea, worrying and thinking and mulling over this problem. But that would mean staying here with Edmund, and he was right, there was something very unsettling about looking at him and knowing he was her, but in a different body. Plus, this Susan was just as bossy as her own sister, she realized, smiling at the thought. "Wait for me, Su!" she called, and dashed after her and Peter, Channon following on her heels.
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On to Part Two.