The Reflection

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

~ John Magee

The cauldron, Pair Dadeni, gleamed silver in the sunlight, impossibly beautiful with all its intricacies and they looked up at it, marveling at it and hating it.

Peter was the first to come to himself and he looked to his companions, his heart melting in relief when he saw that they were all accounted for and alive, though they were bruised and bloody; all except Lord Stagbane, who was nowhere to be seen.

"Who will be first in the cauldron?" Isis stood before them, viewing them from her great height. "Who will become my first warrior?"

"If we must choose, let it be me," with great effort, Peter sat up.

Isis looked at him closely for a moment, "No, I think not. Let it be the traitor."

Peter fell back against the stone and stared up at the sky, trying to steady his hammering heart. He knew what Edmund was about to do.

"Bring him forward."

"Untie my feet," Edmund said, his voice strangely calm. "I will walk on my own."

He could not bear to look at their faces, yet he rejoiced to be first. He saw Susan's face damp with tears; Lucy, still unconscious on the grass; Peter, looking at him steadily, willing him to be strong.

He would be strong.

The cauldron was very large, as it stood on the stone platform, glancing the sunlight. It could more have been called a silver bowl, a huge one, though it had ornamental handles, beautifully wrought.

Silver, Edmund thought and he came up the steps to it slowly and looked down to see that it was filled with water, reflecting the marbled sky like a mirror.

"Do you see it?" Isis said quietly. "This caldron will show you who you truly are. We are all mirrors; we all reflect something outside of ourselves. Come see your likeness. Look into it and despair."

Edmund took a shuddering breath.

You told me once that you started new, that your old self was no more, Peter had said and Edmund knew in his heart that he was right.

The other life was gone, it was dead, he had become a new person. All had changed that day he stood before Aslan, his head bowed, guilty, accountable and deserving of death. But Aslan's voice had quelled the silence, as rich as velvet and leaping water in summer and had told him he was forgiven.

And the birds sang and Edmund's tears sprang free as his heart was unlocked inside him. He was able to look into the Lion's face, look and see the nobility there.

He hadn't realized then that nothing comes without a price. He had not paid for his own wrongs, but the Lion had, in full. And if Edmund doubted or ridiculed himself for his crimes against Narnia and his siblings, then he was devaluing the tremendous price Aslan had paid.

The moment Aslan died, the scales were balanced and Edmund began anew.

We cannot shine on our own, we are darkness, he is light. By looking at him, we may shine with his light, not our own, because we have none to give.

He closed his eyes now, the tears welling as he realized what he had done. With new courage, he stepped up to the cauldron and looked into the clear, gleaming surface.

It was Aslan's face that was looking back at him.

~o*o~

The others watched him, too full of sorrow to watch, but unable to look away as he walked proudly to the cauldron. Lucy woke then and muffled a cry of horror as she saw him standing there on the platform, Isis near him, her sword drawn, the blade gleaming.

There was a sudden horrible remembrance in her heart when she was still very small, many, many years ago. The great stretch of the Eastern Sea spread silver before her inner eye, she could almost feel Susan's arms around her and she could see Him.

The Lion.

And the horde.

He had walked to the table, proud and humble in a single moment, patient and gentle, standing ready to be offered.

For Edmund's sake.

Edmund hesitated on the platform, then looked at them all, a strange expression in his eyes, then he knelt down before the cauldron and looked at the surface of the water.

There was a moment of silence.

Then there was the bone chilling sound of war cries, wild banshee yells and the skirl of the pipes. It was then that the centaurs came charging between the standing stones, mighty warriors, their claymores swinging, Lord Stagbane leaping at their front, Chiron bringing up the rear, one hand clasped to a bloody side, the other swinging his dirk.

Edmund was the first to react.

He swung sideways and knocked Isis off balance with a swing of his leg. His hands were still tied behind him, but he drove his forehead into her face, cracking her nose and sending her staggering. He had been taught by, and had fought, only the best.

Peter was trying to struggle to his feet, but his ankles were tied and the next moment, Chiron was there, slicing their bonds with quick thrusts of his dirk. Lucy struggled into a sitting position, still groggy and Aravis grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to her feet.

"Come on, run!"

All around them, centaurs reared, their swords flashing. Peter had wrested a sword from a dryad's grasp and had joined their ranks, fighting to Edmund's side to cut his hands free.

"I think we can turn them," Edmund panted, picking up the sword Isis had dropped.

"I'm thinking you're right." Peter said.

The furious onslaught of the centaurs had been too much for the dryads and they fell back, fighting in small groups around the stones for protection. King Lune had found two swords somewhere and was fighting like a fury, blood streaming from a gash on his face as he swung and parried.

"I never knew father could fight like that," Corin said with respect as he fought next to Cor.

Then Susan's voice rose in a shriek and they turned to see what she was saying.

"Stop her!"

Isis was charging through the ranks of centaurs, a sword in her hands. They swung at her, but she parried each blow brilliantly, forcing her way towards the cauldron.

She mounted the steps of the stone platform from where Edmund had toppled her and to the shock of everyone, she threw her sword aside.

Then she leapt into the cauldron.

If she could not use it, no one would.

A shock wave swept over them like a physical blow, rippling the grass beyond the standing stones the way wind ripples it in summer, then Pair Dadeni shattered, the fragments flying out like shrapnel to fall around the lifeless body of Isis.

In the distance, seeming to hover above the very trees, the mist rolled itself over into whirling shapes dashing across the sky. The deep baying of a hound boomed over them three times, reverberating between the standing stones.

"He hunts down the traitors," Aravis whispered and turning to look at her, Edmund realized with a sudden burst of revelation that he was not the traitor, it was Isis, the dryad of the Silver Birch, who had betrayed her own people and had never paid the price.

Gwynn ap nudd, the horned hunter, had captured his prey and was returning home to the sky.

~o*o~

"Well," King Lune commented. "I think we've had ourselves a nice little holiday."

The doors to the sitting room were opened, letting in the chill air and gently ruffling the curtains. If they looked, they could see the stars gleaming above them. They were all sitting in various positions on the floor or draped across the furniture with very little inclination to move.

"I'm thinking you're right," Peter said with a laugh, his hand falling to the ears of one of his hounds. "I was walking through that place again, the standing stones, when I realized that there is a fault line there."

"A fault line?" King Lune said.

"Aye, a crack in the earth. I had been wondering why I felt so light headed near there," Peter said with half a smile. "Anyone breathing in the fumes there would be near insane in short order."

"They were working themselves into a frenzy," King Lune agreed.

"Warrior women," Lucy said from where she sat on the floor. "It was an ugly battle."

"More than that," Peter said. "I don't know about you people, but I was having hallucinations."

There was silence around the room as they all realized that they had all seen those flitting creatures hovering just above the ground and vanishing just as they were looked at straight.

"I think there was more afoot than just fumes from the earth," Lucy said at last.

"As do I," Peter said. "But it certainly helped."

"I'm thinking the next time Cor decides to catch a horse he should bring a body guard with him," Corin said from where he lay on the bearskin before the fire place, his hands behind his head. "Course, I wouldn't mind being it."

"I don't think I'll be catching any more horses for a while," Cor said quietly and slipped out onto the balcony into the arms of the cool night air before they could ask any questions.

"Cor?"A voice said quietly.

He turned to see Aravis standing behind him hesitantly. "Yes?"

"You still have Llamrei."

Cor felt a sudden a rush of gladness that somebody understood. "Yes and I have much more than just Llamrei. But I feel like I've left something unfinished. It's like getting a bad shot at a stag and watching it leap away with your arrow still in its shoulder. It's a bad job and it makes you feel guilty… do you see?"

Cor hardly ever made long speeches and this one left him slightly breathless.

"Yes, I do."

They looked back into the room, at their dear friends and family lying all around. Susan was lying on the sofa, her hands curled around her mug of tea. She was asleep and deserved it after all her care of the injured after the battle.

Peter glanced at Edmund out of the corner of his eye and caught his brother looking at him. Edmund shifted from his place where he leaned on the mantle and knelt down next to Peter's arm chair.

"I have started over. I did a long time ago," he looked up, searching his brother's face for understanding.

"I knew you did," Peter said with a lopsided smile and he reached out and ruffled his brother's hair instead of the ears of his hound.

~o*o~

It was that morning in the rising mist that the phantom colt seemed to materialize like moonlight on silver. They found him standing nervously in the stable yard, whickering to Llamrei where she stood in her stall. No one could go near him and Prince Cor was summoned.

They all stood around and watched as he walked towards the colt very slowly. The gray horse stood still, quivering; his flanks as white as a dove's wing.

Then Cor said his name.

Lloergan.

Silver.

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

~ Zechariah 13:9

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

Author's Note: The fault in the earth is extremely important. There is not a fault at Stonehenge, but in very early Greece, shepherds noticed that their sheep went into convulsions when they wandered near Delphi. Later an oracle was set up there and white robed priestesses sat on tripods nearly underground, babbling incoherently, their words translated by priests. The fumes rising from underground have often been known to bring on hallucinations.

~Rose and Psyche

Special Thanks To MCH: For her work on this last chapter. She informed us of a few things we didn't know about Welsh Mythology and generally got us thinking. Thanks!

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