Aww, thank you! Okay, so I'll post each of the chapters in different posts.
CHAPTER 1
“To the glistening Eastern Sea, I give you Queen Lucy the Valiant. To the great Western Wood, King Edmund the Just. To the radiant Southern Sun, Queen Susan the Gentle. And to the clear Northern Sky, I give you King Peter, the Magnificent. Once a King or Queen of Narnia, always a King or Queen. May your wisdom grace us until the stars rain down from the heavens.”
Aslan’s majestic voice rang through the halls of Cair Paravel. Everyone cheered.
“Long live King Peter! Long live King Edmund! Long live Queen Susan! Long live Queen Lucy!” The final sentence was the loudest as the youngest Queen of Narnia smiled shyly at the crowd.
Sunlight streamed in through the stained glass windows, sending colours of light splashing onto the vast walls. Behind the crowds of cheerful people dressed in rich velvet, a girl stood peering over their shoulders.
One could easily tell she was a servant at the castle by the way she was dressed. She was wearing a tattered brown dress that barely went past her knees, and she wore nothing on her feet. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun at the nape of her neck. She had brought in the satin cushions bearing the crowns that were to be placed on the heads of the new Kings and Queens of Narnia. The girl’s name was Kari.
Kari was extremely envious of the young rulers. There they were, practically strangers to Narnia, and they had been crowned Kings and Queens just because they had fulfilled some prophecy. King Edmund and Queen Lucy were quite a lot younger than her, and they still got to govern over a magical kingdom.
There was a good side to all this though. It meant the end of the White Witch and the eternal winter she had cast upon Narnia. It had given way to summer. Even at this moment she could hear birds twittering outside. And the river- she could hear it rippling. She had heard that it had been frozen solid for one hundred years. But of course she wouldn’t know- she was only sixteen years of age. Around the same age as Queen Susan.
Kari felt another pang of jealousy. She had been a servant at Cair Paravel all her life. She didn’t have any parents. She couldn’t even afford to get decent shoes. She craned her neck to take another good look at the royals. King Peter was tall, with sandy hair. King Edmund was the opposite. He had a rather pinched face with messy, dark hair. Looking at Queen Susan quite simply took Kari’s breath away. She was wearing a beautiful velvet dress that seemed to ripple with her every movement. Her long, dark hair hung in a French braid behind her. Kari thought Queen Lucy was dressed too lavishly for her age. She must have been only ten or eleven, and was wearing clothes similar to Queen Susan.
There was another thing Kari longed for, other than fame and riches. She wanted a family. All four of the Kings and Queens were brothers and sisters. Quite suddenly Queen Susan caught her eye and she gasped, ducking. It would be no good meeting eyes with a royal.
Still bent over, she made her way across the crowd until she reached a small wooden door. This led to the servant’s quarters. She should have really come back after giving the Beavers the crowns, but she couldn’t help it. She had been mesmerised by the beautiful coronation and Aslan’s powerful voice.
‘I’m really going to get it this time,’ Kari thought worriedly as she found herself in a small corridor. The walls were made out of stone. She ran along the corridor and came to a door at the end of it.
She skidded to a stop, ignoring the stone floors scraping at her bare feet. She pushed open the door and walked in. A pale girl called Sarah came up to her.
“Where have you been?” she whispered urgently. “Victoria wanted you to clean the Kings’ and Queens’ rooms before the coronation is over!”
Kari groaned inwardly. “The coronation’s already over! They’re probably going to their rooms this second!”
At that moment a plump, severe looking woman bustled out of a room at the back. This was Victoria, the head female servant.
“Where have you been, you disobedient child?” she screamed at Kari. “You were supposed to come back after delivering the crowns!”
“I’m sorry!” Kari flinched, “I wanted to watch the coronation!”
“You are in no place to watch it! You are a servant! The lowliest of the low! Now go and clean up the Kings’ and Queens’ rooms!”
She thrust a duster and broom at the frightened girl and walked off. Wasting no time, Kari ran to the other side of the room where there was a small set of stairs. From here she could enter any part of the castle without being too much of a bother. She took them two at a time and ran along another corridor. This, unlike the one leading to the servant quarters, was decorated richly with portraits of previous Kings and Queens of Narnia.
Kari knew that the Kings’ rooms were on this corridor, while the Queens’ rooms were on the floor above. She decided to take King Edmund’s room first. Terrified at what she should do if he was inside, she knocked timidly at the oak door. There was no answer, so she pushed it open a crack and peered in. She breathed a sigh of relief; the room was empty.
She went in and started dusting off the furniture. After she had done that, she swept the floor even though it was already spotless and moved onto King Peter’s room. It smelt of fresh roses. She smiled serenely as she dusted an expensive looking vase on a small table. Bright sunlight came in through a large window, making her feel drowsy.
Her thoughts were penetrated by a smashing noise. She looked down in dismay and saw that in her contemplation, she had accidentally knocked the vase off the table. Moving quickly, she started picking up the jagged pieces, ignoring the cuts they gave her.
Blood fell from her hands and onto the clean carpet. It seeped its way through the fibres, leaving a big, ugly stain in its wake.
‘Great,’ she thought furiously, ‘Now King Peter’s going to think someone was murdered in his room!’
In her fury she did not notice the door opening softly. It was only when she had picked up all the pieces and stood up when she noticed King Peter staring at her curiously. He was still wearing the coronation cape and tunic, and the crown was still on his head. She promptly dropped the pieces again.
“Oh, forgive me, Your Majesty,” she said, hastily attempting to pick them up again. But her bloody hands kept slipping on the smooth porcelain, and the young King’s piercing blue eyes seemed to be going right through her. Finally, after what seemed like an age, she had them all in her hands.
She carefully backed out of the room, bowing again and again. When she was outside she ran for her life, trailing blood behind her. She could almost feel his eyes burning into her back. She was almost sobbing now. What if Victoria found out that she had broken King Peter’s vase? And even worse, having been caught while cleaning his room. What kind of a servant was she?
She froze as she was halfway down the stairs to the Queens’ rooms. She had left the duster and broom back in the room! She had no choice but to go back now. Dropping the pieces into a pocket in her shabby dress, she went back up the stairs and down the corridor to King Peter’s room.
She almost cried with relief and gratefulness when she saw they had been left outside the room. The door seemed to be locked. She picked them up quickly and went upstairs to the Queens’ rooms, hastily wiping her bleeding hands on her dress.
She went to Queen Susan’s room and knocked on the door gingerly.
“Come in,” said two voices.
She went inside and saw the two Queens perching on Queen Susan’s bed. “Forgive me for interrupting, Your Majesties, but I have been ordered to clean your rooms,”
“Thank you, you may do that now,” Queen Susan smiled. Kari decided that she liked her.
She quickly started dusting everything, careful to keep her hands hidden. Then she swept the floor and exited, bowing again. She went to Queen Lucy’s room and did the same before going down to the servant quarters. It was getting dark by now.
Kari went back down the small stone corridor and opened the wooden door. She went inside and closed it quietly behind her. All the servants- only about ten or twelve of them- were sleeping. Victoria had a tiny room to herself because she was the head. The male servants slept at the other side of the castle.
Someone had left her a plate of stale bread and cheese. It wasn’t much, but Kari devoured it, ravenous after a good day’s work. Then she went and lay down beside Sarah on the cold stone floor. Faint moonlight came in through one of the small square windows.
Kari closed her eyes and dozed off almost immediately.
