Prologue
All was according to plan. Perhaps, it was even better.
Her first idea was to take the prince and turn his mind to her ends, but when the mother was laying there so vulnerable, so oblivious, how could she resist the perfect moment to destroy the king even more? The disappearance of his son would break him, but if she got rid of the queen too, it would destroy him. He would never have another heir, not with the heartache she inflicted mere weeks ago.
First the death of his queen, and now the supposed death of his son. She would, of course, be sure that Rilian's death was presumed. She still had much work to do with him, after all, and it would simply not to do have him roaming about above ground, where any soul could see him. No, she is taking him now to her realm, to the great and fearsome Underland where she has made the gnomes her servants and the very earth bends to her will.
The prince gazes over at her like a love-besotted idiot. Exactly as she has designed. He is already putty in her hands, but her enchantment can only last so long. She must get him to Underland, to her silver chair that can keep him in check when he forgets his new self and reverts to his old, nauseating, knightly ways. She has to hand it to King Caspian, he indoctrinated the boy well in the ways of That Lion.
She refuses to even think the name of so beastly a creature. Wild lion, untamed lion, hmph! What had this all-powerful lion done to stop her plans? He had not lifted one padded paw, one golden strand of fur to stand up to her. She can't help her smirk; Narnia is, and always was destined to be, hers.
With Rilian at her side, she will be unstoppable.
