Chapter 8

"LINA?!" shouted Hannah as she burst through the doors of her friend's bedroom. To her dismay, no one was there. She had searched practically every room in the entire castle. 'Of course, the one time I need to tell her something important she has completely dropped off the face of the Earth,' she thought to herself. 'Where could she be?' She leaned against the wall trying to think of where her friend could have disappeared to, and finally she snapped her fingers and thought to herself, The Library. She took off. By the time she got there, she was completely out of breath. She sighed heavily and flung open the doors; she heard two people talking and look around some of the book cases. She found Natalie sitting on a window seal. She was reading Cyrano De Bergerac "Looks like my good luck just keeps on improving." Natalie looked up at her and asked,

"Are you okay? It looks like you just ran a few leagues." Hannah rolled her eyes and sarcastically spat, "Oh yeah, I'm just great! I've spent the past thirty minutes looking all over this castle for Lina and still haven't found her! So yeah, I'm just peachy!" Natalie laughed,

"Does someone need help finding her?" She asked Hannah, speaking in a baby voice just to annoy her. Hannah rolled her eyes and yelled,

"No, I just want to walk around aimlessly for the next hour! YES I WANT HELP!"

"Okay, okay! I'm coming!" She said as she started to get up, but Hannah stopped her.

"It's fine. You're busy! I'll figure this out!" With that, she ran from the room and began to wrack her brains for any possible place of Lina's hiding. 'Really, this girl is impossible. I love her to pieces, but she's ridiculous. I-' "OOF!" Hannah realized that she had developed a knack for running into people and so did Edmund.

"I swear if another girl falls on top of me, there won't be any more of me to actually fall on!" Edmund said sarcastically. Hannah got up, brushed herself off, and helped the Just King to his feet

"Sorry." She mumbled. "I'm looking for Lina. She can't go to Calormen."

"I know." huffed Edmund, rubbing the back of his head. "Five months. It's ridiculous!

"Not just that." Hannah whispered in a trance-like state. Edmund looked worried.

"What's up?" he asked trying to read Hannah's eyes. Hannah huffed and shot him a sad look.

"We just really need to find her." she whispered sadly.

"That won't be too difficult..." Edmund muttered scratching the back of his head.

"Why?" Hannah asked irritated.

"She left ten minutes ago to go talk to Caspian. They're in a meeting right now."

"Okay, but first- How the bloody hell did I miss that?" She asked into thin air, making Edmund laugh as he led her down the corridor to Caspian's office. Edmund reached his hand up to the oak study doors to knock, but was cut short when Hannah barged in on Caspian and Lina, who jumped up from their seats to face the doorway. Edmund followed quickly and quietly.

"Hannah! What's wrong?" asked Lina knitting her eyebrows together as she stared at her panting friend.

"Why... the... bloody... hell... are you... so hard... to find?" Hannah panted attempting to catch her breath.

"And… why… the… bloody… hell… are you… talking… like this?" Lina asked very amused and yet puzzled. Hannah, who had finally regained her composure retorted,

"Just shut up and listen, will you? You can't go to Calormeren!"

"All right, I know it's a bit of a long time, but surely you can live without me for a few months?" Lina said jokingly.

"No, that's not what I'm- ugh- yes we'll miss you terribly but, you, you just…" Hannah raked her fingers through her hair, not knowing quite how to explain what Aslan had told her.

"If you two need to talk, we'll leave you alone." Caspian suggested nervously, his eyes darting back and forth between the two girls.

"If you don't mind." Hannah stated. Caspian shook his head, and he and Edmund exited the office. The door shut with a quiet click behind them.

"Demetria is going to cause some major trouble in Calormen." Hannah said simply. Lina crossed her arms and cast her friend a 'Really?' kind of look.

"I know she can be a bit of a, well not a nice thing to say. But I doubt she can do much! The worst she did was call me a whore and that's not the worst I've gotten." Lina told her friend, trying to reassure her.

"Lina, Aslan talked to me. It's not safe. Something bad is coming, and it's not going to be good for anyone if you leave here." Hannah explained worriedly. Lina shook her head and placed a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Everything happens for the best. Plus, if you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of an awkward seventh wheel here, now." Hannah opened her mouth to protest this, but Lina continued. "I don't take it personally, but maybe I can find my use in Calormen. Everyone else makes their public appearances, and I just sit and do nothing because I'm nobody here, and I'm not courting a royal." Hannah opened her mouth to protest again, but Lina continued. "Once again, I don't take this personally. But you know me! I want to do something, learn things, be useful! If Calormen is where I'm going to accomplish this, then that's where I'm going to go, and I'm not going to let a whiny brat get in the way of me living my life."

"YOU CAN'T GO BECAUSE EDMUND IS IN LOVE WITH YOU AND GOING TO MISS YOU TOO MUCH!" Peter blurted out, as he and Edmund rushed into the room. "I mean what?" He concluded dropping his panicked appearance. Everyone stared at each other rather awkwardly until he doubled over laughing.

"YOU..SHOULD HAVE.. SEEN YOUR.. FACES!" He roared, punctuating each phrase with a hearty laugh. Hannah and Lina quickly joined in the laughter, while Edmund stood there, turning a rather unattractive maroon color.

"Anyways," Lina said returning her attention to Hannah, "I'm going Hannah- end of story."

"B-but, you you, you're-" Hannah babbled.

"No Hannah no 'buts'. I'm going. This is my decision."

"Fine," Hannah huffed. "Just don't say I didn't warn you." With that she stormed out of the office.


"Hannah! Hannah! Ugh, no wonder it took her that long to find me! I mean do castle hallways have to be this confusing?!" Lina shouted running down one of the vast hallways of the Cair looking for Hannah.

After another half an hour of continuous searching she threw her hands in the air and yelled exasperatedly, "Ugh, ok that is it! I give up! This girl is absolutely positively impossible to find!"


After her fight with Lina, Hannah found herself seated on one of the benches in the Cair's rose garden.

"Ugh, why does that girl have to be so stubborn?! For once you think someone would actually listen to me but no! Apparently Hannah never knows what she's talking about! UGH!" Hannah groaned as she frustratedly racked her hands through her hair, looking at her shoes.

"You do know talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity, right?" Peter stated walking up to the flustered girl.

"Well then, go ahead and put me in a ward- because I must have gone bonkers ages ago." Hannah laughed bitterly.

"Hannah, love. You know Lina can take care of herself." Peter said softly, sitting down next to her.

"I know that. It's just- I don't want to loose anyone else. And I just can't help but feel that if Lina does go- Peter something bad's going to happen."

"Tell everyone to meet in my office in twenty minutes- I've got an idea." Peter said half smiling then turning on his heel leaving Hannah sitting there utterly confused.


A/N Ohhhhhh, what's Peters idea- SO SO SO SO SORRY this update took so long and that it's kind of short- my goal is to now put out an update every Saturday or Sunday so please don't give up on me! In other news I have a poll up on my profile that I'd love for y'all to take! RATE and REVIEW please!