When the cellar door swung open, Kaelin was not prepared for what she saw. The cellar was full, but King Peter and Queen Lucy were very obviously not here. She was very aware of King Edmund behind her, arms crossed, waiting to see his siblings. She had forgotten – they had been moved to Naithen's tree house.

She turned to face him, "I . . . they've probably been moved to another place . . ."

He sighed, "Find out."

She ducked past him back out into the evening light and spotted her younger brother near the forest. It would be best to find Willem or Calvert – they knew the most about this – but Naithen would suffice.

"Naithen!" she called as quietly as she could. She didn't want to draw much attention.

Her brother yelped and stared as she hurried closer.

"Kaelie?" he asked when they were close enough to speak in normal tones.

"Yes. I need you to find Calvert or Will –"

"Will isn't here," he interrupted. "He disappeared the day after you did."

She scowled to herself. Kind Edmund would not be happy.

"Go find Calvert and bring him here," she told her brother.

Once he was gone, she sat down on one of the stumps to think. How to tell King Edmund that one of the few people who possibly knew his brother and sister's whereabouts was also missing . . .

He came up next to her, "What did you tell him?"

"I told him to go find my brother."

"I thought he was your brother," he stared after Naithen with knitted brows.

"I have five brothers," she answered.

"And how many of them might know where Peter and Lucy are?"

"As far as I know, two. But . . . one is missing, apparently . . ." she offered nervously.

He didn't reply, and she wondered if he was angry. She would have completely understood if he was, but she really hoped that he wasn't. She didn't know how he acted when angry, and she didn't want to find out when the person that his anger was directed towards was herself, or even her brother. That would . . . not be good.

She shivered, hoping that Calvert would come sometime soon. The sun was going down, and being in the shadows of the forest was just making her colder. Her now-filthy dress did not hold much heat, and she pondered if this was just how fancy dresses such as this were. She glanced over at King Edmund and wondered if he was comfortable in his disguise. All it was, really, was a set of civilian clothes, but it worked. If Kaelin hadn't known better, she would never have suspected him to be a king.

Glancing into the trees, she wondered if it would have been smarter to just go check the tree house herself instead of asking her brother, but then she decided that she had been right. If she hadn't called Naithen when she did, she could have missed him and brought too many people into the situation.

Finally, finally, she saw her brother heading in their direction, so she stood back up. It was colder standing up, but she could handle it.

Before she could ask Calvert anything, though, she was crushed in a hug. It was unexpected, but she didn't mind. She felt guilty when she realized that she had hardly missed her family, but she blamed it on the events that had occurred. She hadn't really been gone long enough to be homesick anyway.

"Where have you been?" her brother whispered angrily when he let go.

"On a ship," she mumbled. She didn't want to say something that would make the king next to her suspect her of anything.

He gaped, "On a ship."

She nodded.

"But I need your help. Remember King Peter and Queen Lucy?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Of course you do . . . anyway, we need to find them. Are they still in Naithen's tree house?"

"No, they disappeared when Will did," he scowled.

"May I see this tree house?" King Edmund finally interrupted.

"Who're you?" her brother asked, crossing his arms.

"I'm looking for my siblings. May I see the tree house?" he repeated.

"You're King Edmund," Calvert said flatly.

"Just . . . call me Edmund. It'll make things easier. Now, may – "

"Yes! Yes. I'm sorry, yes," he answered, leading them into the forest with a lantern that Kaelin suddenly noticed.

It was much darker in the woods than it was outside them. The light that they had just left had an orange tinge, but the light here was just brown. The air felt damper in here as well, and her hair quickly began sticking to her forehead. Despite – or possibly because of – the humidity, though, it was still cold – colder in here than it had been in the shadows outside.

Fortunately, Naithen's tree house wasn't very far in past the tree line. When she turned around, she could still clearly see outside, but it didn't make her feel much better. She had never enjoyed going into the forest after dark, and this was no exception.

The lantern soon revealed a large tree and, in its branches, the tree house. Tree room, really.

Calvert handed her the lantern and climbed up, and then she passed it back to him. She followed, with Edmund after her.

Just as her brother had said, it was empty. Edmund asked for the lantern, and once it had been handed over, paced around the room, muttering to himself and examining everything. Kaelin stood silently with her brother, watching. How much could he deduce from an empty room?

OoOoOo

Kaelin and her brother had already fallen asleep. Edmund had hardly noticed, so intent was he in his searching. He didn't really know what he was searching for anyway – just a clue of some kind. The floor wasn't scuffed or scratched, so he assumed that there hadn't been a fight. But they could have just as easily been taken in their sleep, so he didn't rule out the idea that they had been captured. There were no strange stains on the floor or walls, so they probably weren't injured. But in that case, poison could have been used as well, and that didn't leave any marks either.

For every idea he had, there seemed to be something to counter it. There was no indication of where they could have gone, and he had checked the ground around the tree for any tracks, which he wasn't expecting to find anyway. Finally, while sitting and thinking, Edmund also fell asleep.

OoOoOo

Kaelin woke up to the sound of excited voices.

One voice, actually, that was just answering itself. She opened her eyes to find Edmund still pacing and gesturing and talking to himself. Calvert was already awake and watching him with a rather confused expression.

Finally he asked, "What are you doing?"

Edmund stopped pacing.

"I had a dream last night – they're in a dungeon in -" he started.

"But . . . that was a dream. How do you know it's true?"

"Aslan never lies, even in my mind," he grinned, handing them each three gold coins. "Thank you for all your help!"

And he jumped to the forest floor and ran off.

OoOoOo

Why is it that I only write during catastrophes? I haven't the slightest idea . . . but yeah. I kinda have an excuse this time, in that I broke my finger and got two surgeries and stuff. It made typing a pain (get it? Pain, because it was broken, and . . . yeah).

But anyway . . . I promised to finish this thing, so I will. Even if it takes me years, which hopefully it won't, but you never know. =]

~Corilyne~