When the Eagle cried 'Land in sight!' Lucy scrabbled up to the fighting top. Several of the sailors shouted; Susan gasped with frustration and stood on the deck with her hands on her hips, glaring up at Lucy's impropriety.

'Don't worry, I'll get her,' I offered, and hied up after Lucy even as Susan reached out a hand to stop me.

'You're not going to stop Lu, are you?' Peter said, joining Susan and squinting up at me.

'Of course not,' I said with a grin, and continued to climb.

I reached the fighting top a couple of seconds after Lucy and she grinned at me. Then we turned our faces to the horizon, the wind whipping our hair back. 'The Lone Islands,' she breathed. 'What do you think waits for us there?'

'I know you think there's some sort of adventure,' I said.

'Well it's all an adventure, isn't it?' She replied. She squinted at the horizon. 'I wonder what's beyond the Lone Islands. What if you keep sailing east?'

'Calm down,' I said. 'We haven't even finished this adventure yet and you're off on the next one.'

'That's where we're alike,' she said, sticking her nose in the air in an affectation of primness. 'We like to have our plans made.'

I laughed and gave her a nudge on the shoulder.

Of course, by the time we actually pulled into the port at Narrowhaven, the thrill had worn off a bit and I was eager to be off the boat already. Also, Peter and Susan were being very serious about things as usual. Susan was fussing over what we should wear, and I discovered that she had ordered an entire trunk of fancy state clothes for me. She came into my stateroom.

'Su—what is all this?' I demanded.

'This is the first time the Emperor has been in the Lone Islands for more than a hundred years,' she explained. 'We have to make a good impression.'

'Don't we naturally make a good impression?' I muttered, sifting through a pile of tunics.

'It doesn't hurt to emphasise it,' she said. She leaned forward. 'I thought you might wear the yellow, with a navy shirt underneath, and then we'll all wear the royal cape.'

'I can dress myself, thank you,' I told her. 'And I will not be boiling myself in eighty layers of clothing. Have you felt how hot it is? Go dress Peter if you're so anxious about what we should wear. He's a very pliant emperor.'

She left then, and I really did think about being perverse and dressing in an embroidered green tunic, but I decided not to nettle her too much. She was already rather het up. So I wore the tunic but no shirt beneath, and I did concede to the cape.

I grimaced at myself in the mirror. I looked like a kid playing at king. Even with the clothes tailored perfectly, everything about me was too long, too skinny. My hair couldn't decide whether it wanted to lay flat or stand up on end. The fact that I still rather felt like an imposter after two years didn't help. I sighed at myself, buzzing my lips, and went up to join the others.

However I felt about my clothes, Susan gave me an approving look as we gathered to go down the gangway. I noticed she had wrestled Lucy into an embroidered blue dress and plaited her hair. Lucy looked very resigned about this.

Peter arrived and annoyingly, he cut a very magnificent figure. That was what people were starting to call him, and damn if it didn't stick. Of course, he looked worried as he always does before an important public appearance. Complete idiocy.

But he was kind of right. When the Lone Islanders first saw us, I knew they saw children. Their shouts and their music died away. But then some of the commoners started cheering for us, and everything was instantly restored as the High King of Narnia laid claim to his empire in the Lone islands.

We went forward to greet the governor, who was in a grandstand with the Lords. He welcomed Peter with a lot of bows and flourishes and speeches, and I glanced around so I wouldn't start yawning. That was when I saw him. Standing among the other lords, tricked out just like them, and just like me, really, was a boy my age. He looked rather like me—all long limbs and adolescent awkwardness. That made me feel better, but also made me very inquisitive. After all, the story of how we came to rule a country as children was quite the tale. It stood to reason the same would be true for this lord, whose peers were all twice his age.

I nudged Lu and murmured, 'Look. That lord is a kid like us.'

But of course Lucy can do nothing subtly, and she waved at him. He waved very shyly back.

After a long day of introductions, we retired to a private room to prepare for the ball that night and hash things out. I secretly loved this part, where we got to gossip about everything.

I made the opening remarks. 'The governor is a bit of a blowhard,' I pronounced.

'Edmund!' Susan chided.

Peter snickered, and I shrugged. 'See—I'm not wrong.'

'You are not,' agreed Peter. He sighed and flopped onto a couch. Susan passed him a glass of iced sherbet. I was drinking one myself and it was very nice: made with lemons and sweetened just a bit so it was shockingly sour and ice cold. The Lone Islands were passing muster on foodstuffs so far.

'Their story is very interesting,' Lucy said. 'That the lords all fled here at the start of the Great Winter and kept their titles.'

'Imagine how hard it must have been for them,' Susan commented.

'With the sicknesses and storms for a hundred years, instead of winter,' Peter added, before taking another draught. I did the same, and enjoyed the way my mouth puckered. I wanted to bring up that young lord we saw, but it didn't seem the moment.

He turned out to be a funny one. They introduced him as Lord Peridan of Lionshaim, and I wondered about the connection between his title and the town that was springing up not far from Cair Paravel. He had an uncle and a sister, but no parents.

I rather wanted to talk to him, but I didn't get the chance. Someone was always plucking my sleeve, and these old bureaucrats were exhausting talkers. But Peridan made himself known—he asked Susan to dance. She was gobsmacked, but then seemed quite happy to dance with him. So happy that Peter sent me over to break up the party. I don't know what his problem was.

So I still didn't get a chance to talk to him. I knew all these snatches—his uncle dressed like a Calormene, but Lord Peridan himself was very careful in his Island dress. His parents were gone, and he was titled. He really couldn't be older than me.

I thought we might see more of him in the tournament, but he wasn't on the lists, and at parties he was always on the fringes—if he was there at all. In my perverse way, this made me want to know him more. I knew what it was like to be an outcast.

Per the governor's recommendation, we spent a couple of days touring the grand houses on Avra. I did not think it possible to be so bored learning about such an interesting part of Narnian history. But every family was so keen to show off their Narnian wealth and their roots that we never got to the heart of the stories. Just a lot of showing off.

We had just about finished the tour, but we hadn't been to see Lord Peridan yet. As we sat on our horses, Peter debated going back to Doorn and having a rest. I wanted to propose stopping at Lord Peridan's, but I didn't quite know how to go about it.

'We haven't visited Lord Peridan yet,' said Susan. 'I would very much like to visit him.'

I didn't know if I was relieved or annoyed at her suggestion.

But Lucy was keen as well, and so we went and rode up the drive. He came out to meet us on the steps, looking very much the part of young lord. I rather liked that he knew how to do the thing. We had learned the same skill.

He had very polished manners after the Island style, which was much more formal than the Narnian ways. People were constantly bowing and scraping in the Lone Islands, although we never asked them to. But as we turned to go in to his house, he picked up a piece of pottery and mocked the very manners he was using. 'Behold, my king, this relic of our days in Narnia. You should ignore the massive house behind me because we are actually poor, poor refugees.'

That was when I realised there was something about him, and I wanted to know more.

But I never got to find out. In fact, I never got to find out a lot of things about the Lone Islands. Although we accomplished our main goal, to re-establish formal ties and claim our right, I left with more questions than I came with. How did the Lone Islands become part of Narnia? How did the people of the Islands feel about these Narnian lords ruling over them for the past hundred years? How close were the ties to Calormen—for there were many Calormenes in Narrowhaven and even a couple of Calormene inns. Lord Peridan could tell me about these things, I'm sure, but we left before I could talk to him again, and that frustrated me.

A/N: This story is a companion piece to 'To Seek a Newer World' which is the same story from Peridan's point of view. It is LONG. I will, however, post the corresponding chapters so that if Edmund is unclear (he's not the greatest storyteller), you can get a sense of detail from Peridan. Or you can ask me. I'm always happy to answer questions.

So as I was writing 'To Seek a Newer World' I sometimes found it helpful to write bits from Edmund's point of view to make sure his character did things that made sense and that he didn't just become a romantic stand in. When writing in Peridan's voice (which is much more naturally my own writing voice) there is a danger of veering towards over the top romance, and first drafts of To Seek a Newer World reflected that. As you can see, Edmund's voice provides a stark contrast from Peridan's extreme emo (if you have read that story).

In publishing To Seek a Newer World (now complete!) a few people in their lovely reviews would ask 'What is Edmund thinking' in a particular scene. So I decided to polish up the dribbles I wrote and publish them to answer those questions. Here they are! This story is much more rough around the edges than the others, and I am experimenting a bit with voice and a narrative that's not 100% linear. If you find a part confusing or ineffective or just plain annoying please do say. We need to know when experiments fail even more than when they succeed (although don't let that stop you from complimenting anything you find worthwhile either)

Final note: Like 'To Seek a Newer World' the title comes from another Tennyson poem. I give him all the credit, but damn that is poetic.