Disclaimer- I do not own Narnia.

I chased after him. That was the only thing I could think of doing. "Edmund!" I shouted as he walked around a corner. "Ed, please!" I rounded a corner shrub in the maze and ran smack into Edmund's broad chest. I stumbled back but unlike last time, he made no motion to help me steady myself. I regained some composure and looked into the Just King's eyes. He withdrew his glance a second later, shaking his head. Disappointment inhabited every inch of his face as we stood silent for a while.

"How could you do something like that, Lina?" He asked in a whisper as he stared down at the ground.

I stuttered. "It's-it's not what you think, I promise. If you just let me explain-"

"Why should I believe anything you say?!" He yelled, now furious rather than upset. I shrunk back into the tall, wall-like shrubbery as Edmund took an intimidating step towards me. Before I knew it, Edmund had my wrists in his tight grip and I winced in pain. Never in my life did I think Ed would do something like this to me or anyone else. I became scared slightly as his fury grew when he began to speak. "Lina, do you...Do you have any idea what you have done!? Do you? You have betrayed Susan! You have betrayed Peter!?" He paused and took a deep breath. "You betrayed me..."

I looked up at him finally and his big brown eyes met my red-rimmed blue ones. The king dropped my wrists and opted to put his arms up on either side of me, resting them against the greenery as if I was going to try to escape. "Please, Edmund. I can explain everything only if you'd give me the chance."

He shook his head again. "You know, Lina. I do not want to hear it." He sighed and removed his hand from either side of me and interlaced them on the back of his neck instead. Edmund began to pace and I just watched for a while. I should have told him everything when I had the chance. None of this would have happened if I just tried to tell the royals in the first place. I could just shout it out right now but I knew the likelihood of him believing me was slim to none at the moment so I just remained quiet and crying. "I am not going to tell either of them, nor Lucy." Edmund said. I looked up at him in shock and wiped a few stray tears off of my burning red cheeks. Still, I said nothing.

"Thank you." I whispered after a moment in a broken, cracking voice. Edmund scoffed and stopped his pacing to set me with an icy glare.

"I'm not doing this for you, Lina. Don't be so naïve. I'm doing this to spare my siblings the sorrow that your betrayal will make them feel." He started to walk away then, like he always did when something happened that he didn't like. He paused and stopped walking for only a moment to throw a comment over his shoulder. "When we arrive back to Narnia, you will not be welcome to continue staying with us at the palace."

My mouth dropped. "I have nowhere else to go." The words came out in a whisper. I bit my lip at the thought of trying to find my way around a country, no, a world I have only seen a small part of. It scared me to think that I might find the grass under a shady tree to be my new bed from now on.

"I'll find you someplace to stay until the time you can be returned to your home." He said, eerily calm.

"Edmund..."

"Lina, don't." He turned around and looked at me one last time. It almost looked as if he had tears welling up in his wise brown eyes but I couldn't be sure due to how blurry my vision had gotten with the tears in my eyes. "Just don't, okay?" He shook his head. "I can't-I can't bare to look at you anymore." Edmund shook his head once more and in a blur he was gone.

I fell to the ground and began to cry harder than I have ever done in my life. Thick, wet tears ran down my cheeks and neck in rivers. Pulling my knees up to my chin, I wiped my eyes on the skirt of my dress. I hurt them. I hurt them all. Even little Lucy would feel the sting of what I had done. Edmund had said he would not tell them but that made things no better. I know what I had done and that's what counts. No matter if it was on purpose or not, I betrayed the Narnian royals. It hurt me to hurt them. Even if they did not know it. I felt the worst about Peter. There was no doubt that I had fallen for him from the first moment I came to be in Narnia. No questions asked, he trusted me from the very start.

I betrayed that trust. Looking back on it now, I know how stupid I was for not telling the four of them about Rabadash. The prince twisted everything and made me believe that they would not hear me out. Now, I know that if I just went to them, I probably would have been believed. Peter would have believed me. I know he would have. And now, none of them could trust me ever again. I didn't even know if I could trust myself to make the right decisions anymore.

"Lina? Where are you?" I heard Susan call me from the entrance of the maze. With one more deep breath and a quick wipe of my eyes, I got up and went to her. She smiled at my approach but her face fell as she looked at mine. I made it to her and smiled as convincingly as I could. Susan took my arm and led me away from the green maze and over to where the rest of our party was waiting for us in the garden. "Good heavens, Lina. Were you crying?" She asked, concerned.

Just then, Edmund came up to us and said we were all leaving. "Not now, brother! Honestly, can you not see that something is bothering our friend?" She asked, refusing to move until she knew what was wrong. Edmund didn't answer, he just kept his eyes on his sister, not meeting my gaze for a moment. I looked away from him, took a deep breath, and smiled once again at Susan.

"Oh no, I am fine. It was the plants in the maze that made my eyes water, I have terrible allergies." I reassured with a lie. I shot a glance up at Edmund, who wore a numb expression and didn't return my look.

Susan smiled a small smile and rubbed my arm gently. "Are you sure nothing else is bothering you?" She asked, curiosity in her voice. I just nodded. "Alright then. If it is nothing else then I shall go find Rabadash and bid him a good night. Edmund, escort Lina to the carriage, will you?" Susan instructed and was off. I didn't expect it, but Edmund offered his arm to me. Keeping his gaze straight forward. "If you are ready," He said in a monotone voice.

I sighed and wrapped my arm around his, making sure that my arm made as little contact with his as possible. We walked in silence, neither of us looking at the other. It took too long, but we managed to make it to the carriage. Edmund helped me into my seat and slammed the door closed before I could say anything.

-------------------------------

I couldn't sleep well at all that night. Thoughts ran through my mind so fast I felt like I was in a marathon. When I finally managed to get to sleep in the early hours of the morning, a terrible dream came to me. It wasn't even a dream really, more of a nightmare.

Rabadash was standing in a court room of some sort, looking at me skeptically. I looked down and realized that I was surrounded by a wooden railing on all sides of me, boxing me into a small area. It was then that I knew I was on trial for something.

I looked around, trying to find a means of escape. None were to be had. I took a deep breath and turned back around to see that Peter, Susan, and Edmund were now sitting at the large podium that a judge would usually reside at. Cold metal pressed against my wrists, I looked down to see that I was clasped in irons suddenly.

"Lina Foster, you are accused of high treason against the great country of Narnia. How do you plead?" Peter asked in a scary voice I thought was impossible for him to use. His face was cold and unemotional like he didn't care about me at all. That look stung me down to the core. "Well?" He questioned impatiently.

"Not guilty." I stammered out. Everyone rolled their eyes at me, including Rabadash. The prince took a step forward and turned to address the Narian royals.

"My good Kings and Queen. This wretched girl is lying to you. She has been from the moment you found her in the woods."

"I have not!" I fought back. The looks on everyone's faces told me none believed my story. "Rabadash threatened me! He's vile and cruel and is only with Susan because he wants Narnia." I explained.

"Oh, Lina give it up." Susan told me, acid dripping in her voice. "You are just jealous that he wants to be with me instead of you, isn't that true? Honestly, you tricked both of my brothers into giving you their affections, isn't two royals enough for you or must you take them all for yourself and leave none for the actually royalty?" She snapped at me. I took a step back in my small box at her words, grabbing the wooden rail for support.

"Susan, Rabadash is not who you think he is. I swear, I have never lied to you."

She laughed majestically at my statement like it was all in comedy. I felt that my attempt to persuade them to be on my side was a lost cause. I was starting to fell desperate. Without warning, I jumped out of my cage and ran up to the front of the room where the royals sat. All looked surprised by my actions and suddenly two faun soldiers came to my side,each grabbing one of my arms. They tried to pull me away but I wouldn't budge. Using the last chance I had, I looked into Edmund's angry eyes and pleaded with him. "I never betrayed you and I never wanted to hurt you. Any of you. I'm loyal to Narnia."

His face remained as stiff as stone as he leaned forward in his chair until he was inches from my face. "Prove it."

~*~

I shot up in bed, sweating and cold at the same time. This dream was different from those I have had in my past. Usually, my dreams meant nothing. My dreams were always strange and abnormal, so weird that I could tell that it was a dream from the moment I got sucked into it. But this one, this one was something that could happen in real life. I could become a prisoner and found guilty of treason if Edmund or Rabadash told the other royals. It scared me. But also in this dream there was something else that normally wasn't there. There was a sign in this dream that showed me what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to prove that I was loyal to the Narnian Kings and Queens and their country. The only question was how I was going to prove it.

------------------------------

The next morning, I woke up and Eve came in to help me get ready for breakfast. We were going back to the palace and having brunch with the prince and then staying there for the rest of the day. After what happened last night with Edmund, I hadn't seen Rabadash at all. I was thankful for that but hated going back to his castle. When I thought about it, I refused to go back. There had to be something I could do outside the castle walls that could prove that I was with the royals, not against them. I would try it.

"You know, Eve. I am not feeling very well, do you think you could tell King Edmund and Queen Susan that I will not be able to join them at the castle today? I'd rather just rest."

The faun smiled and nodded her head. "Of course, I can, Lady Lina. I shall tell them right now and you get back into bed. Is there anything I could get you?"

I shook my head 'no' before crawling back into my large, plush bed. "No, but thank you. That'll be all."

With one more nod, she left me alone. While I waited for our party to leave I tried my hardest to think of something I could do to help prove Rabadash was the evil one instead of me. The more I thought, the more I realized that the only way was to set him up to show his true colors in front of Ed and Susan. And to make him fall for it, I had do two things. One was to stop being such a baby. I had to get over my fears. The fear of Rabadash for instance or the fear of controversy. All of those had to go. Now. The second thing I had to do, and this one I really didn't want to do but had to because it was part of the first thing I had to do, was go to the castle and face Rabadash. I had formulated a plan, a good one and it had work because if it didn't I would be thrown in jail for sure. Great. I had a fifty-fifty shot of winning or losing all the people I care about most in this world and perhaps in any other, including Earth. I sighed before getting up and dressing myself. I hated those odds but right now it was the only chance I had to save Narnia from the clutches of Rabadash along with saving myself from him, too. So, I was willing to risk it.

I dressed in the sexiest dress I could find that would still be considered appropriate for a breakfast. It had a lower neckline than I was used to and it was the color of forest green that made my own green eyes look darker and seductive. I had never thought of myself as a sexy person or even a confident one for that matter. But now I had to pretend I was both of those things to have my plan work. Quickly, I pinned my hair up in a loose bun. A few of my curls hung down around my face to frame it, making me look put together but also like I didn't care.

I painted my lips a pale pink color and pinched my cheeks to make them rosy like I had seen done in period movies. With one look in the mirror, I noticed that I wore my new found confidence like a glove. It gave me an edge to my look that I thought would be able to tempt Rabadash even more. I smiled. This plan could really work and it just might.

I went through the general outline in my head for what I wanted to do and how I wanted to act once arriving at the castle before taking a deep breath and walking out the door. It was time to put this plan into motion.

I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading! =]