A/N: This chapter may be a wee bit shorter than all the others, but I'm sure you'll like it all the same. ;) Good sibling interaction, you know. Once more I'd like to thank all my fantabulous reviewers (is either of those a word? ;D) and mention once more how extremely grateful I am. I didn't realize when I wrote this story that I'd have a bunch of detectives reading and analyzing every detail. You're from Scotland Yard, the lot of you. I'm convinced of it. Either that or 221B Baker Street...ah well. Enjoy!

--Chapter 13: Missing--

"What on earth?"

I stepped through the doorway into my room with my mouth wide open, gaping so wide in my surprise that if Lord Irwin had been present, he would have had no trouble stuffing, not only a drop or two of poison, but the whole blasted goblet of poisoned wine into my mouth.

The neat, orderly room I had left not a half-hour before was no longer neat and orderly. Everything that had been in my wardrobes and bureau now lay scattered on the floor, the bed, and the chairs. My bed looked like a horse had slept in it, so muddy and rumpled were the sheets and pillows. Even my desk had been ransacked, the contents of it spilled across the floor in a mess of papers and ink quills.

As I moved further into the room, I saw someone digging in the bottom of the last of my wardrobes. Hesitating long enough only to draw my sword, I leapt forward and caught the figure by the back of its muddy tunic and pulled it out so I could see its face…

…and found myself staring into the frantic blue eyes of my sister, Lucy.

"Hullo, Ed," she said, smiling distractedly.

"LU???!!" I dropped my sword but didn't let go of her tunic for fear she would escape. My youngest sister was a mess. Her fine, blue dress that she liked to wear on normal days was stained and streaked with mud. Her hair was tangled, and a few limp white flowers were still twisted into her golden curls. She looked like she'd been through a war.

"Lucy, what in Aslan's name is going on? What happened to you? Are you all right? And what have you done to my room?"

"Well I—" Lucy began, but at that moment, Susan entered the room behind us and let out a cry of admonition in the form of my little sister's name. We both turned, and Lucy hung her head as Susan gave her a scathing glare.

"Lucy, I told you to leave Edmund's room alone. You should've at least asked his permission before coming in—let alone ransacking the place! And look what a mess you've made!"

Lucy looked, her cheeks turning pink as she took in the full damage she had done.

"Oh, I am sorry, Ed. But I can hardly think right now because if I don't find it we're doomed, and I did come up here last night after the ball to check on things and I might have left it here and there was no way to tell unless I looked for it and—"

"LU!"

My shout silenced her endless stream of babbling, not unlike the words that sometimes issued from Peter's mouth when he was being an emotional and protective older brother. Susan grinned, probably thinking the same thing, and then turned and left with a little nod to me in farewell.

"Take a deep breath, Lucy," I said after a moment, giving her a look. "Now. What's gone missing?"

Lucy breathed deeply, as instructed, and then thrust out her hands with irritation.

"My cordial, Edmund! It's gone! Disappeared! Vanished! Caput!" She hesitated for a moment, waiting for my reaction, most likely, and then continued. "I've looked everywhere! The ballroom, my room, Susan's room, your room," she looked around apologetically with the last bit. "I know I had it last night because that was when you were poisoned and I know I had it then or else you wouldn't be here right now, but I can't remember where I put it or what I did with it!"

I had let go of her tunic when she had first proclaimed the disappearance of her precious cordial, and now put an arm around her in reassurance. She was close to tears, I could tell. The cordial was her most precious possession, given to her by Father Christmas before she had become a queen. There was not a single day I could remember not seeing it swinging in the little leather strap at her hip beside her dagger. It had saved all four of our lives —Lucy's and the rest of us—at one time or another, probably mine more than anyone else's. And now it was gone. Like that. Just vanished.

"It's all right, Lu," I said softly, working a white flower out of her hair with my free hand. "It can't be that hard to find. When did you last see it?"

Lucy's eyes cleared as she tried to remember, but then let out a cry of impatience and annoyance after a moment.

"Oh, Ed! The last thing I remember doing with it was giving you a drop at the ball! And then I don't remember! I can't imagine I would have put it down someplace! I would only have given it to one of you—" she stopped, eyes widening and breath coming quickly. "That's it! Maybe it's in Peter's room!"

She whirled around to go search his chambers as she had searched mine, but I grabbed her arm and spun her back around.

"Not now, Lu! You've never let that cordial out of your sight before. Not even when you're sleeping," I replied, remembering countless times I had gone into her room to wish her goodnight and seen her sleeping with the little diamond bottle clutched tightly in her hands on the pillow. "I doubt you would've given it to Peter. Or any of us, for that matter. Have you looked in your room?"

Lucy plopped down in a chair and put her head in her hands.

"I've scoured my room fifteen times over! It's more of a mess than yours!"

I glanced around my room, at the mud streaked hither and yon, and at the mess of things that were scattered on the floor.

"That's rather hard to believe," I found myself saying dryly.

Lucy glanced at my face, and then blushed again.

"I really am sorry, Ed. I didn't think about the mess I was making—just finding the cordial. I'll clean everything up personally…really…"

I frowned, and then shook my head with a rueful laugh.

"Honestly, Lu, if you're going to offer to do something like that, don't look at me with those awful blue eyes. I'll clean up the mess. But only after you tell me why you're plastered in mud."

Lucy's eyes cleared for a fraction of a second as she forgot about the mysterious disappearance of her cordial, and grinned.

"I was having a mud fight. You know…in the vegetable garden? It's watering day, and the moles were having a mud fight, and Corin and Geoffrey were having such fun that I couldn't help but join in! And then Corin split his lip and I thought about using my cordial, and then I realized that I didn't know where it was."

I laughed helplessly as I listened to Lucy's tale. Leave it to Lu to dive into a mud fight. So like Corin, she was, really. It was both maddening and hilarious. I shook my head and cuffed her gently on the head.

"Before you continue your search for the cordial, do everyone a favor and take a bath. You're tracking mud, my dear sister-queen."

With that, I turned and left the room, laughing again as I heard her furious "Blast!" as she noticed for the first time the muddy footprints that trailed across my floor.

TBC.....