Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia or any characters you may recognize from the books or the movies, I wish I did but I don't... I also don't own the Narnian Calendar. It belongs to Elecktrum who was kind enough to let me borrow it for my story. Her own stories are awesome and you should go read them too.

Summary: Less than ten years before the White Witch conquers Narnia, tragedy struck the royal family and in its midst, Aslan reminded them that life goes on...

A/N: This is part of my A Light in the Darkness universe and it is part of my Pre-Winter story cycle and ties in with Praying for the Children. I recommend reading Praying for Children first, but you can give this one a whirl on its own too.

Prologue

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A scream ripped through the air. She whirled around but there was naught but darkness around her. She reached for the dagger she typically carried at her waist, but her fingers closed on nothing. As she looked down, eyes adjusting to the darkness, she could feel a sticky substance covering her fingers. Raising her hand, her eyes widened as she realized it was blood. She flinched and lowered her hand when she heard the heart wrenching sobs of warriors broken by death. Their voices were familiar. Then, the wordless mourning song of her father's people echoed around her. Nearly buried underneath the Centaurs' mourning, she heard the faintest sound of a baby crying...

Her eyes flew open and she barely stifled her gasp in time to keep from disturbing her husband. She raised her head and scanned the familiar furnishings of their bedroom to reassure herself that the dream was over. She breathed a sigh of relief then tensed. Lew stirred beside her, voice rough and slightly slurred with sleep. "Hadassah? Something wrong? Is it the baby?"

She could hear the alertness working its way into his voice as Lew moved his hand to rest against her back and she hurried to answer before he could wake any further. "No, I'm fine. The baby's fine. It was just a bad dream. Go back to sleep, love. I'm fine."

If Lew hadn't returned from a three-week-long skirmish at the Northern border only to be pulled into two weeks of day-long meetings with the council and then another week of meetings solely with their top military officers, it probably wouldn't have worked. Hadassah thanked Aslan when she felt Lew move her hair to the side so he could press a kiss to the back of her neck and then a few short moments later, his snores started up once again. She loved Lew, but the growing unrest in Narnia and continued attacks on the Tree of Protection were making his tasks as King even more difficult than they already were, and she didn't want to burden him with anything else. He was already overprotective because she had fainted one time in Nor'Wind due to the pregnancy, which had been a first after five previous pregnancies with their sons. He didn't need to know about the dreams as well, or rather, he didn't need to know about the dream since it hadn't changed once since it first came not quite seven weeks earlier.

Hadassah was distracted from her thoughts as she impatiently kicked the sheets off her legs, once again too hot thanks to the baby. Useful enough when she was pregnant during the winter months, but increasingly annoying as the seasons changed and the weather warmed. They weren't even halfway through Mayblossom and she already felt like she was stranded in Calormen's desert. She fidgeted awkwardly then she carefully got out of bed and padded across the room to open the window.

The cool night breeze allowed her to refocus on the matter of her dream. It troubled her, how the dream never changed and always repeated itself at least once a night. It felt different from other dreams, as though it were a shadow of the true event occurring in the dream. Biting her lip, Hadassah absently toyed with her necklace as she tried to decide what to do. Her father's people were known for their gifts of prophecy, though some were more gifted than others, but Hadassah had never experienced a true prophetic dream or foreshadowing probably because of her mother's Nymph blood. And, it could just be another side effect of her pregnancy, Lion knew she had plenty of strange dreams in the last months of her other pregnancies. Yet...yet she couldn't bring herself to dismiss the dream out of hand.

Hadassah sighed as she glanced over to see Lew wrapped in the covers, one arm over his eyes, as he snored. She couldn't dismiss the dream, but...she was afraid of what it meant. She had an awful feeling it was foreshadowing her death.

The wind picked up a little and she could smell the salt in the air and hear the faint cries of the gulls, both Talking and non, in the distance. The familiar scent and sounds helped soothe her. Looking up she spotted Spearhead and, beyond him, she could see Alambil, though her path was not as high nor her dance so strong as it had been in years past. Years of learning the dances of the stars and their meanings from her father only told Hadassah the same thing that Centaurs like her father had been seeing for decades: a time of hardship was coming to Narnia. She placed a hand against her belly and couldn't keep from smiling as she felt the baby kicking merrily away through her silk nightgown. Her smile faded as she recalled the dream and she finally reached her decision.

Hadassah closed the window and then she slipped into the parlor as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Lew. She wanted her parents' counsel. Asbolus and Keziah were supposed to come to Cair Paravel in a few weeks anyway so they would be here for the birth, but she wanted them to come sooner. She needed them to come sooner, as soon as possible really. Sitting at her desk, Hadassah lit a single candle then pulled out her stationary. She hesitated a moment then dipped her quill in the inkwell and began to craft the letter. Dear Mama...

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A/N: Please Read and Review! Leave a review below and let me know what y'all think about this story.